Dallas Observer Online - dallasobserver.com | Feature

Behind the scenes of Daikatana

From: Andrew Welch

Sent: Thursday, October 22, 1998 12:32 PM

To: Todd Porter

Subject: RE: deathmatch coding

i'm coming over there

-----Original Message-----

From: Todd Porter

Sent: Thursday, October 22, 1998 12:31 PM

To: Andrew Welch

Subject: RE: deathmatch coding

Kelly tells me the project has some MAJOR timeline probs so this is perfect....

-----Original Message-----

From: Andrew Welch

Sent: Thursday, October 22, 1998 12:06 PM

To: Todd Porter

Subject: FW: deathmatch coding

I sent this to john and nelno. Do me a favor and don't

mention it until I let you know what their feedback is... but

I think it is smart at this point.

-----Original Message-----

From: Andrew Welch

Sent: Thursday, October 22, 1998 12:02 PM

To: John Romero; Jonathan Wright

Subject: deathmatch coding

While you guys may choke on the idea of adding another

programmer, Justin Randall (the guy hired for dominion

network programming) who's also working on the bug database

at this time... has had a lot of previous experience writing

Quake2 add on's, TC's etc. Seems to me we should utilize his

skills in either working on the deathmatch stuff or at least

helping Shawn do it.

We're running out of time to continue adding stuff and I'm

afraid network play is going to suffer if we don't start on

it soon. I wouldn't suggest him if I didn't already know

he'd approach this with 110% effort.

thanks

Andrew Welch

ION STORM - Game Programmer

(214)953-0101 x182

From: Andrew Welch

Sent: Thursday, October 29, 1998 7:29 PM

To: Todd Porter

Subject: RE: deathmarch..

I understand what you're saying.. maybe we should make goals for the whole team etc... a such and such deadline of this for a complete beta and you guys get <blank on top of whatever... yada yada... 1 week of comp-time or whatever you think is appropriate? that way it can motivate the whole team.. I certainly don't want to see others fucking around when I'm trying to bust ass though.. this could help.. know what I mean?

see ya chief

-----Original Message-----

From: Todd Porter

Sent: Thursday, October 29, 1998 9:20 AM

To: Andrew Welch

Subject: RE: deathmarch..

Do you guys want cash or a portable dvd player? What do you think? (by the way, you guys need not tell anyone about this bonus or our asses are toast so tell nelno to keep it quiet...)

-----Original Message-----

From: Andrew Welch

Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 1998 5:44 PM

To: Todd Porter

Subject: deathmarch..

I would have brought this up in person but you were preoccupied :)

You mentioned something about a cash incentive to get the AI done quickly... You know me and you know that I'll put in every ounce of effort into it to get this stuff done on time - if it can be done, we'll get it done. We just may have to cut some shit out of the game too to be honest. If it had been you over here running this project, we probably wouldn't be in this situation, but that's not the case. What do you have in mind for Nelno, myself and Insoo to save our asses on this one.... :) If you want to talk about it, let's do so. We're talking about a huge amount of work to be done by thanksgiving - that's less than a month... I think I know what's at stake if we don't all kick ass and make it so....

Let me know..

Thanks chief.

Andrew Welch

ION STORM - Game Programmer

(214)953-0101 x182

From: Carla J. Smith

Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 1998 12:33 PM

To: Todd Porter

Subject: FW: Technology group

Never mind, jerry called to explain to me. I will keep the people in technology for Eidos reporting.

Carla J Smith

Controller

Ion Storm, L.P.

-----Original Message-----

From: Carla J. Smith

Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 1998 10:30 AM

To: Todd Porter

Cc: John Romero; Tom Hall; Jerry O'Flaherty

Subject: Technology group

Todd,

I asked Pam to break out the payroll numbers for me so that Justin, Dustin, Arnie and Jorge were in the technology group like you asked me to last Tuesday. I think this started a lot of confusion. Apparently this was already discussed between the owners and Corrinne? I talked to Corrinne for a little while, but I'm not really sure of the timing of the decisions, so maybe these things were decided subsequent to when you talked to me and I just hadn't heard about them. Can you clear this up? Are these people in the technology group as we have understood it? (i.e. Corrinne's group, working for Corrinne). Is there a new group doing technology type stuff that won't be working for Corrinne? If so, should we rename the group to avoid confusion? Are these people working on stuff that really benefits one of the existing games and we should just put them on that game?

I have copied the other owners because I thought that they might have some input as to whether they would just like to have one or more of the people on their teams rather than in technology.

Carla J Smith

Controller

Ion Storm, L.P.

From: Carla J. Smith

Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 1998 3:17 PM

To: John Romero

Cc: Tom Hall; Jerry O'Flaherty; Todd Porter

Subject: RE: Technology group

Yikes, I feel like I stepped into a minefield. Jerry called me to explain the deal. As I have told Jerry, I will be happy to smooth things over with Corrinne if that is what you guys would like for me to do. Corrinne is out until Monday in Seattle, so I can speak with her then. Her concerns seem to be centered around that if these 4 are put on "technology" than it will negatively impact her resources to develop technology for her yet to be established team. It is a legitimate concern, so I think that if it can be explained to her that it won't, than she should be fine with it.

Carla J Smith

Controller

Ion Storm, L.P.

-----Original Message-----

From: John Romero

Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 1998 2:46 PM

To: Carla J. Smith; Todd Porter

Cc: Tom Hall; Jerry O'Flaherty

Subject: RE: Technology group

Oh wow, this may have caused a lot of problems. I believe our intention was to only show them on the books as in the tech group, but in reality on DK. Talking to Corrinne probably caused some problems. I'm not sure -- Todd?