Unstuck

Planning & production

Ashes of Creation

Technical program leadership · Live ops · Launches

Ashes of Creation: production leadership across launches, live ops, and build infrastructure
The stuck
A AAA MMO racing toward launch on infrastructure that couldn’t keep up: hours-long builds, no round-the-clock live-ops function, and a Steam launch plus back-to-back Alpha milestones all bearing down at once.
The move
We ran the production. Founded the 24/7 Live Ops function and the incident framework, rebuilt the build pipeline on Horde CI/CD, and drove the Steam and Alpha launches with cross-functional strike teams across engineering, build, QA, DevOps, live ops, tech art, and web.
The legacy
The systems still run the studio. The incident framework is still in use, the rebuilt pipeline still saves millions in compute, and live ops runs around the clock, the operational spine that keeps a live game alive long after launch day.
  • 8 to 10h → ~2h
    build times, rebuilt
  • $1M+
    internal compute saved
  • 1 + 3
    Steam + Alpha launches
  • 7
    teams led cross-functionally
Gallery
Ashes of Creation homepage, the marketing site at Steam launch
Homepage: the marketing site at Steam launch
Ashes of Creation Alpha access page
Alpha access: three Alpha launches

Got a stuck moment of your own?

The first hour is free. Tell us where you’re stuck and we’ll show you the path.

Get Unstuck