Adarakion Developer Diary: Final Issue

This will be a difficult one to write. Having spent the past year writing about the ins and outs of our daily musings, I’m sad to say that this will be the last ever Developer Diary from Adarakion. Now now, hold back your tears, I know it’s emotional.

The situation is that Adarakion in its current form no longer exists. We had a long chat last week and what was apparent was that we are all just too busy and distracted to focus properly on developing RoChain mobile at the current time. Our respective “real life” work commitments have really ramped up of late, Matt has a new family member taking up most of his time, and Liam has another on the way in January – it’s just not fair to expect everyone to pull together on a regular basis when it’s just not practical to do so.  Our agreement on going through all this was that family MUST come first.  What is great about this whole scenario is that the split is TOTALLY amicable – if I have achieved nothing else I’ve made some really good friends during this venture!

I guess we didn’t really plan for things to work out as they did – there is an argument to say we should’ve planned things a little better – but the reality of the situation is that we are at a stage where we need to be working on things full time to stand any chance of producing the level of quality we are striving for.  In order to do that, we need money.  It’s a cold hard fact. We all have families to support and commitments to maintain.  Maybe if we were all 18, fresh faced out of school we could have just set up shop somewhere and done this full time to see how it all worked out but as things stand, we couldn’t do that; which is a real shame – damn you capitalist society!

Having said all that, I do feel like I’ve lived the dream this past 12 months, I felt a small part of something bigger and it has given me a taste of something that I liked and want more of.  Also it’s taught me a LOT about myself and how to run a small team – experience that I think will prove invaluable as and when I decide to do this again.

I hasten to add that this doesn’t mean that RoChain Mobile Edition has been canned, far from it – I will be working on it here and there when I get the time (which at the moment is very sparse).   I REALLY want to get this out there this year, but realistically unless a lot of time comes my way I need to be realistic and I don’t want to promise anything I can’t deliver!  Things are coming together nicely; it just means that things will take more time than I originally anticipated.

So on behalf of everyone at Adarakion (sniff!) I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to TSA and particularly colossalblue for putting up with my nagging!  Also, HUGE thanks to you, the readers, who have spurred us on in tough times, and provided us with great feedback.   It’s been such an honour and a pleasure being a part of this community and I plan on hanging around – you ain’t seen the last of me yet.  I’LL BE BACK!

So, to conclude, and to coin a phrase “So long, and thanks for all the fish”.

Editor’s note: I’d just like to wish everyone involved with Adarakion all the best for the future. We know how difficult it is to fit your passion in around your responsibilities and we sincerely hope that everyone on the team finds a way to make their dreams a reality. We’ve also made it clear to gnipper that we’re here if he ever wants to post a blog from any future projects, or even if he just wants a bit of a chat. Good luck guys! [cb]