Starr Long
20+ Year Game Industry Veteran Ultima Online: 1997 ¤ One of the very first MMORPG’s ¤ Coined the terms “MMORPG”, “rares”,
“shards”, etc. ¤ 1st MMO to have player housing ¤ 1st Subscription based model ¤ Longest running commercial RPG in history
NCSoft / Tabula Rasa Disney Connected Learning Shroud of the Avatar
Traditional Game Development
Black Box Early visibility is controlled, staged and false Fancy Trailers (not even in game engine) Press Releases / Conferences Developer interviews
No details provided about staff, design, etc. No hands on interaction before launch No customer feedback during development
Co-Development: Open and Agile
A completely new paradigm Full transparency during development Regular Cadence of content delivery Responding to feedback
Develop in the Open: Transparency!
Hosting Public & Private Forums & IRC Posting daily standup notes about what every person on team is doing Posting public schedules by quarter Posting details about funding, hiring, and finances Weekly Q&A Weekly video hangouts Weekly Email / Website Updates on progress
Deliver Regularly
Monthly updates to the game Same day and time, no matter what
New Content, bug fixes, balance, polish, etc. Modify what will go in each release vs. when the release goes live Allocate ~30% of each update to direct response to player feedback
Call out who gave the feedback when possible
Contact Info
Starr Long
Executive Producer
Portalarium / Stellar Effect
stellareffect.com
shroudoftheavatar.com