I won’t even try to remember when I last blogged. Well I know this - it’s been too long!

Feel the urge to write something, reconnect with all of you. The marvelous PS community…

Maybe this first in a million years blog post ought to be something extraordinary. Well, guess what. It won’t. If I don’t just post s-o-m-e-t-h-i-n-g today, now, I might never ever get around to do it. So here it goes.

Funny thing number one: Courage Wolf. Self explanatory. Hilarious. Not always tasteful, but always powerful.

Funny thing number two: discussing computer games with 30 + something mothers with no interest whatsoever in technology and games. Spent my lunch hour yesterday doing just that, and … it’s just the best. Talking, debating, questioning… love it! And I think I might have talked her into at least trying to sit down with her daughter when she plays, and she might think twice next time she’s on the verge of saying “no, you can’t play anymore. why don’t you sit down and read a book or watch a movie instead?”

So, that was all for today. I’m going to leave you now, with a touch of courage…

Peace & fangs

// Shaolinda

WAPCP. Not as cool as WASP, I know, but still.

Thorbjörn a.k.a. Powdersnow - or Powsterboy - came up with the brilliant idea of a Power Challenge crew presentation thred!

Because let’s face it. Not all crew members are as hooked on going on and on and on about themselves as I am. Well, noone, actually, except maybe Powdersnow himself. (and Sipwell, but although he’s our prime time all star philosopher, he’s still not “crew” as such. plus everyone already know who he is)

So for those of you who have been reading the blog and desperately wanted me to shut up, and let the others speak - today is your lucky day! An entire thread filled with PC crew information and personal details…

Enjoy!

p.s. if anyone manages to solve the 2 cats-mystery…please let me know!

It strikes me ever so often: I love my job. I feel genuinly happy coming in to the office, seeing the people, the weird drawings, pictures, messages everywhere (we sort of collect those and tape them to walls and desks), my best friend: the coffee machine, the small talk, the news, the community, the games. It feels like home.

Today’s release made me feel more proud than ever working at Power Challenge. And it’s not so much to do with the graphics or AI, goalkeeper improvements or career mode.

It’s all about the people.

The ones I work with every day, as well as the ones out there: our fabulous community.

I think it’s safe to say this was our best update and most spectacular release so far - and that’s great. But even greater is how unbelievably fantastic I feel when I’m surrounded by the Power Challenge People, all helping out, pulling together. Friends and colleagues, as Patrick would have put it.

Do I sound religious? That’s ok. Who wouldn’t be a believer on a day like this?

/ Linda - more coffee heading her way

People. If you’re trying to log on to the site right about now, you’ll see something completely different - and need I point out fabulous/gleaming/fresh/stunning/beautiful/superb - from what you’ve ever seen on Power Soccer before.

The biggest update ever is taking place at this very moment. If you were here, at the office, you’d feel the excitement in the air. Exhausted but optimistic game developers everywhere, whos bodies are filled with  Management by Milkshake milkshakes, code around the clock coffee and please-stay-awake-cake. Everyone has done everything within their power to make this a successful release, to make this the biggest day yet in the history of Power Soccer.

So stay tuned. It’s going to be a great day.

/ shaolinda, heading for another cup of coffee

So, this is sort of an official statement, regarding Power Racing. I know for a fact that Pow is getting the same news out on the site as well.

Here we go:

Power Soccer and ManagerZone are growing fast, and we’re working hard to develop them in the right direction, with the right focus and engagement. Our games are in many aspects community driven, and lately we’ve been more and more aware that we need to improve the relations with our users as well as the quality of our games to meet your expectations. It’s important that we remain true to our core values. This means we need to back things up a bit, refocus, reassess our already existing games and make them as stunning and enjoyable as we all want them to be. Before building, releasing, maintaining, supporting yet another game we want to make sure the ones we already have stand on a solid ground.

In order to achieve that, we’ve had to take a second look at our priorities. We have reached the conclusion to put Power Racing on hold and to move all our resources over to ManagerZone and Power Soccer. This does not mean we’re not going to develop Power Racing, it just means that we have other things to do first. Power Racing is still very much alive for us, and it is our every intention to release it when the time comes.

What will happen now? All our efforts will go towards developing our already existing games until they match the visions we have for them. Some brand new features that will bring the different elements of the games together, improving the gaming experience even more. Improvements that we hope will take Power Challenge as a company, and its games, to the next level.

Not the kind of news I’d like to post, but then again, it’s all about making the best decisions and games we possibly can. I guess good gamedevelopers sometimes have to be the bringer of bad news

See you out there.

/ Linda, still in the office

The Powerchallenge company is wide in its offers. Not only can you play football in the magnificent Powersoccer, you can actually coach a team in its sister game Managerzone. It is a pity there isn’t a certain overlap, but I guess it is hard to put into practice. The organisation of such a combination probably is something for a distant future, as I am pretty sure it has been discussed frequently by the fantastic crew.

As a respectable Powersoccer player, I had to have a Managerzone account too. My success rate in Managerzone is fairly limited. I am stuck in the before-last division for 2 seasons in a row now and I don’t think I will be moving upwards in the coming decade. Still, we have hope. I seem to win more and more matches and my team seems to be developing well, according to all the –  I must say – brilliant MZ tools you have at your disposal. I am always stunned to see that our Swedish crew seems to be able to create a community feeling where people are volunteering to do a lot of work and extras and to actually share that with the community at large. I personally was bribed by Powdersnow as he offered me a two weeks full pension in Linköping, an offer I accepted but am unsure of now whether I should actually go  (it is rather cold there and Saab seems to go bankrupt anyways, so what is there to do?).

Why do I talk about Managerzone if I am a full blown Powersoccer dude. Well, because something struck me this morning, as I read the game report of a friendly match:

Managerzone crew gives us life lessons! If you make a mistake, shake hands as to apologize yourself and see the apologies accepted! That way life will be easier and much more enjoyable for everyone!

This message was secretly hidden in a for me unimportant game report, just like we see secret messages from commercial companies in their ads. Remember the movie ‘Fight Club’ where Brad Pitt edits movies and adds a male tinkle to family movies? Coca Cola did the same just before the half time break as to subconsciously influence people to buy a bottle of Coca Cola. And our dearest crew does it too! Important life lessons are not the core of their message and are not billboarded on the pages of Managerzone so we would certainly NOT take them into account. No, they are secretly hidden and invade us subconsciously. I was already wondering why I was shaking hands and apologizing myself all the time today. Now I found out!  Not only is the crew responsible for a large sets of highly enjoyable games, it throws in life lessons for free! Is there anything more we can ask from them?

We (Magnus, myself, Marcus, Jonas and Michael and at times of despair: Niklas, who proved to be have the far best understanding of the project tool from hell) have been more or less locked in the conference room for three days, trying to pinpoint the entire Power Challenge development for the next 8 months or so. It might sound like a walk in the park but no, it’s a bit trickier than that.

1. What needs to be done? 2. How long will this take? 3. What resources are needed for those tasks? 4. What resources do we actually have? 5. What can be outsourced?  6. What is top priority? 7. Where are the dependencies?

Many boxes, colours, menues, lines, arrows, sweets, nuts and changes later we seem to have it all sort of organized and under control. Or so we like to believe. We’ve done the three point estimation; best, worst and most likely outcome of the project/task. We’ve put little flags next to the features that are most suitable for outsourcing. We stared at the numbers in disbelief, sighed, laughed and drank innumerable cups of coffee.

But know, finally, we have a starting point and rather detailed knowledge of what is happening with the games during the rest of the year.

And now Easter is coming up. I truly love my work but I’m very much looking forward to a few days off… and eating some of this:

…that’s been hidden somewhere in the garden by one of these..:

So, have a nice & merry easter everyone. And make sure you watch out for any bunny looking like this:

See you!

/ L

p.s. I don’t really despise MS Project as much as it may sound like…I just suck at it a bit too much. Have to get to know it better.

So the latest news is out (btw - would you say “news” in this context is plural or singular? tricky.) Power Challenge has a new CEO.

Frank Sagnier, previously with Double Fusion and EA amongst others, comes into the company with great experience from the games industry.

“I’m very excited with the Power Challenge opportunity,” said Mr. Sagnier. “We have a very unique, high-quality in browser soccer game, a number of amazing partnerships such FOX Sports, Miniclip and Spill Group, all contributing to a fast growing consumer base and revenues coming from a mix of subscriptions, item sales and advertising.”

this is Frank —–>

We’ve only known him for a couple of weeks, but everyone at Power Challenge feel that he’s the right person to bring the company forward. With Frank in charge we’re getting closer by the minute to making the dream come true… complete and utter world domination!

Kidding (?) aside, we’re all very happy about Frank joining us. These are very exciting times and we’re looking forward to being guided by Frank’s wisdom, absorbing some of his great knowledge of the online gaming universe we call home.