I'm in the same position, except I'm a content creator and pretty much nothing of a programmer. I'm in a position to commission coders for achievable per-task one-time jobs but I would rather just team up with someone for the passion of game development and think about money later, if that's even realistic anymore. I think the commission approach is reasonable because it forces things to be prioritised and folks can be compensated for their time.
My outlook on the situation is that if someone is going to assume a leadership role (and honestly, only 1 person can and will, always) then they have a LOT of extra work to do to plan _everything_ out, and I really mean everything, including an ending - have documentation and reference material to work from, have prototypes and be able to visually demonstrate concepts, have a fairly chunky "dev-bible" (and expect nobody to actually read it) that is written in such a way that it expands from basic bullet-points into pages of details that attempts to answer _every_ question. Not just with storyline and mechanics, but also an operating workflow - detailing which engine and softwares and templates, etc.
The game should already exist, in its entirety, "on paper" well before anyone is spending time poking around an engine. Then, just because it exists, doesn't mean it won't change drastically. I think branding also goes a long way, personally. It may seem shallow, but if a project already has a professional-looking title and a logo or something, it will appear to be more of an actual project that's going somewhere rather than just some high schooler's fantasy cooked up that day during lunch.
Normally what I see around is a paragraph or two, drop the names of a couple of games or even genres and just say "something like that". What's worse is a lot of people seem to be reluctant to keep their ideas under wraps from fear of it being stolen. I believe, 99% of the time, if someone is the type of weasel that's going to steal your idea because they have nothing better themselves, they are likely the same kind of weasel that have no practical skills and will try to make everyone else do it for them. So, better to just put your ideas out there and risk them being stolen by weasels, in order to allow fellow developers to understand the project and possibly team up. While you guys are busy actually developing, the weasels will be trying to shove the puzzle together and looking for more ideas to steal and more assets to flip.
Anyone who thinks "it's not that kind of project, I don't need any planning, let's just wing it and make it up as we go along, etc." should actually just express that, because that will say a lot about the project and where it's likely to go.
In short - yes there are lonely programmers and yes there are lonely artists, but everyone has their own ideas and getting people together, in agreement and getting along so everyone is cool, flexible and professional - is the hardest thing to do.
I don't think there's anything wrong with outsourcing some textures and basic scenery, but just be sure that it's mixed up nicely while also seeming consistent with theme and quality. So, don't just use textures all from the same set all in the same place, and don't have one cartoonish "hand-drawn" texture sitting right next to photosource realism.
I don't think people will mind seeing a familiar texture here or there, or even a familiar tree or trashcan, etc. This in itself doesn't count as an "asset flip". If it did, then we could say the first STALKER game was an asset flip, which is something only the most obnoxious and misinformed would try to claim.
Just be sure that your characters, weapons/items and everything that is at the core of the design is original, and nobody should lose any respect for the effort put into the project.
Couldn't he (/they) just be banned from posting but still have their assets/portfolio pages up and still be allowed to contribute to the site? I don't see the harm in that, it seems reasonable to me. As much as I think this is all stinky and ridiculous, I still see the ability to "speak" and the ability to contribute as two entirely different things.
Okay, so you are saying that these lines are intentional. If it's not too much trouble I'd really love to have a version that excludes them, because for me it seems visually erroneous so I skipped this one, otherwise I'd highly recommend it.
Great contribution, thank you and keep up the good work! :)
However... This material appears to have some strange seams and it doesn't look intentional, it's not aligned 8x8/power-of-2 and looks more like an error than an intentional seam.
I'm in the same position, except I'm a content creator and pretty much nothing of a programmer. I'm in a position to commission coders for achievable per-task one-time jobs but I would rather just team up with someone for the passion of game development and think about money later, if that's even realistic anymore. I think the commission approach is reasonable because it forces things to be prioritised and folks can be compensated for their time.
My outlook on the situation is that if someone is going to assume a leadership role (and honestly, only 1 person can and will, always) then they have a LOT of extra work to do to plan _everything_ out, and I really mean everything, including an ending - have documentation and reference material to work from, have prototypes and be able to visually demonstrate concepts, have a fairly chunky "dev-bible" (and expect nobody to actually read it) that is written in such a way that it expands from basic bullet-points into pages of details that attempts to answer _every_ question. Not just with storyline and mechanics, but also an operating workflow - detailing which engine and softwares and templates, etc.
The game should already exist, in its entirety, "on paper" well before anyone is spending time poking around an engine. Then, just because it exists, doesn't mean it won't change drastically. I think branding also goes a long way, personally. It may seem shallow, but if a project already has a professional-looking title and a logo or something, it will appear to be more of an actual project that's going somewhere rather than just some high schooler's fantasy cooked up that day during lunch.
Normally what I see around is a paragraph or two, drop the names of a couple of games or even genres and just say "something like that". What's worse is a lot of people seem to be reluctant to keep their ideas under wraps from fear of it being stolen. I believe, 99% of the time, if someone is the type of weasel that's going to steal your idea because they have nothing better themselves, they are likely the same kind of weasel that have no practical skills and will try to make everyone else do it for them. So, better to just put your ideas out there and risk them being stolen by weasels, in order to allow fellow developers to understand the project and possibly team up. While you guys are busy actually developing, the weasels will be trying to shove the puzzle together and looking for more ideas to steal and more assets to flip.
Anyone who thinks "it's not that kind of project, I don't need any planning, let's just wing it and make it up as we go along, etc." should actually just express that, because that will say a lot about the project and where it's likely to go.
In short - yes there are lonely programmers and yes there are lonely artists, but everyone has their own ideas and getting people together, in agreement and getting along so everyone is cool, flexible and professional - is the hardest thing to do.
I don't think there's anything wrong with outsourcing some textures and basic scenery, but just be sure that it's mixed up nicely while also seeming consistent with theme and quality. So, don't just use textures all from the same set all in the same place, and don't have one cartoonish "hand-drawn" texture sitting right next to photosource realism.
I don't think people will mind seeing a familiar texture here or there, or even a familiar tree or trashcan, etc. This in itself doesn't count as an "asset flip". If it did, then we could say the first STALKER game was an asset flip, which is something only the most obnoxious and misinformed would try to claim.
Just be sure that your characters, weapons/items and everything that is at the core of the design is original, and nobody should lose any respect for the effort put into the project.
You might want to give this a go, if possible bandwidth issues wouldn't outweigh the convenience you're looking for:-
https://www.httrack.com/
http://soundimage.org/wp-content/uploads/
Index doesn't seem protected, as of posting this reply. If it suddenly isn't accessible, Mr.Matyas just fixed it. :P
Couldn't he (/they) just be banned from posting but still have their assets/portfolio pages up and still be allowed to contribute to the site? I don't see the harm in that, it seems reasonable to me. As much as I think this is all stinky and ridiculous, I still see the ability to "speak" and the ability to contribute as two entirely different things.
This is what you get from a couple of simple clicks in a software called "Genetica":-
http://spiralgraphics.biz/genetica.htm
They basically get farted out of the software by default without any creativity involved.
I've seen these exact textures before in many different places, "by" many different artists.
Okay, so you are saying that these lines are intentional. If it's not too much trouble I'd really love to have a version that excludes them, because for me it seems visually erroneous so I skipped this one, otherwise I'd highly recommend it.
Great contribution, thank you and keep up the good work! :)
However... This material appears to have some strange seams and it doesn't look intentional, it's not aligned 8x8/power-of-2 and looks more like an error than an intentional seam.
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