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Wednesday 12 April 2017

DAW 2017 wrap up


It's been a few days since the eighth annual Developer Appreciation Week (DAW) ended, so it's time for the wrap up post!

This year, a total of nine different blogs participated, writing a stunning total of 22 dev appreciating posts! The devs of the MMO Star Wars: the Old Republic (SWTOR) had the most dedicated to them, with three entries. Others receiving multiple messages of commendation were the LOTRO dev team, Daybreak Game Company and Concerned Ape of Stardew Valley. New this year were players thanking devs on Twitter with the hashtag #DAW8, spreading some extra dev positivity.


DAW posts of 2017

Here is a full list with all the blog posts that were written for DAW 2017. They're sorted by date of the first DAW post appearance per blog.

Armathyx does Gaming
DAW: The Old School Team: The Oldschool Team (Runescape 2)
DAW: Skelux (Super Mario Star Road): Skelux (Super Mario Star Road)
I Have Touched the Sky
Developer Appreciation Week 2017 - WildStar Soundtrack: Jeff Kurtenacker (Wildstar)
Secret World Legends First Devstream: (TSW:L)
Shadowz Abstract Gaming Blog
Developer Appreciation Week: Coldgames (Subsistance)
Day 2 of DAW: TFP (7DTD)
Day 3 of DAW: Reversed Interactive (Tyler: Model 005)
Day 4 of DAW: (The Forest)
Day 5 of DAW: SCS Software (Euro Truck Simulator 2 & American Truck Simulator)
Day 6 DAW: CD Projekt (The Witcher)
Day 7 DAW: General
The Final, Final Wrap Up Post DAW 2017: BEAM Team Games (The Stranded Deep)
Inventory Full
Small is Beautiful: Developer Appreciation Week: Daybreak Game Company (EverQuest, EQ2, Vanguard and more) & SmokymonkeyS (Ninelives)
Parallel Context
In Praise of the Code Jockey: General & The original SWTOR team (SWTOR)
Going Commando
Developer Appreciation Week: How Work Has Made Me More Understanding of MMO Devs - General (& SWTOR)
Ravalation
The heart and soul of Stardew Valley: Concerned Ape (Stardew Valley)
Standing firm in the wake of progress: a tribute to Standing Stone Games: SSG (LOTRO & DDO)
All the feels of Life Is Strange: how a video game helped me cope with life: (Life Is Strange) 
Love for the SWTOR Stream Dream Team: The "Stream Dream Team" (SWTOR)
Managing a ten year old MMO: thumbs up to the LOTRO devs: (LOTRO)
Moon's Meadow
Appreciating the Developers: DAW 2017: (GW2, LOTRO, Tyto Ecology, Stardew Valley & more)
Gaming SF
Developer appreciation week 2017: Daybreak Game Company, Zenimax Online Studios

I'm totally blown away by all these posts. I mean, look at that list, it's huge! I hope we have made some developers smile - and if we didn't, at least we made the internet a somewhat happier place. 


There were posts introducing me to games I had never heard of before, and intriguing tales of the people behind game studios (often small ones) that thus far had only seemed like a random combination of letters to me. Some posts took a general approach and gave a peek behind the scenes, giving insight into the complex process of creating a game. All I can say is that you guys did an amazing job at making the people behind the gaming industry visible. Thank you, everyone, for participating and making DAW 2017 happen!

I don't know about you, but I was so busy with writing, reading and promoting people's DAW posts that I didn't have much time to comment on them. So that's what I'm going to do this week. I invite you to do the same; who knows, you might even discover a gaming blog you didn't know of or a new game to try out.

13 comments :

  1. DAW was a great way to talk about the developers out there, and gave me a chance to sit down and research into the developers I have been following for the last few months, and playing thier indie games they have been developing. Plus it's amazing to see the various communities out there for well known MMOs and standard indie games and how totally opposite they are to each other.

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    1. You wrote so many DAW posts; I'm truly in awe! The indie dev companies were fun to read about. Often they are people that work fuelled by sheer love of gaming, without much of a budget, working around the clock. I love it when such hard work pays off.

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    2. It was even more inspiring that a few of these companies are either a single person, and just two people doing a game. Like I said, there is their share of love/hate in the community, but I see mostly the love for certain games over the hate, which is well in honesty breath taking to see , and how these guys are able to kick out updates in a timely fashion. Plus they don't say anything until they release an update. So yeah no rage there.

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    3. Yeah, I think Indie games enjoy much more goodwill in general. Because there is less pressure, it's easier to release content when it's actually done. Although there of course are also some that do get (crowd)funded but don't make it out of early development.

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  2. "I don't know about you, but I was so busy with writing, reading and promoting people's DAW posts that I didn't have much time to comment on them. So that's what I'm going to do this week. I invite you to do the same;"
    Challenge accepted, I'm commenting every single one of the posts listed.

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    1. Haha, oh no, what have I unleashed upon the blogosphere? :P I can't promise to be quite as thorough as you, but really cool that you're on a comment spree! :)

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    2. I posted a comment on every single one of them!

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  3. Thank you, Rav!

    I'll have to check out some of the other blog posts. I am fairly certain I read all of yours at least. :)

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  4. Thanks for putting this together, Rav. It was fun!

    Hmm, I thought I knew where that last pic was from, but I guess not. What game is that from?

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