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
), 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!
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
), 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
