Starting a New Project vs. Joining an Existing One

[Barley]

Im not holding it against them and I congratulate you Locutus on the excellent modding youve done on CTP2. Mark, ive had a look on your website and can see your working hard at your ideas and development.

I will look and try and support the free civ game developments. I know I was writing from the hip and looking at a best case scenario in my earlier post. Its true the majority of us are here to play games and there is a diversity of opinion re the way game design should go.

Im just frustrated

[Lemmy]

Join or start a new project.
I guess it depends on what you are thinking about and what your abilities are.
If you're thinking about a improved civ-game, but still has the basic civ-things, you should definitely join an existing project.

However if you have a completely original idea, or something you can't get done with an existing project, like MrBaggins idea, then it depends on your abilities.

IMO if you aren't able to work on the project on your own (not being able to program and make a decent technical design), don't get too excited about it, at least untill you have some commited programmers.

But, if you can program, have the time for it, and the idea is orignal enough. Then go for it. Start a new project, make it public or not, try to recruit other people if you want. But expect to be working alone on it for a while. You could get some discussion threads in here, and get great ideas from other people, but you'll be doing most of the actual work alone.

Having said that, at the moment i'm also 'working' on my own project, i think the idea is original, and i have the abilities. But i don't really have the time for it. Because of that i haven't done any definite programming yet, just testing out ideas. For example a map generator, much of that code may be used in the actual project, but it isn't the real thing yet.

[Lemmy]

Just so that this forum at least looks somewhat alive (), here are my reasons for not joining an existing project...i'll try to keep it orderly

1. Too much documentation to catch up on, Clash documentation for example.
2. Having to compromise with other people.
3. Deadlines you have to keep because other people depend on it, this can be a Good Thing, but usually not when you're working on your free time.
4. Less creative input required from the programmer...the models and designs are usually already worked out, lessening the creative input required from the programmer. Being creative is important to me if i'll be investing my free time on it.

[Locutus]

And another one bites the dust

[CapTVK]

Dale,

You forgot to cross of C-evo and FreeCol.

[LDiCesare]

Originally posted by Lemmy
1. Too much documentation to catch up on, Clash documentation for example.
2. Having to compromise with other people.
3. Deadlines you have to keep because other people depend on it, this can be a Good Thing, but usually not when you're working on your free time.
4. Less creative input required from the programmer...the models and designs are usually already worked out, lessening the creative input required from the programmer. Being creative is important to me if i'll be investing my free time on it.

1) is something I can understand.
2) is just postponing things as you'll have to compromise with players but there will be little feedback. You'll need open betas and there you will meet demands for compromise. I think.
3) Don't worry, we don't keep deadlines. I know I don't set any to myself unless I know I can do the job within a day or two. I let know when I know I'll be late or under RL-strain, so deadline is not a problem, but commitment is.
4) You can provide creative input. Because you're a programmer, you are not ruled out as a designer. Furthermore, since you code the stuff, you have the last word in how to do it.

I think your reasons mostly amount to: you want to do something different from what is in existing projects (less complex, or a totally different approach of something which you view as fundamental). In such conditions, I agree that starting a new project by yourself is a good idea. But if an existing project looks like what you'd like, then joining it is the better way to go.

I also believe that teamwork helps make a game better, because you get feedback. Feedback is both important for game quality (as beta tests show) and for morale (as you have more continuous input from people interested in the game than the casual download).

[Dale]

Deadlines is a dodgy arguement. I don't have any deadlines, just that I'd like to be finished this year.

All I have is a list of things I'd like done for Alpha 0.2, and amazingly even with moving house I look set to upload a new build very soon.

[Lemmy]

Originally posted by Dale
Deadlines is a dodgy arguement. I don't have any deadlines, just that I'd like to be finished this year.

All I have is a list of things I'd like done for Alpha 0.2, and amazingly even with moving house I look set to upload a new build very soon.

Well...some projects have 'm...