Many of you noticed that I hadn't posted in a journal in roughly 3 bajillion weeks (give or take a few gazillion) and the main reason for this was that I was extremely, impossibly busy.
I'm less so now, but it's still crazy busy. 2008 will be an interesting year, that's for sure.
No Country For Young Orphans
It seems so long ago now, but I was really happy all-told with the X-Mas 2007 Event.
"But Fleep, don't you realize that you're a monster for making an event that involves sickly and abused orphans who you guys created?"
Yes, yes of course I'm a monster - but in the case of this event, we wanted to make something that was both really funny, and also a little heartwarming. That is the true spirit of the Holidays, after all.
The secret story behind the event is more complicated. See, we had originally planned a totally different event, and were ready to get started on it when Habbo Hotel announced practically the exact same event.
So at one Event Team meeting one week very near the event release date, we came up in a hurry with a totally different plan. I don't know if it was inspiration or dumb-luck, but we ended up with the orphan event with which many of us were extremely happy. Users seemed to like it in general, and it was something original.
(It later turned out that Habbo's event was pretty lame compared to what we had originally planned. Argh. C'est la vie!)
Yes, we're demented
So what goes into making an event like this? Well, it was a rush job, so you had:
1. The event team deciding how the game would work, what items would be in the shops, what exactly is "orphan food", "orphan toys", and "orphan medicine"
2. Artists making the event page graphics, orphans, and items art
3. User interface making the event page layout and some other art
4. Someone had to write the announcement / mini-story
5. Various people wrote the twisted dialog and came up with the names for the various orphans.
6. I had to code the thing and coordinate with all the other teams to bring everything together, and then oversee it on launch day
7. When it launched and when the servers got overloaded, systems administrators and some devs worked at stabilizing everything
It took over a dozen people to bring the event together, over a couple of weeks of work - and it was a small event. We had intentionally made it smaller than past events so that we didn't have to work over the Holidays and stress out around Christmas. December was such a crazy busy month for us though (with the event, Cash shop updates, 12 Days of Gaia, movie updates, the end of Wii the People, coding the New Years Gold Bonus, the Cary Brothers concert, etc.) that working late was unavoidable.
When we did the Halloween event, it took a lot more people and a lot more time. So much so, I think I actually got chewed out for making it too big rofl
Return of the Orphans?
Lots and lots of people have been asking to keep their orphans. I personally would like to see something like the orphans implemented as a pet system (but much more complex).
One of the really good things about Sponsorships is that they often give us the opportunity to create new content and develop different systems for Gaians while getting paid by a sponsor for it. The best example of this and how it's affected Gaia is Gaia Rally and the Scion Sponsorship.
As a result of the sponsorship we got Rally (which is pretty popular still), Autos, and an environment platform which is more robust than Towns. That enabled us to build the Virtual Hollywood area - which Towns as a platform wouldn't support right now (or at least, that's my understanding, I could easily be wrong).
Hopefully a sponsorship will come along that enables us to build a full pet system. Unless that happens, I'm not aware of any plans to make one this year. I could be wrong, of course. It's hard for any single person in Gaia to know everything that's going on (Just like how Lanzer said there were no Gaia-specific quests in production recently, which is simply not true. Can't blame him though - there's so much going on!)
Phisher's of Men
I was at my buddy's house the other day talking about some of the stuff on Gaia which is pretty crazy. Crazy good, I mean. I always used to talk to my friends about Gaia and didn't know what to say to them, but thanks to some of the things we did in 2007, it's a lot easier than it used to be. Some of my faves:
Quote:
"We have this thing called 'Gaia Cinemas' where people can watch TV shows and movies online. Right now I think we're the only place where you can see the Matrix and Gattaca for free on the Web. And you can get together with your friends and watch stuff together in a little virtual movie theater, and you can throw popcorn and tomatoes and stuff. It's pretty crazy."
Quote:
"Yeah, Gaia's really popular. On a regular day we have 100,000 people using it at the same time."
Quote:
"You can even get cars and customize them and race them against other people. Right now we have a few custom cars and a Scion car - and you can do stuff like add wings, underglow, and stuff like that, and show it off to other people on the site."
Those are actual, mostly-accurate quotes that I told my friend over the weekend. I got an e-mail from her yesterday saying something along the lines of "You inspired me! I signed up for an account on Gaia... but I got a white screen after I registered."
Damnit! Well, at least I convinced her wink She e-mailed me again this morning saying she ended up getting through the 2nd time she tried and is now another quality Gaian blaugh
What lies beneath
So what secrets do I have in store for you?! Well, my team and I are working on a ton of things right now, not all of which I can tell you about. I'll say the following though:
1. A non-sponsored quest and some minor upgrades to the quest system (freelz)
2. Backend projects to make developing events and sponsorships much easier/faster
3. A project to improve the flow of existing quest templates and to make them more stable
4. An event
5. SECRETS! (Lots of these)
None of your busy-ness
So I'm swamped a lot nowadays, and as predicted my journal updates will be decreasingly frequent. Still no plans to stop, though! So keep checking that subscription, and I'll do my best to keep you apprised!
Community Member
Happy 100+ Weeks of journal writing. =)
I really do hope that the orphans return. <3
It was definitely one of my favorite events.
(And I'm not just saying that. Its true. : DD )
Glad to know that when you aren't working on Gaia, you're still thinking about it.
And trying to get people to join. x DD
Hahaha.