This month, Dev Talk asked for some inside stories from our developer
friends. After all, we Ten Ton Hammer editors have been to enough
conventions and gaming events to know that devs, especially when
they’re hanging out socially, tell some of the greatest stories. We’ve
heard anecdotes ranging from alpha exploits to office pranks to running
inside jokes. In one instance we even captured video of an inebriated
dev at an event party whose attempt to say, “Ten Ton Hammer is the
best!” for our cameras turned into a hilarious 5 minute riff about an
after-church killer clown ambush which resulted in him being saved by a Ten Ton Hammer
editor. (We’re serious. We can’t make this stuff up.)



My own favorite dev moment occurred during a Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
press tour prior to the game’s launch. The team from Sony Online
Entertainment and Sigil Games Online treated the press to dinner at
Dick’s Last Resort in San Diego, the Bronx-themed restaurant where the
wait staff purposefully treats the guests rudely and fits certain party
members with paper chef’s hats scribed with clever expressions like:
“I’m forever blowing bubbles” and, for the (usually same sex) person
seated next to the bubble-blower: “I’m bubbles.”



Our obnoxious gum-chewing waitress was hamming it up, fake New York accent and all.
As she made her way around the table with her chef’s hats I noticed one
developer—a large imposing man whose name I’ll leave out of this since
it’s me sharing the story, not him—eyeing her with growing contempt and
a “don’t even think about it” expression. When the waitress reached him
and went to slap a paper hat on his head he glared at her and snarled,
in a deep James Earl Jones voice, “Don’t. Seriously.”



She raised her hands in surrender and skipped on by, neglecting to
harass me in the process. I lucked out by my proximity to the
linebacker-sized dev with the deep voice.



We contacted some of our favorite developers to ask them to share their
inside stories with us. Several opted out simply due to being in a time
crunch over their games. One developer told us, “We each have 48 hours
of work to cram into an 8 hour day right now.” A couple other teams
suggested that their very best stories were either “wildly
inappropriate,” incriminating or both. We’ll leave you to speculate
over which teams seem the wildest. But the developers who were able to
provide us with stories offered up some gems. Read on!


border="1">

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/91167"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 600px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/91167">

Scenes from
a not-so-Italian restaurant.



Fallen
Earth

Wes
Platt, Director of Content Development



style="margin: 10px; border-collapse: collapse; float: right; width: 300px;"
border="1">

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/84679"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 300px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/84679">

Wes Platt
must be ever on the defensive in the Fallen Earth offices, lest he
succumb to Nerf turf wars.

It’s a constant state of Nerf border skirmishes in our office. Usually,
the conflicts are brought on by frequent bad puns, which yield a rain
of orange darts on the perpetrator from all over the room. But our
Producer, Dave Haydysch (known in-game as Archangel), takes a special
interest in my turf. I’ve got a corner desk that’s perfectly situated
opposite his, facing him, with a couple of flatscreen monitors
providing me with a defensive barrier.  Dave likes a
challenge, and this gives him a chance to perfect his range and
accuracy. So, I’ll be sitting at my computer, headphones on, working on
a design document, and I’ll hear the telltale THWUP! of the Nerf
chamber loading. I peek over the monitor like a prairie dog, just in
time to see Dave firing. I duck down. Sometimes, the shots go wild or
angle over me and hit the wall. But he often manages to either ping me
right in the forehead, the cheek, or at least get in a wing shot. I’m
thinking of getting a Nerf carbine, though, so I can go out like Tony
Montana.



















En Masse Entertainment | href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2339">TERA



"We like to think of En Masse Entertainment as a special working
environment with a particular kind of culture that allows us to express
ourselves in unique ways, whether that’s Hello Kitty™ keyboards or
giant stuffed pandas wielding twin swords, pointing the way to the
writers’ corner. Here are three anecdotes that we think express that
special sense of En Masse individuality."


style="margin: 10px; border-collapse: collapse; float: right; width: 300px;"
border="1">

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/91168"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 300px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/91168">

Pac-Man
Rodeo sounds fun to us!

Stacey
Janssen, Writer




When I started at En Masse, the exercise-ball-as-a-chair craze had just
started sweeping the office. Given the chance, I ordered a yellow one,
but it turned out to be too small. I used it sometimes, but it mostly
lived in a corner by my desk until another writer, Scott James, was
struck by creative genius. I walked in one morning to find that my
yellow exercise ball had been attacked by a black marker and now bore a
striking resemblance to Pac-Man. Then one day our lead writer David and
I decided to try balancing on it for as long as possible without
touching anything else. With that, Pac-Man Rodeo was born, and quickly
developed into a full-on sport—complete with leaderboard. We invited
everyone to play, but Dave and I dominated (and were fiercely
competitive). Pac-Man Rodeo lasted for weeks, but we eventually had to
call the game on account of work once we started passing the ten-minute
mark.


style="margin: 10px; border-collapse: collapse; float: right; width: 300px;"
border="1">

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/91169"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 300px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/91169">

We're not
sure if it's the pouty lips or the bedroom eyes, but Davina had us at
hello.

En Masse Entertainment | href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2339">TERA



David
Noonan, Lead Writer




In order to accommodate our growing number of employees, we recently
relocated into a new office space. It marked the first time we had
cubicle barriers between our desks. Those walls are just high enough
that I can make eye contact with someone only if both of us are sitting
up ramrod-straight. One day, in a fit of whimsy, I remained hunched
over my desk and answered a colleague’s question while making puppet
gestures with my upraised hand. A couple days later I did it again,
only with a (rather unconvincing) little girl voice. Thus “Davina” was
born. A few days later, I had a paper-bag puppet for Davina. A few days
after that, Davina gained colorful hair, eyes, and lips. (Amazing what
you can do with office supplies!) Davina has since been kidnapped—with
two competing ransom notes!—and happily reunited. And whenever I need
to say something unpopular, it’s easy to deflect and let Davina be the
bearer of bad news.



En Masse Entertainment | href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2339">TERA



Robin
MacPherson, Writer




When I first started at En Masse Entertainment I knew all of the
writing team, but hardly anyone else. The corporate culture was a
complete unknown to me, and it was pretty intimidating. I knew I could
easily be the dumbest guy in the room but I figured if I kept my mouth
shut, I’d go unnoticed and stay out of trouble. When I got my first
paycheck, however, I found a little handwritten note from our corporate
development director, Yong Taek, inside. It welcomed me aboard and
thanked me for my help on a particular (little) project. I was amazed
that he’d taken notice of my work, much less made the effort to comment
on it. Other notes came in later paychecks and I realized how special
it was to work at En Masse Entertainment. People matter here.





In a time when it's becoming standard fare for development team staff
to rant
out their employers
 in grand style via blog,
painting a grim picture of the game development scene, we note that not
every office provides a hellish work environment rife with tumultuous
office politics and financial instability. Every developer we spoke to,
even the ones who didn't have time to participate this month, told us
that they did indeed have some epic stories. And if our collection of
inside stories is any indication, devs just wanna have fun.



Which dev team do you suspect of having the most fun and the best
inside stories? Share your thoughts in our forum!

To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Fallen Earth Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

About The Author

Karen is H.D.i.C. (Head Druid in Charge) at EQHammer. She likes chocolate chip pancakes, warm hugs, gaming so late that it's early, and rooting things and covering them with bees. Don't read her Ten Ton Hammer column every Tuesday. Or the EQHammer one every Thursday, either.

Comments