Imperator Furiåsa @devilkitten "I'm convinced some of us are already dead, we're just moving around powered by caffeine and inertia." #overheardintheoffice #gamedevelopment
Emily (aka Domino) Taylor pentapod "Who wants to be in a 100 file code review?" "Not it!" "It's basically just deleting things, so all you really need to do is hit approve" #overheardintheoffice #nothingcangowrong
Chris Anderson @postmodernlocke ...at least it's not happening on a Friday...?
Emily (aka Domino) Taylor pentapod ...this time! 😄
Emily (aka Domino) Taylor pentapod "I'm going to check it in tomorrow" ...also #overheard just now 😄
John Epler @eplerjc We're moving offices in a week. I've been in this same building for 12 years now, I am 100% going to drive to the wrong building multiple times.
Emily (aka Domino) Taylor pentapod "Oh, we knew those issues were THERE, we just chose to ignore them. We just didn't tell YOU about them." "...." #overheardintheoffice
Chris Anderson @postmodernlocke I've had to downsize on previous desk moves, but I'm still looking forward to seeing what I can pull off with our new desks!
John Epler @eplerjc Last week in old office. Four more days there and then we’re downtown. Mixed feelings. Looking forward to being able to take a bus/bike.
Emily (aka Domino) Taylor pentapod "We'll have all these extra meeting rooms in the new office" "We do have a meditation room already" "We need shouting rooms!" "Well, we ARE going to be right near @biomarkdarrah..." #overheardintheoffice
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Anthem, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Dragon Age The Veilguard Prime Posts: 3,912 Prime Likes: 9733 Posts: 2,894 Likes: 12,961
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Anthem, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Dragon Age The Veilguard
Emily (aka Domino) Taylor pentapod "That looks kind of grim right now, it shouldn't be that grim." "Maybe instead of dead bodies they're drunk. It's just a pile of drunk dudes." #overheardintheoffice #gamedev
Do you A ) Dig deep into history and mythology, looking for the perfect name? B ) Hit the 'generate name' button a dozen times until you find one that looks good.
To be clear, I am 100% B. Calling myself out. Naming things is hard, why -can't- a character be Elfy McElferson?
Do you A ) Dig deep into history and mythology, looking for the perfect name? B ) Hit the 'generate name' button a dozen times until you find one that looks good.
To be clear, I am 100% B. Calling myself out. Naming things is hard, why -can't- a character be Elfy McElferson?
John Epler @eplerjc And for the record, I told @patrickweekes about this and he made a face.
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes (Sighs deeply and judgmentally)
Mark Darrah @biomarkdarrah Our world is named The DA Setting...
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes I DIDN’T NAME IT, MARK.
Actually wait, do you want me to retcon a name? Because I can totally retcon a name. “The world you know as Thedas was once gifted with an elven name, Telrevas’nadashiral’sul’dirthara.”
“More syllables were in the plan, but then the name refused to scan, so Suledin became abbreviated. Elfy elfy, elfy elfy, elfy elfy, elfy ellllfeeee stuff.” (Squints.) Yeah. Close enough.
Last Edit: Aug 29, 2019 3:53:23 GMT by ladyiolanthe
David Gaider @davidgaider May as well make this its own thread. First, the Laws of Naming Things, written after many long years during which naming *anything* in the game was the most contentious thing the team could ever do.
Example 1: "Qunari". At first, everyone hated it. "It sounds too much like canary". "The Qun is way too difficult to pronounce." Etc. etc. 6 months later, no-one wanted to change it. That's what they were called... what else could they be?
Example 2: The DA world was not supposed to be called "Thedas". That was a temp name: "THE/DA/Setting". But we left it too long, and when we sat down to give it a proper name... nothing else sounded right. In our minds, the name had stuck.
Eventually the laws led to my Rules of Naming Things, which was how I made naming stuff not make me want to tear out what little hair I had left.
My favorite is #2. We can't agree on a name? Okay, let's leave it with the one you hate... just for now. We'll revisit it in 6 months. Worked every single time.
Example? "Grey Wardens". Some of the team bosses HATED that name. It didn't drip with enough blood. Sadly, for them, they brought up their objections six months too late. Brent Knowles, knowing my laws, wisely said "let's put it to a team vote" and they agreed.
Brent had the result of the vote posted above his office door for YEARS.
"Blood Knight Brotherhood" - 1 vote "The Lords of War" - 1 vote "Disciples of Pain" - 0 votes (!) "Grey Wardens" - literally everyone else on the project
Brent knew: the name had already stuck.
Just one caveat: for the love of God, don't use temp names that you don't want to risk sticking. Name it "Purple Monkey Screwball", something you CAN'T POSSIBLY use. Because if it can, it will. This is the Side-Rule of Thedas. 😉
Last Edit: Aug 29, 2019 4:21:16 GMT by ladyiolanthe
Mark Darrah @biomarkdarrah Hey it’s Hanged Man. The second largest meeting room at this office. It’s also the room I took over for triage to ship DAI and Anthem. Smells like exhaustion. #MovingDay
This map of Thedas was in the kitchen behind a bookshelf. #movingday
View from my current desk. The window gets hot to the touch in the afternoon. #movingday
Mark Darrah @biomarkdarrah MDK2 AKA the room where we convince ourselves to do crazy shit. #movingday
I try to avoid this room
James Berg @jamesbergcanada Good luck to @bioware folks today. Glad ya'll are finally getting windows (!), but I'm sure leaving the building is going to be emotionally tough.
John Epler @eplerjc It's here, the last day in this office. 12 years of my life here. Shipped a whole bunch of games in this building (Sonic, DAO, ME2, SWTOR, DA2, DAI, Anthem) but I'm looking forward to nicer facilities and a more walkable office area.
Some great times, some difficult times. But I think the best is yet to come. So, onwards to downtown!
Justin Masse justinmasse You're not going to miss the air conditioner humming all day?
John Epler @eplerjc My headphones are very noise cancelling for pretty much that reason.
Ash Matheson @nuclearfossil you all going in one big shot, or is it a steady stream of people packing up and moving to new digs?
John Epler @eplerjc Packing up today, they move all of us tomorrow, and we're there Tuesday.
