Hellgate: London – London 2038 Development Update #7

The London 2038 team brings us a new developer diary for their multiplayer Hellgate: London mod. This particular one goes over the mod’s development process, the items currently on the to-do list, and the recently-introduced legendary gear. Here’s a pretty sizable excerpt to get you started:

Hello, hello!

So, this has been one productive week. Vacations do help, hm. There’s also a few open fronts since last time, so let’s address things one by one.

Divide and conquer

First and foremost, I’ve received this reasonable, from an outside perspective, question; to paraphrase, “do devs delve into content creation all the time?”. Well, there’s a few layers to this one. But it’s a reasonable question, so it gives me an opportunity to explain.

The short answer is no. Content creation is handled by the team as a whole, while devs also delve into the Dark Arts. Some of us non-purple people help where we can, of course; a little helping hand here, some testing there. But it’s a “divide and conquer” situation, where everyone focuses on what they can.

In my case, for example, I’m not a dev. Can’t stress this hard enough. So I can neither relay exactly what they’re doing, nor help in meaningful, hands-on ways. So I delve more into content creation and field work; items, quests, bughunts, and so on. That’s how the team operates as a whole; it’s not that content creation signals an end to development in any way. Rather, it’s that the non-dev-inclined need to spend our time creatively too, and our paths cross and inform one another along the way.

The Shady Ones are approaching

Speaking of teams, then, I’d like to briefly bring up our Shady Ones recruitment drive 7. The results will be announced soon, and I’ll be personally reaching out to those who are chosen.

First and foremost, thank you all kindly for your interest. We received more applications than we expected, which only makes our job of picking just a few all the more difficult.

Having mentioned “just a few” then. For this round of recruitment we’ll need to err on the side of caution, and only recruit 3-4 people to start with. This will ensure that onboarding is easier and communication is more streamlined – which is a boon when everyone’s schedules are as they are.

With this in mind, please know that we won’t reject any applications outright. The vast majority of them were impressive, so it couldn’t boil down to experience alone. The ones we choose will be those who offer something unique, or have an interest the team deems useful, at this moment in time. We will, however, recruit again in due time – and when we do, our first considerations will be those who applied this time, should their interest still stand.

Work lies ahead

Now, a brief glimpse into our current work, before I examine our past work as another window into our creative process.

Some of us had some time off this past week, so we continued to work on new frontiers for you to explore. I’ve personally refined some 2-year-old material, again, and now comes implementation. I’ve teased what this material will be before 4, however, so let me spare you the redundant textwalls and resort to a condensed quote.

Mysterious benefactors

A shady bunch, much like our own, will shortly find its way to London. These mysterious benefactors will meet you in Holborn, and follow your progress to St. Paul’s. They will change your future, but perhaps not without strings attached.

A portal to distant lands

An equally conspicuous person will find their way to the players’ path. This one seems eager to unintentionally push greenhorn survivors into harm’s way, but also promises new frontiers with unseen dangers and new unearthed relics.

It’s not a moon, it’s a station

Finally, a station long since conquered is being reclaimed by Alternalo’s forces as we speak. Jokes aside, this new frontier will be our first expansion-sized addition, complete with mechanics to flex your brains on, new items to collect, and a whole new chapter to the story – much to my personal delight. If you’re brave enough to visit, bring company.