erlend_sh
August 7, 2021, 7:17pm
1
Some of you know me, but many don’t. I was an early employee at Discourse, having closely followed the product since its inception .
Gone . Forget about it.
I also don’t actually wear glasses.
To catch up on my professional story, I’ve written quite extensively about it on my GitHub profile .
# Erlend Sogge Heggen
*Open Source Practitioner* • *bullish on kindness*
### Contact
- Email in profile, `erlend` on Discord.
- Hanging out in the chat rooms of [Muni Town](https://discord.gg/BkEpMzzh38) and [Spicy Lobster](https://discord.gg/HgrkqqB8Ru).
### Now
Working on [Roomy](http://a.roomy.space/) & [Weird](https://weird.one/) (in [Muni Town](https://github.com/muni-town/)) and [Fish Folk](https://github.com/fishfolk/) (in [Spicy Lobster studio](https://spicylobster.itch.io/jumpy/devlog/356201/spicy-lobster-open-gamedev-company))
### Work Brief
I've been working in open source, games and web tech for the past ~20 years. My most notable project engagements lasted for 5+ years each:
- [2009-2016] [jMonkeyEngine](https://jmonkeyengine.org/) – Project Lead. We made a fully functional game engine together, still in use by professionals and hobbyists today.
- [2016-2021] [Discourse](https://www.discourse.org/) – first as a Community Advocate, then VP of Community and lastly a 6 month stint as a Product Lead.
- [2018-2023] [Amethyst organisation](https://github.com/amethyst/) – Project Manager. Founding member of the [Rust GameDev Working Group](https://www.rust-lang.org/governance/wgs/gamedev).
- [2020-now] [Muni Town](https://blog.muni.town/muni-town/) – Founder
See my full [work bio](https://github.com/erlend-sh/erlend-sh/blob/main/workbio.md) for more.
show original
I am rejoining Discourse as a Product Manager. We’ll expand on what exactly my product focus will be in the next few weeks.
I’ll be at 50% capacity because the other half is already occupied by my life as an indie game developer.
As mentioned in my re-introduction , 50% of my time nowadays is spent as an indie game developer. My main project right now is called Fish Fight, and we released our very first Good Enough https://twitter.com/fishfightgame/status/1424084016467226624
Along with the trailer we’ve also published our first devlog, explaining where we’re coming from and where we’re headed:
The game is being developed according to a simple thesis:
In s…
While this means my attention will be divided, 90% of my time in game development is spent communicating with teams and communities . As a game developer I still find myself lacking the all-in-one comms tool that Discourse is on the verge of becoming. A huge part of my product vision will be informed by my own needs as an archetypical gamedev customer.
I’m so so so looking forward to talking a whole lot more about what I’ll be working on. See you all around!
52 Likes
ondrej
August 7, 2021, 7:21pm
2
Welcome back @erlend_sh
Glad to have you back and I can’t wait to see what improvements you will bring to Discourse
10 Likes
Welcome back my man @erlend_sh
7 Likes
Richie
August 8, 2021, 9:39am
6
Welcome back
An interesting read, thanks for the insight!
Can I ask what led to the comeback? Have your paths now realigned?
8 Likes
Sander78
August 10, 2021, 7:55am
7
Oh, I remember those early days (still have the T-Shirt!). Nice to have you back!
6 Likes
That hair? Gone. Forget about it.
Now I wear at minimum two head garments to compensate (jk)
