Founder David Allen leaves; Derek Smart in as president at Quest Online

After a weak "soft launch" in December, Alganon is headed for a huge makeover, according to new Quest Online President Derek Smart. Quest went through a major shakeup that brought Smart in and saw founder David Allen leave.

A post in the Alganon forums by new president Derek Smart offers some insight into the direction of the game and the Arizona-based developer's corporate shakeup. Smart's post was in response to a news release that founder David Allen had left the company.

Smart goes into great detail about the shakeup, including tidbits that Allen was actually fired at the request of the LLC board, and that two of Allen's associates, Jason Blood and Hue Henry, are also gone.

Other items of interest from Smart's post:

This whole "WoW look-a-like" rubbish, is gone. I've essentially asked them to throw it all out and for the artists to come up with the game's own unique look and feel for for both the web UI as well as the game UI itself.

We're also getting rid of the monthly subscriptions. They are currently suspended, but will be gone for good. I put that plan into place since Dec 2009 with a view to making the game "subscription free" but supported via sales (I was the one who had the client price reduced to $19.95 as well btw) of the client as well as micro-transactions. It is not a traditional F2P game, but if thats what we have to do in the long run, then so be it. For now, we're taking baby steps.

EVERYTHING that was added to the game - when it should have been about fixing the game, tweaking it etc - has been disabled/removed on my orders. The team is focused on fixing game bugs, tweaking things etc and a new patch is out either today or later in the week.

Smart also said that the game never should have been launched in December and that it is being treated now as a soft launch. They are shooting for a official launch in April with the changes in place.

It's an interesting look inside the company and we'll be keeping an eye on the game as it moves closer to relaunch.