Now that we've let our April Fools Day update sit for a bit, it is time to do the actual update. This time, as it is the first part of the quarter, we are covering how the business itself is running.

In my first year as company President, we have seen a lot of things happen, shuffling of roles, and getting more people used to working with the Unreal Engine. The biggest hurdle for us has been to stop limiting ourselves, to stop thinking in the respective boxes we each tended to put ourselves in. This meant a lot of adjustment in how management worked, a lot of experimenting. To discover what worked, we let each major department try a different solution. After some time, we see which ideas worked, and then apply them companywide.

As expected, our first yearly update costs have hit, requiring renewal of licenses for several key pieces of software, the biggest of which is Houdini, our primary 3d modeling software. As we planned for these costs up front, we were ready when the time came, no surprises here. Planning ahead, we have about 1/3rd of our Kickstarter funds still in the bank. As a result our remaining funds are poised to sustain us for the foreseeable future.

Most of our costs have been in software, as we expected, with maintenance costs, monthly bills, etc being the lions share of the remainder. Our hardware purchases have been frugal, always aiming for the most bang for the buck, and taking advantage of sales and specials and purchasing future needs when the price is best. One example, we currently have two spare servers sitting in a broom closet because we picked them up from a former financial firm's closeout sale for less than the price of an oil change.

Volunteers are limited in time, and experience, and sometimes we have needed to turn to expert help. Yes, we have on a few occasions turned to outside contractors, and likely will need to again in the future. I must give a shout out to the Valiance Online team here, as we turned first to their professionals when help in an area was desired. This sparing used of outside expertise has helped keep our schedule intact.

It has been a long road, and still a long way is ahead of us. Our initial ideas, as often times happens, did not pan out as we'd hoped, but we rolled with the punches and have been trudging ever forward. Not every solution is the perfect one, but a good enough solution in the hand is better than two perfect solutions in the bush, to turn a phrase.

We have over time refined our plans, tried out ideas, seen which ones work, which ones don't, and moved ever forward.
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Written by - Nathaniel 'Doctor Tyche' Downes

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