DPB Team Breakdown news - Digital Paintball Source Mod for Half-Life 2

Some of you who have been paying attention might have noticed that we have not posted any new news recently. No, the development of DPB is not dead, but it has slowed to the point of stopping for the time being. Let me try and explain.

• Dedication

There are two or three people, myself included, who really truely care about the development of this game. They have shown this dedication by time and time again working tirelessly on their objectives, and putting their everyday lives in second place behind development. Unfortunately, two or three people does not a development team make.

Our lead programmer had to leave the team because he has gotten married (congratulations) and is moving to Japan. Several other members have gone off to school, and don't check their email anymore. It's difficult to organize people when you're separated by vast geographic distances. It's worked for the previous five years, but all of a sudden it's fallen apart now.

• Vendor Lock-in

To try and solve the above problem, I've been trying for a while to get the development team at least a modest salary. I've spoken with various paintball companies, and other advertisers, several that we've worked with in the past. Apparently, many of them have signed exclusivity agreements with WXP (Makers of GHTP). Not only can they not help us out, but we can't feature their markers in the game at all. We've lost more time and money because of these illegal non-competitive agreements than from all the other problems we've ever had, combined.
Know someone who works for a paintball company that might be interested in helping out? let me know.

• Stuck in the middle

When we started developing DPB, the development team were amateurs. In the years that we've been working on the game, our skills have steadily increased to that of a professional level. This makes it incredibly difficult to find new talent, as any amatuers we bring in from the outside need to be trained, and any professionals need to be paid.

I, for one, am not giving up on this project. I've put many years of my life building this game and this community up from scratch, and I'm not going to throw it away because it's gotten difficult. However, I do need your help!

• Help me find more developers!

Know someone that has worked on games before? I'm specifically looking for people that can model organics, or texture, or have experience in 3d game programming. Compensation is available for qualified applicants for sure =)

• Help me find advertisers or sponsors!

There is so much we can do for companies that help us out. We've already contacted many of the major paintball companies, but don't let that stop you from bugging anyone you know who might have connections

• Help get the word out about DPB!

I understand that the current half-life mod is pretty much trash. It's fun to play, but it was made by a bunch of high-school students and it shows. This new game looks so much better, and it's about 80% of the way to a good solid release. I want to give you guys the chance to play the best paintball game ever made, I just need a little help.

Follow this thread on the DPB Forums

-Jeff 'Kuja' Katz
Jeff@soulstrewn.com