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Back in May of 2021, Jeffrey Bard, the Lead Game Designer (LGD)on Ashes of Creation left Intrepid Studios to take a job at Skydance Interactive. Steven’s immediate response was to say a new LGD would come in after Alpha 1. Alpha 1 ended in August, but there was no LGD announcement. Intrepid decided to make the transition from Unreal Engine 4 to 5, so that gave them some breathing room about why they didn’t announce their new LGD. It is now January 2022, and while Steven isn’t under any artificial deadline to bring in a new LEAD game designer, I think there is something to be said about him stepping up and walking the walk and becoming the new Lead Game Designer instead of bringing in someone else.
If you missed the article on Jeff Leaving back in May of 2021, you can check out the official Intrepid link here: https://ashesofcreation.com/news/2021-05-27-a-message-to-the-community
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meep
🙂
100% agree with you here
I lean on dissagreeing.
I think Steven should get a Lead Game Designer, He's currently in too much 1 person vote roles, he need someone to question stevens decitions & give steven solutions to things hes not up to snuff for.
Jeff Kaplan is a free agent i believe, maybe they can get him
I do not think that Ashes is in a place that needs a new Lead Game Designer, on this I kind of already agree with you J, Steven is the best person for the Job.
It is his baby. He has shown that he has spent a good amount of time with game designers. He is learning their roles and it sounds like he made the executive discission to swap to UE5 after considering how it would affect the other departments of the game.
What he is making is rather ambitious as any MMO already is, I've looked over the list of old game designers that I enjoyed, and I cannot say with certainty that any of them would be a good fit here. Then I looked at the handful of people I would consider for lead devs and found that all of them were already working on something else. Cough (DreamHaven) Cough (Frost Giant) Cough and most of them are not even MMO devs but rather RTS lead game designs.
I think Steven has a good enough roaster and a good head on his shoulders to do the job, beyond that now that Alpha 1 is 'over' I dont think anyone with the chops would decide to come on board without radically changing things up and bringing us back to square one. Steven is looking to make a game that is more like an Online DnD campaign where the vast majority of NPCs are players. I do not think anyone has the expertise to do this, and its safer for him to just do it himself.
I'm pretty sure what would happen if steven brought on a Lead Game Dev at this point is that he would lose a few core members and the brain drain would trickle down. I've seen it happen a few times to games I followed closely and when you need a core member in a position its 100% Lead Game Dev, so unless another core member steps up steven will need to fill that role.
I feel like he's already wearing to many hats. If something happens to steven, the project must go on, they should bring more people that shares his vision for Ashes
It should be Steven, no one will keep the train on the tracks like the person that wrote the 4,000-page book. Also at this point Steven has more experience than Jeff did when he was hired as LGD.
Bu I think Steven should bring in someone between the creative director and CEO as a "NO man"
I kind of agree with you at this point it is probably Steven calling those shots already. Anyone he would bring in I think could be just an asssitant.
I don't think it should be Steven, I'd want him to focus on ensuring the project looks "legit" by interacting with the community and investors/publishers(if there will be any) and showing it's his own money and "he's go it" as he's doing now, let someone else work on the design "9 to 5". Additional argument against Steven is that a separate lead will bring a separate point of view, which might be useful when some ideas that might be a utopia (see "real ecosystem" in UO for example) and just extend production or make no sense in the real game might have to be pointed out.
As for "who", looking at the fact that there weren't any successful or "fresh" new mmos lately(ok, New World isn't that bad wit the action combat), one could look to projects that already died, like Crowfall. Thomas Blair looks like a nice person and after 8 years I'm pretty sure he might be tired of working on a project that just goes down the drain.
I'm also wondering why a guy that worked on an mmo for 5 years went to work on a …. VR zombie game… burnout?
One of the underpaid, overworked paradox bugtesters in Spain
Wow. I was thinking the same thing.
Is Tom Chilton available at the moment since he's got lots of experience ?
FEELSBARDMAN
I think the more control Steven has over the development of Ashes, the more likely we are to truly see Steven's vision become realized. I've been sold on his vision for the game since day one. I believe in Steven Sharif and his vision for the game.
Who? I think there's quite a few ex-blizzard cubicle crawlers free right now.
Isn’t he already the pseudo lead? Seems to know what they want.
I feel if there’s anything a project like this needs now, it’s someone to make sure there is no bloat in the budget or features.
Someone who can take the hits and say that ‘we are focusing combat down to what the player base will engage with’ instead of the Stevin saying it. someone who can judge what should stay for full release and what should be post launch. Like: yes, we need all the classes, but a few final world bosses could be finalized post release. which ones? In which order?
I’ve just started looking at AoC, so maybe I’m missing something.
I would have loved to see Raph Koster(UO and SWG) at Intrepid Studios, imo the most knowledgeable person around the topic of virtual worlds period. He is occupied with his own mmo project in the early stages though.
Other than that Kevin Jordan (early WoW) seemed to have shown a lot of interest in the project and the generall design philosophy, even played and streamed the alpha 1. He also reduced his streaming presence a lot and seems to have a new job he has not made public.
Personally i dont think Steven should be the lead game designer, he might have built up development experience, but lacks the experience of a launched MMO, thus might have deficits in the social engineering field (like player behavior) and maybe even in the social science field (like economic systems). Also he seems to be plenty occupied already.
I think Steven could do it if he hires someone to assist him. Only question is does he already have to much on his plate.
If I had to pick someone big and famous I would go for Jeff Kaplan coz he just left Blizzard probably to avoid any association with mess they got themselves into but seemed like he still had a lot of passion. I rly like what he has done for Wow but I have to be fair and say he didn't do so great on Overwatch but AoC is MMO not Arena FPS.
Jeffrey Kaplan could be a good option. He had experience in making MMO and had good public impression. But I don’t know Intrepid can afford him or not. I do agree Steven to be the lead game designer. He has a clear vision of the game and gain a lot of knowledge about game design for the past few years.
The only person I think could potentially fill this role off the top of my head is Jeff Kaplan – I believe he's on the market though of course I don't know how much of his experience was from an MMO (did he work on WoW?) – and if it would carry over well. I would say that as a whole he was known as a great ethical individual that didn't let the darker sides of business affect his team (according to citations from people he worked with) – and he definitely has many years in this role.
I don't think he would be cheap, and I don't know if he will share the vision – but I am certain he would have been on Steven's radar.
Ive also been thinking this for the past month or so and especially since the last livestream. Im happy as long as they dont bring in John Smedley. He ruined Everquest and more recently we have all seen how New World turned out.
He said after august. He didn't specify what year. :thinking emoji:
I totally agree with you.
Steven is the one to direct the Ship , it is necessary that he be the one for everything invested, not only economically but also emotionally, effort, perseverance, passion, etc.
But on the other hand Steven needs a counterpart who can question or ratify his decisions to have a quality filter in making decisions.
I think surrounding yourself with people that Steven can trust is absolutely necessary for AoC and Intrepid to have healthy growth.
Yeah he's got to get lead game designer off his shoulders. As long as their quality metrics match Stevens it won't matter much. He's creative director anyway so he'll get the last say at the end of the day.
i agree with you.
steven is very smart, bright, passionate, wise and he knows the game best so i really would love if he had full authority really plus no one is more invested in it… he would be like elon musk at spacex …
but if its too much on his mind… i wouldnt mind someone capable … like one of the ex bioware people….
What is the responsibilities and day-to-day role of a Lead Game Designer?
I am quite surprised you think that way. In my opinion, Steven does not have enough experience, because he has not shipped a single game. This means he never did any of the design work that still has to be done until a production ready state. A leader should always know and have done at least once the work he/she is coordinating. Being the creative director, he has all the control he needs, and I am sure he also has more than enough work without additionally being the lead game designer. If anything, if Steven chose to do that, I would be worried that the quality of his work would go down, because the day has only 24 hours.