Neichus

Neichus was a DotA Allstars developer from April 2004 to June 2005. After inheriting the mod from Guinsoo, Neichus enlisted IceFrog's help for development due to having no formal background in coding. When Neichus quit, he left IceFrog in charge of the project. Overall, Neichus was a minor developer for 10 months and the main developer for 4 months, for a total of 1 year and 2 months having worked on DotA.

How Neichus quit: “After being project head for a while I got things rolling again, but it was wearing on me. I don’t have a particularly thick skin, and anybody involved with game design knows this is a bad thing. Gamers are vicious in their assessments, and since I felt it was my duty to keep in touch with things on the forums I got pretty worn down (to somebody who was asking before: the reason I have a late join date is because the website has since moved from its old location where I was originally involved). I also was not clear on certain things. For instance, I’ve since come to appreciate that you have to choose a balance point: you can balance a game for newcomers, or intermediates, or advanced players but you can’t really do so for everybody at once.

This led to a lot of consternation as professional players would gripe about some things while the forums were full of vitriol about others. After a bit I was pretty miserable, as it had become an onerous job on top of my school work load. I told IceFrog I needed a bit of a break and left the project with him. And then I just sort of never came back.”

Notable Contributions
Heroes created by Neichus:
 * Axe
 * Broodmother
 * Earthshaker
 * Enchantress
 * Morphling
 * Necrophos
 * Ogre Magi
 * Pudge
 * Sand King
 * Shadow Fiend
 * Tinker
 * Ursa
 * Weaver

Neichus also reworked/completed work on the following heroes:


 * Bane
 * Bristleback
 * Death Prophet
 * Doom
 * Enigma
 * Keeper of the Light
 * Naga Siren
 * Phantom Lancer
 * Riki
 * Tiny
 * Visage
 * Zeus

Neichus created the following items:


 * Animal Courier
 * Bracer
 * Refresher Orb
 * Wraith Band