BWL welcomes its first Distinguished Developer! Options

[Baronius]

The title Distinguished Developer is awarded to the best mod developers of the Black Wyrm's Lair. The nominated member must meet very strict criteria. The most important ones are as follows:

• Active membership at any of the departments of the Black Wyrm's Lair at the time of nomination
• At least 1 year of active membership at the Department of Mod Development of BWL
• Comprehensive and thorough knowledge of at least one Infinity Engine game as a player
• At least 3 years of experience in a theoretical or practical field of Infinity Engine game mod development
• At least 1 big and/or complex, stable and practically bug-free released mod for an Infinity Engine game
• At least one other released Infinity Engine game mod, stable and practically bug-free

These are necessary, but not sufficient criteria. Other factors (such as the presence of creativity in mods) can be taken into account as well. The title Distinguished Developer is permanent and may not be rescinded from its holder by the Council of the Black Wyrm's Lair or by any other person, department or organization.

On the ocassion of announcing the new title, Distinguished Developer, the Council of the Black Wyrm's Lair would also like to award it to its first holder, our dear member and powerful developer, Sikret!

Sikret's masterpiece, Improved Anvil has become the metaphor of ultimate tactical challenges in the Infinity Engine mod developer community. Tactical challenges, which tax the patience of even the most experienced players, yet also offer a possibility for less skilled tacticians to learn hard while improving their tactical skills in a stupendous degree. It also opens brand-new dimensions of gaming experience, improving and extending the original Baldur's Gate II content in very many aspects. Improved Anvil alloys seamless technical implementation with the excellence of improved content and brand-new playing possibilities.

Sikret has also contributed to several projects by creating ready-to-use content or by offering useful, modern advice.

Please accept my congratulations, Sikret!

[Sikret]

This is one of those occassions on which I really wish I could compose my post in my mother tongue, because I'm sure that I won't be able to find the best English words and sentences to express my gratitude and sentiments.

Thank you very much, Baronius, for your support and confidence in my work (even on those old days when I was new to modding and IA was a young mod).

Thank you, Sir-Kill, for those shiny golden stars.

Thank you IA testers (Raven, thetruth, Dago, leonidas, Clown, and even those testers who are new in the team: Nazar), for your time and efforts in play-testing the mod before each and every release.

Improved Anvil is not solely my work; no single person can make such a mod (that's exactly why I won't hesitate to praise the mod myself). IA is indeed the highest quality mod ever released in the history of modding IE games, but the credit doesn't exclusively belong to me (far from it). The credit goes to everyone who took a part in its creation and development: Baronius (for helping me to write complex codes), IA testers (Raven, thetruth, Dago, leonidas, Clown) for the time and effort they spent to test the mod, and to IA-players for their regular feedback and support.

For most other modders, modding is a hobby. For us, however, it is part of the real life. You can't probably imagine how often we (= myself and testers) have re-arranged our real life programs (and have even sacrificed significant income/job opportunities in RL) just to open free time and be able to spare more time on working on the mod. If modding was a hobby for us, IA wouldn't have been the mod you are playing now.

I'm glad that I am a BWL mod developer; I love BWL, because it's a place for serious modding activity; it's unique in this respect. Thank you Baronius and the entire BWL Council for maintaining such an excellent site.

Thanks, everyone!

Didn't I say that I wouldn't find the best words and sentences to express myself and my deep gratitude? I wish I could write in my own language.