I was perusing the official Shroud of the Avatar dev team page, and I noticed a few new faces in the mix…new, that is, since the addition of Melissa Soest to the team.

Andres “Andy” Cortez is a recent graduate from the Art Institute of Austin where he focused his talents on 3D Art. While in school, he interned at Sony Entertainment Online and helped create art for DC Universe Online. With a childhood full of Star Wars, The Legend of Zelda, and work from Tolkien, sci-fi and fantasy have always been an important part of his life. Andy is fairly new to the game industry and is very excited to be making art for Shroud of the Avatar.

Niall Farrell has been animating since 2009, and is relatively new to the game industry. An Austin Community College and Animation Mentor graduate, with experience at local studios – Panic Button Games and Moontower VFX – he brings a love for the art and craft of animation and game development.

Niall hails originally from Kilkenny, Ireland, where he was raised by Leprechauns. When he’s not animating, he can be found with a pint of stout and tickling the strings of his guitar, playing some Irish tunes.

“I am really excited to work with the Portalarium team, as the world of SoTA unfolds.”

Brandon Lackey is an animator with a varied production background. He got his start animating on the pilot television episode of Lucy Daughter of the Devil for Cartoon Network. He then moved to Vietnam and worked in tv commercials. He ate a lot of really good pho noodles there. Then he moved to Singapore and worked on a low-budget animated movie with Christian Slater starring as Moses. He also animated on a television series for Discovery Channel. He avoided the durian in Singapore as often as possible. More recently he’s back in the US and working in game development. He’s animated on a few mobile games and is excited to be working with the very talented team at Portalarium. When he’s not at Portalarium he teaches animation at the local community college.

As well, the last couple of posts made in the Standup Corner thread on the Shroud of the Avatar forums have made mention of a fourth new hire, one Aaron Holden. I assume this is him. If so, well…he worked at BioWare Austin as a tester for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and then at Kalani Games as a level designer for…something that was being built with the Unity engine.

As well, the most recent Standup Corner post made mention of an animation team that Portalarium is evidently outsourcing some work to. That, coupled with the new hires, is (I think) a good sign…the project has the resources to bring on team members and to farm out work to a third-party group. Granted, we’re not talking Star Citizen here, which (last I checked) has a bunch of contractors and studios in at least five different places working on it. But even so…good sign.