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title: Who We Are — DrakonForge Studios
tags: [DrakonForge]

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description: We're a team of passionate designers working on an awesome game — come join us!
tags: DrakonForge
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# Who We Are — DrakonForge Studios

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<h3><b><a href="https://hackmd.io/@Drakonkinst/join-our-team" style="background:#1A62FF; padding: 10px 25px; border-radius: 10px; color: white;">Join Our Team</a></b></h3>
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**DrakonForge Studios** is a small indie hobby game development studio. We started as three friends who stayed up late on phone calls to play videogames and talk game design. Our shared passion for creative design and bringing unique and interesting ideas to life led us to several ambitious projects, from an animation series to developing modded servers.

Although we explore and enjoy other videogame genres, blockgames like Minecraft have always been at the heart of our team. The creativity and expression offered by such games inspires us to create to our imagination's limit. With the announcement of [**Hytale**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o77MzDQT1cg), an upcoming blockgame that prioritizes empowering and supporting creators, our team discovered an outlet to take our projects in new directions.

In early 2019, we began our current and largest endeavor codenamed the **Hytale Project**, which we work on to this day. While we're keeping the details of this project under wraps, we're excited to one day show everyone what we've been working on.

## Our Values

We strive to create an environment where people want to be and actively participate in. Our team, even with committments and hobbies elsewhere, choose to be here. We actively seek to earn that choice.

Terminology is important, and our efforts are never about one person. If you're seeing this document, I'm not asking you to join my team--I'm asking you to join *our* team. We are asking you to share in our game, our goal, and our mission. The following values encompass our approach to game development as a small team of hobbyists, and aim to give you an idea of the principles we stand behind as a studio.

### Self-Driven, Not Driven

Each of us are strongly driven by our own determination and passion. There's no magic button we can press to force you to "be inspired", "be creative" or "be productive". We appreciate that despite a myriad of other opportunties and hobbies available to pour time into, you choose to be here because of your personal alignment with our team's culture and goals. We welcome and are inspired by each other's dedication, and pour that energy back into our projects.

### Everyone is a Designer

Everyone on our team makes design decisions, from the developers to the artists. We value *everyone's* design input, no matter what your role or experience level is. Each of us are empowered to work independently towards our shared goal and push for our own designs without the need for oversight. We take ownership not only for our own work, but for our project as a whole.

When it comes to design, we trust each other's choices by default--otherwise, we wouldn't have asked them to join our team. While we offer honest feedback and can't greenlight every idea, we never bet against our own. We rely on each other to craft ideas by experimenting, innovating, and trying new directions, even if they might fail. It's okay if one of us doesn't have a perfect solution from the start, and we work together to evolve our designs.

### Life Comes First

We understand that all of us are human and have people, jobs, and responsibilities that take far more priority than a hobby game development studio. Life is full of ups and downs; we can have burnouts, productivity spikes, and we acknowledge that not every day will be a day you feel up to working on our project, even if you agreed to beforehand. There is no stigma attached to not being available to work, and we have no minimum bar for contribution nor consistency. Anything you can contribute to our team is appreciated, no matter how small.

### No Skill Prerequisite

We don't expect any of us to immediately be an expert in whatever they do, and we have no initial skill requirement for any of our roles. However, we challenge ourselves to learn and improve as a part of our development process, and we don't expect perfection on the first try.

Our team takes on projects that challenge us in every way, and we are ready to explore new, unfamiliar areas to cultivate our own skill from the ground up. We are constantly learning, and we prize developing our own talents and picking up skills that are useful far beyond a hobby project.

### Remote-First Communication

We've been a 100% remote studio from the start, and are well-adapted to the unique challenges and opportunities that arise as a consequence. There are no requirements for attending meetings, and we never use email or facecam for internal communication. 99% of our interactions are through text and voice chat on Discord, and our team works entirely from home.

In an environment where a person's availability may not be immediately obvious, we strive to be flexible, respect each other's schedules, and work around setbacks. We hold ourselves to a high bar on communication and work to keep each other in the loop when schedules change unexpectedly.

## Design Principles

**Everyone is a designer** in our team, and we take that principle to heart. These design principles guide our decisions when crafting new systems or writing up ideas.

### Dare to Dream

We insist on relentlessly high standards for our work, and we're prepared to take the time we need to reach the highest possible quality for our projects. We anticipate failure as part of the journey and we strive to fail early and learn from our mistakes. We naturally dream big and attempt things that have never been done before. We work to forge our initial big ideas into feasible designs and push ourselves to think creatively to achieve the impossible.

### Steal and Improve

We are externally aware and draw ideas from everywhere, even if they might not be conventional sources of inspiration. We are not afraid to steal ideas, and we're not limited by "we didn't come up with it". However, we adapt existing ideas and iterate upon them for the sake of higher quality, not just to be different.

When breaking new ground, we expect innovation and invention from ourselves to expand upon basic concepts and turn them into tangible designs. Whenever possible, we find ways to simplify complex ideas. We appreciate the value in working smart, not hard.

### Dive Deep

We strive to have strong judgement and good instincts for design. We take the time to explore beneath the surface and pay attention to the smallest details to ensure the highest quality. We push ourselves to dive deep into design, and we are comfortable researching unfamiliar topics to problem-solve and obtain a thorough understanding of our work.

### Accomplish More with Less

As a near-zero budget studio, our constraints motivate us to be more resourceful, self-sufficient, and inventive while still achieving a high level of quality. Our frugality drives us to make the best of what we have, and push our current resources to the limit. There are no bonus points for spending money to solve a problem. While we recognize that in some cases, spending money can raise the quality bar in ways we could not do otherwise, none of us are obligated to contribute financially to our projects whatsoever.

### Have Backbone; Make Feedback Heard

If we think something can be improved, we respectfully challenge decisions and speak up even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. We avoid being an echo chamber and do not let go of points of confusion or criticism solely for the sake of cohesion. We encourage devil's advocate arguments as a method of raising new questions and perspectives, even if they weren't initially our own.

As designers, we seek out other diverse perspectives to confirm or disconfirm our beliefs. We respect and carefully consider feedback from any member of the team, and we work to ensure others are on the same page. We are willing to be self-critical and change our minds quickly if we realize there is a better solution.









