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Meet the Developers: Jesse Sky


CourtneyWoods

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Hello everyone,

 

Please discuss this week's Meet the Developers: Jesse Sky blog in this thread!

 

If you have any questions for Jesse, please ask them here. In the near future, we'll have some answers from him for you!

 

 

Update 10/16: Hello everyone! Here are answers to some of the questions you had for Jesse! Thanks for participating in our first Meet the Developers feature - you can expect to see more of these in the future!

 

 

Q: With an Art History degree, how did you get into the role of a gaming developer? Do you have an additional qualification which enabled you to get into that position or was it purely from interest?

 

Jesse: When we interview a design candidate, college degrees are footnotes compared to your gaming pedigree, especially published games, mods, and independent projects that you've worked on. Looking around the studio, I can tell you that I work with many of the most talented people I've ever met, but I'd be hard-pressed to remember what they studied in college. I can, however, tell you what games they worked on, and which games vacuum up their free time. Knowledge, passion, and professionalism usually shine through pretty clearly during conversation, and everyone has a unique story about how they broke into the industry.

 

In my case, I was selected for an interview after winning a module-building contest for Neverwinter Nights, and I happened to have thousands of hours logged in MMOs going back to the 90s. That got me a junior design position. I've been playing and building games since before I can remember – it's about the only consistent hobby I've had, since my interests range pretty widely. Game scripting is what got me into web development, game artwork is what got me into art history, and I even worked in a high-energy physics lab after being inspired by a certain crowbar-wielding physicist. If you're interested in game design, a degree can help you, but your qualifications are only really proven once you're in the door. Every development project is a learning experience, so the real test is how willing you are to learn and grow.

 

 

Q: Have you been surprised by the shortcuts and tricks and such that allow groups to skip large amounts of trash and/or bosses? Is skipping trash mobs something you agree with and go along in groups?

 

Jesse: In my experience, skipping trash carries a risk of making wipe recovery a lot more painful, so I don't really have a strong opinion about whether we should take strict measures to prevent it. It only really annoys me when groups go to ridiculous lengths to avoid a few seconds of combat, because at some point it becomes self-defeating. When I see a group doing that, I just start pulling encounters to save us the headache.

 

My preference would be to provide more incentives to engage trash. For example, in Terror From Beyond, all the trash has a chance of dropping Artifact-quality crafting mats, and one specific encounter drops a hefty amount of credits. So that's the sort of thing we're looking to do more often, but philosophically we've also gravitated toward tighter play-spaces and less trash overall.

 

 

Q: Are you ever worried that by constantly trying to challenge the top tier of players with Operations and Nightmare Mode that you are excluding the more casual players from some of the content you feel most proud of?

 

Jesse: I don't think the two things are at odds, but I can understand the frustration. Obviously we have story mode, but I'm not yet happy with where it fits into our itemization scheme. There are incentives, but they're not immediately obvious. As we move forward, we're going to be doing a lot of work toward expanding and clarifying our endgame so that the progression feels more logical. We're planning a lot of improvements to go along with the level cap increase, both for casual players and the top tier guilds. That includes more diversity in the content and the rewards offered by the endgame.

 

 

Q: Any update on plans to convert the non-HM Flashpoints to HM versions? Will there be more Tier 2 Flashpoints?

 

Jesse: We will be creating Hard Modes for all of the Flashpoints that do not have Hard Modes yet. That's something that I'm personally very excited about. As for Tier 2, the Group Finder categories will be reconfigured with the level cap increase so as not to split the Flashpoint queue into two populations. I think the challenge posed by Lost Island has offered a lot of entertainment, but it's also a PUG-killer that doesn't fit into a random mix very well. The newer Hard Modes will be balanced for a more consistent experience, both in terms of difficulty and length, and that should help keep queue times in check.

Edited by AllisonBerryman
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I like the Meet the Developers feature a lot. You've got the opportunity to really sell us on your development team, and their vision for the game and its future. A lot of people on your team are relative strangers to us right now, and getting to know them can go a long way toward inspiring our confidence and support. Keep them coming!
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Shame on you being a Jedi. The Sith Empire is where you should be!

Don't be hating the Jedi we can all get along, well sorta.

 

Anyway, always glad to finally meet the developers in person (officially that is). This is a great game and you developer have helped make it that way. Great Job!

Edited by jpopalisky
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I very much enjoyed reading your dispatch. I play as a guardian as well except vigilance spec because for one once you get the rotation down they can be great dps characters as well as have a few abilities for those "Oh no!" moments like when a tank drops you taunt and pop defensive abilities so no one else goes down while the tank is being revived. It's a fun class and I'm glad to see someone else appreciates the fact that the utility they do have can be used to greatly benefit yourself or the team.:)
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Hi, nice blog. One question that did come to mind though when reading it, are you ever worried that by constantly trying to challenge the top tier of players with Opperations and Nightmare mode that you are excluding the more casual players from some of the content you feel most proud of?
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Great, interview. Jesse's personality really came through.

 

A couple of questions:

1) When will we see a new flashpoint, it's been awhile since we saw one last

2) Any update on plans to convert the non-HM flashpoints to HM versions? I know alot of forum goers want that

3) How do you decide what loot to have drop in an operation?

4) Why make players ride so long back on speeders between boss encounters on Ops?

 

Thanks again!

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hello Jesse.

 

so.. questions. Will there be more tier2 FP ?

 

i´m thinking e.x. hammer station and athiss. I guess all the low FP that haven´t been made tier1 hard mode could be tier2 so those who prefer small groups over ops could still get full rakata.

 

my favorite FP is Lost Island, before the 1.4 change and with melee dps. What was the thought about the change.

My guess is it were to be able to have the tank not kite no matter if the group have melee dps or not, but the kiting was what made the fight fun imo.

 

I know the ship have sailed on this, but if i were to change it, it would have been a change that would force the tank to kite. E.x. giving the bupple cast a max range so it allways lands on a melee target. If no dps or healer is in range it will land on the tank. That way the ranged and healers would probaly just stand in the center while the tank kites around the room, so i dont quite know if that would work.

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Excellent interview, hope to see many more along the same lines :)

 

Only question(s) I have (as a fellow web developer), how did you get into game development? what lead you down this road as opposed to following your degree path (art history)?

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Hi Jesse!

 

I'm looking forward to sampling your work, but being on a neglected APAC server (read all of them) we don't have to population to do operations easily.

Do you know anything about what's going on with that? I know it's not your area' but the people who should know aren't saying :(

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Hi, nice blog. One question that did come to mind though when reading it, are you ever worried that by constantly trying to challenge the top tier of players with Opperations and Nightmare mode that you are excluding the more casual players from some of the content you feel most proud of?

 

Very good question.

 

While Ops are nice they aren't always an option if you can't play for 2+ hours in one go or RL issues make OPs difficult. It would be nice to see things equally enjoyable for solo or Heroic 2+ game play.

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Well, not so much for Jesse as for all of the developers; I have a question. What was the reasoning/rationale for capping the game at level 50, and is it possible to continue to play after level 50(okay so that is two questions)?
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Ahh so you play a Tank. Maybe you could tell the person who designs tank pve sets how force attacks dont need all the accuracy they give us.

 

Maybe even ask him/her to roll a tank and help them lvl so they can see beyond the metrics they keeps working off and actually experience endgame as a tank.

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Ahh so you play a Tank. Maybe you could tell the person who designs tank pve sets how force attacks dont need all the accuracy they give us.

 

Maybe even ask him/her to roll a tank and help them lvl so they can see beyond the metrics they keeps working off and actually experience endgame as a tank.

 

It is an odd itemization for sure.

Edited by VarKoE
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