Looking around this community I find it rather disturbing the way people interact with each other, especially within mod teams.
I don't think I will ever work in a team with others. It clearly falls into chaos rather quickly.
A better approach would be to sub-contract for specific items of work. I need a new model. I go to a model maker and ask them to build based on my specifications. They deliver. I say thank you very much and give them a credit (and/or money) depending on what they want.
Also, there seems to be a battle going on between professional game makers and amature mod makers. I see why the pro's get frustrated when they see amatures promising users the world and then spectaculaly failing to deliver but at the same time it seems the pro's expect everyone to want to become a pro.
Personally I have no interest in becoming a professional game developer. It's probably no where near as fun as it sounds and probably pay's pretty crappily because everyone wants to do it.
Besides, the chances of you even being offered a professional project are pretty darn slim, and like everything, if you set out for that to be your goal, you'll probably fail. It's the folks that just made great mods because they had a great idea and just did it that genuinely create something worth noticing.
Oh and what's this obsession with death on Mod DB. I posted Deep Down and within 2 days I had people asking me if the mod was dead. Two DAYS!!!!
I wonder if the obsession with mod death is justified... what percentage of mods on mod DB actually get released?
Hmm, I somewhat doubt the sub-contractor idea. If every single model is made by someone else, you will likely end up with a mess of different styles. And even if you could make it work for model makers, that concept would never work out for programmers. It can take a coder weeks to familiarize himeself with a new codebase.
About the mod deaths - in my experience about 80% of all mods fail (not only on Mod DB, but in general). No reason to get obsessed about it though. Those people asking about the mods 2 days after the last update obviously have strange ideas .. they are probably confusing ModDB with Twitter or something ;)
Hmm perhaps you are right. I have a mapper who's asked if he can help with my current mod. I've given him a few things which he can either do or not do. Up to him. I don't have to include his ideas or work if I don't think they are going to work for my mod.
It may work a similar way with model makers. People out there looking to simply get the practice. Who knows... at this time I'm not looking to add any new models anyway. More than enough in the HL2 set for my purposes...
Bottom line, I'm fully intending to do all my own work on this mod but if others want to have a crack at submitting content for consideration then why not take a look...
I agree with the subcontracting thing. You could esily establish a theme or aesthetic you want to stick to.
I have two team members besides me. One of them, the weapons modeller, seems to enjoy working on a contracted type of position. I produce a design for a weapon, he makes it, and get credit. We have little communication and our exchanges are short and to the point. I like this arrangement.
The other team mamber is more involved and wants to branch out and do all sorts of things for the Mod outside of his specialty. While thats a good thing, it can also detract from the quality of work produced and focus on what I really need. So far, it has been an asset to the Mod. However, at time he has ideas that dont fit my theme and wants to add features that werent in the original plan. Thats also a good and bad thing. While I welcome new features, I dont want to alter my original vision to include parts of anothers vision and start taking the Mod in a new direction.
Overall, I'd have to say I like the subcontracting approach better. I am free to make my Mod the way I wanted to without having discussions about what we shouldnt do and why frequently. I dont have the worry about a team member suddenly wanting to pull his work from the Mod because I dont want to do X thing with the project. I dont have to worry about a mismash of ideas trying to become a cohesive project.
Sometimes the new ideas are better and improve upon the Mod, and that can be done with a subcontracor as well. The subcontractor understands it is MY project and isnt put off by my unwillingness to compromise, whereas a 'team mamber' feels like he or she has more say and decision in where the Mod goes.
Yeah that's really interesting!
I was watching the extra's on the Return Of The Sith DVD the other day (bare with me here.. lol) and George Lucas was going through a whole bunch of concept art. Stamping some with yes and moving past others. As he put it.. it's all brilliant art and amazing ideas and I'm always impressed but some just aren't right for my movie!
I like that approach.
Seems that others don't want that though. I had a guy contact me saying he was good with hammer and could he help me.
I said sure!
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I need...
Create different types of lights that would look at home in a mine, make them pretty in both normal ldr and hdr lighting...
I need to come up with some new and interesting Grav Gun puzzles, any ideas you can come up with and put into a working test map would be great (download and play my other mod Daylight, to get an idea of the sorts of puzzles i've done before)...
Come up with two or three interesting new combat scenarios with combine soldiers that I might be able to use. Try and build something you haven't seen before...
I need to create some interesting new cavern shapes, if you have any experience of creating displacement caves that would be helpful. If not, it's a fun thing to learn. see what you can come up with.
If you have any experience in creating outdoor areas in the mountains/forests like in episode 2, can you try and create me some displacement cliff faces with a high tree line at the top that I can use.
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He never replied LOL...
makes you wonder what he was expecting.
:)