Of Words and Warz

Hey guys, it’s Mike here, and I want to talk to you about something near and dear to my heart: writing! Of course, as the primary writer for Verus, it makes sense that I’d talk to you about something like this, but trust me when I say: even if you are bored to tears by the idea of writing, you may still glean some kind of use out of the rest of my post! But, I don’t want to bore you all completely, so I promise to only dedicate half of the post to writing. The rest will be about our latest project, Shibe Warz.

Know Thy Audience

This phrase is absolutely paramount for any kind of writing you may do. The basic premise is this: you can write a Shakespearean masterpiece, you can write the most eloquent piece of prose the world has ever seen, but in the wrong hands, your message at best can be lost and at worst be misinterpreted. I’m sure you’ve all heard about the workforce’s lack of good communication. And if you haven’t, well, it’s true - writing is not something that comes naturally to everyone, but fortunately for all of us, it IS a skill that can be developed, even without thinking too hard about it.

So, how do you do it? Well, first, let’s start with you. There is one person you know the most and it is yourself. You know all of your secrets, past, desires, and thoughts. But, for now, let’s keep it simple -- your desires. You have goals that you want to accomplish, whether it be asking that cute girl out, or getting that promotion you so rightfully deserve, or even just getting some chicken nuggets. Either way, you have a lot of wants floating around in your head, and you probably have at least some inkling of a plan to go out and accomplish them.

Great, so you have your desires mastered. Now here is the kicker: the person or people you are writing to have their own thoughts and desires. And they have their own plans to accomplish it. So when they open your email or read your little message you wrote on the refrigerator, the whole experience is colored by one thing in their mind: “how does this affect me? What am I supposed to take away from this?” You have to imagine yourself in the shoes of the person you are writing to. If you can imagine what they want, you can imagine how to reach that person! It’s that simple, even though it can be very challenging to actually do so. But like anything in life you want to be good at, though, you have to just keep at it. Remember the best writers are made of people who write all the time. It’s something I try to remember, too.

Shibe Warz Update

Well that’s enough meta-writing for one post, now for what you really want, the update on Shibe Warz. Before you get all excited, like I know you do, let me disappoint you. There will be no tasty screenshots of our progress this post.

I’ll let that bad news sink in.

Now, if you are still reading, here is what I CAN give you. We’ve recently added two new recruits to our game squad, and things couldn’t be going better! With more people, like a microcosm of human civilization, we are beginning to see specialization appearing! It’s very exciting. We’ve added Zurek to art assets to assist Anthony, and we’ve added Chris to music development. They are both as enthusiastic as the rest of us about creating quality games to bring to you, which is exciting.

We’ve grown to the point that we need a little more organization in our ranks, with more rigid timetables. Gone are the days of “he says she says” development. Our project coordinator Nick has recently taken on the role of organizing the whole of the business of Verus, and that means more responsibility in getting deliverables in. Yet, it’s business as usual here at Verus, because everyone knows what their roles are, and we all work fluently towards the common goal of bringing you a quality product. As for me? Well I am currently deeply involved in another of our projects that I won’t reveal here (sorry, friends, you’ll have to wait on that one), but I can say that I’ll be doing additional work for Shibe Warz, to sort of fill in the cracks of what needs to be done.

It’s exciting (there’s that word again) for such a unique, good group of people to get together, all with the same vision in mind, and yet varied enough in their ideas to yield amazing results. Yes, I am making many promises and stating several provocative facts. Because they are facts. And this will be a game you cannot miss.

Shibe Warz.

~Michael