Hello all this is Robert speaking, newly appointed CEO of Expansive Worlds taking over after Stefan.
In case you didn’t know, I have been on the team for some time already, since december 2011 to be exact, as responsible for our web, server and game engine development. During this time I have been working very close with Stefan, and as sad as it is that he has left us I am at the same time very excited about taking his seat. Plenty has happened already since I first got here, still it feels like we have just begun. I for one have tons of ideas – and so does the rest of the team – and we have lots of great new things in the pipeline for you. I strongly believe that now and going forward will be the most interesting time yet for theHunter.

Now this is a Dev Blog entry so lets get a bit more personal. I have been pretty much flying under the radar until now, in terms of being active publicly in the forum, and I think most of you haven’t really had the chance to get to know me. Daniel started a thread in the forum a couple of days ago asking what you would like us to write about, and what you would like to know about us and what we do. I like that idea and figured some Q&A’s would be a good way for you to get to know me a bit better. Below are some of the questions from the thread and answers from my point of view.

Q: Where do you see the future of The Hunter going?
A: I see theHunter growing its user base, as well as growing in terms of content and features, to truly become the best and biggest online hunting game there is.

Q: Do you play the game?
A: It depends on how you see it. I don’t play much on live, but I do enjoy it a lot the times I do. However, developing a game obviously involves a lot of testing, which means most of us do play a lot, just not on live and perhaps not always the way you normally play the game. Sometimes we all play at the same time in the office to test and play around with new features. Also when we change to a new season most of us play, because that’s the only time its even slightly possible to make it in the leader board, even if its just for a brief moment ;-).

Q: Are you active on the Forum?
A: Yes, we all are. I don’t post that much, and some post even less than I do, but we all read the forum and follow what’s being discussed. It’s a good and instant way to get feedback, and as an example we do catch a lot of bugs and problems through the forum.

Q: What’s the motivation to work as a developer for a hunting game
A: I did not join the team because its a hunting game, I joined because it was (and is) in many ways a very interesting and different project compared to other games. We utilize the web a lot, and much of the technology we use is very modern, even cutting-edge (in some areas), so for me coming from an IT/web-background rather than Gaming it was a perfect match.

Q: Post a picture of yourself
A: I suppose it’s fair to see who you are dealing with, check out my linkedin profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertarnesson

Q: How do you prioritize, and how do you deal with constantly changing priorities?
A: Prioritizing can sometimes be difficult as I always have more on my table than I can handle. Overall I try to follow a “lowest hanging fruit” type of strategy, which simply means to prioritize the things that will have the most impact in relation to the time needed. But sometimes you have to make time investments and break this strategy, and sometimes you might even prioritize something simply because its fun (and thus may be worth doing right away).

Q: What did you have for breakfast in the morning?
A: Every friday there is catered breakfast at the office. Other days there is always fruit, nuts, bread, müsli, and whatnot free for all (and great coffee too btw) so I usually don’t eat much breakfast at home, perhaps just a “knäckebröd” on the fly in the car.

Q: How long does it take to walk to work, and do you prefer walking or the bus?
A: I think I’m the one living closest to the office (approximately 4 km), yet I’m the only one driving to work. I love anything on 2 or 4 wheels

That’s all for now folks, happy hunting!

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This is the first post in our new blog which aim is to provide everyone with a modern, comprehensible and common source of information about the development and progress of theHunter. The good old “status updates” that a lot of you have been following will be a regular part of this, but our ambition is also to add a greater mix of news and articles shedding more light on the individual people working with theHunter and what they are doing in more detail.
The plan is to have our team members write things here on a regular basis, about anything they like being related to theHunter. Hopefully you will get a better idea of who we actually are as well as more details on what problems we might be struggling with at times. I imagine our Game Designer Björn writing about the complexity of certain game design elements. I could explain more in detail what an african environment would involve, and our programmers could give you a better idea of the complexity of their work.
Everything that is not official Company news, Status updates and details on patches and updates to the actual game should be of a more personal nature to bring a little nuance to our “moneymaking corporation venture” as it might sometimes appear to be to some, perhaps. To begin with the regular status updates will be posted here along with any other news, and we´ll also start adding the occasional “developer entry” and see what happens.

Comments and discussions here on the Blog will be disabled. Instead we invite you to our forums where discussions and our own developer input will go on as usual, and any new post here will be highlighted in the Latest News and Announcements section where you may comment our ramblings.
Hopefully this blog will turn out to be what we and you may hope for it to be, but like everything in any of our lives it will be a work in progress. We´re all looking forward to an interesting autumn at the office where quite a few things will be happening.

Happy hunting until next time!

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