{"id":4274,"date":"2014-05-07T06:58:41","date_gmt":"2014-05-07T13:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.postudios.com\/blog\/?p=4274"},"modified":"2014-05-21T09:50:56","modified_gmt":"2014-05-21T16:50:56","slug":"the-faces-behind-the-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.postudios.com\/blog\/the-faces-behind-the-story\/","title":{"rendered":"The Faces Behind The Story: Cesar Bittar & Richard Flores"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cesar<\/a><\/p>\n

Cesar Bittar<\/strong> and Richard Flores<\/strong> are basically the reason why Phoenix exists at all. Therefore, they get the big lights, the extra font size and all the love and shiny titles I could put together.<\/p>\n

I remember back in 2002 when Cesar would bump heads with Richard, and at some point I think Richard probably disagreed with everything, but fact is these two complement each other in ways I can\u2019t even explain. Cesar is the dreamer, the one that used to float away and think larger than life, while Richard is much more of a perfectionist – without a doubt he is someone with the most uncanny work ethic and the most talent driven person there is. Cesar is far more practical when it comes to production issues whereas Richard could take a lifetime until he would just make something perfect.<\/p>\n

It goes without saying that I have met both of them before we ever even dreamt of being where we are today. We had no idea back then that it was the start of something like this, let alone that we would ever be there for each other after all this time, whether we would agree or disagree, come hell or Vivendi. They are the soul and life of this team. They have got some sort of magic that makes things happen and they motivate all of us to always do more, to become better.<\/p>\n

Of course I was going to start with the two I simply respect the most, the oldest members, who have been supporting this dream since forever ago. Of course to write up this piece I wanted a little bit of their voices mixed in, so you can get a better idea of who they are and why we love them.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Cesar\u2019s story, as told so by himself:<\/strong><\/p>\n

A while after Mask of Eternity<\/em>, I was looking for news on King\u2019s Quest IX<\/em>. Of course, I never found anything official, but I did find a fan group making a fan sequel. They were looking for writers, and I joined – why not? I don\u2019t even think \u201cPhoenix\u201d existed as so back then, it was just an unofficial King\u2019s Quest IX<\/em> group. Later I moved to the US, found myself with a lot of time on my hands, and started to push to get this thing done. I eventually ended up with the project in my hands, and here I am, 10 years later, running not just the team but also the company.<\/p>\n

Then I was producing the game. I was learning how to produce a game, rather. I created proper departments, named leads for each department, tried to give the whole thing some kind of structure. I tried many ways of tracking people, we went through a multitude of different systems. Some stuck, some didn\u2019t, but it was fun to be part of it all and the most important thing, we learned something new every time. I also designed most of what ended up becoming the 1500 pages of the script of The Silver Lining (How the hell did we write that much stuff?!). I got my hands involved in everything I could, I wanted to know as much as I could and do as much as I could.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Now I do probably a lot more of the same, only now I have a better idea how to do it (I think), and therefore, things go way faster. I will always miss the days from TSL where you could \u201clive\u201d the process. I loved to sit down and enjoy every piece of the game, bit by bit. These days, I\u2019m lucky to see the whole game before it ships – everything happens so fast when you have a team of 30 people working full time. And you cannot hope to see it all, so you have to pick your battles.<\/p>\n

I also have this title of CEO that forces me to take care of boring business stuff. I sit in meetings and plan how to take over the world. Seriously though, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever built a resume as fast as with the two years I\u2019ve spent in this position. Knowing that you are somehow responsible for putting food on people\u2019s table, that I have control over the destiny of so many people, and therefore how people are affected by it – it changes everything. It changes what I thought I was going to be doing, what my selfish side wanted out of all of this. It redefined me completely and took my sleep away on many nights. Also, in the last 2 years I\u2019ve grown grey hair like there\u2019s no tomorrow.<\/p>\n

But I love every minute of it. It\u2019s exhilarating, worrisome, complex, and everything I ever wanted it to be.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a few memorable moments while working with Phoenix. Katie\u2019s is a great one. I will have to say the worst one was when I received the second and last cease and desist. It was 2009, and I was in San Rafael, California. I got a notice in the mail that I had certified mail and had to come pick it up at the post office. So I went down to the post office, not imagining what this mail was, and I had a letter from the Activision<\/strong> legal department (which I still have in my possession). It was a letter stating that they had re-evaluated The Silver Lining<\/em> and that they didn\u2019t want to move forward with it. For some reason, I felt at the time that this letter was the end. I didn\u2019t expect that we could pull the thing we did with Vivendi<\/strong> again. Also, and obviously, the Vivendi<\/strong> cease and desist letter was devastating – but that one moved much faster into a positive note, so it didn\u2019t feel as bad.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

As for most positive moments\u2026 I\u2019ll have to name a few because, well, it\u2019s a lot of years:<\/p>\n

1) December 2005<\/strong>: PR Director of Vivendi<\/strong> asking me to please do something to appease the fans and make them \u201cstop\u201d. I knew our community was great, but that sincerely just made me appreciate how big and meaningful it really was. Also, from those same moments, suddenly having every games outlet reach out to you for an interview was surreal.<\/p>\n

2) April\/May 2010<\/strong>: Receiving the call from Jon Estanislao<\/strong> from Activision<\/strong> letting me know that they wanted to let us have our commercial license back and that we could move forward with the project. Later I learned this lady had letters upon letters piled up on her desk.<\/p>\n

3) May 2010<\/strong>: Roberta Williams<\/strong> plays The Silver Lining<\/em> and loves it. Ken sent me<\/strong> a note with her comments, “Beautiful and fun to play.”<\/em> I could die happy.<\/p>\n

4) July 10th 2010<\/strong>: The release of The Silver Lining Episode 1<\/em>. Need I say more?<\/p>\n

5) February 2011<\/strong>: Meeting Jane Jensen<\/strong> at her farm in Pennsylvania. Katie, Rich, Vitek and I drove down from Boston. The last 20 minutes of that ride I was so excited, so scared, it was just so fucking unbelievable. And then Jane opened her door, and we met in a hug. I was very happy.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

6) The release of Cognition<\/em> episode 1 and 4<\/strong>: The beginning and the end of our first project. We\u2019ve done it, we created a game that people loved.<\/p>\n

As for my favorite Phoenix character, I\u2019m going for the obvious one: Erica Reed<\/strong>. And especially because I know what we are planning with her in the future and that will make her such a complex character. But, if I had to step away from Erica, my favorite character would lie somewhere between the shades of grey Cordelia<\/strong> from Cognition<\/em>, the goofy but kickass David<\/strong> from Moebius<\/em>, or the funny Hole in the Wall<\/strong> from The Silver Lining<\/em>. In truth, I love them all as I always put a piece of me in the characters I write.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Richard\u2019s story:<\/p>\n

I got started in Phoenix purely by chance. \u00a0After finally finishing King\u2019s Quest: Mask of Eternity<\/em>, I felt it had been long enough that Sierra<\/strong> must be working on a ninth installment. \u00a0Unfortunately there was no news on anything by Sierra<\/strong> but I did find a website for an unofficial fan game based on the KQ<\/em> universe. \u00a0They we\u2019re looking for people and I thought my knowledge of 3D animation might be helpful, so I applied. \u00a0The rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n

When I started, I mainly did anything involving 3D art. \u00a0I even did some of the preliminary tests using a 3D engine for the game. \u00a0That eventually grew to include managing the art team and bridging the gap between art and programming for the game which I still do to this day.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

There have been many great memorable moments over the years including the first real trailer for KQ9<\/em> and the first time the team met up for the voice auditions. \u00a0There have also been many sad ones like the day we were shut down. \u00a0I think one of the happier moments that stands out the most for me is the day we worked out a deal with Vivendi to bring the project back. \u00a0That\u2019s when we discovered the level of support we truly had from the community, and I felt it was a real achievement practically unheard of at the time to get the official permission from the copyright owners to make our game.<\/p>\n

About my favorite Phoenix character, I think Erica Reed<\/strong> is definitely my favorite original creation from what we have made. \u00a0She has such fire in her belly which really makes her an interesting character to travel with on adventures. Terence<\/strong> is also another of my favorites and I hope he gets a chance to shine in the future.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It is imposible to say that going back into these things doesn\u2019t bring any nostalgia, it does \u2013 especially when we have been through so much. Also, I wanted to leave their original text so you get an idea of their personalities, you can sort of guess from between the lines. Do know that these two are the bane of our existances sometimes – they ask for the impossible and they want it for yesterday! However, it is exactly because of them that we have been able to grow, to learn and to dream. For them, a simple thank you is not enough – we give our time, our talent and our hope to them not because it\u2019s just a job, but because we want to, because we believe in them and we care.<\/p>\n

Next week we get to review the story of Katie Hallahan<\/strong> and Weldon Hathaway.<\/strong> We\u2019ll see how they discovered Phoenix and how they became part of the story.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nSay Mistage<\/strong>
\nSocial Media Director
\nPhoenix Online Studios<\/p>\n

\n

#Phoenix People<\/a><\/p>\n

Team Feature – Cesar Bittar & Richard Flores
\nTeam Feature – Katie Hallahan & Weldon Hathaway<\/a>
\nTeam Feature – Michael Fortunato & Aaron Light<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phoenix CEO Cesar Bittar and CTO Richard Flores began their journey with Phoenix as writing and art volunteers, respectively. In their own words, learn about their journey as fans eager for more King’s Quest love to their roles as leaders of a community that would become known for fighting impossible odds to achieve their dreams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35036,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,36,48],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postudios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4274"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postudios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postudios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postudios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35036"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postudios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4274"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.postudios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4280,"href":"https:\/\/www.postudios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4274\/revisions\/4280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postudios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postudios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postudios.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}