Hi,
Unfortunately, that is all too true. Working with other game developers
can be and is problematic for a lot of reasons.
For example, a couple of years back a lot of people were disappointed
when Justin announced he was not going to release Castle Quest. There
was a problem with the leade developer, and so on. I e-mailed him asking
if I could help in any way. As it turned out we could not join up to
work on the project for a variety of reasons.
One, there was the issue of time. Justin was putting in several hours at
work so didn't have much time personally to commit to the project. I had
just more or less taken over Alchemy Game Studeo's projects so had a
fairly full plate already. So it was clear from the outset both of us
didn't really have the time for it.
Second, neither of us had the original source code. Another developer
was creating the game for BSC, and when he quit he tchose to take the
source code with him. As a result we had nothing to start with. We
would have started from scratch which neither of us were inclined to do
with our personal work schedules.
Third, it was Justin's project so he would be the lead developer calling
the shots on the project. Personally I like being in charge of the
coding and admit I have a big ego when it comes to programming. I am
proud of what I do, and freely admit it. However, I would have had to
take a back seat on this project, and given my ego i don't think I would
have been completely happy in the arrangement after all.
Finally, there was the issue that programming wise we were not
completely compatible. Justin's strengths lie in Visual Basic and Visual
Basic .NET where mine tend to be in languages like C++, C#, and Java.
I'm certain we could have worked this outsince I have some experience
programming in Visual Basic languages, but I don't use the language much
for my own projects. As a result if I would have had to work on the
project in Visual Basic .NET I could probably have done it, but it
wouldn't be my best programming wise. I'd likely have to look up this
or that in the MSDN library to remind myself of how to do this or that
in VB.
Anyway, as it turned out we decided not to go there. Neither of us had
the time to work on the project, and we had our differences of opinion
on how to proceed with programming the game. It was a nice thought, but
wasn't practical for either of us.
Che wrote:
regarding the idea of developers teaming up, it is a great idea in
theory, but a diffficult one to put into practice in reality.
every developer i have talked to without exception, myself included
have large egos and set ways of doing things, this would be a serious
problem i think.
secondly, deciding how to whack up the proceeds would be a huge issue.
lastly, all involved would have to agree on a language to use for
programming, which may or may not be a big problem depending on folks
involved.
anyhow, if some developers can get something done as a group, i'm all
for it. but i know as for myself, i work better alone, where the
vision is one, all problems as well as successes are also mine alone
to deal with, and if something is screwed up, i have nobody to blame
but myself.
i think this could work out if everyone agreed on the outline of the
project, and designed things modularly so each programmer would have
their own little corner to work on, which could be intergrated into
the whole later on. once again, easier said than done.
later
che
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