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Summary

Passionate about Computer Games, love to create top-notch Characters, Models and generally artwork!

Why do they need people like this when they have had Henning Ludvigson apparently working full time on this project for over 5 years?

More evidence that developers/producers who are the owners of Aventurine work part time on Darkfall and maintain other activates to fund development.

LOL, all I see is JAVA experience.  Believe me, if they are coding this game in JAVA you can write it off now.

JAVA is an interpreted language, meaning it is compiled as it runs, incuring significant overhead as it does so.

JAVA is a good languge when you are writing something that will run on multiple brands of computers, but it is not a fast language by any means.  When doing JAVA development we almost always ended up having to code parts of the software in C++ or another compiled language where any kind of performance matters.

While some might point out that much of Eve is coded in Python, which is also interpretive, let me say that Python is far superior to JAVA when it comes to performance.  Python is what JAVA should have been.  Even Microsoft's rewrote large parts of JAVA before Sun forced them to stop.   

http://www.warcry.com/articles/view/devjournals/darkfalljournals/3331-Darkfall-Developer-Journal-1-About-Adventurine

(Thanks for reposting this recently Aragon, very helpfull)

This time Tasos describing the working conditions, finances and development history of Darkfal from a year and half ago.

In retrospect now that we know Tasos is one of the owners and self financiers of Aventurine and Darkfall, these vague and ambiguous comments by Tasos appear to reveal similar revelations like Henning Ludvigson’s comments.

I'll use this journal to share a little information about our company, and about the project's background:

While most of this information has been communicated in the past, Aventurine seems to remain a mystery and a point of discussion for some of the Darkfall community. It reminds me of an "America's Army" developer who visited us at our offices and said something like "wow this looks like any other development studio in the US". I'm not sure what he was expecting.

I’ll guess we‘ll have to take your personal assurances and anecdotal stories that your office look‘s like any other development studio in the US“, or that “America’s Army” developers who have visited you have said “wow”

Aventurine was originally formed to fund and publish Darkfall. The development team was in Norway, at the time it was four developers working on design, concepting, and prototyping. While working with Razorwax to put the development team together we realized how high the operating costs, and the cost of living is in Norway. We decided to move our activities to Greece under Aventurine to get more game for our money. It took a while to organize and assemble the team and to get into full production which started about three and a half years ago. Aventurine was now developing the technology, the tools, and the game. At the time this project started there was no technology available that would allow us to do what we wanted, so everything had to be made from scratch.

Yes but don’t forget to mention Aventurine was originally formed and owned by you yourself along with the other developers from Razorwax and other “producers” who invested.

Our unofficial tagline and battle cry for Darkfall development is "No compromise". We've had vertical slices of the game before, and we considered moving towards a launch a couple of years ago. We didn't go forward because, to put it simply, we all knew we could do so much better if we gave it more time, and we had the resources to do so. I believe that the resulting game can stand up to any MMO out there and it's much more than the game we originally committed to making.

You can declare “no compromise” because you are one of the owners and financiers of Darkkfal, so its your decision, you don’t have any pesky publishers or investors breathing down your neck talking about deadlines or schedules.

Aventurine currently employs 24 developers in-house and six professional contractors. The staff is international from Norway, Greece, Italy, the UK, the US, Denmark, and France. Its activities, other than Darkfall, are research into game and simulation technologies. We've also advised war-game simulation military projects in the past through other companies in our group, activities that have given us some valuable perspectives to be used in game development. The company also sponsors and supports sporting events, athletes, and competitive gaming tournaments. Aventurine is organized under the laws of Greece and the European Union as an S.A. Corporation.

These 24 developers after we remove the owners and producers like yourself is probably less impressive.

Your so full of crap that if they gave you an enama you'd fit in a matchbox

Henning and Pixelbrush is old news.  

Linkedln is also old news however I am sure the attention of this thread has made them modify their profile.  /Clap for the OP.  On the other hand, Linkedln was one of those emails I got where I just took seconds to answer. I have no clue what my profile states about me and I am sure if my boss were to look me up he might question some of my answers. 

Darkfall is being produced my amatuers; this is well knowned. The last two articles have basically stated they have brought up the game for the first time in its entirely and that they have dropped some features.

The question is can they produce?  Do they have the time to produce?  Do they have the resources to produce?

Basically what I am expecting is that this game will be a mixture of SB and Mount & Blade.   And if slightly better than both I will stick with it for awhile.

Originally posted by Kshnik

Darkfall is being produced my amatuers; this is well knowned. 

Untill I posted there CV's I dont think it was proven though.

What I definitely think was not well known is that Aventurine and Darkfall appears to be entirely owned by its own developers and producers, and these owners are probably its only or largest investors.

The last two articles have basically stated they have brought up the game for the first time in its entirely and that they have dropped some features.

And this is according to Tasos, who possibly got caught telling lies at the recent Greek gaming conference, how can you be sure what he says is true anymore, especially considering his track record.

The question is can they produce?  Do they have the time to produce?  Do they have the resources to produce?

That’s what I’ve been asking, and I think I’ve answered those questions already, did you read anything else apart from the Linkedin profiles information?

Basically what I am expecting is that this game will be a mixture of SB and Mount & Blade.   And if slightly better than both I will stick with it for awhile.

I personally think people like Tasos have been giving the community the impression that they can expect allot more then that, but I may be wrong.

From Razorwax website archive (Jan 2007)

We offer

Razorwax offers a competitive salary, stock options, sweet bonuses, and the opportunity to work for an ambitious Norwegian game developer, creating awesome new online games from our offices in Oslo.

More indications that not just the Lead developers and producers at the formation of Razorwax and then Aventurine became its owner’s / partner’s.

And that this project development has never been adequately financed.

It seems they where even offering Stock options or partial ownership to all prospective new staff, presumably this practice continued after the formation of Aventurine also.

Hopefully not all new employees have been tempted (or convinced) to accept stock options, so they themselves could be “investors” in Darkfall as well.

I wonder if those “sweet bonuses” are yet more company stock’s.

From Razorwax Website archive (2005)

By combining groundbreaking technology and superior game design,
Razorwax will create amazingly addictive online games.


Read about our MMORPG Darkfall currently being developed.

Razorwax aims at being one of the leading producers of online games,
with 3 online AAA quality games released by 2005.

Somehow the word‘s “ambitious game developer” does not quite do it justice.

Originally posted by TdogSkal

Dont take this the wrong way but it is at all possiable that these pages have not been updated in months/years?

I have a myspace page that I have not looked at or updated in 3+ years.

Exactly and looking at myself who has not updated my linked in page for 1 year pretty much sums it up.

Originally posted by chryses

Originally posted by TdogSkal

Dont take this the wrong way but it is at all possiable that these pages have not been updated in months/years?

I have a myspace page that I have not looked at or updated in 3+ years.

 

Exactly and looking at myself who has not updated my linked in page for 1 year pretty much sums it up.

A convenient explanation.

I think its a plausable explanation.

I do believe that this thread has caused them some embarassement which has made them update their information.  For that I give you praise.

Polarization, please keep up the excellent investigative work.  I, for one, believe you are a credit to the MMORPG community.  However, I don't think the DF fanbois (and others) would agree...

Thankyou, I sincerely just want to know the truth about this project, and after 8 years I think they owe it to us, but whether or not they tell us or we have to find it for ourselves is another thing entirely.

We’ve all heard about how amazing and challenging the AI will be for the NPC’s and mobs In Darkfall.

How its so revolutionary and advanced , they can even use the bots to help the developers test the game, because they “live their lives in the world” just like players.

Well lets look at who’s apparently singly handedly in charge of programming this incredible AI from 2004.

Bjorn Eirik Larsen - AI programmer

Wow, this guy must be incredibly talented lets see his previous work experience, bet its impressive.

2000, Funcom, The longest Journey (graphical adventure game), credited as "Music composer" and "programmer"

2001, Funcom, Anarcy Online, credited for "special effects"

*FacePalm

Is this guy even working for Aventurine anymore?, is this him on LinkedIn?

Bjørn Eirik Larsen

Software Engineer

Norway

If it is, he does not mention ever having anything to do with Aventurine or Darkfall.

Fascinating stuff.  Most interesting to me, is the fact that these guys changed the info after this thread.  Didnt we all think these guys were way too busy to be concerned about threads posted on a message board that isnt even their own?  Dont they owe us a video that they have been too busy to make?  Yet they can follow 7+ page threads on MMORPG.COM and make the effort to 'correct' info on other sites.  Seems they are more concerned with managing thier image than delivering evidence that their game is all they claim it to be.  I guess at this point, it should not be surprising... 

I found out how Claus found out, that I had found out about his CV on LinkedIN.

Originally posted by Theodgrim

Fascinating stuff.  Most interesting to me, is the fact that these guys changed the info after this thread.  Didnt we all think these guys were way too busy to be concerned about threads posted on a message board that isnt even their own?  Dont they owe us a video that they have been too busy to make?  Yet they can follow 7+ page threads on MMORPG.COM and make the effort to 'correct' info on other sites.  Seems they are more concerned with managing thier image than delivering evidence that their game is all they claim it to be.  I guess at this point, it should not be surprising... 

Personally I think carefully managing their image, publicity and the community, to attract prospective investors and/or publishers has been there main priority all along, unfortunately actually developing Darkfall seems to of been less of a priority considering what we have seen so far.

Great work Polar !

It all goes back to what I've said many times. All the fanbois have is the "word" of Tasos. Nothing more. They base their entire argument on nothing but Tasos statements, with no proof whatsoever.

And here's the sad part. They seem unwilling to even desire to see any concrete proof. It's as if they want to believe no matter what.

Don't cloud the fanbois minds with facts. They will have NO facts please!

Lars Erik Liljeback  listed as "Game Logic Programmer" from the october 2004 "Aventurine team list"

http://www.ntnu.no/universitetsavisa/0999/krise1.html

http://www.item.ntnu.no/research/publications/2002

Apparently another developer with no previous experience in game development (like nearly all of them) , A student of NTNU working for Aventurine during or after his graduation.

Is he still working for Aventurine?, or did he leave some time after the end of 2004 like their “AI programmer” Bjorn Eirik Larsen.

Looks like Yiannis Koumoutzelis one of their 3D artists in the “Aventurine Team” from late 2004 either got fired by Henning Ludvigson or he decided to leave and Become an Art director himselft for an online game developer in India.

http://sesam.no/katalog/infoside/Razorwax+As/1082676/a2ad7592aeb4af30e0b57cbc64459057&showtab=info

Razorwax AS

INDUSTRY: SPORTS AND RECREATION / BINGO!

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nettkatalogen.no%2Ffirmainfo%2Frazorwax_as%2F1963976334.htm&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=no&tl=en

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.1881.no%2FJuridisk_informasjon%2FRazorwax%2BAS_981988167%2F%3FQuery%3Drazorwax%26qt%3D8&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=no&tl=en

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.purehelp.no%2Fvis.asp%2Fcompany_name%2FRAZORWAX%2BAS%2Fftknr%2F5B4B464E4F16414345%2Ft_page%2F1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=no&tl=en

What a complete failure Razorwax was, 150 thousand dollars of loans, never made a profit, constant auditing problems, auditor notes “illegal loans to shareholder, the general manager” twice and it was finally declared insolvent by court and declared bankrupt in late 2006.

I’m no expert but this looks suspicious and dishonest, I thought Razorwax “merged” with a new publisher and developer Aventurine in October 2002 to continue development of Darkfall.

And all the developers who where working full time on Darkfall under Razrowax moved to Greece to work fulltime developing Darkfall under Aventurine.

It would seem Razorwax never merged with Aventurine and people like Claus Grovdal, Ricki Sikenger, Anastasias “Tasos” Flampouras, Kjetil Helland, Erik Johansen have continued to be involved in, and/or own Razorwax as some form of Online gambling or bingo service company.

If these people cant even develop and run a successful online “bingo” or gambling company what does that say about there chances to successfully develop the most ambitious MMO ever.

How much time did they actually spend developing Darkfall under Razorwax before they set up Aventurine, when they seem to of been more interested in Razorwax becoming an online gambling company.

Maybe they thought online gambling would be easy money, and online subscription gaming would be easy money too, so far neither seemed to of worked out for them yet.

Good find polar your google skills are amazing,  but your analytical skills are about as useful as a special needs class deciphering the magna carta.   Will look over the shit and come to an actual intelligent conclusion.  Thanks for doing the wierd creepy stalker stuff  though,  saves us all a lot of trouble.

Plus did you ever for a minute come to the most likely conclusion that they changed their CV to stop insane internet stalkers from misconstruing information.  You hop from amiture conclusion to amiture off bad translations and shobby thinking.

Besides who is this Jade Mehdawi.  He is the executive producer with aventurine and 50% owner of razorwax.

You need to find information on this guy: MEFDAWI JADE L - hes apparently the one with all the money.

Originally posted by gotha

Good find polar your google skills are amazing,  but your analytical skills are about as useful as a special needs class deciphering the magna carta.   Will look over the shit and come to an actual intelligent conclusion.  Thanks for doing the wierd creepy stalker stuff  though,  saves us all a lot of trouble.

 

Plus did you ever for a minute come to the most likely conclusion that they changed their CV to stop insane internet stalkers from misconstruing information.  You hop from amiture conclusion to amiture off bad translations and shobby thinking.

 

Besides who is this Jade Mehdawi.  He is the executive producer with aventurine and 50% owner of razorwax.

You fail to provide nothing but insults because you can't stand that there may be even more dirt piling on top of Tasos and Aventurines collective heads. Is that it?
 

You think they changed their CV to avoid internet stalkers, and you call Polars deductive skills amateurish ( that's how "amateur" is spelled, by the way )?

There is a definite difference between being an "internet stalker" and delving into the shady dealings of a particular company through legitimate, publically available means.

So don't throw insults when you don't exactly come across as a genius yourself.

Originally posted by gotha

Good find polar your google skills are amazing,  but your analytical skills are about as useful as a special needs class deciphering the magna carta.   Will look over the shit and come to an actual intelligent conclusion.  Thanks for doing the wierd creepy stalker stuff  though,  saves us all a lot of trouble.

Perhaps you should “look over this sh*t” and come to an “actual intelligent conclusion” yourself before you start declaring my analytical skills are on the level of a “special needs class”?.

I accept that my opinions might not be entirely accurate, that’s exactly why I post this information for others to give there opinion, I don’t post it here for people who are only interested in making insults and derogatory remarks.

We were publicly told that Razorwax was formed to develop Darkfall from 2000, but it appears that Razorwax was also attempting to successfully enter into the online gambling / bingo service industry at the same time.

We where publicly told Razorwax had found a company, “Aventurine” to publish Darkfall in late 2002, and that development would continue in Greece full time by all the developers and staff originally at Razorwax.

What have I found?, proof that Razorwax never “merged” with Aventurine, it continued to be owned and run by the developers and producers as some form of online gambling/ bingo company that was a complete failure and was declared bankrupt in 2006, after numerous auditing irregularities, changes of address and board members and chairman changes, all very dubious and dishonest in my opinion.

It appears that the same people involved with starting Razorwax in 2000 and who were its owners and directors are the same people who where involved in starting a new company called Aventurine in October 2002 who are also some of its owner and directors.

Is Aventurine being run in similar ways to the now bankrupt Razorwax, is Aventurine interested in other business other then developing Darkfall like Razorwax’s was attempting an online bingo service, has Aventurine ever been successful at this other business interests unlike Razorwax and is Aventurine finally also going to be declared bankrupt like Razorwax?

Plus did you ever for a minute come to the most likely conclusion that they changed their CV to stop insane internet stalkers from misconstruing information.  You hop from amiture conclusion to amiture off bad translations and shobby thinking.

Nope, because they changed their CV’s after I posted them here, not before, and all the other circumstantial and correlative evidence that indicates all or most of the lead developers / producers of Darkfall and owners of Razorwax/ Aventurine have little to no previous experience in game development.

And are you seriously suggesting people like Claus Grovdal, Lead disigner / producer / CEO and creator of Darkfall listed things like being editors of gaming magazines and 3 month strategic consultant positions but not any actual game development experience?

Are you seriously suggesting all the lead developers and producers of this project decided not to mention any previous experience in the game industry on all their CV’s including and all other previous disclosures?

Besides who is this Jade Mehdawi.  He is the executive producer with aventurine and 50% owner of razorwax.

Hopefully we will find out, he was obviously a significant investor and owner of Razorwax, and he appears to be a significant investor and part owner of Aventurine along with other members of the development team and owners of Razorwax that are also owners and investors in Aventurine.