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Eric Coleman
Gladiator
USA
811 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 05 2003 : 10:27:47 AM
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I've seen a lot of community projects fail. I would like to know what makes those projects fail, and what could be done to prevent that failure.
For those that have been successfull at keeping a community project together, what is your secret? |
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Sphere
Neophyte
8 Posts |
Posted - Mar 05 2003 : 11:04:34 AM
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For me, SoulofSphere was my first true videogame... I was working with for at least five other members but I was the only working on the game... Its took us two years to finish the game and I am planing to make another SoulofSphere maybe in 3D...
Eric Coleman could you review Soul of Sphere(100% translated) !
Motivation is the only kyy to success: that was so much fun 
A+ 
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Almar
Moderator
Netherlands
192 Posts |
Posted - Mar 05 2003 : 1:12:09 PM
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Indeed..
-People tend to get bored of a project soon, at the start everything is cool
-People do not make their deadlines, people will wait, and then people will wait on those agan
-No good source code versioning system (happend to Rene/Eddo as well, with his entry for the Christmas contest IIRC)
-No real good project leader.
-..And time. everyone is doing it as an hobby. When things change in their lives, or interest start to drop people will drop quicker cause they do not really know each other that well.
Well, that's a few things I thought about  |
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Eric Coleman
Gladiator
USA
811 Posts |
Posted - Mar 06 2003 : 10:32:27 AM
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| Having only 1 person on a team doing programming simplifies things, but I would like to hear more from people where there are multiple programmers on a single project. Any tips from you people? |
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Excaliber
Squire
USA
28 Posts |
Posted - Mar 06 2003 : 11:25:35 AM
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I wouldnt know, as the current I'm on (Sprite Artist for TOL) only has one coder, and all my projects have been individual.
It would be interesting if we started a project here. Something simple but fun, maybe networked. Dont know, everyone may be too busy. |
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Eric Coleman
Gladiator
USA
811 Posts |
Posted - Mar 06 2003 : 1:45:32 PM
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| The reason I'm asking about this is that I've been thinking about adding a project management section to this website. Something like sourceforge, although I've never used sourceforge, but something similar. The idea was to allow people to store their code on a server, and then allow members of the team to make changes to the code, and then keep everything versioned. Sourceforge is open source only, and I wanted the project management feature here to be configurable by the person that created the project, so it would be up to that person if he want's the project to be open source or closed source. |
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Excaliber
Squire
USA
28 Posts |
Posted - Mar 06 2003 : 2:40:11 PM
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Personally, i think that would be spectacular. It would also be nice to have a place to show off latest versions of the game, have (maybe) mini message-boards for each project, etc.
Very Neat idea! Hope you follow through with it!
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Amrazek
Squire
40 Posts |
Posted - Mar 07 2003 : 07:29:44 AM
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I, too, would be interested in such a system. May get some great use!
-Amrazek |
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Eric Coleman
Gladiator
USA
811 Posts |
Posted - Mar 07 2003 : 09:35:11 AM
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| This is not something I would be able to code all by myself, I don't really have that much time to devote a project like this. This project really needs more than 1 person working on it for it to be finished quickly. If anyone knows ASP (or possibly PHP ), and if you're interested in helping, then let me know! |
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Rag on a Stick
Neophyte
Australia
9 Posts |
Posted - Mar 07 2003 : 5:51:40 PM
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| Sounds risky... going for collaboration on this project, even though you see so many collaboration projects fail |
Trying is the first step towards failure |
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Eric Coleman
Gladiator
USA
811 Posts |
Posted - Mar 07 2003 : 5:54:46 PM
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| This is like the chicken and the egg paradox |
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Peter
Administrator
Canada
67 Posts |
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Rag on a Stick
Neophyte
Australia
9 Posts |
Posted - Mar 07 2003 : 6:04:06 PM
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| Chicken tastes better than egg. If the chicken had have come first, then man would have eaten it. A dozen eggs came first, man tried a few of them and threw the rest out. Those eggs hatched, and then there were lots of chickens and lots of eggs. It is really quite obvious |
Trying is the first step towards failure |
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Krisc
Knave
69 Posts |
Posted - Mar 08 2003 : 11:57:06 AM
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I know some ASP, and I would love to know more...If you need me, I can do a bit of coding but currently I am working on a project with my friends for a contest in late March, but after that it is pretty much free time for me so I can work on this project if you need me...
btw, over at http://NeHe.GameDev.net they have a Zelda project going and it is going very nicely. {I am not in it.} |
Edited by - Krisc on Mar 08 2003 12:05:23 PM |
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Eric Coleman
Gladiator
USA
811 Posts |
Posted - Mar 09 2003 : 11:10:47 AM
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At this point I'm looking for design ideas. The coding is the easy part
This is a list of things that need further elaboration, i.e. to be designed. If anyone else can add think of something to add to this list, then please do!:
- Communications
- Bug tracking
- Task delegation
- Task completion
- and general communictation
- message board
- email list
- etc
- Time Line
- Task and bug tracking
- Milestones
- various tools to keep the project on a schedule
- Files
- Versions and comparision
- Storage and archiving
- seperate stand alone program for storage
- Tracking
- What else am I forgetting?
Remember, this is to be desgined for VB game programmers.  |
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Excaliber
Squire
USA
28 Posts |
Posted - Mar 09 2003 : 11:26:38 AM
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| maybe a list of current dependencies that the project is using...just a thought |
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multiple person project collaboration
