VBGamer

I agree with Almar, and with most other people who have posted. I've seen 2 'major' community games pass by and get lost in the distance, I've never seen one community game get an actual design doc, though I do rember Darkness Rising having a dedicated team... I was on the RoT team as webmaster and when I was there pretty much nothing was done. I think what it will take for a real community project is a dedicated team (DR), a very well organized and flexible website, not just a strong leader but one who motivates, encourages and actually does some work once in awhile, a true design document outlining the full project in detail not 1 page of 'This game is going to be amazing with awesome particle effects, loads of guns, hundreds of ships and thousands of NPCs' riiiiight. I should know. I did that with my original game, Smoke, which was a online-FPS not at all unlike Counter-Strike with an amazing terrain system, detailed models and spot on physics. It reached about 10% development. The team was very talented, dedicated. Where did we fall? Me and the woeful design doc. I wasn't exactly what you would call wise, I thought game making was a stride, 'Hey! Load up that Quake 3 map, add a few guns and people, let 'em loose, and bam! InstaGame - Coming soon from Microsoft', I eventually realised that Smoke was too ambitious and stopped it. I then began my 1-man quest and developed scads of little DD games on my own and only released one (very sucky) strategy game, Warmaster. Wow, I strayed from the point. However the big point is: Making games is fun, so if you are going to do a community game, organize it just right so its enjoyable for the team and for you while creating the masterpiece, don't make a deadline, otherwise the stress kills motivation which in turn makes you lose team members, but also don't make it 'Release date: Whenever' still have a sense of 'we need to get this done' or members will lose interest. Lots to think about, lots to do, lots of fun. Enjoy, have fun, and happy programming, Lorn