Alganon: Data Developer Dev Diary
Quest Online Jr. Data Developer Taylor Nichols writes this journal letting us know a little bit more about his job and a few of the elements of the upcoming MMO Alganon.
Hello everyone! My name is Taylor Nichols and I am one of the Jr. Data Developers here at Quest Online. What does a Jr. Data Developer do? In short, I am responsible for creating and implementing data that the player will come in contact with while out in the wilds of Alganon. My specific focus is quest structure and organization, NPC placement, and monster data and spawning. I also create and update all of the living documents that the data team will use as they add quest content to new areas.
Remember that line "someone has a case of the Mondays"? You'll never hear it coming from me! My week starts with a whirlwind brainstorming session where the data team starts laying out the stories and quests for a new area of Alganon. Gathering all of the data that these quests will depend on is a large part of my role, so I spend a lot of time documenting all of our ideas. Our design team has a tremendously varied background when it comes to MMOGs and as our designs mature we always look back to make sure that we are creating fun content that we would like to play.
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Quest content is a large part of my job and is something that all players of Alganon are going to be interacting with. With that in mind, we are working hard to pack as much content into the Alganon universe as we possibly can. The world is absolutely littered with quest givers that want to share all kinds of stories about the history of Alganon and your place in it. We have large quest hubs where players will naturally congregate, as well as hundreds of quest opportunities off the beaten path that are just waiting to be discovered by some lonely adventurer.
When I am not spending time with my nose buried in Word documents, I also have the opportunity to create the creature data. Alganon is going to have some beasts that you may never expect, and they are ready to offer some interesting challenges. Every domain has a number of unique monsters. Each of these creatures has been carefully tailored to display their own personalities. For me, it is a great success when a player can approach a spawn and immediately start breaking down the core elements and finding a solution.
You may have seen our recent 'Creature Feature' articles, and the update to that series, 'Scribe Myra's Creature Encounters', as some of the ways we are bringing to the community more Alganon history & lore, statistics, and other important information. You will want to know about these things now, as the chance for you to join the beta and play Alganon comes closer every day. You can be sure that I will be doing my best to fill out quests in a way that is exciting and entertaining, especially when it involves creatures and other content already discussed.
I hope that explains a little bit about my part here at Quest Online and my work with Alganon. In the future, I hope I can bring you more updates about the work that is going on behind the scenes. As always, I love reading the comments and suggestions in the community forums and discussions here at MMORPG. I hope all of you will continue to give us feedback!
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