OpenSource - Community Project

[shdwlink1993]

OpenSource - Community Project is an idea I've been juggling in my head for a while. The basic idea is that a lot of people have tried to make games. If you don't believe me, then go check out the New Projects board here and on .org. However, only a handful of these games are actually finished, let alone very successful.

The basic idea of OpenSource is that it's just that: an open source game. There's a bit of a catch to it, however: You cannot make the entire game, or even a large portion. The point is for one person to add on a bit, another person to add their talents, someone else could put in a script and make it work, etc. The idea is that at the end, we end up with a big, long, community project that everyone had a hand in.

There would need to be a basic game template made at the beginning of the project with a basic plot beginning, and maybe with one or two extras. And then someone else would have to pick it up and add in some more. Maybe they might make a world map, or create a little more plot and gameplay, whatever. Then, they drop it and the next person picks the project up, and does the same, etc. Eventually, we'd end up with a project with much more than we could have made individually.

The point of this poll is to 'test the waters', so to speak. How interested would you be in this project? Would you contribute to it?

[Starrodkirby86]

I would obviously help make a project like this! But unfortunately, there's always those lower skilled people or those who are going to take the game into the wrong direction and ruin us for all. If so, there can always be a committee or a group of reviewers to see if it's going good so far or not, who knows.

I remember this being used before on some sites during the RPG Maker 2000 and 2003 era of games...This will be pretty interesting to see.

AND WHY DIDN'T YOU VOTE IN THIS POLL SHDW!? YOU ARE SO HEARTLESS!

[Satoh]

I'll help out a bit. You have my vote.

[ozoke]

i think its a great idea, but i would want to extend my expeirence with rmxp before helping.

[Fantasist]

If so, there can always be a committee or a group of reviewers to see if it's going good so far or not, who knows.

I agree. Though, the main storyline should be... i dunno how to put it, funny. Different people would have different elements of story they would want to get added and things might get dirty. Either someone gets hurt or the story is gonna be weird. But if it was a funny story, especially relevant to the members of the forum, it would be pretty good. All of this is my opinion of course.

[Blizzard]

Let me quote myself...

In April 2006 a community project called Chaos Project - The Three Moons™ was started by several forum members on rmrk.net with a member called Blizzard as unofficial project leader. Because the only administrator Crankeye back then didn't want to make a special hidden forum section for the members of the development team, a new IF forum was made with the name Chaos-RPG Development by the member called Dart (aka Sha aka Adam) and made the project leader Blizzard administrator as well. Soon Dart started acting too much on his own and coming up with decisions without consulting other team members or at least Blizzard, the actual project leader. He would recruit team members and change the organization of the forum on his own.

Just a couple of days after that it was discovered that Dart himself tried to steal not only CP - TTM™, but also Blizzard's Chaos Project (which was renamed to Chaos Project - Nemesis' Wrath™ to prevent confusion of those two projects). Due to some lucky coincidence Dart mixed up those projects somehow and it was possible to discover him as the thief he was. Blizzard had to make a quick decision, since this also involved his own project on which he is working alone. If he would have just kicked out Dart of the team, Dart could have taken revenge, since he was the root administrator and delete all the team's efforts within the discussion topics. Blizzard made a new IF forum called Chaos Project. Since he had no time to think to much about a name, he named it after the project itself. Since he was an administrator, he was able quickly transfer the most vital post data to CP. Dart was expelled from the forum and development team.

The project development continued "normally" while Dart tried to start his own. Later there were various dramas about Dart even stealing the skin from Chaos Project. Blizzard deleted the hotlinked pictures and messed up the look of Chaos-RPG Development.

What happened to Dart's project is commonly unknown, but it is rumored that it is going very slow in development. There were even reports that the infamous "Scripting Archangel" SephirothSpawn was administrator for a while or even still is administrator at Dart's new forum.

In the end of November 2006 Chaos Project - The Three Moons™ was canceled due to lack of progress. The main reason was that the team had about ten mappers, though no maps were made during half a year of development time. Blizzard himself stated:

The game has been canceled. I have done a terrible mistake by thinking under-aged kids would take it serious and take it to the end, but I was wrong. Even when I said it will be commercial and they could earn some money, the situation didn't change. I can't do everything by myself. Note that I mention here the kids and it is their fault, since there were a few mature members in the team who were actually doing something. I am glad these people were taking this actually seriously and put some effort into it and I apologize for taking these people's time for a project that was actually determined to fail from the beginning on.

All in all: The game was canceled, because of many of the members were not doing anything, they lost interest and they were undetermined.
At least I have learned something out of it: NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH CHILDREN! =P

=/

[Punn]

NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH CHILDREN!

That's all I pay attention to...

[Starrodkirby86]

Long Quote: ShowHide

Let me quote myself...

In April 2006 a community project called Chaos Project - The Three Moons™ was started by several forum members on rmrk.net with a member called Blizzard as unofficial project leader. Because the only administrator Crankeye back then didn't want to make a special hidden forum section for the members of the development team, a new IF forum was made with the name Chaos-RPG Development by the member called Dart (aka Sha aka Adam) and made the project leader Blizzard administrator as well. Soon Dart started acting too much on his own and coming up with decisions without consulting other team members or at least Blizzard, the actual project leader. He would recruit team members and change the organization of the forum on his own.

Just a couple of days after that it was discovered that Dart himself tried to steal not only CP - TTM™, but also Blizzard's Chaos Project (which was renamed to Chaos Project - Nemesis' Wrath™ to prevent confusion of those two projects). Due to some lucky coincidence Dart mixed up those projects somehow and it was possible to discover him as the thief he was. Blizzard had to make a quick decision, since this also involved his own project on which he is working alone. If he would have just kicked out Dart of the team, Dart could have taken revenge, since he was the root administrator and delete all the team's efforts within the discussion topics. Blizzard made a new IF forum called Chaos Project. Since he had no time to think to much about a name, he named it after the project itself. Since he was an administrator, he was able quickly transfer the most vital post data to CP. Dart was expelled from the forum and development team.

The project development continued "normally" while Dart tried to start his own. Later there were various dramas about Dart even stealing the skin from Chaos Project. Blizzard deleted the hotlinked pictures and messed up the look of Chaos-RPG Development.

What happened to Dart's project is commonly unknown, but it is rumored that it is going very slow in development. There were even reports that the infamous "Scripting Archangel" SephirothSpawn was administrator for a while or even still is administrator at Dart's new forum.

In the end of November 2006 Chaos Project - The Three Moons™ was canceled due to lack of progress. The main reason was that the team had about ten mappers, though no maps were made during half a year of development time. Blizzard himself stated:

The game has been canceled. I have done a terrible mistake by thinking under-aged kids would take it serious and take it to the end, but I was wrong. Even when I said it will be commercial and they could earn some money, the situation didn't change. I can't do everything by myself. Note that I mention here the kids and it is their fault, since there were a few mature members in the team who were actually doing something. I am glad these people were taking this actually seriously and put some effort into it and I apologize for taking these people's time for a project that was actually determined to fail from the beginning on.

All in all: The game was canceled, because of many of the members were not doing anything, they lost interest and they were undetermined.
At least I have learned something out of it: NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH CHILDREN! =P

=/

That's one of the reason that was discouraging about an OpenSource Community Project. However, in this case it's somewhat different. A user comes out with a distributable unfinished game and rely on other people to finish it, kind of like starter templates for stories or something. It doesn't matter what user comes next, as long as it's someone that finishes it, they'll finish a segment and give it to whoever wants to work on it next...

That's how I interpret it at the least. However, you'll notice, just like a Newgrounds corroboration, you'll see extreme differences in people's skills within the game editor, and different styles. This is one reason OpenSource may not be the best bet. However, it doesn't really matter, it's really interesting to see how skills blend well or not well with each other.

[Blizzard]

I think a going-around-project would be a much better idea. I've heard that the German RMXP Community finished one or already two such games. Each person gets the project for a few days and says what (s)he will add. After the time expires, the next user comes regardless of the fact that the member before did something or not.

Also, I want to mention that TTM only had a basic idea about the storyline. We have structured together parts of the beginning of the game at the beginning AFTER the project was started. After a few disagreements with the other main storyliner (the two of use were basically the only ones working on the story line, the others were only throwing in ideas), we found a common base on which we continued the story. I might give out the project discussion archives one day. As I said, some members were actually doing something. i.e. Halo of the Sun was way ahead of all of us. He composed several songs while we were able to create only a small part of the story. I also created a few scripts for the project. One of the was the Easy Party Switcher. Another on was Metal Plate Edition of STCMS. And yet another one (though, unfinished) was the Hexa Elemental System which was the Skill Learning System as well. I was going to implement a Gunner system with ammo similar (but much better) to the one I use in my own game for Ariana now. Also, we were going to use a variation on Chaos Drives called "Carma". In any case the project died. -_-

I can't say that this is a bad idea since it's pretty much depends on who will work on the game. If you, me, SRK, Satoh, Zeriab, Halo and several others would do it, it might just work out well. But most of use are working on our own games for now. =/

[Diokatsu]

I propose timetables be set up

EX: We devise we need 6 weeks to make a game (This is just for an example, don't think I'm saying all we need is two weeks)

Break the weeks up...Say:

We have 9 members per se

Week One: Commitee selection and over all character and plot design. Resource gathering for these is done and provided for by the whole of the community. Decide three project "heads" who will decide overall quality checks and provide schedual adjustments for setbacks.
Week Two: Two member variation/Split the week into two days (Sun-Tues to Wed-Fri) and the last day designated to the supreme overseers for quality checks and resource crediting.
Week Three: Same as before, two new members.
Week Four: Same
Week Five: Overall quality check and distribution to all members. Bug checking and beta testing.
Week Six: Final week, all the bumps smoothed out e.g. Scripts, funtions in the game kept. The title screen should be made and overall checks be made again. All members will be credited of course

This is quite simplistic, but the overall idea stands. The more structure we have, the more we can get done.

[Blizzard]

It's true that a good project plan will help a lot and help organize things better and keep the team busy, but keep in mind that a too detailed plan can result in a project that is missing its purpose because of so-called overanalysis.

[Diokatsu]

I can see where that comes into play but I'm going to assume that a structure like this would let all members have some say and allows still for the ever so necessary and stringent quality check most games need

[Ryex]

I would help if it was started but as stated above by many people it would  have  to be well structured or it would fail