Dev Bio: Sandra "srand" Powers
Original Link (now dead) - http://ac.turbine.com/index.php?page_id=283
Dev Bio: Sandra "srand" Powers
Who are you?
My name is Sandra Powers, a.k.a. srand, and I'm the lead engineer for the Throne of Destiny expansion. As lead engineer, I'm in charge of a small team of programmers who are furiously at work both on improving the graphics experience in Asheron's Call, and on implementing all the intriguing new features we're going to be discussing in the coming months.
What do you actually do?
I spend a good bit of my time on the details: reviewing with what the engineers are doing; making sure we're on schedule; dealing with difficulties as they arise; coordinating and communicating with art, design, and the live team. I'm also the engineering contact point for the executives, marketing & basically anyone who needs engineering input to answer a question. I often don't have those answers myself, but I know which engineer to ask, and I can translate the response back into English.
The rest of my time is spent designing and implementing the game systems for the expansion. That includes major new features such as raising the level cap and smaller content support tasks such as providing treasure tables for Viamontians.
How did you end up here?
I first started working on Asheron's Call in December of 2000, when I was hired – more or less straight out of college – to program game systems for AC2. At that time, there weren't any actual game systems for AC2 yet – none of the combat, skills, inventory, etc. existed yet – so I trained by fixing bugs on AC1. Even after AC2 got off the ground I continued to do a little work on AC1 on the side, and in January of 2002 I moved onto the AC1 team full time.
I remained the primary game systems engineer on AC1 Live until mid-2003, at which point Jessica Mulligan (our Executive Producer) loaded me down with the additional title of Producer. I handed that hat off to Mirin earlier this year when we began work on the expansion, but if all goes well I am slated to move back into the Live Producer position after this expansion is complete. This caused Ibn to bestow upon me the title of "Once and Future Producer", which amuses the hell out of me.
Those are the facts; more subjectively, I applied to Turbine because I adored Asheron's Call; I fought to be on the live team because I was (and remain) completely and utterly in love with the game; and I've relished every working day since – even the horrible ones. Asheron's Call continues to be my favorite all-consuming hobby.
What is your favorite quest in Asheron's Call and why?
Perhaps it's silly, but one of my favorite quests has always been retrieving Miyako's book of poetry from the Mysterious Tunnels in Nanto. It's a simple quest with a lot of atmosphere, and the dungeon is just gorgeous. There's a variety of newer quests that are just as good, but Miyako's quest is everything I want in an accessible, stylish bundle.
I'm also quite fond of Runed chests because I spend so much time running randomly cross-country. I'm not sure that Runed chests count as a quest as such, but they certainly give me something to do.
What is your least favorite monster and why?
Generally speaking, I kill without prejudice. But if I have to pick a monster type that I'm just not terribly fond of, it would probably be elementals of all sorts.
Where did you get your nickname?
I've used a number of names since I started on the bulletin boards back in high school – although only ever one at a time, of course. I started using srand just before I transitioned to the AC1 team. It's my favorite nickname because it fits me in so many ways.
Firstly, srand is a code term – many programming languages have a method called srand which seeds the random number generator. And I am, first and foremost, a coder.
Secondly, the srand method seeds the random number generator – which basically means using a non-random number to set up the generator to produce pseudo-random numbers. If you think of Dereth as a seething mass of chaos (and I often do), then much of what I do involves using non-random methods to produce random bursts of creativity and fun.