Life at Stardock – the happiest place in the world

I can only speak for myself on this but Stardock is my “happy place”. People often ask me what it’s like to work at Stardock. The answer I give them is to imagine being back in college where you hung out with your friends talking and doing cool and interesting things.  That’s what it’s like at Stardock for me and I suspect many others there as well.

In the morning, I’ll walk by the QA and support team. Any fires? One nice thing about Stardock is that based on what I’ve heard from people who have worked in support elsewhere, we have awesome customers. There is something to be said about making software for your own demographic. People “like us”.

During lunch, people played board games. The cafeteria seemed to have each table with a different board game going.  My new planner, Betsy, found the mouse that had escaped from the cage. A sad end in the building’s basement.  We still have one mouse left in the cage. I think that Kay, one of our amazing new graphics designers and resident critter expert took care of cleaning it out but I could be wrong.

After lunch, the part of the Sins of a Solar Empire team at Stardock was debating on how powerful pirates should be. An internal beta – that had gone out to some reviewers – had the pirates able to wipe out planets. A bit too powerful. But their lively debate and rationalization of why pirates should have this or that was highly interesting.

A typical early evening will include plenty of people who are still there for various reasons. Maybe they’re on a deadline or maybe they’re playing some new game or doing something else entirely. Tonight some people were playing Star Trek online which is about to come out – possibly the best MMO I’ve ever seen. One of my coworkers/friends I’ve known for 10+ years was sketching out UI designs for some future software on his whiteboard and talking to a few others who were around about where he thought user experience was going to go.  Downstairs, a couple guys were playing TF2.  Sometimes they’re playing Demigod or Sins or L4D2 or WoW.  I suspect there will be a lot of Star Trek gaming going on during the evenings based on what I’m seeing.

While I was doing a code review of Elemental tonight, Toby came by to show me some cool new stuff on the new WinCustomize site being put together. It’s really pretty awesome stuff.

Then Jeff came by to show off the new APIs for Impulse Reactor v2 (there’s a sneak peek) that we’re introducing in a few weeks. I’m humbled by how much easier it is. I love working with brilliant people.

As I headed out, I tried to shoo Sarah to go home. She was insisting that she was “this close” to a breakthru on the Dynasty screen in Elemental. Jacob was also there getting in all the new clothing the artists had made for people to customize their Elemental sovereigns and their children. No more bald, bearded women in game I guess.

Usually the last person I see or talk to is our VP, Kris Kwilas. Phish blaring in his office. He’s usually figuring out some clever way to make something a little smaller. A little faster. Last week talked about the merits/problems with the iPad. Others will hear our discussion and join in.  Sometimes he’ll give me candid feedback about a chapter in the book I’m writing. Today we talked about the joys of Mass Effect 2.

And tomorrow is another day.