Frosting and Dorothy's Dog
For all of my cake analogies, my love of the band Cake, and my deep, almost loinal, love of Portal, I really do despise the dessert.
This isn't really relevant, but I hadn't posted in awhile.
In truth, I've been increasingly busy and this whole blog thing tends to be my last priority. Only when I'm in the grip of a powerful wave of procrastination might I come here (and even then, Digg seems to consistently be my solace).
So what have I been doing? Well, we've officially announced Half Life 2: Tyranny of the Overwatch, a multiplayer modification [website]. As Project Lead, it very well could be the flagship project of my student career. The one that gets my portfolio a second and hopefully third, let's-give-him-a-job glance. Plus it has an awesome acronym.
In the back of my mind I've known for a long while that I would eventually do something like this. I've tried my best to read everything I could find on successful and failed projects (particularly student ones). I've spoken to many people, some of whom will be advising us as we go. I think at this point I'm as prepared as I can be in this situation. It's really going to come down to having a good team and finding the will power to get us through.
I've actually been pleasantly surprised with the response I've gotten for recruitment. The only real thing we seem to be lacking at the moment is artists, which I was fully expecting. I think this will be solved down the line once the project starts going.
I wanted to go into some of the things that make us different, so instead of retyping everything (for the hundredth time) I'll just paste part of our recruitment post:
-Why will this project succeed?-
First and foremost, by having the right team with the right realistic goals. While we all have the time constraints and responsibilities that go along with being students, it is important for our future that we accomplish something in our time here. A degree is not enough to get a job in the game industry, at least not the ones we want. This project is ultimately about finishing something. It is large enough to get us noticed and be proud of, but not too massive to be unfeasible.
Secondly, one of the design decisions from the start has been: new art is optional. We are going the route of a traditional modification and using the art assets of our parent game (Half-Life 2). Project after project fail because the game design is too dependent on new assets. While this school has some extremely impressive artists, it's just not feasible to expect them to create all of the art required in a total conversion or from-scratch game. Just look at any modern developer team now days, current games require huge art teams. By making the design not require any new art assets, the project can viably survive even if we are short on technical artists.
That said, this comes with a large caveat. We will be pushing for new art. We like shiny new things as much as anyone. We will try to have new textures, weapons and maybe even new models. Furthermore, because of this design choice, art will be able to be on more of a contractual basis. Since the art itself is not truly vital, we can have artists come and go as they choose. A person might create a single new weapon model for us and then be done. Never will the project be on hold due to lack of art.
Another thing that sets us apart is our openness. Recently, student projects have been getting more and more secretive. While they are free to have such policies, we are following a different road. We believe good ideas are everywhere and can come from anyone, what really matters is doing something with them. By fostering an open environment, we can receive help from many of the brilliant people here at UAT. Anyone who is able to contribute, can.
Ultimately, this project will succeed because we need it to. As much fun as it will be, our own amusement is not the final goal. We want jobs. Those involved with this project will come with the knowledge that this may very well be their flagship project. This might be the deciding factor in their portfolio. Our work should and will reflect that.
---
So, without getting too dramatic, this very well could be it.
The job-getting project.
I should probably be a tad afraid, but right now I'm just phenomenally excited.
This isn't really relevant, but I hadn't posted in awhile.
In truth, I've been increasingly busy and this whole blog thing tends to be my last priority. Only when I'm in the grip of a powerful wave of procrastination might I come here (and even then, Digg seems to consistently be my solace).
So what have I been doing? Well, we've officially announced Half Life 2: Tyranny of the Overwatch, a multiplayer modification [website]. As Project Lead, it very well could be the flagship project of my student career. The one that gets my portfolio a second and hopefully third, let's-give-him-a-job glance. Plus it has an awesome acronym.
In the back of my mind I've known for a long while that I would eventually do something like this. I've tried my best to read everything I could find on successful and failed projects (particularly student ones). I've spoken to many people, some of whom will be advising us as we go. I think at this point I'm as prepared as I can be in this situation. It's really going to come down to having a good team and finding the will power to get us through.
I've actually been pleasantly surprised with the response I've gotten for recruitment. The only real thing we seem to be lacking at the moment is artists, which I was fully expecting. I think this will be solved down the line once the project starts going.
I wanted to go into some of the things that make us different, so instead of retyping everything (for the hundredth time) I'll just paste part of our recruitment post:
-Why will this project succeed?-
First and foremost, by having the right team with the right realistic goals. While we all have the time constraints and responsibilities that go along with being students, it is important for our future that we accomplish something in our time here. A degree is not enough to get a job in the game industry, at least not the ones we want. This project is ultimately about finishing something. It is large enough to get us noticed and be proud of, but not too massive to be unfeasible.
Secondly, one of the design decisions from the start has been: new art is optional. We are going the route of a traditional modification and using the art assets of our parent game (Half-Life 2). Project after project fail because the game design is too dependent on new assets. While this school has some extremely impressive artists, it's just not feasible to expect them to create all of the art required in a total conversion or from-scratch game. Just look at any modern developer team now days, current games require huge art teams. By making the design not require any new art assets, the project can viably survive even if we are short on technical artists.
That said, this comes with a large caveat. We will be pushing for new art. We like shiny new things as much as anyone. We will try to have new textures, weapons and maybe even new models. Furthermore, because of this design choice, art will be able to be on more of a contractual basis. Since the art itself is not truly vital, we can have artists come and go as they choose. A person might create a single new weapon model for us and then be done. Never will the project be on hold due to lack of art.
Another thing that sets us apart is our openness. Recently, student projects have been getting more and more secretive. While they are free to have such policies, we are following a different road. We believe good ideas are everywhere and can come from anyone, what really matters is doing something with them. By fostering an open environment, we can receive help from many of the brilliant people here at UAT. Anyone who is able to contribute, can.
Ultimately, this project will succeed because we need it to. As much fun as it will be, our own amusement is not the final goal. We want jobs. Those involved with this project will come with the knowledge that this may very well be their flagship project. This might be the deciding factor in their portfolio. Our work should and will reflect that.
---
So, without getting too dramatic, this very well could be it.
The job-getting project.
I should probably be a tad afraid, but right now I'm just phenomenally excited.
posted by Trenton Kennedy at
12:47 AM
0 Comments
