David Allen says “Quest Online, or QOL grew very slowly and steadily. We only hired people as we needed them. This ensured the maximum value for the invested dollars and made sure we didn’t have unnecessary overhead. And since QOL was avirtual company, our overhead was next to nothing. Greg offered for us to use the “server cage” at the SmartReply data center to host all of QOL’s servers in order to help save money as well.”The vision of QOL was made clear to everyone who worked at QOL as was the vision and overall design for Alganon. David ensured they never had useless meetings that wasted hours of time.
David decided they would create their own technology. This direction gave the company very valuable assets. The World Building Tools, Client, and Server technology paired with everything else (Billing, Micro-transaction, Social Network, Library, CSGM systems, etc.) are the bread and butter of what has the potential of making a game development studio great. Another important aspect to building your own tech is how it brings the team together. If your team sublicenses existing tech they learn how to work on and use another company’s resources, but if your team builds their own tech, they learn how to work with each other to innovate and create solutions which they are attached to and passionate about. This creates a very different dynamic for a development studio in the way the team approaches problem solving and overall software design.
David also built a very strong Team, especially for a startup company. With a near 100% retention rate for those who stayed with the company more than three months, QOL was a great place for everyone who did their job well.
Pair the technology with a custom built team of talent over a four year period and you’ve got some very solid assets, resources and overall value.
David adds “Many are unaware a good two years of design enhancements were clearly laid out for Alganon after its initial release, including PvP, new domains, new classes and races, domain control systems, features, and much more.”
Read More David Allen Quest Online / QOL history here.
