Re: Anyone on this list?

["J. Perkins" <jason@379.com>]

On Tue, 2002-10-29 at 15:49, Gregor Mückl wrote:
> Unfortunately I made the decision to request work on music and artwork 
> to be delayed until the base engine is up so that the creative work 
> won't be artificially crippled by technical requirements. But now it 
> turns out that any creative person (artists and musicians) on the team 
> has turned away because of lack of time (at least that's what they keep 
> telling me).

Same situation here. 

> Now it turns out that it is quite hard to fill that gap: the original 
> team members, which still are motivated, are hindered - in other words: 
> gone. To gain other people as a replacement is so hard mainly because 
> they need to be motivated *first*. In that way they differ from those 
> team members which were there from the first hour. They never felt the 
> exicement of the new. They were never part of the initial game design. 
> What they see is a fully-shaped project they must adopt themselves to.

Exactly. They don't feel like it's their project because you've already
done so much of the work. But if you haven't done the work, then they
don't have anything to do, and they get bored and leave. And if you get
someone new, you have to replace all of the old content so everything
can have a consistent look. But of course most of us would love to have
that problem, since there is no one around anyway.


> I just want to take CS as an example for now: It is a *very* active 
> project by now, has become a fully featured graphics engine one or two 
> years ago already and is still increasing in quality. When version 1.0 
> will be released I'm sure it'll be among the best commecial engines you 
> can get - but only for graphics and maybe sound. No networking, no 
> multithreading. But it's the best LGPL'ed candidate out there.

Actually, I'd say the Nebula Device is probably a bit better overall,
and certainly just as actively developed. But they are both quite good.

I think the best that an indie can do is to use well-known file formats
and try to build around existing free content. There is a *lot* of
content on the net in form of Quake/Half Life/Unreal/etc. mods. Fully
animated characters, textures, sounds, music, levels. Lots of cars and
trucks from the various racing titles. I have found that the people
creating this content are very open to having their work reused so long
as they are given the proper credit. Some will even make changes if
asked nicely. And by using these well-known file formats, you make it
easy for your users to modify the game themselves. Be flexible, adapt
your game to the content that's available. And take SJB's advice and add
as much procedural detail as possible.

This is a somewhat recent revelation to me, but I'm starting to see some
real progress now. I might even have a download soon ;) 

Jason
379