New community manager

[Hellfire_WZ]

Hi all

R8 have appointed a new community manager today and will be resuming regular communication through their official forums. They will be hosting an AMA running from now until this time tomorrow, so if you have any questions for the team now's a good time to ask. Anyone on the TPP program or Kickstarter will also start receiving regular test builds again soon, and they are once again addressing problems with faulty or missing Steam keys

[blackwiggle]

I only just saw this post, and haven't visited the FF forum for ages, as there seems little point, at least until a new game update.

Pity now they have sufficient funding that they couldn't get Varsh back, but I suppose after still being in the process of moving house for the then new job as forum admin, and then shortly after finding himself being made redundant, he would understandably rather not have any more dealings with R8.....plus being the one tasked with sorting out the missing Steam keys, and other problems with people not being able to get updates if they had both a TTP and Kickstarter status would be a absolute nightmare.
I hope the new forum admin knows what they have got themselves into.....not a position I would envy.

[Varsh]

Hi guys, just want to say that it's nice that people have been thinking about me since I left at the end of August. With the recent move to Middlesbrough I had to foresee to the end of my tenancy contract (cheaper than moving away immediately afterwards) so in that time, while bolstering more to my portfolio R8 was still the only opportunity I had for an immediate job opportunity, but I can't go into the ins and outs of it.

I still want to work on the game and the website and if I get the chance then I'll snap it up - the website I have already done a lot to it from the core systems to the site design and features, but as they were in the testing phase they never got put into effect except for the initial quick "team creator" plugin I made for the website. Hopefully I will get the chance to complete what I started but at the present time I can't do anything.

I ran Peter through all of the stuff I did in regards to the Kickstarter, TPP, and more so hopefully he's getting along fine with that now. There are many things he will have to start from scratch though which will put him back a fair bit but as I wasn't even asked back to sort this all out then... yeah.

Granted I was unbelievably pissed off (and still am) at having to move 400 miles and then another 400 miles back after 6 months wasn't what I call a pleasant experience (I moved back only 1 week ago), I still want to see this game through to fruition. Personally I want to still work on the game itself but if I find a job before I get that chance then too late.

If anyone wanted to see a rough idea of what the website I had in plan looked like then I don't mind showing it to you. Nothing is owned by R8 as I did them on my own PC at home including some of the tracks I had planned for the game.

[il_mago_di_Doz]

Hi Varsh, I'd love to see what you intended to do for the website and the tracks!
I think they made a huge mistake firing you, and many of us from the FF Forum really miss you and your work.
Peter seems a nice guy, but you made an awesome job with the site and the communication with the players, maybe some day R8 Games will realize that the community manager is one of the most important employee inside a community-funded game company.

I truly hope that you'll be involved again in the development, because at the moment the perception of the company and of the game has gone down the toilet, and the last (long-long-waited) update of the game didn't change that perception inside the FF Forum and the steam communities.
Those three and a half months without any communication really pissed many people off... and the game hasn't improved that much either, we really need a miracle

[MrFisty]

Hi everyone,
I appreciate everyone's frustrations but I feel I must clarify some things surrounding the situation with Varsh and where we find ourselves today. Firstly, Varsh was not fired. We had to let a few people go so we could keep the project running with people that were seen as critical to its development, at a time when funds were very tight. As said before, we went through a dark patch that needed a 're-boot' of the studio and we now find ourselves very much back on track - although I understand we need to make much more noise now.
The track design side of the game is in very safe hands and I look forward to showing you progress next month - I'm personally very excited over this area.
The website will have an overhaul when the time is right. Our priority, and rightly so, is spending the money we have on the quality of the game and coming good on the promises we made. There will be more frequent updates now so you see much more progress (starting first thing in the New Year) and our community manager will engage with you every step of the way, I promise you that. I wish Varsh all the luck in the world and thank him for the CM work he did but my pressure is to make sure the project succeeds in all areas and since the speed bump we hit we are starting to pick ourselves up again. That will mean much more engagement with ALL community channels including WO zone, which is where the project first started.

Very best Xmas wishes and a happy New Year,
Andrew

[Varsh]

Well I wasn't going to mention anything but I guess Andrew did instead :P. There wasn't a need to say anything tbh, I would've cleared that up for you and they all knew the financial situation anyway. ;)

Indeed I was let go and not fired as my contract was never extended (due to the money situation) so I do want to let people know that I can confirm that. But this isn't really why I posted in here - it was just purely for a thank you and where I am now.

Anyway I'll make a separate thread in the next day or two to show what I was going to do and what I had planned. Would be interesting to see what you all thought on them.