The last time I was 'splitting up' was when my -at that time- girlfriend, found pictures and love letters of my -at that time OTHER- girlfriend hidden in my nightstand next to my bed (what was I thinking?). The splitting up I am going to talk about in a minute, has nothing to do with 'The female kind' and/or my personal love life though. No, it is all work related. Just like a developers blog ought to be like. Right? Right!


With the new people we're bringing in (two, with another two hopefully following shortly), we manoeuvred ourselves in a very pleasant and luxurious position. We're goingt to split the team up and not in two -like we mentioned on our news pages earlier-, but most probably in three smaller teams.

At the moment Terrence is working on the latest bits of the Coolsky UHDT kit. Boy wonder (or is it choirboy?) Nicolas joins him, and already started reworking the wings. With the last couple of ERJ 2.0's almost out of the way, Leen is standing by to QC the first Coolsky's. Meet Team Une (pronounce with sexy French voice).

Team Zwei (quoting my personal hero Dylan Moran : "It sounds like tinfoil being eaten by a typewriter falling dawn the stairs") consists of Dave who -after he finishes the last couple of BA world tails for the ERJ 2.0- will  lead Spencer and Stefan and the CS757 UHDT kit to it's final brush strokes. Spencer is already pentoolin' his way thru the RB211's, while Stefan is working on the PW2000's..

Team Tres (say with sexy SPANISH voice this time), will consist of Dale, Misha and two yet to be announced members, who will  working with the other on the Level-D 767 UHDT kit...

In this new construction -which will not limit any of our artists or painters to one particular team- we can get as much done as possible, in the shortest amount of time. Especially since we will be releasing our textures in smaller amounts, and there's just so many people that can work on one project. I do expect some members shifting as we go along, as the teams are not split up in level of importance, but in projects of importance. Meaning Coolsky has the highest priority, with Captain Sim coming in at a good second and Level-D, well.. Level-D is 'just' a bonus. Cause let's be honest : Who does NOT love their 767?

Before I forget, make sure to check out our community pages. You will be able to join the groups of the above described developer projects, discuss, post comments, read bulletins and view screen shots. Also, our staff and support staff will try to keep you updated as much as possible on what they're up to... (usually no good).

It's been a busy week. In between the birthday 'gathering', I gave for my family (meeting my family is hardly what I call 'a Party', hence the 'gathering') and enjoying the sun,  I worked the entire weekend on our new social component. Of course, we are not only the first to implement such a component, but also the possibility to become a member, by using Facebook connect is a scoop.

Now, before I continue, let me explain to you what a social component is, and what it does on our website. The first answer is an easy one. Everybody knows Facebook, or Myspace. It is exactly that, but then smaller (obviously) and tailored to our needs specifically. What we are really proud of is not the fact that you can add pictures, join or create groups, post wall comments or even blogs (like this one!), participate in discussions, upload videos, tweet (yes! you can twitter via your profile) extend your network and private message your friends (or us). No, what we are mostly fond of is that by doing these things, you can earn points and these points can be used to get a discount (up to a 100%) in our (currently being developed) webstore.

What does that mean? Simple : You participate, you join discussions, upload vids and pictures, blog, post comments, expand your network and JUST by doing so, you chip off small (or big if you are a big participator) chunks of the price of our products. Another great thing is, that our community component will soon be integrated with our forum, meaning that even by participating there you earn points.

Nothing in life is free. Somebody always pays, may it be in time, effort or expertise. There for we can't give you our work for free, but what we can do, is ask YOU to invest time and effort and expertise, by helping your fellow Flight Simmer, by being active and a nice guy (or gal). You give us that, we give you free (or almost free) stuff.

The best of this all, is that if you have an account with Facebook (which 200 MILLION people (!!!) on our little globe have), there is not even a need to register. Again a first, we acknowledged the fact that multiple logins, multiple passwords, registration processes and activation emails are simply : A (super King Kong mayhem) bitch. There for we utilize 'Facebook connect' and with one click we pull your account from Facebook to our social component, meaning there's no need to go through a tedious registration and initial set-up process. Your Avatar, name, basically everything that your Facebook privacy settings allow us to, is automatically imported.

No hassle. Super easy, Super quick. Anyways, back to work, more on our system soon, in the mean time :  you can start earning points, so get to it!

Well,  I wouldn't know what to write. Firstly, cause I ain't no writer, and secondly : I is way too busy to spend time on (mostly) trying to write funny, interesting and catchy stuff. Besides, this is a developer's blog, so I can't simply go about and tell you that I got myself a new pair of sneakers, or how lame I felt the day after I drank too much (and how my girlfriend went 'na na na na naaa, I told you so' on my behind the next day). No, it has to be business related, I have to give you lot a peek in our 'kitchen', into our brilliantly creative minds, what we're up to, how we -McPhat Studios- are going to conquer the world (as a figure of speech, we'll leave the real deal to the Yanks)....

So as this truly is a pilot episode, I decided to introduce you to the people that will have the lead roles in this here 'play', starting off with me. Before I do that though ; to set the right atmosphere for the 'show', I would like to remind everyone of you, that we do actually run a business. We do delivery hundreds of texture sets a year. We do work with and for big and renowned developers. Most of us work 50, 60, 70 hours a week, 7 days a week. Our support staff and freelancers perhaps pull a little less hours, but still, in the end, although one would think this blog is a sitcom from time to time, it most certainly isn't.
Enough said about how serious (or seriously good) we are. Introduction time! My name is Terrence. This is my gig, my dojo, my baby. You touch, I kill. I live in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, conveniently also where the McPhat Studios offices are located. I'm not yet married, but living together with my better half, who (luckily) has nothing to do with art or design. Although supported by a very talented and highly skilful staff, in the end, I say if we go left or right. Within the projects, I decide whether or not something looks GOOD. Of course, our hound dog Leen de Jager also known as 'The pixel mover' (whom I will introduce in a later stage) -as our Quality Controller-, makes sure something looks RIGHT.

 

Two very different aspects. As I like things that look good, I am also the one in charge of the specular and normal maps of our FSX projects. Better yet, I have not made or touched a single diffuse map (paintjob) in over 8 months. The last time I made an actual paint is also the last time I spooled up the good ol' FS9, cause let's be honest :
If you like things that look good, why in heaven's name, ever, ever touch FS9 again?