Hello everyone. My name is Christina Miller. I felt it only fitting that the last blog post of the semester was about saying Thank you to this team. Without them, this game wouldn't be what it is today. I wish every member of this team luck with whatever comes next. They truly did decide the Fate of Factions.
(Top: The Fifth Faction (From left to right) Ben Collins, Brad Haze, Christina Miller, Tim Schultz, Josh Haakana, Karie Holmstadt, Lucas Thomas, Callie Swensen, Haden Gregor)
Middle: Kai Saruwatari, composer of menu music and the coast arena music,
Bottom: Xiaoyi Ying, Composer of the Citadel, Forest and Mountain Arena music)
(Not pictured above: Trevor Martin)
I, like a lot of members of our team, am graduating this semester. To give a special thanks to these folks, I thought I would take a moment to talk about all of our graduating team members. Each one was critical to the success of creation of Fate of Factions, and our whole team wishes each of them luck in their future endeavors!
Let's start with artists:
First, we have Callie Swensen. Callie has helped work on many UI elements, environment assets, and was the implementer of the Coast Arena. Callie was always willing to support and help the team in any way she could, and would take on various projects to help. Callie is a super awesome teammate to work with, and no matter what always tries to make everyone smile, even if we all just messed with her in return.
Then, we have Lucas Thomas. Lucas was the integral animator for all of the characters - if you like the animations, that's thanks to Lucas. Lucas also helped to design and implement the Forest Arena. Lucas would volunteer to help with anything he thought he could help with, and was willing to rework things and help edit when things didn't work as good as we liked. Lucas just loved to have a good time, and wanted to make sure everyone was having a good time too, even if sometimes we all were cringing over it.
Next, we have Haden Gregor. Our team's internal joke is that he's an honorary programmer. He did a lot of work in Unity with various particle effects, and was a strong resource to help implement them. Haden also did a lot of UI elements - many of the major UI style decisions were made by him. Haden is truly a strong team player, who was always willing to pick up another piece of work to help the team, no matter what.
Now, for programmers:
First, we have Brad Haze. Brad was our Lead Programmer on Fate of Factions, and he took his role in stride. He worked very hard on implementing many of the characters, both in animations and abilities. He was always someone who would help when we were stuck, and was always willing to learn something new to help the game. He was an incredibly knowledgeable team member, and when he didn't know something, he was willing to go figure it out.
Then, we have Karie Holmstadt. Karie was our Balancing Lead for this game, someone who mapped out each character and how we could keep them balanced. She had a hard job, to put it lightly! Karie also designed a lot of our support structures for our game, including our main script designed to facilitate the game in all of it's stages. Karie is a very hardworking person, and she was always willing to take on as much work as she could, and did it while having a job that is arguably not easy. She was always willing to help with whatever she could, and both asked for help when she needed it, and provided lots of help to those who needed it.
Next, we have Ben Collins. Ben worked very closely with Brad to help implement different character into the game, and also worked very closely with Haden to implement many particles into the game. Ben took on many various tasks on the programming side to help the rest of the team, no matter what it was. If he didn't know, he'd always ask or figure it out. Ben also worked closely with Karie on balancing, particularly in the later stages of our development, to help implement changes that Karie (and our team) decided on. He was an incredibly hard worker on the game, and always made sure to try and help anyone who needed it.
Then, there's me (Christina Miller). I worked on many different things, trying to help those who needed it, connecting them with others if necessary. I worked a lot in audio implementation and menu manipulation, as well as working with the rest of the programmers on balancing, when the time came. I also stepped into various roles, including Social Media Management and Organizing our team through my position as Scrum Master. I've had such an amazing time working with this team, and always have wanted to work on anything and everything I needed to to help the team. Fate of Factions has been an amazing game to work on.
And finally, we have our Music and SFX Team:
We have Xiaoyi Ying. Although Fate of Factions didn't get to work with Berklee for our whole development time, our Music and SFX team really knocked it out of the park. Xiaoyi was responsible for composing the themes for the Citadel, the Forest, and the Mountain Arenas. Each one was very unique and different from the rest, and made each arena feel special in their own ways. Xiaoyi was a very receptive composer, always wanting to make sure that what he was working on was what we wanted from the music. He truly helped make many of our arenas shine in their own way.
In all, we have 8 of our 12 team members graduating, and moving on to new things. Each of their efforts helped make this game what it is, and helped to truly decide the Fate of Factions. I, and the rest of our team, wish each of them luck as they move forward to what comes next. No matter what, they will always be a part of the game.
Fate of Factions goes live officially tonight at UW-Stout's Virtual SGX! Come check it out at 6pm at the link: https://t.co/qIZySOJLCE?amp=1
Choose your class and fight for the glory and honor of your faction! Fight until you are the last person standing! Your strength and efforts will decide the Fate of Factions!
~Christina Miller, and The Fifth Faction