September 4, 2013 / KingsIsle Entertainment

KingsIsle Labor Day Weekend Adventures!

You know we spend a lot of time in the office working on your favorite games, but what about outside of work! This holiday weekend, we asked KingsIsle employees to share a little of their Labor Day weekend adventures with us. Here’s what some of us got up to this past weekend:

During my holiday weekend I will be working on building my Proton Pack for the local Ghostbusters group I’m a part of, Ghostbusters ATX. We dress up in full Ghostbusters gear and attend conventions but our main goal is to work with charities and help our community. Currently we are working with the American Cancer Society raising money for the Relay for Life which will be held at the Dell Diamond this year on Sept. 21^st. Aside from doing that I am going to see George Takei aka Mr. Sulu at Dragons Lair on Sept. 2^nd, can’t think of a better way to spend my holiday weekend. If anyone wants more info on our Ghostbusters group feel free to check us out on on Facebook or our website.
James Kane
QA Tester

Arrgh Fellow Pirates!
The summer be a season fer relaxing and getting some things done too. I spent my spare time planting a garden and painting up my little house near Flotsam. Lastly although all Pirates love the skyways for traveling, sometimes we also yearn for old fashioned water. So to round out my vacation I went to a pool party to end the summer with a big Splash.
Hope yers was as good as mine,
Old Ned

Over the Labor Day weekend my wife and I packed up our car and three boys and drove the 3 ½ hours down to the Texas coast. They’re not exactly the white sandy beaches of Florida but we had a great family trip. Boys loved digging in the sand and the water was warm and calm to swim in.
Fred Howard
Vice President of Marketing

I played daddy day care with my 1 week old new born son at home. I gave him a sponge bath and he made funny noises. I padded him on the back for a job well done drinking all that milk, and he gave me the longest burps. I made fun of how little he was and he made weird faces at me. At the end of the day we were both very exhausted and slept for a long time.
Tiger Ouyang
Lead Engineer

This Labor Day weekend, I went to College Station to visit my sister! The trip was a great opportunity to catch up with family – and for our dogs to have fun goofing off together! I got to enjoy a lazy drive through some of the small towns East of Austin – and some fantastic venison shish-ka-bobs. My puppy and I wrapped up the weekend with a trip to Red Bud Isle here in Austin with the dog – a great swimming hole for our four-legged friends! With summer coming to a close, every weekend counts!
Brendan McLeod
Senior Game Designer I

My Mom went iFlying over the weekend – or — researching what it’d be like if she walked the plank on a Pirate ship inside a skyway vortex?
Evan C
Principal Artist

I went to Florida and spent the weekend with an old friend on the beach! Was the most rejuvenating break I have had in a long time….Here was the highlight of my weekend….clear blue waters and dodging jelly fish!
Christy Lane
Producer

I spent most of the weekend hunting in South Texas, followed by a dip in the Colorado river. We went on a kayak trip down the Colorado river where we swam, swung on ropes swings from trees, climbed cliffs and let my dog run free. As you can see she likes to hang out on the tip of my kayak keeping a lookout for icebergs and squirrels.
Russell Hughes
Principal Cinematics/FX

My name is Bobby Menkedick and I am a Sound Designer at KingIsle. My wife and I flew to Denver, CO to see two concerts of our favorite band, Phish. We also hiked in Rocky Mountain National Park and took a train ride through the mountains. I always bring my microphone on trips and made sure to record the steam locomotive. The sounds might even make it into one of our games!
Bobby Menkedick
Sound Designer

I took the family down to San Antonio for the weekend. While I was at Worldcon, watching the Hugos and schmoozing with fantastic writers and amazing fans, the family explored the Riverwalk. It was a great weekend to refuel creatively, share fun stories, take a river boat ride with the kids, and explore the Alamo!
Jesse “King Artorius” Scoble
Senior Writer, Wizard101

I headed back to the east coast to my home state, North Carolina, for some beach time! We hung out with my family, took the boat out on the Intracoastal Waterway, and enjoyed the salt air sitting on the beach.
Lauren Mauldin
Marketing Website Producer

Joel “Mr. Trelawny” White and Leah “Professor Falmea” Ruben spent Labor Day swimming, biking, and running in the hot sun at Tri Rock Austin. This triathlon was a 1500m swim in Ladybird Lake, a 25 mile bike ride around beautiful downtown Austin, and a 10k run surrounding Auditorium Shores. We both survived the heat, and lived to claim our medals and our victory tacos upon crossing the finish line!
Mr. Trelawny and Professor Falmea

Aiden’s 6th birthday party was a blast! All of the children enjoyed the special cake made by his mother, which was hand-decorated with all of the emblems of the various Schools of Magic wizards can join in Wizard101. When he saw the poster signed by all of the friendly staff at KingsIsle Entertainment, he was overjoyed. He and the other children even pointed out all of the main characters featured on the poster.
Mike Stone
Associate Producer

I spent my Labor Day weekend isolated in the beautiful forests that surround the prestigious Shoal Creek Golf Course near Birmingham, AL. Although I am not a golfer, I managed to play a few rounds without losing any golf balls! It was the perfect escape for quiet and relaxation.
Natalie Akilian
Assoc. Product Marketing Manager

My buddies and I checked out the Leander Car Show. Every first Sunday of the month in downtown Leander, they rope off a city block and folks show off their sports cars and classic hotrods. The range of cars varies, including Camaros, Corvettes, Torinos, Minis, Porsches, Chargers, Challengers and even Ferraris. They even a have a truck with a dynometer so people can test how much horsepower their cars have.
Jeff Wand
Artist

It was a very hot and crowded day at Lake Pflugerville (A man-made lake in the outskirts of Austin Texas) over Labor Day Weekend, so we didn’t stay too long, but it was nice to get our feet wet, enjoy the water and splash around with the family a bit. The rest of the long weekend was spent mostly playing video games in a much cooler, indoor environment and just enjoying our family time together.
One-Eyed Jack
Community Manager

Well, we obviously had a great time over our vacation weekend! Now it’s time to get back to hard work in the studio. Hope you got up to fun adventures of your own last weekend 🙂