Danny Araya, Creative Director (@DannyAraya)
Working on a super awesome Intro video!
James Reid, Software Programmer (@Driscan)
This week is taking the ginormous bug list and not making it so ginormous. I squeezed in two full work days over the weekend (and then some) to put in an optimization feature that will allow the Inventory screen to open muuuuuuuuuuuch faster.
Other than that it's been heads down on this bug list. I don’t really have any pictures to show this week. Well, I could show a more finished version of the interaction icons. Sure...lets do that.
Jeffrey Bickel, Technical Level Designer (@TE_Jeff)
Stomping my way through the bug list and doing some tests on things that could make for a fun future Incursion. Not a ton to report on this week, but very excited for the next patch to get into y’all’s hands.
Steven Collins, Level Designer (@Esorath)
Making some updates to the Free Play and End Game playlists. We want to make sure the rewards for completing maps is in line with the map’s complexity. Still doing some Nightmare tests and making sure that’s a fair balance for solo players.
Chris Flores, QA Lead (@likethatwhenigothere)
So this week we’ve been hammering away on finishing up the current milestone. So much has caught fire with the merge of the PS4 we’re in full Uh-Oh mode. But we’re plowing through tryin to get’er done. Oh also, hammering out those hotfixes after hotfixes!
Abraham Abdala, Lead Tech Animator (@Broham)
Fixing any animation related bug, any implementation bugs with pets and/or skins and accessories and weapons. Been creating some more sweet animation tools. There’s also been lots of meetings regarding milestones to come, and lots of planning!
Joshua Javaheri, Lead Technical Artist (@javahawk)
Burning down the TA/VFX buglists for an upcoming patch. Also healing my back up after an ugly accident last week... Also setup some great new contextual interaction iconography with Danny’s design & guidance... It’s looking pretty cool!
Adam Stow, Associate Producer (@TE_Stow)
Multiple projectiles? Attack speed? Arcing weapons? Axes? STUFF BOUNCING OFF WALLS?
It’s like a kid in a candy shop in the combat prototype.
Jesus Diaz, World Builder (@N3oDoc)
Adding some nice touches to the out of bound areas of the new social hub level. It's a work in progress, so it doesn't have a release date yet.
Daniel Diaz, World Builder (@DanielKaMi)
Still working on the social hub, now polishing the pirate ship! (As Jesus said above, it’s a work in progress, so there’s not a release date yet.)
Dani Moore, Remote QA Manager (@Dani)
Hotfixin the hotfix’s hotfix. We’ve been up to the neck bug-hunting the recent wave of hotfixes and general content.
Philip Asher, Marketing Director (@pmasher)
Getting everything ready for Alpha & Beyond. Trying to lock down a release date as soon as possible to announce to all of you. Also working on MS18 planning, we have a few big focuses there I think you are all going to really enjoy. Some of it has even been hinted at in some of the past dev logs.
Josh Isom, Community Manager (@iamisom)
You should take a moment to re-read Adam’s entry. It’s what I’ve been personally waiting for in DD2. It might not come in for a long time, but whenever it comes out, it’s gonna be #ThanksStow all day, son. All. Day.
So yeah, I’m back from vacation! It was a year since my last one (and on that one, I got married!), so it was time to refresh. Now that I’m back, I’m getting our internal Community Concerns document back up to speed. This is the document that houses all of the bugs and big pieces of feedback that are sent to us on the forums and social media.
I’m also working on a way to improve our suggestions flow. Right now, everything gets placed into the Suggestions subforum, and it’s honestly not the best way to handle submissions. The wonderful @Rangerz-Bert helps us gather all of the suggestions for internal review, but it’s not a solution that scales by any means. (Unless we can clone him. Hmmm.) As we travel on The Road to Free to Play, it’s going to be more important to gather suggestions in a scalable, easy-to-use, archival manner. I’m personally a fan of the UserVoice platform that Red 5 Studios uses for suggestions. What do you think? Do you have a better idea? I’d love to hear it!