Uncharted Has Launched

After our successful launch of Uncharted Phase II last night, I feel it’s necessary to put a few thoughts down on paper (or at least the ethers) to thank those who’ve been involved in this tremendous project.

To Uma and the other programmers at Nyros – Thanks so much for being patient with us and, in particular, for working with us beyond what you agreed to do in getting our site working to this point. We presented a difficult task for you to accomplish and, by my measurements, you performed well. We look forward to an ongoing relationship with you as we move Uncharted through successive tweaks and iterations.

To Andrew and the rest of the design team – Thanks for making us look good. Thanks for keeping your senses of humor, and for dealing with the rest of us through this project. We put a lot on your shoulders, and you came through for us.

To Sarge and the marketing/communication team – Thanks for working tirelessly with our beta testers and for keeping the faith, despite the roadblocks we kept encountering throughout the testing process. Thanks for prodding the rest of us to talk enthusiastically with our testers, and for reminding us to live the Uncharted lifestyle.

To Scott – Wow. What else can I say? You’ve worked probably the hardest of us all over these past few months. I never heard you complain or waver – and I’m sure you’re the only one on the team I can say that of. Every time I thought of you working those long nights with Nyros, tweaking things, figuring things out, only to hear the rest of us complaining about the things that were not working while rarely recognizing the things that did work, I felt grateful you were there doing what you were doing. We owe you a lot.

To Alan – Thanks for bossing us around and otherwise using your Sith Lord powers to get us off our duffs and getting the work done. You always encouraged us and only yelled at us when we really, really deserved it. Hope you’re not hoarse.

Now – for all of us: We’ve got to live that Uncharted lifestyle. We have a working site now. We need to fill it. I remember that being a concern back at our last retreat in May. It’s still a concern. Each team member needs not only to write stories, take photos and post them to the site, but we’ve also got to continue encouraging everyone we know to do the same. Sarge and the marketing/communication team will do their part, but we’ll do much better if we all become communicators and marketers. If we don’t show others that we’re excited about Uncharted and what we’re doing there, no one else will be.

The easy part is done, folks. Now the long road begins. Live that lifestyle. I know I’ll try harder to do so.