Just curious, I see a majority of the Dev staff having been born and educated in Russia, how did this team come together?
Though I have seen Russian names for Devs in other games, I have never seen this high a concentration.
Notorious Games is registered in Nevada, server is based in Chicago and most of the Devs are born and bred Russians. Sounds like a good story in all that.
No, was just curious how so many devs with Russian heritage happened to come together in 1 game. Seems a bit odd and figured there must be a story behind it.
I don't find it so odd. Many games made today (Usually not the big name games) are made in non english speaking countries by non english speaking people but are marketted to the english speaking world. (But then again many people from non native english speaking countries are taught english as one of their other languages).
It doesn't really matter where the programming is done. Programming isn't done in English, it's done in C++ or some other language. The input from the devs to the programmers probably isn't in English either, it's probably pseudocode or flowcharts. What matters is mindset of the balancer-in-chief (the devs).
Originally I had placed ads on various game development and art websites and I had applicants from China, Brazil, Spain, Germany, India, all over the world.
I was starting to form an international team when a Russian friend of mine recommended I look in Russia's 'Silicon Valley', Akademgorodok in Novosibirk.
I spent a summer in Moscow a few years back and I really enjoyed my time in Russia, so this struck me as a good idea. It ended up being the best idea.
The week I placed an ad on Novosibirk's popular city website I had a slew of responses from candidates that fit exactly what I was looking for. The best and most experienced candidates came from two game companies that had just wrapped up projects with nothing solid planned for the future.
So I dropped the other international candidates, flew to Siberia, picked the best artists and programmers from these two groups and that's how the Xsyon team came together.
And for those conspiracy theorists that wonder why the company is registered in Nevada... that's where I live. :laugh: