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A Look Back at the Star Wars Project - (part 2)
Return to Part 1
Overcoming Challenges Continued...
These were just the problems we had with the project. I had some personal problems at the time that I had to work around. I had one full time job and two part time jobs, working that hard at my jobs during the day and on the puter at night, I slowly became sick. It was taking a lot out of me at the time. Today I’m getting better, but I still have to watch what I’m doing.
The weekend of the opening came, we thought we were ready. Then on the Friday night we had cloning and loading problems. Then just when I thought things are working out, one of the team members didn’t show up all weekend to do what they said they would and I became very busy.
I got that all smoothed out, the rest of the weekend seem to run smooth. Though I was giving tours until 2am Saturday morning, I never felt I needed more help, because Martin was always there, and I had great support from everyone involved. There were times when I felt more people would have been great for building. Sometimes I did feel overwhelmed with Promo stuff to be designed, avatars and worlds to be built, but as time went on and I was able to write complete beside items on my note pad, I knew we were going to be in good shape for the grand opening.
As you read a lot of the above you must be thinking 'Wow, that sounds like they had a hard time', we did have a few thing happen for the good. The first time I saw the Death Star I asked Martin if he would mind if we used it for the Homeworld. He was happy it would be the homeworld for Star Wars. I thought he would most likely add rooms for the portals or transports to the other worlds. Martin did a lot more than that, the next time he showed me a small room with a door you walked through which was a movie theater. Once you were there you would start your way to the Death Star with javascripting; again I was amazed, and happy with what he had done. We all know Martin; it was not good enough for him. He added more and every time I saw it, I was blown away. Then just when he was happy with what he had, I thought ok that looks great, then he made the interface for it, as I have said it before he was unstoppable.
Advise for future Atmosphere project leaders
Some of the tools and skills that helped me the most are there for everyone. I posted the project in the forum and got replies. I emailed everyone to ask them what they thought would be the best way to keep everyone up to date on things, the Forum was a suggestion, it would also keep the Atmosphere community up to date and build up excitement leading up to the grand opening. The Forum was a great tool, but I also used personal emails to everyone, some things were not for the public eye.
 Anyone could use those resources. I also have a lot of organizational skills that have formed over the years. Being able to look at a problem head on was easy for me because of the business I have been in for a lot of years. In the graphic design business you are always having things changing or going wrong, so you have to be able to work around them. I also think being a single mom for ten years helped. Anyone with kids will understand that. Kids are always getting into things and making you think, mine really keeps my brain going. One of the things that helped me the most was the year I had nine positions in a motorcycle club. I started out being the webmaster for two of the web sites. Then other people didn’t want to do what their jobs, so I took on the extra work, by the end of the year I was able to work nine positions and keep pretty much everyone happy.
The best suggestions I can make are what worked for me. I tried to keep everyone up to date on what was going on at all times, I’m sure the team got sick of seeing my emails. My personal advice is being ready for a lot of work. Make sure you have time for it all, working with people from all over the world is not an easy task. Also don’t panic near the grand opening, things seem to have a way of working out, if you have a great team like I did. And last but not least HAVE FUN!
And in the end...
The friendships I made with the team over the past months of putting this all together was well worth it. We did have our share of troubles, but it all worked out for the good. The day before the event Jbez got me the URL for the Falcon so we were able to have the great world he designed even with all the troubles he had.
The weekend of the event was far from relaxed, Offramp and I didn’t get much sleep at all. From the grand opening night to the last day, we were in the Star Wars worlds, doing games or tours all weekend. The best tour I gave anyone was the personal tour I gave MRK (Adobe Atmosphere Engineering Lead). Seeing all the kind words he had to say about the worlds really helped make it all worthwhile. It was a 2 am tour, I was exhausted when we first started the tour. By the time we got to the third world I was wide awake and feeling really happy about what everyone had done while I was telling MRK who built the world and how much help they were. MRK is a zombie and kept me up so I was slowly becoming one too, but I had a very busy Sunday with the games that were going to go on. I didn’t really think that when one game ended the other would begin. That is how the whole day went, the games were fun and everyone seemed to enjoy them, some even said the 'Name That Line' game should go on each month. I’m still thinking about that right now.
Even though the event is over, people are still going and looking around at all the worlds and enjoying them. I’m glad people are, it shows we all did a great job. There is a possibility that other worlds will be added later. I know of one world that was not done in time for the event, Hoth was added later on in the project. I have also heard that there is one other person that would like to build a world and add it to our Fan Site. Everyone is welcome to build a Star Wars world and we would add it to what is there.
So For anyone that is thinking of being the Organizer for an event like this let me tell you this, it’s a lot of hard work and you ride on nerves all the way but it is well worth it.
Lace
The Star Wars - Atmo Project fan site is available for exploring at http://www.starwars3d.tk/
Lace's website can be found at: http://www.lacewebdesigns.com.
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