Hello soldiers!
The dev team is working hard throughout the summer! While continuing to work on improvements, bugs etc. the team is also busy with the new map which will release this summer: Piana! We're currently not ready to show/tell anything about it, but we will eventually! Be sure to look forward to it.
It's time for you to meet another member of the BlackMill team. If you're part of our Discord server, as you should be, then he might be a familar face. Or should we say beak 🦆
Here's our Operations Director, Thomas!
Hello! Could you introduce yourself
Hey! I’m Thomas, I’m the Operations Director at BlackMill Games. I’m 30 years old and I’m from Groningen in the northern Netherlands. To people in Amsterdam or just not in the North in general, I live north of the wall in Game of Thrones, but honestly it’s been weeks since I last saw a White Walker.
Besides working in games I enjoy cooking (mostly Mexican and Chinese but you can wake me up for almost any cuisine), and the occasional board game (The Crew is one of my favourites).
What is your role in BlackMill Games and for the games?
I work at BlackMill Games as the Operations Director, although I started as a Producer almost four years ago. My task is that everyone knows what should be made next and when it should be done.
For every update, I make sure that all work is started in time, everyone is aware of deadlines and priorities, and I communicate with our lovely marketing team, external QA, localisation, et cetera. I’m a bit of a spider in the web! 🕷
Where did your passion come from?
My journey in games started in 2011 when I studied Communication & Multimedia Design. I chose the game branch because of the awesome people and because the collaborative nature of game development resonated with me!
I had a small company first, made a small Steam game called Super Flippin’ Phones. After that I did some freelancing. Then in 2019 I wounded up at BlackMill Games! My drive is to remove planning stress from the team, so they can focus on making great code, art and more; and to cultivate a good studio culture based on trust and empathy.
What is a memorable moment in the development of Isonzo?
One of the major improvements I worked on for Isonzo’s development was the Closed Testing. Verdun and Tannenberg both had an early-access release, but we didn’t want this for Isonzo, so we needed to make sure our initial release would be worthy of a full release. Seeing our Closed Testing community play our game for the first time was incredible!
After the first session, we updated the game 33 times pre-release – and know that every release takes a lot of effort from the team, even if we’ve done it 1000 times – all while still developing the game. We did 38 testing sessions in alpha and beta, and I’m extremely happy with the results and the effort of our testing group!
Can you show off some of your work process and tell us what you’re doing?
A downside of my job is that I rarely have shiny creations to show, haha. Currently I am working on managing the next couple of Isonzo updates. Every update has a big checklist that starts approximately two months before release.
We usually start planning the trailer for an update eight weeks in advance, and a map has to be ready a month in advance. This adds up, with dozens of small steps (like making store images for new DLC) that all need a time, a place and a developer. This isn’t counting development, which needs to be 90% done around this time! My job here is to track all of these small steps and inform everyone if there are changes.
It isn’t always chronological, either. Currently we are working hard on the special game mode that will be in the map update after Piana, while we also did a huge technical update for Isonzo two weeks ago. As you can hopefully see, this requires a lot of juggling of priorities, and it’s my job to make sure that the other developers can focus on their job instead of worrying which patch to focus on this week.
Which other game dev/studio inspires you?
My most played game in the last five years has been Hunt Showdown. Other than playing it, I’m also watching Crytek’s update strategy and how they communicate with the community. They have similar issues in that they have to stick to era-appropriate weapons (somewhat) so it’s interesting to see how they deal with this!
What is your favourite game at the moment?
Hunt Showdown definitely deserves a second mention here. Please check it out; it takes place around the turn of the 19th century so it has a lot of WW1 weapons. I would have previously pitched it as a small-scale battle royale, but since its release, “extraction shooters” have gained popularity, and Hunt is also easily pitchable as a smooth, no-nonsense extraction shooter without tedious inventory management.
Other than that, I’m playing some science-fiction games currently like Citizen Sleeper, which is really special. It’s a weird blend of narrative adventure and resource management, you constantly feel chased but you’re also making friends along the way (who aren’t doing much better).
Anything else you wanna share?
No, but I would be very grateful if you (the reader) would please send me their favourite comfort food recipes in the comments or in the #food channel in Discord! Thanks for reading :)
The Summer Sale is still going
The Steam Summer Sale is still going! You can complete your Isonzo collection by purchasing the DLC or go to the other fronts in Verdun & Tannenberg. Additionally, you can also participate in our giveaway on Twitter!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2214671/Isonzo__Expedition_Units_Pack/
