Arion Online

A passion project back in 2023/4, that I was leading, which we called Arion Online.

It was to be an RPG-Minecraft server that was able to be played without the need for any third-party Minecraft mod clients. It ran completely off of plugins, that I helped optimize, to present an effective environment that allowed us to create a custom world for our players.

I learnt that one’s drive can crumble without organized motivation.

At the time, my project team and I were juggling school, club activities, hobbies and our social life, with this. Their motivation grew dull throughout the year, until I was the only one remaining working on this project.

However, parts of my experience with such a large project are now being used to build my career. Here’s what I’m talking about:

• Organized a team, laid out a plan, and worked through it together. This taught me the importance of co-dependency and it’s benefits.
• Complete fresh installation of a Linux machine running with Ubuntu, used for the server this was all running off of. Use of Systemctl services and regular backups were required.
• Logged all the changes, updates, and additions daily for my team to keep up with what I was working on.
• Wrote lore, worked on my storytelling and world-building, and created an immersive environment for the player to explore.
• Troubleshooting was exhausting, as we’d have had to look through countless files and server-logs to pinpoint an issue, and these issues came frequently.
• Created a simple Project trailer, which was the start to my experience with Editing softwares.

All these skills have helped me kick off how I approach work, and my mindset about my career’s future. Treat your passion projects like stepping stones to building a strong skillset, as once a skill is learnt, it sticks with you.