Apr 20, 2018
The First Hash Rush Team Meetup
Making video games is fun!
So for those of you following the progress of Hash Rush, you’ll be no stranger to our team interviews. You’ve met a fair amount of the team already (but there are still more to come!). However, what you may not have been aware of is, that there are quite a few of us who work remotely.
Being a distributed team can have its drawbacks, but thanks to the dedicated nature and sheer professionalism of the team — we’ve been able to work with nearly no hindrances! Phew!
However, it was long overdue that the whole team was in one place, and that’s why founders Kris and Nathan; along with CEO, Archie decided it was time to make this a reality!
To get everyone together is no small feat, with people hailing from 8 different countries — there was a lot of planning that needed to be executed. Thankfully we had the perfect team for the job!
The trip started out with a visit to the KGB Building in Riga, which, for those of you planning to visit Riga — I couldn’t recommend more. There’s a depth to the history of Latvia, that many of us were unaware of, however, this tour really shone a light on some of the hardships the country has seen. Without a doubt, it also shows why the sheer innovative nature and progressive outlook of the Latvian startup community is what it is.
But, despite the somewhat downbeat nature of the history we had learnt, we were actually infused with a deep connection to Latvia, its history and its people. However, it was without mention that this had left us in need of a stiff drink. So, off we went to get some food in us and fuel us for the week of workshops and team activities we had in store.
If you ask a gamer what team building means to them, there’s a strong chance they will reference playing games… So that’s exactly what team Hash Rush did. Indulging our competitive sides and working together in teams we proceeded to embark on the age-old bonding ritual that is Counter-Strike.
The team had hired out Exanimo eSports Cafe for the night, and with the beers flowing and the games all good-to-go — everyone set out to show off their skills. A notable mention to Rudolph our Project Manager, for his complete and utter pro-level domination.
After some highly competitive matches, the team relaxed a little and feel back to the casual gaming vibe and enjoyed getting to know the people they had been working with up until now.
Let’s Get Down to Business
With our tutorial quest completed and everyone now firmly bonded, it was time for us to embark on our main storyline. We kicked off our Monday in the office with a presentation from Archie.
For all of us travelling to Riga, this was our first time physically seeing the office. We’d all seen photos and backgrounds in video calls, but for us, this was a humbling moment to be here with everyone. The team had done an amazing job of welcoming us and even presented us with some gifts!
But the real reason for us all being here together was to get some serious work done. Having us all in one place is a rare opportunity and it’s one we had to take advantage of. We promptly broke up into groups and got to work on some interesting workshops. I would love to tell you about some of the developments, however, for now, they’re super top secret! But, if you’re interested in learning more don’t forget you can sign up for our newsletter to be the first to hear about these developments!
With a day’s work firmly completed, some amazing conversations had and A LOT of coffee drank — we were ready for our evening team building event of laser tag!
With everyone all kitted out and ready-to-go, it was time to get into teams and take to the now-darkening grounds of the old power station.
I’d love to show you some photo’s of us actually playing, but we all got super involved and well… there’s no time to shoot photo’s when you’ve got the enemy team bearing down on you! There were a few injuries along the way, but we all had a great time (shout out to the blue team for winning!).
Exhausted, aching and sweaty — we left in search of a save point.
Collaboration — A Team Unified
With more workshops the following day, we were in full swing. You could feel the creative juices flowing around the office as we broke into teams to talk all things, Hash Rush.
There are many exciting developments that came from these sessions, but unfortunately, you’ll just have to wait a little longer to hear them all!
But let’s be honest, all this hard work is hungry business! Thankfully the team had organised a tasty lunch each day — today’s chomp-happy-goodness was courtesy of Wok To Walk (which went down a treat!).
With the Game Design all together and the brainstorming in full flow, there were some exciting developments around quests and the lore that players can expect to find themselves immersed in. Keep an eye out for an update on this in the coming weeks!
Whilst this took place, we had the guys from Tractor, Set, Go! talking game development with our chief economist Jethro. As you can expect, with any game comes a lot of fine-tuning to ensure that the mechanics are balanced and that all marketplace activity is fair. So, some exciting developments coming from this.
Onward and Upwards
With us reaching our third day of collaborative working, it was apparent that we were on fire! With so many discussions leading to some amazing verdicts, it was amazing to see this team which had, for the most part, relied on conference calls, and messaging working so perfectly together.
Our economist has had a busy few days organising the Hash Rush marketplace, sorting out how Rush Coin will work with the game and adding new and exciting features, all cryptocurrency and blockchain related!
A member of our discord also pointed out there’s a shocking resemblance to Leonard from The Big Bang Theory! Let us know what you think.
But Jethro wasn’t the only one hard at work, our concept artists Dendy and Nic have been working hard etching out new and exciting additions to the Hash Rush universe
Our buddies at TSG! have done an amazing job transforming the concept work provided by these two very talented individuals and turning them into the structures, character models and environment that you’ve all come to love.
What an amazing team we have…
With Thursday already upon us (where had the time gone!?) we were all dialled into the tasks we were working on, the workshops were flying and we were all feeling really good about what we had achieved thus far.
The founders Kris and Nathan along with Archie still had one more surprise in store for the team. To commemorate us all being together we were all given these amazing Hash Rush hoodies.
With the final day of our collaboration starting to wrap up, what better than a celebratory pizza feast!
However, having the whole team together isn’t something that happens every day. So we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to take some awesome team/department photo’s! So, here are the dedicated people that are bringing you the industries first blockchain fuelled RTS.
The guys above are the ones who ensure that not only everything runs smoothly, but also that the game is made to the highest standard!
Nicholas and Dendy are responsible for all the art you’ve seen. Yes, ALL OF IT! For those of you active in our community, you’ll already know our Community Manager, Tenzin. As for Matt and Craig, they’re the guys working on getting the Hash Rush name out there!
Kris, as you’ll know, is one of the Founders of Hash rush, and Ivars is the brains behind a lot of the mining operations going on! As for Sintija, she’s our amazing HR Manager ensuring that everything is working well for employees, Laura is our Executive Assistant and Dita is our Office Manager — these three did a lot of the planning for this meetup and deserve a super special thanks!
Ensuring that Hash Rush has a right lore, balanced dynamics and is an engaging and fun game falls on these guys! Game Designers Nathan and Rick have been spearheading a lot of what makes Hash Rush the progressive game that is is.
Archie and Rudolph have ensured that the team has clear goals and we all know what we’re working on. Ensuring that project management and the running of the company are smooth as can be! Jethro is our Economist — he’s got a head for numbers and balancing marketplaces, which is crucial to Hash Rush! Kris as you’ll know is one of the founders and a super crypto-enthusiast! Last, but not least — Craig, our Marketing Director, having worked on large titles such as EVE Online and EVE Valkyrie he’s no stranger to the online gaming space.
And finally, here’s the whole team! Without knowing that most of these people hadn’t physically met until a few days before this photo — you’d think they had been working together for years!
It was sad to say goodbye to everyone, and I know for a lot of us, we felt a bond that we hadn’t expected. Being able to meet everyone in the flesh and work together this intimately was both a privilege and an honour.
So, stay tuned for some exciting news dropping over the coming weeks, we’ve got a lot to talk about and we’re just itching to show you the progress we’ve made. So, once again, thanks for being part of the community and we can’t wait for you to be able to play Hash Rush.
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