In the early days, when McPhat was still a 'young boy', I always figured that making a good (looking) product would be enough. We'd reach enough people, sell enough packs and take the Flight Simulation world by storm all while doing what we love doing best: Making beautiful graphics..

Boy, was I wrong.

In the past couple of years the harsh reality hit me. You can make the most beautiful product in the world, but if nobody knows you and knows where to find you, you're left out stranded. It'll be just you, your good intentions, great ideas and your product..

So much for 'If you build it, they will come' right? Thanks for nothing, Mister Costner...

Fast forward to today, I can honestly say : 'Long gone are the days that I spend my time solely on what I do best and nowadays my hours are divided between running McPhat Studios and making an occasional texture here and there, when.. IF I find the time'. Something I wish was the other way around. With 'running McPhat Studios', I really mean keeping taps and track on our Facebook page, our Twitter account, our YouTube channel, blog, newsletter and just today yet another, new social media outlet hit the mainstreams:

Google+ brought in the brand pages!

For those of you not familiar with Google+, it's basically Facebook, but less clouded with a million features that change every fortnight. It also gives the opportunity to share with 'circles', which is basically a hipster name for self made groups of people who you can then choose to share only relevant information with. Great if you want to reminisce that night of mayhem with your buddies, but don't want your Chief Pilot (or your mom) to get the wrong impression of you (if she hasn't already). 

While I was eager to try out Google+ privately, I am not jumping up and down in sheer happiness about the implementation of the new brand pages. Like our Facebook fan page, it gives us a way to communicate with our users and customers, without them having to come to our website, check out our forum, our community page or our blog (do come back though), saving them time...

More convenient for you, the user, but more work for me, the guy who has to update all those pages, mostly on a daily basis.

Do me a favour though okay?

Join our Google+ brandpage, so me updating it, at least has some sort of a purpose...

CLICK TO JOIN!

We ended 2010 with a bang, started 2011 with a (although slightly smaller) bang and now -halfway on our way to 2012- there's still 'banging', but this time mostly in the form of hands, shaped like fists on my door and on my desk...

The year has been hectic. Although we wheeled in some new talent, 'old' talent also left. People whom had been with us for years left and the toll it has taken is apparent. Yes, some of the new guys (and girl) are just as talented or perhaps even more, but you take a hit when people leave, who know the company inside and out and we took the hit alright. Hard. Right on the nose. Twice.

Where our frontliners (Texture Artists and a handful of painters) used to solely focus on the core of our business (that would be Textures), supported by staff who lead the company, most of them now have dual roles. From basic overhead, to project management, from creating Youtube content to research and from Marketing to Support. Because this change happened gradually, over time and because it was a necessity (as is the mother of invention) opposed to being planned, along come the 'challenges' of all us getting comfortable within our new roles.

The last couple of weeks I've seen my attention shift from the frontline to -almost on a daily basis- talks, meetings and discussions with my team. Some lengthy, some exhaustingly lengthy, some ridiculously lengthy.

And if that isn't enough, with the DC-9 3D development phase nearing its end and with four 3D Artists on the team (and another 2 joining soon), guess what has to happen? Indeed :  talking and discussing our next steps with the ones on board, and creating, shaping, explaining and enrolling with the ones who are about to join.

All and all, there's been a lot of talking lately and although it apparently is part of my job description, I hope I can soon get back to 'work'...

It was the year 1977.  A little boy named Terrence was born. His parents probably had big plans for him, but at the age of three years -in his infinite wisdom-, he already made his own strategic plan to infinite happiness. He had no dreams about being a fire fighter, or a police officer, or a doctor. No sir, he wanted to fly planes. He wanted to be a pilot.

Because the authorities seemed to have a problem with toddlers flying planes AND because he had to give his parents some time to shell out the 100 grand to pay for his training, he started drawing planes at a young age. Sometimes on paper with crayons, but like some people play air guitar, he also drew planes, in the air air. People would catch him 'drawing' planes with his feet, on the ground while waiting in line at the grocery store, or in the sand on the beach. He often caught himself doing the same, but then with his thumbs on the inside of his index finger...

We fast forward to 2011. After a long (and expensive) endeavour the dream has come true. Flying planes, high in the sky, looking down on the world I live in, is the best job a person could have. Although one would think flying equals an unmatched sense of freedom, there are thousands of ICAO, FAA, JAA, local and company rules, laws, regulations and procedures that prohibit you from being creative high up in the sky. It's a good thing though, things would get real messy, really fast if not.

So whenever I'm back on the ground -safe and sound- I still find myself drawing planes. The paper, I replaced with a Wacom tablet, the crayons with a 1,024 levels sensitive pressured pen.

If you ever wondered why we choose to do planes, here's your reason. I don't like drawing in general. I like planes...