Urby's Tips blog - monster_urby

So I already summarised the 3 main things that I see a little too much of (in my opinion) in my three images (Urby's tips 1, 2 and 3) and a couple of members have asked me for #4.

This is where things get a little bit deeper and an image wouldn't necessarily be enough to get my point across and be taken seriously.

Urby's Tips #4

"If you need a team, prove you are a capable leader."

There are so many mods out there where one guy or girl has posted 3 concept scribbles on scruffy notepad paper that any half-way decent artist could fart out in less than a minute. They then prattle on about their huge plans and how they "NEED A TEAM!" before any more progress can be made on their mod.

THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO DO THINGS!

The development of a mod is a time consuming thing, even if you happen to have all the tools and the know how. Rome wasn't built in a day, Black Mesa wasn't built in a month, The Core (self glorifying... sorry) wasn't built in a year.

Some of the following points may be very obvious to a lot of modders, but there is a lot of evidence out there that suggests some people just don't get it.

• If you're not an artist, don't release concept art.
• If you're not a modeller, don't post model renders.
• If you have no experience using a certain tool or engine, DO NOT USE YOUR FIRST, SECOND OR EVEN THIRD ATTEMPT AS MEDIA!
• If you don't have any media, you don't have a mod so don't make a God damned mod page!

Have you ever seen a mainstream game developer release unfinished media or just a plot summary when promoting an upcoming title? Of course not!
Use what strengths you DO have to promote your idea. If you only have a story, it can be the best story in the world, but people want to SEE what you're capable of. Learn at least one of the tools needed to bring the project to life. Practice until you are happy with what you can produce and ONLY THEN do you start showing that off on a mod page. If people like what they see, the team WILL COME TO YOU! If people don't like what they see, take that on board and improve on what you've learned to make your project stand out.

I am guilty of blindly joining a couple of teams that were both being managed by inexperienced kids. I'm not being condescending about their age here. I am 26 and there are a lot of kids out there who are far more intelligent and talented than I am. Their ability to drive the project was hindered by the fact that they had no experience with any of the tools needed to pull the project together, so they weren't able to designate jobs and everybody was doing their own thing. A couple of models would get finished and somebody would make a track or two within a week and call it done after the first draft and the whole thing would fall apart in less than a month.

Take a Leaf from my book
The Core was a simple project I started back in 2008. By then I had been working with GoldSource for 10 years. I was a pretty good mapper, I knew the very basic minimum regarding editing models and the media I released was polished and got the reaction I was hoping for. 5 years on and the primary team is now comprised of 3 people. A developer, a mapper who is confident with editing sound and video as well as producing textures, and myself, also a mapper, texture editor and model editor. While this is still fairly meager in terms of a "team" the three of us working together have taught one another more tips and tricks we can use when working on the mod and as such many older areas have been enhanced, improved or even rebuilt completely. In light of this, The Core is one of the most popular upcoming GoldSource mods on MODDB at present, with nearly 700 watchers and netting a spot in the top 100 for Mod of the Year 2012. That is the primary benefit of working with a talented team and that is exactly why you cannot rush the process of assembling one.

All the best,
Urby