EverQuest and EverQuest II – Darkpaw Games Changes Leadership

The development team behind EverQuest and EverQuest II that has recently been restructured into Darkpaw Games, was headed for a good while by Holly “Windstalker” Longdale who announced her resignation earlier this month. As a result, the studio is now headed by Jennifer “JChan” Chan who you may know as EverQuest’s previous technical director.

With that in mind, you might want to check out Holly Longdale’s farewell message as well as Jennifer Chan first community letter as the new head of studio. Here’s the latter:

Hail Norrathians,

Before we dive into the meat of the beast that is my first community letter, I have to say, it is with great honor and gratitude to have been appointed the next steward of EverQuest and EverQuest II. I follow a line of legends before me, and I intend to lead by example and carry on the torch to the best of my ability.

I look forward to us getting to know each other more. Prior to stepping into my role as current Head of Studio at Darkpaw Games, I have been the Technical Director the last 6 years for EverQuest and EverQuest II and, before that, I was a programmer for the franchise between 2008 and 2013.

I want to reassure you that the change of guard does not mean change of plans in EverQuest II. We are moving full steam ahead on our road map for the year with lots of new content in store.

EverQuest is about to celebrate its 21st birthday and it’s an honor to be blessed by the love and dedication that you all have for the franchise, and with EverQuest’s 21st, that means Chronoportal is coming, and we’ll have more info on that in the next few days.

The team is planning on bringing some major changes to Overseer with the upcoming Game Update in April, including a leveling component and a new season, which will add some new layers to Overseer. The GU will also include some class balance changes that have been talked about in the past and is sure to be a rootin’ tootin’ good time!

We’ve pushed several changes over the past few months (and more today with the current update) to help with overall server performance and stability, with more planned for the future. With the new patching schedule and those performance fixes we hope to see marked changes during your play experience.

Finally, the team has already started the planning for expansion 17, and some of the ideas they’ve been cooking up in there are seriously fun and I’m excited to talk about them as we get closer to the release.

Now, there are a few more things that we will be discussing soon, like a new project Dreamweaver has been cooking up for you, plus a few additional surprises, including plans for a fan gathering this summer.

All in all, I am very excited for this year and the things we have planned for EverQuest II, what we have in store for the future of the franchise, and I can’t wait to walk this road with all of you.

Yours Truly,

Jennifer “JChan” Chan
Head of Studio, Darkpaw Games