Lets make a development team!

[UTDeath]

Hello everyone.
Lately I have been downloading a bunch of stuff for my Unreal Tournament and I have found some pretty cool stuff but also some really ugly crap.
I have always been a fan of customizing and self made content and that's what I want to do here, unfortunately I don't have the software nor the knowledge to do this, yet.
Feralidragon already helped me a bunch with information and links (And if you're reading this, I do plan on replying the message but I don't know what to say ).
So I was thinking, isn't it cool when you get help? doing stuff with your friends and such? so why don't we all gather our knowledge and tools and make out own development team?
I'm thinking about working together to make stuff, for example myself, I'm not that advanced into code yet but I have plenty of ideas and artistic insights. Like that, there could be someone who's really good at making textures but doesn't have a project, or someone who knows to code but doesn't know what to make.
Working like that we can do some great stuff in less time than alone and have fun doing it.
What do you guys think?

[ShaiHulud]

Definitely think it's worth pursuing if you can build a team around a solid set of objectives - and good to have some new blood and enthusiasm!

[Dr.Flay]

There are a few teams, but it is best to think of the whole site as "Team-ut99".

Come to the table with a good brief, or outline. Examples of work, sketches etc. Then interested people will make them selves available.
A few of the "heads" you would like to head-hunt, are rather busy, but tend to help-out when they can.
There are not many with much time.

You come at a time of change.
Several of the UT gurus have decided to hang-up their boots and move on.
Guys like Hook and me are trying to re-connect the UT world with each-other, and make it easier for everyone to get what they need.
There are a few "blood-hounds" here who will hunt for anything possible.

The UnrealSP site has plenty of good tips on modeling software, as they are keen on monster-making, but most of the useful people are involved in projects.

I mentioned the other day somewhere, I have wondered whether an "Unreal Job-centre" may be the thing we need.
I see recruiting threads in various sites get buried or ignored.
A job-site could also easily include links to such threads, acting as a portal.

Anyway back to the topic.
Don't forget to look for the 2 main texture threads here as there is also an older one called "Random Textures"
I add anything I think may be useful for editing to the "Your Unreal" site http://my.opera.com/Unreal-Tournament/b ... -resources
That includes tools and converters. Addons and viewers. Textures and texture sources. decos and models. Links to tutorials, and links to lists of tutorials (those should be posted here really).

A decent full-fleshed project can take several years to complete, or if you are lucky many months (just ask Ferali, Shadow and Papercoffee).

Like I said earlier, think of this site as the developer group, and the talent you need will hopefully join in.

[Higor]

I used to be a very small contributor with something that today is a fully functional Wii and GameCube emulator (timing formula related hacks back in 2010 and small details).

Teams as they've been working so far are painfully slow.
Mutators and projects do similar things and are coded differently.
Everyone feels like they should own everything they work on.

Most of them don't likely know what working on a SVN is, and until this moment, I had forgotten about it.
What this emulator has progressed so far exceeds what some development studios can achieve.

Perhaps, I should pick one of my MANY, MANY unfinished projects, turn it into a collaborative development project and see how it evolves in a matter of 60 days.

Looks like a good challenge.

[JackGriffin]

If you were to propose something Higor I can assure you there would be a good number of people that would pay close attention to that. Perhaps you ought to consider it if you wouldn't mind. I read everything you post and I am sure I'm not the only one.

[Saya-chan]

I am a development team.

No, really, one-person teams are very common. It's a hard job, but at least lacks the disadvantages brought by actual teamwork.

[MrLoathsome]

I am a development team.

No, really, one-person teams are very common. It's a hard job, but at least lacks the disadvantages brought by actual teamwork.

Thats what I was gonna say.......

[Dr.Flay]

Commonly code from 1 author is faster, smaller and more optimised, and suffers less replication etc.
Most of my commonly used tools for everything, are the product of 1 programmer.

Team-work can come in many forms, and often mistakes are picked-up quicker if a 3rd-party can look at it, or make comparisons.

pros and cons, swings and roundabouts.
You just gotta see what happens when you try something.

Wider promotion than posting at 1 site is very important now, as no single UT site gets the type of traffic PlanetUnreal did.
The more we can link the sites together, and raise awareness of the various projects, the bigger work-force can become.

[Feralidragon]

Team work always beats single man work if done properly.
What happens most of the time is that, as far as community work is concerned, one guy does 90% of the work, and the remaining 10% are spread by others, simply because the remaining 10% do not have much time or don't feel like to commit as much, and way too many times, that 10% is the only part of the project left to be finished and released, it's annoying actually.

I have had tons of experiences in the past, in school (specially in school), at work and even here in UT, and unfortunately for me, I had to learn and iron my own skills in every possible field to have something done and done properly (and even so there's a lot of ground I need to cover), otherwise I wouldn't get past NW1.
Perhaps the only exception to this is XPickups which, although I did all the code and effects, it was a joint effort since Creavion and others contributed with models (to not mention it was originally Creavion's idea to build such a mod in the first place for CMP2), testing and such.

Even if the work is evenly distributed, someone must lead it, and what happens is that if let's say 2 coders have very different ideas and ways in how something should be done, this will either lead the project to extreme success or extreme failure, depending on how both approach the problem and discuss it through (pure clashing will destroy it, getting always the best of both in turn will make it better than anything one or the other would come up individually).

If you want to do something as a group, you have to define and do a set of things even before you start on it:
- objectives
- research (what there is already, is the idea original, etc, etc)
- leader + team roles
- decision power hierarchy (by voting or not, vote weight, etc)
- work team environment (svn, git, other)
- communication methods (gtalk, msn, other)
- development consistency rules (for example, in the case of 2 coders, one may place the "{" in the same line and the other in a new line, so ideally they must come to a consensus which one they will start to use so one cannot tell someone's code apart from the other, as 2 different coding styles in the same class are harder to read for the both of them, and the same applies to design and other fields)
- schedule (not something accurate, but should give a general idea of when things should get done)

The lack of any of the above may lead an entire project to either never see the light of the day or be poorly done.

[papercoffee]

If you want to do something as a group, you have to define and do a set of things even before you start on it:
- objectives
- research (what there is already, is the idea original, etc, etc)
- leader + team roles
- decision power hierarchy (by voting or not, vote weight, etc)
- work team environment (svn, git, other)
- communication methods (gtalk, msn, other)
- development consistency rules (for example, in the case of 2 coders, one may place the "{" in the same line and the other in a new line, so ideally they must come to a consensus which one they will start to use so one cannot tell someone's code apart from the other, as 2 different coding styles in the same class are harder to read for the both of them, and the same applies to design and other fields)
- schedule (not something accurate, but should give a general idea of when things should get done)

The lack of any of the above may lead an entire project to either never see the light of the day or be poorly done.

[Wises]

I would have thought that it would be more like the Indian/Leader scenario .. where; 'All the Indians - Wannabe the Chief?'

that would be the main dysfunctional component afaics.

at least given your scenario , other members can take up the slack from where the 10% were incompetent? .. and finish it in 1/2 the time.

actually thinking about it.. I would most likely be in the 10%.

I'll step out of this right now.

cheers.

[UTDeath]

Alright, I get your points and I agree as this pretty much is how every kind of team works (remember your school :l).
What my idea is, for example, I start working on a new game type but I can't get something done, I ask you guys and you find a solution. Then someone else is making a weapon and wants a cool texture for it, I make one for him and so on, so that we don't feel like working alone and getting frustrated.
Right now I'm just on a planning stage, I'm writing down my ideas and let me tell you, not all of them are a hundred percent original but they are improvements or modifications of such ideas because those didn't quite work for me. For example, I like the concept of Killing Grounds but I didn't like the zombies, HUD, weapons or how it works overall.

[Prestus]

How, its very interesant. im like to join in.

But man, im dont speak english very good, but im use a translator to skype, the clowfish.

If you intereced to talk which me, find me on skype: Prestus_Hood , but i dont have very mutch experience on UT99 Mods, i have created some skins, but i dont know tho .int code to spript this and i buy a book of unreal engine, i have knowledged very tips to mapping, illumination, models and other stuff.