Re: [pygame] Collaborative game in 8 weeks.

[Rene Dudfield <illumen@yahoo.com>]

Pete Shinners wrote:

> Rene Dudfield wrote:
>
> > Would anyone be interested in making an open source,  free game as a 
> > group?
> >
> > To make it interesting, and to be sure that it will be finished(good 
> > or bad), I propose it be completed within two months.  With set time 
> > periods to have certain parts done.
> >
> > So we start with throwing some ideas around for a game, then make a 
> > prototype.  We try and get game play finished early, then spend the 
> > rest of the time tweaking, and polishing it.
> >
> > Anyone interested?   Who wants to propose some game ideas?
>
> sounds really fun, here's my thoughts on it.
>
> you really are going to want a 'single person' at the head of the 
> project. "design by comitee" will end up as a mess, especially trying 
> to keep the quick development pace. this doesn't mean one person comes 
> up with all the ideas, but all decisions need a "final vote" that can 
> be made pretty quick.
I nominate yourself as 'Master snake handler' ;)  I nominate myself as 
one of the 'snake handlers porters'.  Basically I'll help out with any 
of the boring administrative tasks.  oh and carry around your snakes.

> i think the theme should be roughly done in advance. then skewed a bit 
> once you see who can commit and what the group's strengths are. your 
> first three weeks on the schedule will probably be done by a smaller 1 
> or 2 person team. definitely getting review/input from other people 
> who want to be involved, but actually put together and edited by less. 
> in the meantime there can definitely be people doing 'concept art' and 
> 'concept code' that will flesh out ideas, but might not be used. 
Good ideas.  Input from everyone, and edited by a couple of people would 
probably work best.

> the next 2 weeks will be where the bulk of the game gets done. you'll 
> definitely want some "checkin rules" in place, and game parts will be 
> moving around often. this is where the game will need a 'dictator'. 
> someone who has to make the decision to reject bad ideas/code, decide 
> what is good enough, and decide what to do next.

Sounds good.

> once the working game is fairly assembled you'll be in good shape. at 
> that point the hard decision will be what the priorities are. with 
> only a few more weeks, there will probably be original design ideas 
> that need to be dropped or simplified. time to make a massive "todo 
> list" and let people go to work on it. somoene needs to maintain the 
> list, so people can see who is doing what, and find things they can 
> help with themselves. if the game is 'starting to suck' here, the 
> leader needs to make the decisions as to why, and hold the game to an 
> 8 week schedule. if it looks like we really won't make it, it is up to 
> the leader to trim trim trim.
A todo list would be useful.  As well as calls for help.  Ie 'arg I need 
someone to make me a green blob monster!'  Or 'blargle, there's a weird 
bug in this jump code.  Help quick!' ;)

> the last week, #8 will probably be more of the same. i'd bring in some 
> beta testers at this point and get some outside input. this will 
> likely be more of the same, attacking the "todo list". someone may 
> want to put a little web page together. version 1.0.
>
>
> btw, i'm in! 
Excellent!



Jim Scott wrote:

> Sounds like a good idea, but I think you should pick a theme and then see who
> wants to participate. It'll save you a week, make sure that you are interested,
> and help to make sure that people who commit time in the beginning don't lose
> interest before the end of the project.
>  
How about we brain storm some theme ideas for the game for another day 
or so, then vote on those?

So keep up the brain storming!



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