[page=Basic Skills]
Hello all, apparently you came for some help in managing a group of people. I will say this right now - this path can be either easy or difficult. What I mean by this is that the level of difficulty of this position will vary depending on what type of people you are working with. A group of immature ruffians and a group of talented and able artists are two complete different levels of control that one must know how to cope with. In this tutorial, if you adapt what I am saying to your own style you should be able to deal with all groups on the same level of authority.
First and foremost - DEDICATION. Sometimes this is the most difficult part for people. Before you even fathom of creating a mod, ask yourself "Do I really want to see this happen this bad to sacrifice a smidge of my life?". Alot of the time people jump into things without considering what other real-life responsibilities they have such as work,family,school, etc. If you have alot of things going on in your life, don't bother trying to start a mod unless you are going to make a HUGE amount of free time to work on it;however, you can also very well hire a co-leader but the choice is purely up to you. Now, if you are one of the blokes that have way too much free time such as myself (otherwise I wouldn't be writing this :P) then you just have to worry about staying dedicated.
Next, we have to look at the level of maturity. Leaders, no matter how large or small, must be a very mature person. If you or your leader is saying "d00d!!WE R T3H r0x0rz!WE R T3H 0wNz0rz c0mPARD 2 T3H R3ST 0f T3H m0d$." then there is a problem. Not only will that sorry excuse for spelling and grammar scare people away, but it will also enlighten your fellow team members that you or the leader is an immature 10 year old with the brain capacity slightly less then a toddler of two.If you're going to be a leader, you have to act like one. Compatability is an essential component of maturity;they go hand-in-hand.If you flip out at one of your members for slacking, it's not going to make them want to work any harder! Now, for some people it's hard to do that. You may pass this off as a useless arguement--On the contrary!You may be able to escape the reprecussions of an internet arguement, but if you blow your stack that fast on a stranger, imagine what would happen if you got in another arguement with a child,spouse,boss,co-worker,etc. Do you think things are just going to go away at the snap of the fingers?*DO NOT* start a mod if all you're going to do is run things like a tyrant with diaper rash, stomping and kicking and crying. You need to learn how to deal with problems on a logical level before verbally abusing them and yourself just because you can't control your emotions.
Next up in line is team cooperation. Before having a successful mod, you need a successful team. This means that everyone is capable of getting along at even a dissapated level of partnership. There will (guarenteed) be at least one bad apple in the bunch. My advice to you is two options:
a.Confront the perpetrator, and nicely ask him to stop causing trouble.
b.Boot his uncooperative ass out the door.
Both options have their perks and faults. If you boot him, chances are you just lost yourself a good modeler/skinner/coder/mapper/whatever because, from personal experience, the most talented people are usually the bitchiest. I say this as a generalized statement, but don't think that it applies to EVERY talented person. In any case, just make sure that you can maintain then and keep themn from getting out of control. Sometimes a slight jab with words to the cerebrum is needed but hey, where would we get if we didn't have to get pushy every now and then?
One of my all time favorites - Organization. Organization is one of the quintessential traits one needs because it can literally create or destroy a mod. My advice here is to have weekly team meetings, scheduled 1-2 times a week and for 1-2 hours.You'd be suprised how much can be accomplished if you and your team don't beat around the bush and get straight to work. Not only that, you can designate which people are active and dedicated or those who aren't.A good thing you should do before hiring anyone (or maybe right after hiring them) is to make everyone have a corresponding instant messanger service, such as AIM,MSN,ICQ,Ventrilo,etc. This will make things all the more smoother in terms of communication.
Finally, Public Relations. You may or may not have to do this, but in preferance of getting your stuff out there you should have several people including yourself work on it. Make friends with some of the veterans of the community, and pimp your stuff wherever you can. A few places that most of us modding nerds hang out are Moddb,CGtalk,PolyCount, and Gamedev. Post in their forums often, and you're sure to get more public appeal. Also, try and have some interviews arranged. Flashy media is also a must have, so make sure your artists produce some breath-taking stuff. Good literary skills are almost a must, otherwise you wouldn't get anything but a bunch of people asking you for your address so they can send you Hooked on Phonics for kids.
[page=Conclusion]
In conclusion, that is *my* opinion and/or advice on how to manage your team and yourself. Reading this, don't try and assume that I'm telling you "it's this way or no way". Once again, it is a tutorial, meaning you use it to help, not to govern. This is my first, so feel free to give feedback (questions,love letters, hate mail, etc.)I hope this has helped you, the reader, in your quest to have your dream realized and made possible.
-Alex "Incognito"
Thanks for this information, im leading a mod myself. Ill have to remember those sites... Moddb,CGtalk,PolyCount, and Gamedev.
Very good explanations and expression of your point of view. I agree with what you're saying. I am right now starting a mod for BattleField 1942 with one of my friends, and those points are taken note of. And, thanks for putting some good sites to hang around, I guess I'll go and take a look around them, just to familiarize. One suggestion here, though: Team meetings are sometimes impossible. Because you know, people might live in other timezones, and that would mean for example someone in Germany could not get up in the middle of the night to get at a team meeting of a few people living in west coast america. Thus, what I will probably do is: make some table of activity, maybe automated using PHP if I ever get the time to do it, or maybe just manually on a web page, that would show when is the last time a team member logged on, when is the last time he has shown proof of progress, and when is the last check-in that he did. This system, combined with convocations that I will do to inactive people, should probably push enough to keep the members up, and I hope it might get results as good as with team meetings as you propose, without the problem of timezones.
I look forward to reading more tutorials from you, very nice first try, very comprehensive, and informative enough to give it a 10/10! :)
Well, instead of that you could have that at least e-mail you with weekly updates.