Join the 2010 Collaboration group!

[Blue Train]

Hi everybody!

The 2010 colab group is looking for new members! Were about to start a new project for the summer and are looking for all you OHRers to join in on the fun.

How it will work

In the past each member would make a chapter to enter in the game and we would all have it follow a consistant storyline. This year will be much different. Each member will be incharge of a certian aspect of the game (Graphics, Storywriting, Audio, ect). Depending on how many people we have, there might be multiple people working on a similar aspect, so you should get use to working in a group on a game.

Non official projects
If you have a game or a concept for a game, and wish for help for it, feel free to ask us for our assistance! You can go by eather a whoever wants to help me, help me deal, or have an invitation only project, to have a team of people you know are right for the job.

Great! how do I sign up!
Send me a PM (private message) Saying you want to join, or reply here and I'll see to it that you get in! If you join though, you HAVE to help us with the 2010 project. Once in, you will see the "collaboration forum".

Thanks to everyone that has helped us in the past, and to anyone considering joining. Were going to make some great games now that we had a good practice run ;D

-Blue Train

[Blue Train]

Well, this was a disapointment.

I wish I atleast got some feedback on why no one wants to work on something with us.

Was DDW:TT really that bad?

[Baconlabs]

I never noticed this thread since I was without internet for a good stretch of time a while back. A collab does sound fun, but the new direction you're taking it kinda concerns me.

Each member will be incharge of a certian aspect of the game (Graphics, Storywriting, Audio, ect).

Because, y'see, I'll bet most game makers here are like me - lone workers, and thus Jacks of All Trades, Masters of None.
If I was made responsible for Music, for example, I might only be able to churn out a piece a week (unless I remixed something I already owned.) And some things, like Plotscripting, I'm just too flat-out inexperienced to handle.

These things don't necessarily make me incompetent, but they certainly make me nervous, and I'm sure this applies to a lot of people here.

... Now, with all that said, I'm bumping this thread in hope of more support. I want more experience in game design, and a collab would be a great boon, but I'd be a lot more confident in investing myself if more folks showed up.
My face if this thread gets 10 replies:

[Momoka]

Frankly, I think the collab might need some goddamn collaboration to actually work. Otherwise we end up with games going every which-way, like Danse Danse.

We need to sit down and discuss what we're doing BEFORE we do it.

[TwirlySocrates]

Collaboration rocks, but I'm just Mr. busy Dan
(Actually, I'm Mr. busy kyu)

I think Bacon man has a point, but I would imagine that if you want the game to have any kind of consistency, this new way is the way to go. That *is* how most commercial games are actually made after all.

But if anyone wants to pick up a project idea, I have a game concept for a Boulderbeast stomping game:
It would be a cross between Katamari and Godzilla. You start small, and crush whatever you can under your feet. Whatever you crush, you can add into your body. As you progress, you start incorporating larger rocks into your body, and your mass and size increases. Eventually you turn into this enormous juggernaut that can't be stopped. So yeah, you can incorporate chunks of mountains and buildings into your body. Or giant lumps of gold, or rebar, or cars, or whatever. Don't jump the gun and immediately add huge stuff, because it will ruin your balance, and slow you down.
Uh yeah.
Stomping and destruction.
Possible levels:
* Grassland: Boulders, cows, propane tanks, easy tutorial.
* Technopolis City: Crush cars. Screaming people. Wreck buildings.
* Badlands Oil rig: Heavy machinery, giant trucks and industrial explosives. Raise the oil prices.
* Mountains: ski resort, glacier and military bunker
* Asteroid mining station: Space ships, monstrous aliens, dilithium crystals, satellites, flying space rock.

At the end of each level, the Boulderbeast can do a happy dance.

I'm busy though ... I'm not sure I could involve myself very heavily in anything without my own projects suffering.

[Calehay]

I wish I atleast got some feedback on why no one wants to work on something with us.

If you join though, you HAVE to help us with the 2010 project.

I doubt people want to be bound and gagged into a project.

[JSH357]

Blue Train, the reason this isn't working out is that you don't have a strong idea to start with. Nobody wants to join in on a project that hasn't even started (unless they're getting paid). If there's nothing to work off of, they're probably not interested. What game idea are you working on? What style should it be in? How competent do the coders need to be? Your post says nothing about this. It's natural that nobody is interested in joining. Making collaboration serial games might be kind of fun just for the heck of it, but it's hard to produce meaningful work that way. You really need the concept to be tighter at its core.

[FnrrfYgmSchnish]

Was DDW:TT really that bad?

Well... it wasn't good. There were a few good bits here and there (the whale getting up on a stage and singing out of nowhere, the redneck-vs.-zombie scene, a few of the goofy attacks like "Clownfish Army"), but overall it just felt like Yet Another Bad RPG.

Also, the only way I was able to tell that multiple people worked on it was the inconsistent graphics (like an orange Pac-Man-ish ghost next to a super-detailed zombie.)

But hey, at least it wasn't the worst game in the contest. Yo Ghost Reborn and well over half of the Barnabus games make it look pretty decent in comparison.

[Newbie Newtype]

Basically what JSH said. You need to have very good planning so that people actually know what they need to do.

[Skullduggery Studios]

I... think we were planning on a more planned game...?

DDW:TW was really rushed. I kinda think the concept was that we were making a game to BE ridiculous, so absolute consistency was optional.

I've got, like, a BILLION game ideas. Most (okay, ALL) are huge ideas that could be easily incorporated into a Colab game. And they all have continuous storylines.

So... are you guys saying we need to post the start of a game (even if that's just an idea) before we get get enough people to make a decent Colab game (in which case, we might need to re-imagine the game we already posted...)?

[Newbie Newtype]

There is a difference between ideas and planning. Planning is actually laying out HOW you are going to implement features, graphics, etc.

[Baconlabs]

So, what we REALLY need is a Taskmaster and some Workers. (I'm sure there's better names for them out there, like Director and Volunteers, but whatever.)
One or two persons will probably be in charge of the game's design, which is where ideas would be made, and then everyone else would handle a gameplay or design aspect and actually implement the design.

Also,

My face if this thread gets 10 replies:

[Twinconclusive]

This is starting to sound more like an actual game production team than a collaboration.

[Blue Train]

Is that nessisarly a bad thing?

[Momoka]

This is starting to sound more like an actual game production team than a collaboration.

That's what we need, frankly.

I think, way back when, I had the idea of the everyone being "director" of a segment, rather than working on it alone. That's probably the best way to do it, because it gives the thing a structure, and sidesteps the problem of everyone wanting to direct.

We'd also need one Main Director for the overall game, but that could maybe be thought of collaberatively.

What we need to do, is have 70%+ of the game planned out before anyone opens custom.exe.