Spiral Knights - This might have been addressed before, but I'm curious

This might have been addressed before, but I'm curious

6 replies [Last post]

Fri, 09/16/2016 - 11:40

Umbra-Lunatis

So, due to the transfer, Grey Havens LLC is now in full control of Spiral Knights.
But what exactly is Grey Havens?
I see that it's not-for-profit, so I'm supposing that anyone that still works on SK has another job besides. I would imagine it doesn't take too much money to run the game servers seeing as how promo boxes have been drastically reduced in frequency.

If GH is indeed a volunteer/minimal pay organization, how exactly would someone go about offering their assistance as a sort of contracted-volunteer?

Just musings. I'm not clear on any of this.

Fri, 09/16/2016 - 11:50

Bopp

surprisingly, I agree

People have offered. I understand why Grey Havens wouldn't be interested. A programmer has negative value if s/he isn't serious, disciplined, and skilled. But I suspect that there is at least one serious and interested programmer or artist in the player base.

Without being privy to the details, I propose that Grey Havens make Spiral Knights entirely open-source on something like GitHub. Then they exert control over the edits that get committed into the active code base. And they continue to receive the payments that keep the servers running, and keep whatever's left over for themselves.

Fri, 09/16/2016 - 12:14

Cronus

Game Master

Grey Havens

Grey Havens is simply the name of the company that former Three Rings employees formed to run our games. It looks like you're reading too much into it being a LLC company.

For obvious reasons we are not going to go into detail regarding the structure of our company, our profits, or how much money people make, etc. I can say we are a small band of very capable people committed to these games.

While we appreciate people's interest, we are not currently hiring or looking for volunteers. If/when we do need additional help we will post on the forums letting folks know. You're welcome to contact us via email if you'd like to indicate your interest to help at some point in the future.

Fri, 09/16/2016 - 12:24

Fangel

Well let's see

Non-profits, for the most part, are actually just a specific type of business. In the case of Grey Havens, their "mission statement" is the only bit of text on their website.

Here it is for those of you who don't want to look for it:

to keep them operational for as long as we can.

Emphasis is mine. Essentially, instead of being in the business for profit, their goal is to keep all the games created by Three Rings up and functional as long as they can. As it turns out, players leaving a game due to a lack of content will go directly against their mission statement, so new content and promotions are critical to their goal. It's why we continue to see updates since the acquisition.

Working for a non-profit organization is still a job, whether part-time or full-time. If they think it's necessary to hire more members for their team I'm sure we'll hear about it. :)

EDIT: Cronus you ninja'd me. Now I'm only about 60% as helpful. :(

Fri, 09/16/2016 - 12:52

Bernston

Hmm...

Does that include doing storyboards & storyboard animatics for cutscenes, in & out of game, like how it was with the intro cutscene, E.G., & custom cutscene animations? I figure they're what build the scenes to make them into in-game form. Don't know if GH has at least a few or at least one on board. Still, I'm just only saying, Cronus. Not that I'm interested in it or something like it, but there are those who are.

Well, I had, & may have, a hunch that the later new missions may require these to keep building & adhering to the coherent storyline the game has, even if there are very little that do.

I'm musing on this inclusion, too, you know.

Sat, 09/17/2016 - 20:24

Dats-Mah-Boi

Honestly, working on this

Honestly, working on this game as a hobby would be pretty awesome. I'd definitely sign up for such a position were the opportunity to present itself, though they'd probably deny me since I am quite the a#%hole on the forums. I do like the description of the people working in GH.

Cronus, I vote you guys/gals ditch the other games so we can get more focus on SK. There is no other game like it, and you guys know it has serious potential. Imagine SK with 10x as many levels just as intricate as those slime starlight levels.....even bigger bosses that would make vanaduke looke like a miniboss, or more complex ones that would make roarmulus look basic. Puzzley like Zelda, massively intricate like Dank Souls, playful like Pokemon....ahh, the dreams.

Tue, 09/20/2016 - 06:01

Umbra-Lunatis

That clears things up.

I'm less in the dark on how the GH servers are up, then. Though-and this doesn't need an answer due to privacy policy-I am confused on the importance of promo boxes to employee profits.

Concerning potential future employment opportunities, I get the sense that location might be a huge impact on whether or not people will want to work for GH. For example, if I wanted to live in an area with a lower spending margin, no crazy restrictions on firearms, etc, I probably wouldn't choose to settle down in San Francisco or even California.

If telecommuting to that type of job were possible, it would open up a lot of opportunities for people who don't have the chance to visit the main HQ every work day.

Just musings. Thanks for the clearing-ups, Fangel and Cronus

Search

This might have been addressed before, but I'm curious