Hey hunters,
Welcome to our last status update of 2015!
In this update we’re going to be looking back at the year gone by, and introducing new members of our team!
Let’s sum up 2015!
The year has been one of a kind in theHunter’s history. We’ve released a record number of reserves, species and game features, not counting minor pieces of content and fixes. It’s been a great, albeit occasionally bumpy, road and we are so grateful for your continued loyalty, ongoing support, participation in events, sharing of happy and angry posts in the forum and, in general, being the best gaming community out there. We appreciate you very much and we’re looking forward to spending 2016 together with you.
Here are some numbers for everything that has happened in 2015:
- New reserves – 2
- New species – 9
- New game features – 6
- New weapons – 15
- New pieces of equipment / scope / lures / consumables – 30
- New wearables (for a hunter & dog) – 57
- New missions – 131
- New competitions – 86
- Bugs fixed – 210+
- Special events – 10
- Community created competitions and prize draws – 44
- New people joined the community forums – 1 889 (+11%)
- Social media following increased – 20 261 (+33%)
- Supports tickets resolved – 14 209
- Player surveys created and replied to – 3
- Store Discounts / Sales / Bonus gifts / Special promotions– 70+
- Free species hunts – 6
- Open beta – 1
We’ve asked the community and the team about their personal highlights of 2015, and here are some of the answers (with Whiterime Ridge and dogs having won the polls in both camps):
IzDaPat – Community member
1) The quality of work EW’s ‘art department’ has put out. Most notably: fur (finally!), new animals in general, but especially the Bisons’ and Dogs’ 3D models, textures and animations, WRR’s level design and the models and textures of some of the new weapons, e.g. the Bouquetin.
2) The social aspect of the game: more awesome people in MP games and on the forum, established groups of friends to hunt with, great discussions and debates on the forum, lots of great ideas and suggestions, more & better community competitions.
Carl-Oscar Löhn – Client programmer
I loved the Labrador Retrievers, both as new content and as work experience. Working three programmers on the same thing is really fun.
MonStarHunting – Community member
New Crossbow and increasing weapon/animal achievements (blowing the dust of my parker python).
Xan Williams – Sound designer
Watching the live stream pre-release of Whiterime Ridge and seeing how much the players loved it.
Lawger – Community member
First, the bison. I love bovines, and I hope to see them on a temperate map as well. Second, the new ducks, because it was totally unexpected for me and it added a lot of much needed variation to water fowling on RB.
Hannes Rhodin – Producer
2015 has been a great year for us and I think we have proven not only to ourselves but also to our players that we can push theHunter into the future with new and existing content. The Labrador Retrievers and Whiterime Ridge are by far my favourite additions to the world of hunters…
And as I look into 2016, I can smell blood on a rocky road…
FR_Bugs – Community member
Summer fiesta model event based on missions with several difficulty levels and NT’s release and special missions about them.
Team update
And finally, onto some real life news. In the last couple of months the theHunter team has undergone a number of changes. Amongst the people who are currently working on theHunter you will recognize a bunch of old faces and see some new ones. You will miss a couple of our old colleagues since they have moved on to pastures new, but theHunter force is strong with our team and our passion to bring you an even better game experience is bubbling.
Here‘s the current theHunter team:
- Hannes Rhodin – Producer
- Daniel Jansson – Game Designer
- Philipp Strecker – Game Designer
- Daniel Gutierrez Gustafsson – Lead programmer
- Carl-Oscar Löhn – Client programmer
- Josef Sundberg – Client programmer
- Xan Williams – Sound designer
- Tomas Lif – 3D artist
- Sandra Parling – 3D artist
- Timo Väisänen – 3D artist
- Frida Thoren – 3D artist
- Markus Tuomi – 3D artist
- Calle Gustafsson – Backend programmer
- Emil Bjurström – Backend programmer
- Magnus Eckers – Frontend programmer
- Hampus Linton – Animator
- Dick Sjöström – Animator
- David Lucas – Support Manager
- Maria Fritzell – User Acquisition Manager
- Alena Rybik – Community Manager
Those of you who have been with us long enough have probably noticed that we have a few new team members. Frida Thoren and Timo Väisänen have joined our art team, Josef has strengthened the client programming team, Xan Williams has been working on the sounds and Maria Fritzell took on a new role within Expansive Worlds, user acquisition manager. Here are the intros of the three of them; say hi to the guys and make them feel warm and welcomed.
Maria
Hi, my name is Maria and I recently joined the Expansive Worlds team in Stockholm. My job is to try to get new players on board through different marketing activities. The more players we get the more resources we’ll have for further improvements of the game.
I’m originally from Gothenburg on the south west coast of Sweden. After having lived in a few different countries I have now moved back to Sweden and to the beautiful Stockholm. I have yet to explore the city and its surroundings properly, but I have been out in the archipelago where I am planning to spend more time next summer. Travelling is my passion and I’m always on the look-out for new destinations. One of the things I love about theHunter is the stunning scenery and visuals.
Timo
Hello there,
My name is Timo Väisänen and I’ve joined the team at Expansive Worlds as a graphics artist, building everything from weapons to animals and doing a lot of texture work.
I have been working at Avalanche Studios for over 10 years now, on projects like Just Cause, Mad Max and now for a time on theHunter.
I live in Stockholm and have lived here or around my whole life. I´ve been in the game development business since 1998 when I started as a graphics artist with Crytec that just started back then. We were a group of people from all over the world, working from home and submitting our work to a server in Germany. Only when they got their new offices in Coburg Germany I opted instead to start working at a Swedish company Paradox Entertainment on the games like Europa Universalis and Svea Rike.
My interests are music and playing the guitar. I’m into the Gibson Historics line of guitars and I’m kind of a nerd when it comes to all things guitar gear.
Josef
Greeting everyone!
I’m Josef Sundberg and I recently joined theHunter as a client programmer. As many others on this team I went to The Game Assembly and was in the same class with Danny, I remember we did a text adventure game about a janitor way back in our first year there.
I started at Avalanche Studios as an intern four years ago and have most recently been working on Mad Max as a gameplay programmer with the vehicle combat.
In my spare time I like to play video and board games with friends. I also enjoy watching sci-fi and fantasy tv-shows and reading fantasy novels. And I often go and play badminton with my coworkers.
That’s it from us for today. Please be aware that the team will be on vacations until January 7th 2016, so during that time communication will be scarce. See you all in 2016!
Happy hunting and happy holidays!
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