PlanetQuest Team
Jon McCoy - Art Director
Jon has been a concept artist and designer for the entertainment industry since the early 2000s and has been a part of over 20 Hollywood feature films and a few video games. You might spot his name in the credits of Star Wars: Rogue One, Blade Runner 2049, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Battlefield 2042, just to name a few. Jon brings a tremendous amount of experience and artistic skill to the table, which makes him the perfect creative lead for PlanetQuest.
Over the last few months, Jon has been playing a vital role in all creative aspects of PlanetQuest. From our logo, to our landing page and the visual elements of our Genesis Engine, Jon has created beautiful pieces of art and has guided our artists and developers in creating something that could be worthy of the big screen. But there is more, Jon has also played a significant part in shaping the story of our universe. As we’re building PlanetQuest from the ground up, Jon has been our main driving force in creating the cinematic look and feel of our universe. He even stated: “While PlanetQuest is a game that will be played in the browser, it’s going to be built on a lot of the principles of real Hollywood filmmaking. Which is what I’m trying to facilitate and push for at every angle.”
According to Jon, the things we have achieved so far are already at highly sophisticated levels, and we’re only going to keep raising the bar. The Genesis Engine is a prime example of that and Jon is looking forward to seeing this particular technology continuously being refined and pushed further and further.
Read more about Jon: Medium | Jon Website | Jon Instagram
Josué Nanín (aka @Argnot)— Web Lead
Josue has extensive experience in all kinds of tech fields from frontend and backend solutions, all the way to automation, electronics and has even designed a Formula car!
He’s been largely involved as a developer, though not in relation to the game engine itself. His involvement has largely been in the development of the website and Discord Bots, support for the community and everything else in between — all of which are necessary to ensure a smooth introduction of our game to our community!
For the less technically savvy, this is what sits behind our website. The ‘front end’ would be the look and feel of a website, whilst the ‘back end’ involves data, analytics and maintenance. Check out the PlanetQuest.io website to see what he’s been up to!
The last couple of months have been incredibly busy for Josue. For example, the first two days after coming out of stealth, we transitioned from just our team to having a vibrant community of well over 100,000 community members on Discord. It’s been a fun ride.
Read more about Josue: Medium Article
Roghan (aka @Sheercold) - Lore Master
Roghan is intergalactic Lore Master behind PlanetQuest’s decentralized storyline. His background is in literature, philosophy and external game design. His given nickname is ‘Fairy King’ and Discord alias is @Sheercold
He started off studying literature in college as he really enjoy stories. Not just looking at them but also being able to create his own. Game design for him was a way to explore that. As Roghan did it, he became interested in Dungeon and Dragons where he’s been a Dungeon Master for 4–5 years now. The last 2–3 years of these he was also a professional, writing table-top RPG stories whilst working part time.
Roghan plays an integral role in building PlanetQuest, creating an immersive yet diverse multiverse where anything is possible. His unique experiences have equipped him with the creative tools to push the limits of traditional storytelling and bring the readers along this imaginative journey. Look forward to engrossing yourself as the story develops with more characters, complications and discoveries.
Read more about Roghan: Medium Article
Jesse Rodriguez (aka @PanCrudo) - Community Manager
Jesse started working at Venue Tech for nine years as a Lighting Designer and Director. After leaving that position, he went to join the corporate workforce and for about the last decade or so he’s been doing a combination of Customer Support and IT, all the way from simple account cancellations to being a middleman for customers and engineers.
He is a part of the community team. More recently he’s been monitoring the Ambassador applicants, issuing points for all the helpful community members and, well, testing…STUFF. He's all about trying to make things as easy as possible for both our users and team members, hence why people might have seen me bouncing around in all different language channels.
When it comes to PlanetQuest, the community is really his favorite part of it. He also absolutely loves seeing all of the artwork that has been created.
Read more about Jesse: Medium Article
Claudiu Barsan-Pipu - Studio Director
We’ve already introduced you to the Genesis Engine, but now it’s time to show some love to the person who oversaw its creation, our Studio Director, Claudiu Barsan-Pipu!
His career has been very interdisciplinary, and he has experience in many different fields such as arts, programming, engineering, and gaming technologies. As Studio Director, he works with a number of talented developers and 3D artists. He oversaw the development of the Genesis Engine and made sure that every planet we generated was based on the proper parameters of what would be possible for this type of planet. From a technical side of things, besides giving people stunning Planets, he want to make sure they were as realistic as possible.
With PlanetQuest, he's trying to push the limits of what is possible in terms of bringing a high-quality complex game to your browser and creating a story and a world that is imaginative, community-driven, yet based on physics and science.
Ionut Opria - Master of Planets
A key team member that we’ve been keeping secret all this time is our Master of Planets. He’s been there from the very beginning, pulling the coding strings of the Genesis Engine, bringing breathtaking planets to life, perfecting them to the highest level of detail… ladies and gentlemen, Ionut Opria — PQ’s Genesis Engine Developer!
Within PlanetQuest he has mainly worked on the Genesis Engine, where he specifically tries to make all of Jon’s crazy ideas come to life. He’s been part of this project since the beginning and had a blast throughout the development process. He started working for Claudiu at his studio in Romania where he got the chance to work on the Genesis Engine.
He’s very excited for people to see the full extent of what we have created with the Genesis Engine. Other than that, he’s really curious and excited to see what kind of game we will end up creating.
Read more about Ionut: Medium Article
Justin Sloan— Galactic Novelist
We can finally announce the next big step: the first PlanetQuest novel is in the works! Let us celebrate this by introducing you to the very person who will be writing this book: our Narrative Lead, Justin Sloan! He's the Narrative Lead of PlanetQuest. In the past, He's worked as a writer on a lot of books, videogames, and screenplays, so people might be familiar with some of his work.
When he first went into the creative industry, he managed to jump into a videogame company called Telltale Games. This was an absolute dream come true for him. The second project he ever got to work on was Game of Thrones, which is the book series that got him into writing in the first place. Other than that, he also did some writing on Tales from the Borderlands, the Walking Dead properties, and MineCraft Story Mode.
He is working on creating the first series of PlanetQuest novels! These are obviously going to be heavily tied to the story lore on Discord, but with a more character-centred approach. There will be a lot more heart and feeling to the story.
Loren Roosendaal, Founder and Mastermind
Many of you will have seen him go by RetroBooster in our Discord, now it’s time for you to meet Loren Roosendaal, one of our founders and PlanetQuest’s mastermind.
He's originally from the Netherlands, although he has been around the world a fair few times. Right now, he's in Dubai where he might be spending a lot more time over the next few years. He is one of the Founders of PlanetQuest.
He rolled into video games at a very, very young age. He was about 10 years old when he got his very own first computer. By age 11, he figured out he enjoyed building video games even more than he liked playing them. That was entirely self-taught. He quickly got into modding and total conversions.
The ideas of PlanetQuest came up in very early conversations with the founding team. They talked about a lot, but they kept returning to questions like: “How far can you take this concept of building a universe with the community? How about the concept of true ownership? And how can you take that beyond just games?” This is where PlanetQuest started taking shape.
As a founder, the way he approach the companies he’s helped build has always been to try and bring the right people together and empower them to do amazing things.
Don Goddard, Head of Game Development and Extraterrestrial
Shine up your Explorer Suits and give a swift salute to PQ’s Head of Game Development and resident alien expert, Don Goddard!
He’s been making games now for just over 30 years. He’s worked on everything from Sonic the Hedgehog to flight simulators to most games you can imagine. For him, it’s all about making games that make a difference. He's really into space games so PlanetQuest just happens to be one of those unique things he's always wanted to do to the highest degree.
The primary focus for PlanetQuest is he & PQ team want the game to last, starting at maybe five years out to ten years; trying to create something that you’ll want to live with and that will be a part of your gaming background. He wants players to think, I lived in that game for years, as opposed to Yeah, I played that game.
PlanetQuest goes way beyond just a shooter for him. Shooters are cool but it’s more about why you are making one decision over another and the consequences. Don will be spearheading efforts to deliver a game so meaningful and immersive that it will be worth investing a lot of game time in it. A game so deeply entrenched in your DNA that it becomes an heirloom passed onto the next generation.
Read more about Don: Medium
Ioana Hariga, Founder and Brand Architect
Every day, hyper-specialized professionals around the globe do amazing things to bring the rich universe of PlanetQuest to life. But how do these specialists come together to work wonders every day? Without bridges connecting their work to the world, they are but solitary stars in space. The architect of quite a few of these bridges here at PlanetQuest is none other than Ioana Hariga, one of our Founders and resident jack of all trades!
She comes from Romania. She’s been living in the Netherlands for the past 6 years and have just moved to Dubai. By education, she is an architect, however she spent most of her career as a creative and brand manager.
She helped build the brand and vision, worked on the game concept and economy, set up the Explorer Program, and did the initial PR & marketing as well. Building out this beautiful idea, beautiful content, and the whole concept of PlanetQuest so that it can be experienced by our community is her passion.
Ioana will continue being everywhere at once to bring innovative and fun concepts to implementation as fast as is possible. She’s in this for the long haul to ensure PlanetQuest is talked about enjoyed for decades to come and looks forward to seeing you line up at Comicon in full explorer gear, perhaps with a little Qyllit on your shoulder.
Nasha Afshar, Head of Investor Relations and Blockchain Research Analyst
PlanetQuest is on the leading edge of the NFT Blockchain gaming space where guidance is golden. We are therefore very fortunate to have the right guy helping chart the course. Give a warm galactic welcome to PQ’s Head of Investor Relations, Blockchain Research Analyst, and Dota 2 fanatic, Nasha Afshar!
He’s had the pleasure of fulfilling PlanetQuest’s investor relations function for about two months now as well as helping add value to the overall project wherever he can. Originally, he was very interested in PlanetQuest both because of his background as a gamer and the financial elements of PQ being a blockchain game.
He set up his own external asset management firm from scratch and began investing in crypto in the third quarter of 2017. In his spare time, he teach Quantitative Finance and Derivatives for the level 1 CFA Course because giving back to students is something he feel very strongly about. Ultimately, he was lucky enough to come across PlanetQuest because the Blockchain gaming finance space is certainly where his current passion lies.
Nasha will be leveraging his considerable talents and financial know-how to bolster, improve, and help develop the gold standard in NFT-based game ecosystems. An ecosystem so robust that at all times the PQ community, and all who wish to join the journey, can consistently and reliably take advantage of its full potential.
Mete Alp Oğuzer, VP of Web Development
Whether it be space exploration or Web 3.0 development, PlanetQuest is blazing a trail through the NFT-based gaming frontier. Let's shine the spotlight on our VP of Web Development at the helm of our digital endeavors, Mete Alp Oğuzer!
Mete has been instrumental in the background workings of the Planet Sale and orchestrated the web development team to secure a seamless experience for all future planet owners. A workweek in web development typically begins by planning with the team, noting down their questions, clarifying anything that could be confusing or ambiguous, checking their work and progress, and giving directions as needed.
Before that, he was the CEO Office Projects Manager overseeing the tech and product departments for the biggest E-commerce enterprise in the country owned by the Naspers Group company. Having such industry expertise ensures PlanetQuest and future Galactic Entertainment projects will continue to forge ahead into the frontier of Web 3.0 and revolutionize NFT-based gaming.
He is currently assembling and on-boarding a talented but small team of front and back-end web developers. In addition, he was the CTO of one of the biggest quick commerce food delivery companies in the world, Getir. After that, he started working for a project house doing tailor-made projects for large incumbents and customers in Turkey.
Mete began searching for an opportunity that was relevant to his background and encapsulated the things that he enjoys doing.
Read more about Mete: Medium
Laura Aker, Communication Manager
Passion, creativity, and work ethic are just a few of the tools skillfully wielded by our very own Communication Manager, Laura Aker
She is based in Amsterdam where she’s been for quite a while. Her official title is Communications Manager, which basically means that she is part of the Content team. She does a lot of writing, but she also works on some of our newer initiatives that include launching new YouTube channel, recording podcasts, and working on innovative ways to constantly release exciting content to the community.
She is so very much looking forward to seeing how the multiverse unfolds. How we are going to continue having this great story with amazing characters and lore being explored in different formats.
Laura has brought to life many of PlanetQuest’s initiatives and community events while working behind the scenes to make so many of us here at Galactic Entertainment better at what we do. Her high energy, positive vibes, and top-tier chattiness shine through just about every piece of content she has produced, and will continue to produce for a long time to come
Mohannad Khallouf, VP of Marketing
Mohannad is the VP of Marketing at Galactic Entertainment and he is located in Dubai. He and his team is creating almost everything we are currently seeing and hearing from PlanetQuest.
Mohannad used to own one of the biggest creative agencies in Dubai until 2013 where he decided that he wanted a new challenge so he started his own Games Production Studio.
He has been obsessed with games so that was a bit of a passion project. Mohannad is a big fan of Call of Duty and FIFA and also likes RPG games and besides that, is crazy about sports, Arsenal supporter!
According to his saying, his favorite moon is Europa.
His biggest goal in life is to go to space and is already setting money aside to buy a ticket to leave this planet for a little bit.
Read more about Mohannad: Medium
Ahmed F. Genç, Community Manager
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And yes, it's time to get to know more facts about a well-known name, and obviously beloved by the community, Ahmed F. Genç, aka our beloved Cea Barr!
Ahmed is from Turkey but he is living in Germany for the last three years.
Regarding PlanetQuest, he has been involved with the players and community since day one.
Back then he was a regular community member, but for the past eight months, Ahmed has become further nested within our community, trying to create a better environment for them in the future as the Community Manager here at PlanetQuest.
One of his future goals is to create his own game [WOW!], but he's in no rush!
Cea helps to build bridges and develop ideas into amazing creative projects.
Read more about Ahmed F. Genç: Medium
Youngjin Kang, Tools and Graphics Programmer
Time to shine the spotlight on someone to whom we credit many aspects of our planet surface: our Tools Graphics Programmer, Youngjin Kang!
Youngjin is a software engineer, currently working as a Tools and Graphics Programmer at PlanetQuest.
He studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington, after graduating he worked in quite a few gaming studios.
Besides working he really enjoys reading. Some of his best recommendations are books written by H.G. Wells, such as “The War of the Worlds” or “The Time Machine”. Do not hesitate to check them! His favorite genre is science fiction.
One of his favotire video games is the original Sims!
Youngjin is looking forward to share the project with the whole community and is waiting for the upcoming releases. And so are we!
Read more about Youngjin Kang: Medium
Narrative and Worldbuilding Writer, Filip Zahariev
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It is time to learn about Filip and his passion for collaborative storytelling, his experience as a child bookworm, and his special good luck charm
Filip is part of the narrative team. We might have seen his recent work on the storyline or his entries in the Lore Codex.
The main aim of the Lore Codex was to further develop each of the identities of the factions. Working on this allowed Filip to have a very intimate understanding of what makes each faction tick and how they function.
He fell in love with stories as a child.Even while travelling and visiting amazing places like the Colosseum in Rome, Filip always had his nose buried in a thick fantasy or science fiction book.
Filip is a fan of comic books, especially the X-Men.
Read more about Filip Zahariev: Medium
Karla Rojas, Social Media Manager
Karla Rojas AKA GalaxySeventeen is the Social Media Manager here at PlanetQuest!
She is from Mexico but Karla currently lives in Netherlands for about five years. Did her bachelor’s and now is about to finish her masters!
Karla is currently studying astrophysics, which is very related to space exploration and has also a degree in marketing.
She does enjoy science, and is also a fan of video games, art, reading and has always really enjoyed storytelling.
If you are curious about how she met Stephen Hawking, you can read more about Karla: Medium and find out!