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[Theophilus]

In the realm of bettering your life, this thread might be about alcoholism or the use of drugs. I'm talking about the realm of game development.

In this thread, we'll look for an accountability partner. The role of the accountability partner is simple - never let your partner give up. He needs to finish his game, and you need to help him! You can do this however you want. Suggestions are...

• Gauge progress regularly
• Ask to see demos of the game
• Delete every other project file on his hard-drive. (This one's a bit tricky)

I'm starting this thread because many indie developers suffer this problem of not persevering through their work. This is an attempt to halt that.

I'm willing to be an accountability partner for someone. I am also looking for an accountability partner that will not let me not finish my game!

[eclectocrat]

Good idea! I'm in! I'll partner with anyone who takes it seriously.

Theophilus? No pressure, I'm not asking you out to the prom... 

[Theophilus]

Good idea! I'm in! I'll partner with anyone who takes it seriously.

Theophilus? No pressure, I'm not asking you out to the prom... 

Sure, I'll be your partner. I'll PM you with my details so we can work stuff out.

[ANtY]

Good idea, I have already some "accountability partners" from polish indie scene.

[SplinterOfChaos]

I actually had an idea like this. My idea was i wanted a game-dev pen pal. I think it could be a good motivator.

I won't be picky on choosing or accepting a partner, but i wonder what makes a good partner? Perhaps mutual interest in each others projects? Maybe it's the same in what makes a good friend: balance of talents and interests (like "i'm good at A and Joe is good at B").

EDIT: Accountability partners, or accountabilibuddies?

[Theophilus]

EDIT: Accountability partners, or accountabilibuddies?

Neither...

ACCOUNTABUDDIES

[Sakar]

This sounds like an absolutely brilliant idea! Unfortunately an almost complete lack of computer time during the week makes communication a bit difficult for me

[Martoon]

Great idea!

Like SplinterOfChaos said, having a mutual interest in each other's projects will make better partners.  That being the case, maybe we should each post a brief description of our game project.

Mine is called Time Commander.  The player controls a vehicle via a special interface in a 2D side view, and has to get the vehicle through an environment to complete a level.  There is a time slider that the player can slide freely back and forth over a timeline.  As they move it back and forth over the timeline, they see the vehicle and everything else moving accordingly.  They can position the slider at any point on the timeline, and set the controls for the vehicle at that point.  If the vehicle is a flying ship, they can set the forward and rotational thrust.  If the vehicle is a two-wheeled bike, they can set the throttle/brake.  They then drag the time slider forward, see the resulting movement, and continue setting/changing the controls at different points in the timeline until they have the vehicle making a successful path through the level, avoiding hazards, shooting enemies, etc.

I'm just starting on this project, so I don't have much of anything to see yet.  Just a very early test prototype that puts a bunch of random ships on the screen with their thrusters already set, and lets you drag the time slider to see them move.  It's in Flash, and you can see it here.

So what projects does everyone else have?

[Theophilus]

It might even be better to have an accountability trio. Because with two... You can both agree to just say, "Screw this". With three, that's less likely.

Anyway, I'm starting a new project. It's a life-simulation (You could probably tell if you've been following my posts). Currently deciding on an art style.

[baconman]

I'd like to participate, but with a few fair warnings. I'm working on about 13 projects (!), eventually culminating in them all contributing work to a single, long-term one. For instance, side-scroller sprites and characters I'm working on developing will likely factor into at least half of them. I'm also moderately skilled at most aspects of gamedev, but programming/scripting from scratch is a total bitch (finding a starting point where I declare every variable/global I'm using is the pincher right now). All of the smaller projects contribute something of value towards "the big one," so it's not like I can just snip them out; and there's a lot that I'm still learning about and working on as they go along.

My goal is to put about 1-2 hours of development time a day, 4-5 days a week. So somewhere between 7-10 hours a week into it. It looks like I'm doing most of my own art, sounds/music, design, and programming (though I'll probably be asking plenty of stupid "helpmes" when I get to that point. Most of the design work is done, even to a technical degree. And yes, mutual enthusiasm *is* pretty critical; and something I'm pretty good at offering.

Genres of projects I'm working on include platformer, beat-em-up, fighting, musical, puzzle/minigame, action-adventure, racing, shoot-em-up, and *maybe* a controlled/simplified style of RPG; although there's a few tools I'm developing, like a dynamic music creator as well. The platformer, beat-em-up, and fighting games will focus on side-scroller oriented character sprites, the puzzle/minigame and musical elements will have a more direct GUI, although some character illustrations may accompany that, and for the time being, I'm thinking of doing the racing, shmup, and adventure elements with a top-down vehicular focus; although I do question how well that may work in the adventure game sense (which draws most of it's inspiration between Zelda and Gauntlet... although it could be made to include some Crazy Taxi/GTA influence as well, perhaps).

[Theophilus]

I suffer mostly from the inability to focus on one project at a time. This is outside the scope of game development, too, because even while writing this post I left to do something.

Anybody have any tips? I suppose rationing out work to do daily or whenever would be the best.

[SplinterOfChaos]

My current project hasn't really taken form yet, but here's a screenshot:



The idea is just you jump from one adjacent platform to another as your only mode of transportation. Maybe i'll add some form of enemy or goal, but for now you can jump. If you're interested in the mechanics, and don't mind simple graphics, maybe we can partner.

baconman: Holy crap, do you do anything else all day or are you just the kind of person who has 24 tabs open in the browser and you reboot 'cause you'll lose your tabs? Well, i can't take interest in what you're doing without seeing something. What did you work on yesterday? What will you do tomorrow?

Theophilus: Focusing on one task is not a habit or trait and lack of is not a condition like ADD. Focusing is a skill and one that sharpens the mind. Personally, i practice through meditation. Reading long, dense books can also work. And learning to differentiate between a thought that is productive and one that is a distraction is harder than one would think.

[baconman]

A couple days ago I inked together a spritesheet outline (should be visible in Art/Workshop subforum), today I've compiled my instrument samples for DMG (Dynamic Music Generator), as well as "room" framework for it, though I'm still tossing around GUI ideas.

I really do need to get something to a point that I can actually illustrate/demonstrate here, though.

[SplinterOfChaos]

I'm a little disappointed that this thread isn't more popular, so i'm just gonna say:

If anyone wants to IM me, i'm online a lot of the day. I can be reached through MSN vie [email protected]. I have accounts with a few other IM clients, but for a few years, i've never needed one besides MSN.

[Martoon]

I'm a little disappointed that this thread isn't more popular, so i'm just gonna say:

If anyone wants to IM me, i'm online a lot of the day. I can be reached through MSN vie [email protected]. I have accounts with a few other IM clients, but for a few years, i've never needed one besides MSN.

Your game looks a little experimental, but approachable, which is always of interest to me.  I'll partner with you, if Time Commander interests you at all.

[SplinterOfChaos]

Your game looks a little experimental, but approachable, which is always of interest to me.  I'll partner with you, if Time Commander interests you at all.

I guess i could say the same about yours. I'm not sure where you're going with Time Commander, but i guess you could say the same of my game. I'll PM you tomorrow about what i'm doing with my game and we can exchange goals or something.