Posted up on behalf of one of the greatest people I had the pleasure working alongside of:
To my colleagues, friends and everyone who has made the fabric of our community,
So as some of you may or may not be aware I have decided to hang up the Community Manager hat for the final time. It has not been an easy decision to make but one i feel more confident in now that i can look back at the fruits of our labour.
Contrary to many of our staff members I started out in this game community as a new player and became a CA before I was eventually offered the opportunity to join the team which is something I will always appreciate having done, and it is because of these moves I had forged far more friendships, developed more aspects of the game I love and surrounded myself with a community of creative, passionate, outspoken, philosophical and highly talented people.
Having done QA, visual design and animation for earlier game projects in the past, engaging myself with community management was a whole new beast and I can certainly say I’ve grown all the wiser in the years, especially having learned from case studies and real-time experience. Working to make a business succeed is hard work so as an Indy studio it is certainly much more the case. My passion was woven in with the Guns of Icarus project and having worked tirelessly over the years to help players solve problems, note suggestions, log bugs, cooperate in community events and develop player experiences the rollercoaster of duties has very much elevated my understanding of the player and developer perspectives in the industry.
Before I digress too much I wanted to get back on point in saying that my passion to see Guns of Icarus: Alliance, and the PS4 version, successfully launch has been realised and my work, having completed an extensive period of additional support, is complete to my personal satisfaction. I have done many of the tasks and milestones I was privileged enough to work towards and have gone as far as I could ever have managed in this area of game development. Every good adventure does have its conclusion and as such I will be passing on the torch. This game has truly touched the lives of more people than I can count, myself being no exception to this. So thank you for being amazing co-captains, friends and community members in these incredibly fruitful six years of airships and steampunk warfare.
tl;dr – Thanks for being awesome & see you all around!
Signing off,
Mikko (Ayetach)
Muse Games Community Manager