[MarkusRMD]

In case folks were wondering, we had a rare power outage today, causing the forums to be offline about 2 hours. www.alanwake.com wasn't affected (it's hosted elsewhere).

[Dark]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkusRMD

In case folks were wondering, we had a rare power outage today, causing the forums to be offline about 2 hours. www.alanwake.com wasn't affected (it's hosted elsewhere).

You get hit by the storm too? There was a massive storm over the UK yesterday I had no power for about an hour, was it in Finland too?

[MarkusRMD]

The exact details are unknown but the problem was a cut cable. The all run underground here, and no storms around.. I would point my finger at the road construction workers that have torn everything up right next to our office...

[Danzaiver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkusRMD

I would point my finger at the road construction workers that have torn everything up right next to our office...

Markus, does the construction workers and their bulldozers were an inspiration for Alan Wake's enemies?

[Dark]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danzaiver

Markus, does the construction workers and their bulldozers were an inspiration for Alan Wake's enemies?

Haha!

[shorty]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danzaiver

Markus, does the construction workers and their bulldozers were an inspiration for Alan Wake's enemies?

Haha! Maybe Markus was sitting in his office with a writer's block, then looked out of the window and found the perfect enemy Alan Wake.

... Those loud workers that has been bothering Remedy for weeks with their machines.

[Dark]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shorty

Haha! Maybe Markus was sitting in his office with a writer's block, then looked out of the window and found the perfect enemy Alan Wake.

... Those loud workers that has been bothering Remedy for weeks with their machines.

Now you're going to turn the builders into insomniac paronoias

[MarkusRMD]

We were told yesterday that the power company is doing maintenance again today, and I'm currently writing this on a laptop from a completely silent office except for our UPS beeping. It's spooky - no people (all out having a longer lunch) - no PCs, no air conditioning noise.

If they're fast, you shouldn't see an interruption in service, but if not this site may be down an hour or so soon.

[Maddieman]

Thinking back on this, it reminds me of something I read for my dissertation:

Quote:

VC: By staying small, we can also control our environment which also increases communication and overall effectiveness—better communication means to us more iteration on our ideas and ultimately, a better game experience. Our entire office is one large open office space where everything is on wheels, everyone has laptops, and there’s a reliable wireless network.

SB: Yeah, the working environment has been one of Vlad’s big innovations here, and it’s working great. Especially the “everything on wheels” part. If anyone stands in one spot for too long, Vlad asks them to put on a pair of Rollerblades.

VC: [Laughs] Yeah, I probably would. But it seems to be working really well. Just last week, Joel decided to reorganize the entire company into smaller strike teams to adapt to natural changes we were facing during production. It took us about five minutes for everybody to make the whole move. Even when Mother Nature wants to throw a wrench into our production plans, our methods allow us to continue making progress on our games. When power was out during a storm this past winter, and once the battery backup systems gave out, the guys had another few hours from the rechargeable batteries in their the laptops. When the laptop batteries gave out, we still managed to find remote locations with power and get work done.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/new...hp?story=14135

[MarkusRMD]

Ok so it's over now and the website was out ~45 min.

Maddie, the above may sound like a good idea. But then reality hits.

- Xbox devkits don't really work without power...

- You need to run your servers on laptops too or in the 'net data center somewhere. Perforce, file servers etc. We have ~15TB of raid5/6 storage... And game development means a LOT of data transfers.

- A desktop PC is a much more powerful tool for making a high-end 3D game. Graphics cards, faster hard disks, etc. Say it would take each programmer 30 minutes a day more to compile due to a less powerful PC. Or it would take over $4000 to get to so powerful "laptop" (drag-top?) that it would even remotely match a $1200 desktop. Multiply that by a lot of employees and I'd rather risk a few hours of power outages a year...

[Maddieman]

Ah that's too bad (but always good to know). I guess it's working well for them because they're working on smaller scale games.

I still love the idea of "everything on wheels", though. Laptops might be out of the question, but surely rollerskates would spice up development?

[MarkusRMD]

Give me enough coffee and I look like I'm on rollerskates

[joukoRMD]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maddieman

I still love the idea of "everything on wheels", though. Laptops might be out of the question, but surely rollerskates would spice up development?

There are types of work that can be done in such environments (been there even myself, though that wasn't implemented in such a fancy way), but I don't see game development as the best demographic.

And, you've seen our office. I'd say that the high balconies, short corridors and being in 3 floors is quite hazardous environment for rollerskates

- J

[Maddieman]

Hazardous? Your office would be perfect for kinds of mad tricks. You guys need to live more dangerously, like the devs at Neversoft.

[yogibbear]

Even though I work on a laptop with a usb keyboard and separate monitor... if the power goes out.. i'd still have to stop working as I'd lose access to all my files which are on the network... unless i go somewhere else and vpn in...

And yeah dedicated unix boxes do all the hard no. crunching.