Ascenders’ Log #10
Fellow Ascenders, another transmission came in today! And again… and again… and again… There seemed to be some kind of error where we received transmissions in all sorts of languages! We’ve tried to gather all English transmissions, but some of it might have been mixed up… Anyways, the transmission(s) that came in are from yet another one of our producers, or Guardian Angel, or, well, just read the story and you’ll see! This week’s log is from our very own Arcanine!
Who is this?
Hi, hi! こんにちは! Здравейте! Hallo! 안녕하세요! Привет! Slav! Bonjour! Akira here! I like to use the kanji 明 for my name. Oh, but people in the office know me better as Arcanine. Woof! Rawr! FIRE!! Fluff…zzz…
What got you into games?
Would you like the long story or the short one? Awesome! I also love long stories! Oke so my first ever game was Super Mario Bros with my тате on the SNES. He briefly explained the controls to me and left to pick up my mommy from work but silly 5-year-old me, died too fast so I just did what every kid would do. I pressed all the buttons (apparently not all of them) and when nothing happened, I started crying because he forgot to tell me how to restart. Hahaha, you should have seen his face when he returned and saw me crying in front of the “game over” screen. All panic and then the dawn of realization when seeing the TV screen. Good times… Anyway, fast-forward years later, I had forgotten all about games and was a huge bookworm. Honestly, I had hidden spots around the house where I can hide so people won’t drag me out to do chores or ask me to go out. Such bliss but I digress. So one day, as I was once more hiding away from people and going on a search for new books at my family’s library, I stumbled upon my daddy’s (not so) hidden stash of “Choose your own adventure” books. Those were so fun! I finished all of them…. Several times. You know, since I was following IT major in Highschool and for a long time wondered how to best combine my love for stories and technology, a sudden realization that day hit me. Going forward, I will work on combining the best of both worlds and make video games! Naturally, I had to go see what games were at the time, and step by step, I had suddenly re-discovered my love for video games and remembered that long-forgotten SNES memory with daddy. I just had to make those books of his come to life and be enjoyed by more people! Oh, look at this! I was accidentally short this time. Hahaha, you are a lucky one!
What is your role within the Ascenders team?
My role? Most people would say Producer but that’s too boring so I’d like to say I am a Guardian Angel or a Shit Umbrella depending on the mood and what’s best needed for the situation. “But why” you might ask in confusion, well because I have got to try my best and protect my 仲間, my crew from the horror monsters that dwell above. Shh… I think they are watching us right now! Stand behind me!
What about your usual day-to-day work?
최고! The best! There’s not a single day that’s the same as the other. Sometimes I will come to work thinking “Hey, let’s try to see how our progress is going and analyze that data” and then by the time I have finished my lovely cup of tea, I am bombarded with emails and requests for support. So I pull up my sleeves, tuck people in a comfy blanket (or maybe scold them you never know) and I take out my Zweihander to go pummel the one that hurt them. Or sometimes I take on my companion, Frumpkin, and we go on an exploration to the vast depths of the internet in search of a remedy. Speaking of the rascal, look at him proudly grinning atop some Seedship concept work from our talented Sandshrew!
Most enjoyable thing within the job?
Hmm…The job itself? No? That’s not what you were looking for? Boooo. Скаредный! Stingy! Okay. Let me think…… <one eternity later> Aaah! I can’t think of anything else! I just love the job itself, what’s wrong with that? I like how diverse my tasks are, how from complete serenity it goes to utter chaos and running around with a fire extinguisher and that most of all it lets me support awesome talented people do their magic. What’s wro-… Oh? My answer is okay now. Yey!
What did you do before you joined Ascenders?
Before my adventures here, I used to work for a small indie game publisher. My work was different in the sense that I wasn’t knees deep in organizing production for developers and supporting them make a game but instead I was the one who helped them bring their games onto the market after they had finished making it. You know, once you are done building that dream spaceship, you still need to do the promotions, make sure you sell the tickets, that everyone has received their own spaceship uniform and that NASA has actually approved for your spaceship to even go into space. So after a few years of doing that, I got a bit nostalgic and wanted to help people build the ships again so here I am.
What are you looking forward to most with Ascenders?
I can’t wait for people to go out and explore the world and unearth the hidden mysteries it holds. Our writing team is hard at work here so I can’t wait for everyone to start forming theories on what’s going on and how the pla-… hey! What are you..? Get off me! Blah! Get back here! I wasn’t gonna spoil anything! I hate spoilers!!!!!
Is there something you can’t wait to share with the community?
ASCENDERS!!! The vibrant alluring world filled with unexplored beauty and wildlife. Oh, you fickle mistress, what secrets does thou abode hold?
Any final words of wisdom to share with the community?
Stay weird and be safe! 変なままで健康でいよう！Останете странни и бъдете здрави! Blijf raar en blijf gezond! 이상하게 지내고 건강하십시오! Будьте странными и будьте здоровы! Bimînin xerîb û saxlem! Restez bizarre et soyez en bonne santé!
Bonus question we also asked the community: If you could have a companion in the game, what would it be and why?
Frumpkin of course! He is already my companion at work so it only makes sense I bring him along with me to Ascension. I would need to give him some modifications and enhancements though. Maybe some hovering device and an intergalactic translator would be nice. We will be exploring this brand-new world together after all. We must be absolutely prepared for our adventure into the unknown. Hehe, yeah I sneaked in that last one. Into the Unknown, Into the Unknooown!
