The Gamer's Quarter

squidlarkin · . Joined: 10 Dec 2005 Posts: 100

Some of you people make games, right? Come, join us!

http://legionofliteracy.com/lol/about/

TOLLMASTER · nippon ichi PR man Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 187

Once I learn how to program and do simple art, I'll look it up again! I'll make that idea for a Megas XLR fangame based on Bangaioh into a real project if it kills me.

In all seriousness, I thought something like that site was long overdue.

Nana Komatsu · weak sauce Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 1293

So it's the game development forum from IC only with it's own registration system?

Also a perpetual license for use seems a bit steep.

Swimmy · . Joined: 16 Sep 2005 Posts: 990 Location: Fairfax, VA

ApM · Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2006 11:55 am Post subject:

I... I kind of want to join this, because I want to team up with one or two people to build a game. But I also don't see any reason why this site will work any better than just teaming up with smart people I already know. In fact, I can see a lot of reasons why it wouldn't.

So, you know, convince me!

xvs07 · . Joined: 22 Sep 2005 Posts: 160

Lackey · . Joined: 11 Jul 2005 Posts: 1107 Location: Canada

The value of your site will increase immensely as more users join. In the mean time it's going to be tricky getting it to start snowballing.
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

Nana Komatsu · weak sauce Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 1293

SuperWes · Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:31 am Post subject:

ApM · Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:54 am Post subject:

My argument is basically that, limited scope or not, I don't think you can get a game done unless everybody involved has bought in to, understands, and is able to contribute to the game design. Everyone needs to have their own stake in the game. And the way to get that to happen is not to have a thread where a guy says "Hey I want to make a game that plays like this is there a programmer out there who wants to do this with me?" Your designer and your programmer and your artist have to work together to figure out where their talents and interests intersect, commit to some vision, and go from there. If everyone has their own conflicting ideas of what they want to contribute, well, there'd better be one person on your team who is balls-out committed enough to see the project through singlehandedly, because everyone else is going to shrug and walk away without having done something substantial. And if they're that committed, they're probably already doing their own thing.

If you look at, say, open source projects -- which I assume is the model at work, here -- the ones that succeed do so by having a core group of people who do the vast majority of the work. Without that core group, the project dries up and blows away.

If the impetus behind the site was for people to meet other talented people, and give them resources to build a project, then that'd be one thing. But there's no source control, or bug tracking, or art resource management, or anything. There's been no "This is what I can do and here is a portfolio of things I have done to back me up on that claim." There's no game design discussion where you can find out how people approach the topic. There's just a wiki and forums and a carefree anything-goes attitude and what seems to be a misunderstanding of why home-grown volunteer projects fail.

dark steve · . Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 1110

Captain Vimes · . Joined: 17 Oct 2006 Posts: 1

Views! Very cool!

Okay, I admit, I didn't think to check Gamer's Quarter to see what issues have been brought up Embarassed

- the first being the license. Should the site gain limited usage, where we modify and distribute only with the permission of the author, but we can still use it if it has been submitted into any games?

I totally agree about the userbase - if the website is only as good as the parts.

Onto ApM's concerns!

It's true that there has to be a core group that is dedicated to the game - that's what LoL aims to bring together. While I accept the fact that there are going to be a number of users who don't have a serious investment in the ideas being proposed, the aim is to have broad enough of a userbase that a number of people agree that "Yes, this is a game I am passionate about!" The mortality rate is going to be high, however.

There are many people who would work better if they had a social thing - LoL can't compete. There are, however, people with aspirations to gamemaking, but not enough talents to do it.

The second part of the post - source control, bug tracking, etc. I agree (I actually have been part of two projects that have ultimately fallen apart). Here's what I plan to do about it:

Source control, etc, will be handled within the nodes themselves - I'll modify the guidelines to note that project nodes are required to keep track of these things.

Art management, as well as game design discussion and other critical components were planned to be sub-nodes that are 'automatically' set up with the main one (I didn't make this clear enough, my fault – and the software allows for further expansion)

I'll also modify the guidelines for submitting ideas and signing up to emphasize that the thread where the projects are being pitched are intended to act as a discussion of the basic playability and 'worksmanship' of the project that is pitched as well as a sign-up sheet.

I’ll also further emphasize that, if you do sign up, a post detailing how much time you plan to dedicate and how much prior experience you have had with the industry.