Straight from hl-nightwatch.net:
I've finally managed to whittle down most of the level design applicants, though a few keep trickling in. It's been a hellish process, as there have just been so many applicants (near 40 at this point). We've already narrowed it down to about 12 final candidates and it's just going to get ugly. There's some tremendous talent applying, which is really really great, but the process of narrowing that down is incredibly tedious and painful.
In better news, animation and character skinning departments already have picked up a new member each, and character skins in general are taking a huge turn in style, which you'll notice the next time you see us update. I think you'll be pleased - we sure are. New animation talent also makes 2 very talented character animators plodding away, which is a nice thing to finally have moving.
Internally, we have a milestone set for content submission for a new internal build this upcoming Wednesday. The new build will be released to staff shortly after that and should be very energizing to internal development. There are a lot of things going into that build that we're really excited about, and hopefully the build process will speed up soon and we can start limited testing - note that by testing, I mean an extended process of doing so, and that is not an indication of NW's release status.
In other news, we have a couple more hires to report. Morten "Mazy" Hedegren has started a job at Io, the company behind the Hitman series and one of my most-played titles in the last couple weeks, Freedom Fighters. And on Friday, I received the news that I have been offered a level design posision at Raven Software for Quake IV, a position I quickly accepted. That job will start in early July, sometime after my wedding. Exciting times abound!
We'll have an introduction to our new staff members after we make the final level design decisions and some more progress info at that time. Until then, keep checking back, and we'd love to see you in the IRC channel or Forums.
