• Atronos -
• Avarem - Lead
• Avarem Gamescom Chat
• Bunnysaurus - Artist/Designer Interview
• - Dopesheet
• - Grumpntug
• - Khari
• Mr. E - Producer Interview
• Twixler Animator Interview

Can you introduce yourself and your position?

Howdy! I am Ellery Jones, or sometimes Mr. E, or sometimes GentlemanE (which I only very recently saw without capitalization for the first time, which made me realize I might, in fact, be a character from My Little Pony: Gentlemane). Or very rarely Joseph Ellery Ellery Joseph Jones (true story). Despite what it says at the top of this question sheet, I am in fact a Producer on Trove.

What responsibilities do you have as a Senior Content Designer Producer?

Probably 10% of my job right now involves content—which is what I used to do on other projects. Since transitioning into the role of Producer, however, my responsibilities include a list of things that would probably put you to sleep. The less boring aspects of my job include: standing on top of fires and screaming so that smart people can put them out, reaching out to players when we approve mod submissions, general troubleshooting (which sounds boring but is actually very fun), keeping notes for process improvements (that one also sounds boring), and keeping my head nice and shiny for when I appear on the livestream. 

How much of your job is working on your own compared to creating tasks for others?

Right now I’m like the task middleman, taking tasks from Avarem and distributing them to the team. But “middleman” doesn’t sound very romantic, so let’s instead refer to me as a task Robin Hood, stealing tasks from the rich and distributing them to the poor. Avarem is the rich. Everyone else is the poor.

Lately, this has been a small part of my job, but in an ideal world it would probably be 40%*.

* Or maybe not, I really have no idea what is ideal.

Do you have any other responsibilities not covered by your position title?

I am still discovering all of my responsibilities. “Producer” is a very fluid job title, and there are constantly new things that I need to be doing. So: yes! See my typical day for a slightly more in depth look at these things.

How long have you worked for Trion and how did you get started?

I started at Trion in 2009 as a Senior Designer. I got started in the industry in 2004 doing Quality Assurance work. From 2005 until earlier this year, I did design work. This is my first stint as a Producer.

I got started in the industry by being lucky, impressing the right people, and using voodoo dolls efficiently.

Where does the name Ellery come from?

My parents had a friend named Ellery. My mom liked the name and asked my dad if they could name me after him. My dad agreed.

My dad’s mom told my dad that he should name his son after his father (Joseph). My dad agreed.

My dad, now in a pickle and attempting to disappoint neither his wife nor his mother, tried to make my first name “Joseph Ellery” and my middle name “Ellery Joseph.” I was born at home, so this paperwork had to be done by mail. Because this name was ridiculous, the first attempt at getting me a birth certificate was rejected, and I didn’t get one until more than a year after my birth. Years later, this would make proving my citizenship for a passport difficult.

P.S. – Though I don’t recall it, I apparently pooped in Ellery’s canoe (other Ellery, not me Ellery. I don't even have a canoe, and if I did I certainly wouldn't poop in it).

 

What makes working on Trove unique?

Right now, it’s a combination of the pace and the fact the *everything* I am doing is new to me. Learning a new project is tough, learning new responsibilities is tough, and doing them both while working on a project that already updates on a weekly basis and which is in the process of launching has left me spinning. Once I get used to all that stuff I might have more perspective to give an actual answer to this question, but for now I’m still riding the rush :)

Does any content you have worked on stood out to you?

HAHA, no! Any content work I do is super boring and trivial, like updating description text.

However, one thing that does stand out to me, which I did technically have a part in, is the recent build-mode improvement. We knew building was rough, but didn’t have a plan in place for improving it. Avarem asked me to do an audit. I found lots of little things, and a few big ones:

• Moving the placement reticle too close to yourself would cause it to disappear, yet left-clicking would still place a block in the ‘last good’ position, which might be very far away from where you were aiming, which was unintuitive.
• Standing on top of objects that you couldn’t build on, but could walk through, would make placement very difficult, as the object would "block" your "placement aim."
• "Smart Placement" (the thing that makes dropping a block off the edge of a platform work) made placing lots of blocks in a row very problematic, often placing a block on top of the block you're aiming at, rather than between you and the block you're looking toward.

I took this list of issues and went to Srayer who, being a most awesome, heroic fellow, fixed the bugs and added in the *super awesome* “click and drag” functionality you see today.

There is a private YouTube video somewhere of CM Morgana showing us how bad she was at building walls (she was really bad at it). We used her as a litmus test for the new building. She fell off of a tower she had built and accidentally managed to discover click+drag while doing so; she thus surprised herself by creating a staircase back to the top. She unleashed her signature Cackle-of-Glee™ and we knew we had something.

Producer Duties - Providing "Juice" to the Team.

Can you walk us through one of your typical workdays?

I get in to work about 7:30a.m. and do any email/chat catch-up. If it’s a patch or hotfix day, I’ll watch that process for any hiccups. I’ll then start going through my list of “stuff you need to remember for tomorrow” and try to knock out as much as I can before I get distracted.

As the day goes on, I churn my way through personal task lists, creating tasks for others, getting specs written, taking notes about upcoming tasks and priorities, and picking up any random things that pop out of Avarem or McEvoy’s mouths. (Not literally. Apparently that would be, “super gross,” and I’m, “a weirdo for even offering.”)

Meanwhile, QA is going through our internal environments and bombarding us with a flurry of issues, big and small, which I will triage.

Periodically, I will integrate changes between branches, fire off builds, request builds to be pushed, and try my best to answer questions for Avarem when he’s not around, like a slightly sentient answering machine.

When fires happen during all of this, Avarem, McEvoy, and I will get them sorted and in someone's lap (which sounds cruel, but nothing motivates like lap fires!).

If I didn’t list something, it probably means I forgot and am going to be super stressed when I am surprised to find it on my to-do list tomorrow morning.

Outside of Trion and Trove, what do you enjoy doing in your down time?

I love writing. Every few months, I take a weekend day and do a huge brain dump to try to get a handle on “the state of me.” Occasionally, I’ll annoy my friends by doing this in an email rather than my super-secret teenage angst journal. Doing this to "reset" my priorities/focus has been a great way of keeping myself happy and on track in my life.

I'm also a huge fan of cooking and baking. Baking is the best, because you get to do science, and then you get to eat something. Try this on for size:

• 1 oz smoked cheese, cut into pieces as tiny as you can get them
• 1 T butter
• 1 T coconut flour

Mix it all together in a food processor (there will still be little bits of butter and cheese that aren’t mixed in, that is fine) then separate into balls about 0.5 T and flatten to ¼" on a cookie sheet.

Bake for about 10 mins @ 350 (edges will start to turn brown just like cookies).

Remove and eat, be happy.

I invented that recipe when I misread another recipe and screwed it up. IT TURNED OUT GOOD THOUGH!

You include player creations into the game, what does that involve? and what is the most challenging aspect of it?

It involves a lot of find and replace :) Right now player’s just mod existing files, so our process of turning those into new files means renaming them, then finding the referencing and pointing them to the new names. For mounts and wings, it’s pretty simple. For costumes, it’s a bit more in depth as the costume master file has to point to abilities and specifically overwrite their blueprints (I.E. changing the visual for the Eis-Crom Cone), but it's the same basic process.

The most challenging aspect right now is the process. It’s had a few speed bumps, but it’s getting situated.

What do you enjoy the most about handling player creations?

This is probably the most cliché answer that a non-creative type could give in response to this question, but it’s seeing the amazingly creative, impressive things people do. When you can’t art, seeing people who *can* is inspiring and awesome.

Any notes you want to make to players submitting content to increase their chances of acceptance, or common mistakes?

Nope.

Wait, yes! Sort of! I actually defer to Gumptnug/Junebug on these things. Grump just put up a post on the mod forum about adjusted guidelines, but let’s check in with him and Junebug to get the lowdown:

Grump's Words of Wisdom: Avoid over thinking your design. Many people will want to try and put as much detail as possible into their work but Trove is about simplicity. Less detail used in a smart way is how we work and what we look for.

Junebug's Words of Wisdom: I’ll echo Grump in saying that less is more, even with VFX. One of my leads once said to me, “Particles are too expensive to be subtle.” Go for big shapes over minute details. Experiment with your particle count and see if you can get your mod looking just as good with half the particles. Remember that most people will only take a glancing look at your mount or wings, so make sure your work reads quickly and from far away.

In a voxel zombie apocalypse what structure or weapon would you craft to survive?

I guess a giant brain I can eat so that I never go hungry.

Or would I just gorge myself on it and get zombie fat? I know, I’d craft a skinner box that would drop brain pellets at a set interval, so that zombie voxel Ellery (Zoxelry) would neither gorge himself, nor starve to death. Or super death. Or whatever the state is to which zombies starve.

I would also make a dog house for my pet dog. I don’t have a pet dog, but I bet Zoxelry would have one.

To protect my zombie skinner box of awesomeness from zombie hunters, I would put a red X on my door, so when they got close they’d be like, “nope, we already did that one.” That's living the sweet life, right there.