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

Anyway, I realise we have to work on ours. Some of the comments made here sort of put Power Racing next to Bigfoot, Shangri-La, El Dorado, Nessie and other believe-it-when-I-see-it objects of our imagination of belief.

However, Power Racing is very much less mythological. I’d say it’s about one hundred percent real.

The reason you haven’t heard from me (or anyone else on the team) in ages is this: we’re constantly working on building the game. And I mean CONSTANTLY, all day, every day, all the time. Believe me, the game is there and it will be released. At this stage there’s a huge amount of time spent on meetings, planning, estimation, retrospections and what have you. I know the guys on the team much rather just get to work, get the code written, the problems solved, the details nailed… bascially do their job. Still they need to put quite a lot of effort into the plan-and-design-process, to come up with some preliminary scope and dates. And if I wasn’t there myself I would never believe how difficult it is and how long it takes.

There are several reasons we haven’t been communicating more regarding release dates, development status etc.

One is uncertainty. We can’t be sure exactly what to release on a certain date. Either the scope or the date has to be flexible. We can’t make any promises, we can just provide estimates based on reality so far.

Another is politics, or marketing strategies. When would be the best time to release this game? Why? How? Business, pure and simple, which is not my cup of tea and someone else’s decision to make.

As this game, product, is being built from scratch we face problems that we don’t have to deal with in Power Soccer. The children’s diseases that only strikes while you’re young. Growing pains, if you’d like. Power Racing doesn’t exist as a product yet, but the game itself does. The people working on it are extremely dedicated and passionate about this becoming the best online racing game ever. This means having opinions on design, how features should be implemented, what solutions would be the best… Discussions and decisions. An entire game has to be thought through, nothing left out. The product managers have to tell us enough but not too much.

Information is a tricky thing. If you have too much it limits you and restrain the creative process. If you don’t have enough you can’t really move forward either.

So, in trying to get the right game out in as short amount of time as possible, we’re walking a thin line that takes us from our product manager’s vision, the producer’s interpretation of it and the developer’s final creation.

And as always I ended up lightyears from the initial subject: is Power Racing just a PR stunt? No people, it’s very much real, happening and coming your way.

It would be nice to show you some new screenshots or an in-game video or something soon. And I know the team would really like to show you our work in progress as well. It’s just a matter of time. So, let’s see shall we, if I can get one of the guys to put together some PR pics or videos soon. But - no promises, just my most sincere intentions.

Do what George Michael would have done, have some faith…

Sincerely yours

/ Linda

Completely forgot to tell you, we had our weekly demo yesterday (part of the sprint review: demo, retrospective and impediment backlog) where everyone (external stakeholders, other teams etc) gets to see what’s been worked on during the sprint. Or rather, what’s been worked on and finished = what stories are “done done”. Done done means, according to our definition of done, that the code is deployed to next release environment, comitted to sprint branch, tested and bug free and we’ve not added to the technical dept.

So, there’s been much sound work done lately. As you know we’re working with the Supernaturally Talented guys at Pole Position. Erik and Bernard are working hard to get the tools and program adjusted, tuned and just like Pole want them to be. And at yesterday’s demo  we could “show” some new sounds! Updated curbs, environment and transmission sounds if I’m not mistaking. And there are plenty more to come during the next couple of months.

One don’t always realize the importance of sound, until it’s removed. Sound has a magical impact on our perception of presence. Add that wind, vague noice from the gravel or curbs etc etc and suddenly you’re THERE. You’re actually in the car, on the track, going like a billion km per hour hopefully in the wrong direction (adds that extra sense of recklessness that is SO much fun)

Whether it’s environmental sounds or music, it’s superior when it comes to adding nerve, atmosphere and …well presence. Imagine that tear filled ending in any rom com without the violins, the stabbings in Psycho with the sound muted, Silent Hill with a mix-tape soundtrack consisting of all the greatest hits by Vanilla Ice, 2 Unlimited, Britney Spears and Ace of Base… it simply wouldn’t be the same.

Sound matters. And to sort of prove my point I activate the classic Powerslave album, anno 1984, now transformed into a spotify playlist. I couldn’t be happier if I was twins. 

I changed my desktop background last week, back to one of my favourite pictures of Azumi.

I’ve said it before but I say it again - there’s nothing like a girl with a sword. I know it’s close-to-pathetic and so typical, but still…gives me goose bumps. I’m a sucker for kung fu. Badly. Haven’t seen all the Hong Kong classics, but a good fighting sequence in any movie almost bring tears to my eyes.

Why is that? Why am I so impressed with people having almost extraordinary superhuman abilites? People being more than the average person, when it comes to self control and physical skill? Maybe it comes from being that only girl in school who weren’t the slightest bit talented when it came to gymnastics, not so comfortable jumping over things, running… well, moving in any way that resembles being atheletic. So there I am, daydreaming away, pretending to be so much more than an average, quiet reading normal person. Imagine having all that strength and skill and agility…making a difference… Cute and naive, isn’t it?

So, this morning Magnus asked me if I’d watched the Ninjai cartoons? No - totally missed that one. So I checked the first four episodes out, played the first game and I’m hooked. Love it. A  bit like Saladfingers

(the http://www.fat-pie.com address was broken at the moment) meets Beatrix Kiddo.

Beside ninjas and kung fu masters I’m in the mood for vampires. They’re just everywhere right now! We seem to be in the middle of some kind vampire frenzy. Is it just the same old, same old or are people actually renewing and altering the myth?

I still haven’t tucked in to the new HBO series True Blood. There’s a Swedish movie out called Låt den rätte komma in - in English it would be something like “Let The Right/True (One) Enter”. It’s based on a book that was published a few years ago. Vampires in Stockholm… Could be interesting. And the new movie Twilight, apparently a next-to-Harry Potter-like success in America. Based on a novel by Stephenie meyer it has now hit the screens all over the world. The age restriction, 15, has been the subject of some outrage in Sweden. Twilights main target group seem to be teenage girls (or women, in touch with their younger self) from age 12-13. We can only imagine the amount of seriously disappointed girls in Sweden this December.

Sipwell asked for some Kodak moments to be posted on the blog. I told him it’s like - 5 degrees, semi storm and a light snow fall. That put some weird visions in to his head of the entire staff throwing snow balls, Pow in his sled, me with rosy frozen cheeks… We’ll see what I can come up with. In any case there will be some fundamentally amusing pictures after the office Christmas party taking place in a couple of weeks.

Now we have a meeting with Tomas Dunard, our latest addition and proud Product Manager of Power Racing. Very interesting. The vision, the release plan etc etc. So who knows, we just might have ourselves a release date any time soon!

Later!

// Linda

No no no - I’m not gonna announce the release date. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. No. You have to wait a while longer.

But I have fantastic news. We have a new Product Manager! A very talented and dedicated person who’s gonna be in charge of setting, and maintaining, the vision of the game. Scoping, prioritizing, high level design… Basically being Power Racing’s dad. From a Product Managers perspective he’ll point out the direction and I’ll try to keep the team moving that way, avoiding the every day obsticles of game development.

And who is he, you ask? Well, let me introduce… (drum roll) Tomas Dunard! 

Isn’t there a certain…je ne sais quoi, just oozing around him? A certain air of divinity, one could say.

Tomas has been in the company for some time but has very recently (like…yesterday) taken over the PM role for Power Racing. I’m very glad to have him on board and I think Tomas is going to do a great job with Power Racing.

Welcome to the family!

“And we’re live!” - Michael just shouted. Today’s testing is over but the over all work is not. We still got plenty to do I guess.

As you’re about to find out if you go to Power Soccer, there have been some updates and rather severe changes made. New cup funcionality, clan pages and more. Take a look.

And when you’re sort of doing fifteen things at once, trying to keep track of those test cases, keeping five skype conversations alive at the same time, booking hotel rooms for people going to Stockholm tomorrow, having release meetings and… well, you need those Post-It’s…

Let me give you a quick glance of the view from where I sit:

my desk ——>

<—– my co-workers (dodgy dungeon-like atmosphere, is it not?)

Mattias’ personal to do-list  —->

Ok I’m outie. It’s Laura’s birthday and I feel the pressure to be a sort of decent parent and actually cook for once. Pizza, of course.

Happy release everyone!

// Linda

There was a new version of Power Soccer released yesterday. Normally, if you work here you can’t miss when there’s a release around the corne. The pace is far from sustainable - it’s frantic.

And that’s the number one weird thing - yesterday it was…calm. Quiet. I would say that instead of despair and grief the general mood was optimistic and cheerful.

We’ve gradually improved the process, workflow, during the last six months and I think we’re actually getting somewhere. Production- and otherwise. Meetings, checklists, teamwork, testing…it’s all beginning to come together. This has probably helped a lot with keeping people out of the stressloop.

As always- more can be done. We can get even better with our planning and estimating, stop lying to ourselves and everyone else with how much work that can be done within a sprint, we can probably improve how we communicate with our users and hundreds of other things. But still - it was a good release and I’m very proud of everyone here who’s worked hard to make it so.

I read some of the posts in the PS forum yesterday and, as always, most of them basically said “bring the old version back”. I spoke to Thorbjörn (Powdersnow, a legend in PS and now part of the crew) about it, just checking if this was normal procedure and guess what? It is. It’s like this after every release. So I’m very curious to see what the buzz in the forum will be like during the next week or so. If our users will be able to rise above the fact that we changed some of the things they were used to and try to accept, embrace and enjoy the improvements.

Because, as we all know, us humans are creatures of habit. We like to know exactly what to expect, be in control. Change can be really hard getting used to.

Hey there all our dear Power Soccer fanatics! How’s the summer been so far? Stayed out of the sunshine, staying indoors to play PS? Well, good for you! You can always get a fake tan from a bottle, but you can’t stay ahead in the game if you don’t play - right?

Kidding aside, hope you had a good time on the summer holidays with a healthy mix of outdoor activities and some gaming as well.

This is my last day of freedom, tomorrow I’m back at work and you know what? I’m actually looking forward to it. Yes it’s true. I even made a quick stop at the office on Thursday (ok, so I went there to get my computer fixed - it somehow died while I was on holiday - but still…).

I’m slightly out of the loop with what’s going on in PS at the moment, but I know it’s Beta testing time and I truly hope you’ve all taken the chance to trying some of the new stuff out. If not - hurry hurry! Soon it’s live release time and business as usual. But in a brand new way. You know what I mean.

Seeing you all next week, with an updated version of the game and a “just-got-back-from-the-holiday”-refreshed mind.

// Linda

As some of you already know, we’re heading for a new release. In a few weeks time (unless all of our web developers run of to Mallorca or the ozon layer suddenly vanishes or the internet dies or…)there will be some serious updates to Power Soccer, with a bunch of new features, improvements and fixes.

And as always, we think of you when we build this stuff. Yes it’s true! When you have a level 99 guy working at the office, there’s no such thing as messing with the users/players, not listening to what they have to say. So, even if takes a day or three to get used to things, we really hope you’re gonna enjoy the new version.

Curious? Dying to find out?

Can’t tell you much more at this point, but there will be some news on the site any day soon. There’s a certain pre-launch excitement in the air. Can you feel it?

Stuff that’s not supposed to happen always happen. Murphy’s law and all that. The “impossible” suddenly becomes “most likely” when you’re close to a deadline. But still… I really do think this will be our best release so far.

With best wishes for a holiday filled with sun (I’m off for four weeks!) and a new Power Soccer version filled with happy players

// Linda