Welcome to the dev blog! My name is Christian and I’m the Product Manager at SHG responsible for the Starcrash series of games which is our browser based titles of Star Pirates, Gates of Camelot and Spy Battle 2165. As some of you know, SHG Studios has been undergoing some transformation since the beginning of the year and I’ve had the good fortune to be part of these exciting changes. As part of our new look and style, it is our intention to provide a bit of extra community interaction through blogs and developer diaries like this one. Our studio is very proud of the library of games we currently feature and the purpose of recent increases in the size of our team is to begin some exciting new projects.
My work with SHG Studios began about 6 months ago but I have known some of the team for many years. Prior to SHG, I worked with another game studio in Hamilton and we would see each other at various industry and community events. When my last contract was completed with the previous studio, I began to look for a new place to apply my talents. With a solid reputation as a growing small business in the community, SHG was the first call I made.
I’m really excited to bring my experience to the great communities found in each of the browser games. While they are built on the same engine, the different themes offer a nice variety of play. Within Star Pirates, I enjoy building up my ship stats and unlocking new areas and new story elements. Gates of Camelot has some really nice equipment. I can easily picture the sword and horse my character has equipped. And finally Spy Battle, where I’ve had the opportunity to see some very interesting faction wars. All three games have some great game mechanics and story content but games that offer online persistent play also require ongoing attention and that’s where I’m focused
We’ve already made some updates in each of the games, mostly housekeeping level changes but big plans are under way. We’re looking at increased content for all of the games and updating some elements that will improve the feel of the game. Efforts are already underway to increase the community size by bringing in new players. The largest addition of late was a new Exclusive Commission in Star Pirates. This new story is the culmination of a collaboration with a cosplayer from the UK. Giulietta provided us with a really nice character we were able to feature in game. We look forward to expanding this system and adding similar new content in the other games as well. If you haven’t experienced it yet, we encourage you to check it out.
So we encourage everyone to check back on the site from time to time, some of my colleagues will also be posting about their work so there will be plenty of opportunities for community feedback.