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A day in the life of a Jester Thread is locked

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Mod Jester

Mod Jester

Jagex Moderator Forum Profile Posts by user
Hello scapers! This is my first ever forum post so I’m a little nervous. Bear with me though as I’m hoping you’ll find my insight into Jagex life a fairly interesting one.

It’s a little difficult for me to talk about what I’m actually working on these days as it’s super secret (and super cool!). I can’t wait to say more about it but for now you’ll have to keep guessing at what that might be ;) . What I can do however is give you a brief understanding of what my day involves and why I love what I do. Lets look at a typical day based around the last major project I worked on, RuneLabs.

For those of you who don’t know I’m a front end web developer within the RuneScape web team. My primary job is to produce high quality user interfaces that are as practical as they are breathtaking. OK, slight exaggeration, but we do try to give you guys the best experiences we possibly can.

So what does Mod Jester actually get up to in his day to day life at Jagex? Lets look at a typical day developing a product like RuneLabs.

First of all I’m an early starter. I try to make it in for 8am, though it’s usually more like 10 past, when I meet my team for our informal morning tea break/catchup. Here we talk about all the important things from the night before such as ‘that ludicrous display’ and ‘why did he bring Walcott on that early?’

Once I’ve had my caffeine fix it’s off to my desk to start some work. That is once I’ve got the important things out of the way. Seeing what you guys have been discussing overnight via Twitter is always a priority and collecting my daily Treasure Hunter loot is a must. Once I’ve carried out these essentials I take a look at my workload for the day.

At 9am my team and I have a 'standup'. Here we discuss the work we’ve done the day before, as well as the tasks we’re going to carry out for the rest of the day. The problem of course is that I can barely remember what I did in the last 10 minutes, never mind what I did yesterday. I often find myself hoping for subtle hints from my team or just straight up improvising. I usually get away with it but there has been the odd occasion I’ve completely crashed and burned.

My day is usually broken up with a meeting or two. Some are really interesting when we get to discuss features and feedback, others not so much. During the less engaging ones I often find myself picking up the board pens and doodling on the whiteboard, much to my team’s frustration. But hey, You wouldn’t tell Banksy put down the spray cans would you?

Before I know it it’s lunchtime, which is always awesome. The majority of my team take lunch together so we can hangout and play games. It’s cool that Jagex provides us with consoles and gaming PCs to abuse in our free time and we’re more than happy to oblige. It’s usually a casual affair but there is the occasional argument. However these are quickly forgotten and we move on with our day.

When I’m not in meetings or stuffing my face, I’m at my desk. Locked into some coding (with the occasional team tea break to break up the day). This is where I get the most satisfaction from. When I get to create great user experiences for you guys to enjoy. Working on RuneLabs was a massive privilege because it was our biggest project at the time and I knew early on just how much was expected of it. Knowing its potential I really wanted to create something that you guys would love and get the maximum use from.

I wasn’t alone. My then WebMeat colleagues Mod Allstar, Mod Lyon, and a few others who don’t enjoy the publicity as much as me, pulled together to make RuneLabs the greatest product it could be. It’s always great to work within a team who take so much pride in what they produce. It’s something that I've found within my new team and throughout the RuneScape Web Team too.

Because I become engrossed in what I do I often find myself staying past my 5pm finishing time. Usually it's closer to 8. In fairness part of this is knowing I won’t have to cook when I get home as I’ll get fed here (thanks Jagex :D ), but the main reason is my drive to get things done. Working on exciting and engaging projects it’s sometimes hard to tear myself away. I’m always thinking “what if I just changed this” or “just changing this slightly would improve the experience immensely”. it’s just a great feeling to be working on projects that I want to stay late and work on.

Success stories such as RuneLabs are why I do what I do. I just hope that me and my team get the chance to keep producing systems like RuneLabs for you guys to use and enjoy for years to come.
Writing code and having lots of fun doing it!

08-Jul-2015 14:41:24 - Last edited on 08-Jul-2015 17:54:43 by Mod Jester

Patrick K
Apr Member 2011

Patrick K

Posts: 2,947 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Awesome post Jester,

You guys did a great job on Runelabs, i often find myself going through some great but also some silly suggestions posted by the players..
Its nice to hear the communications between the people working on our game is strong
and in my oppinion its very important to have it that way..

Hehe, i'm familair with the memorizing problems, but eventually it comes up! ;)

Nice to hear about your passion and motivation for doing what you do & doing it right (+1)

I'd like to see more of these posts
:)
RuneFest yet?

08-Jul-2015 14:42:57 - Last edited on 08-Jul-2015 14:59:47 by Patrick K

Paulo

Paulo

Posts: 4,744 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Great read, im happy that you enjoy what you do and keep up the good work.

It's awsome when a job doesnt feel boring and we actually love everything related to it, thanks for Runelabs, it brought us some nice content, love the rune dragons and the quick loadstone teleports.

Really excited for the high level mobs to come aswell.

Again, im happy that you're enjoying making us some neat stuff so good luck on that top secret project! Hope to see it soon ;)
Tess at 121 kc kek

08-Jul-2015 14:50:56

Mod Shadow

Mod Shadow

Jagex Moderator Forum Profile Posts by user
Great read Mod Jester!

On top of all the stuff he's said here, Jester (as his name suggests) is hilarious and is regularly a great source of comedy relief in the web team! :P

Shadow.

08-Jul-2015 14:59:14

Hyles
Feb Member 2023

Hyles

Posts: 6,699 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Great first forum post! Very interesting read, and I'm jealous of the Jagex-provided game consoles during breaks. :P

Thanks for sharing your day with us!
~Hyles~

"The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind
may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled."
~Andrew Carnegie

08-Jul-2015 15:43:25

Restart

Restart

Posts: 63 Iron Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
A great read Jester! We've talked on twitter a bit before ;) . You did forget to add this though (And I quote Rory of course) "Mod Rory is great, let's have tea and #ScapeFuel to celebrate."

Nevertheless great to see you posting on the forums. I've heard lots about you from multiple members of the web development team; mainly Mod Rory and Mod Allstar though ;) .


Now the real question; what goes in the cup first? The tea or the milk? ;)




Mod Shadow said :
Great read Mod Jester!

On top of all the stuff he's said here, Jester (as his name suggests) is hilarious and is regularly a great source of comedy relief in the web team! :P

Shadow.


I'm surprised he's not wearing the Jester outfit from the "Fremmenik Isles" quest though!
What isn't broken can still be broken.

08-Jul-2015 15:52:41 - Last edited on 08-Jul-2015 15:56:52 by Restart

Mod Rory

Mod Rory

Jagex Moderator Forum Profile Posts by user
Restart said :
A great read Jester! We've talked on twitter a bit before ;) . You did forget to add this though (And I quote Rory of course) "Mod Rory is great, let's have tea and #ScapeFuel to celebrate."

Nevertheless great to see you posting on the forums. I've heard lots about you from multiple members of the web development team; mainly Mod Rory and Mod Allstar though ;) .


Now the real question; what goes in the cup first? The tea or the milk? ;)



First off, I agree that was really well written... second; milk first.

(thanks for cross quoting from my tweet ^_^ )
Follow Me on Twitter @JagexRory
#RFBackStage Stream On Periscope TV JagexRory

08-Jul-2015 17:55:10

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