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[Alex May]

Estimated Dev Time would be atleast 2 months. Which would be cut in half with 2.

No.

Quite :D Also: 2 months? No.

[Eclipse]

estimated time would be at least 5-6 months with a very dedicated programmer, 4 with two imo. But only if they works well together, if not, make it 8...

[Snakey]

Sasori_Zero

I think you should let the programmer decide what language and librarie(s) your game will use. If you think about it for a moment, between you and the prospective programmer ... who do you think the most knowledge would be?

Thus, don't corner a programmer into using a language or library that you don't really know much about other than reading its feature lists.

I think the time frame you've got is superbly optimistic. Without proper understanding of the amount of work it takes to program a game, how is it that you came up with two months? Or even more so, how do you calculate that it would then only take one month if two programmers worked on it? First of all, programming is not merely typing. Thus having two people doesn't mean they'll do more typing in the same time space. Most of the time with programming ... people just sit and think for a while. Thinking takes time. Secondly, you also totally remove Murphy's Law and perhaps don't appreciate that if you aren't paying the programmer, he or she isn't likely to be working on your project full time. They'll probably be doing a full time job, coming home, eating dinner then boot up the computer and do some programming. With that sort of normal schedule ... you're looking at about two or three hours of productive programming a night max. This is shortened if they watch any TV, have kids, have a partner or anything else which consumes time.

The only advise I can give is to just let the programmer decide how to program your project, but don't be afraid to ask for a portfolio of some sort so you can actually see whether he or she is up to the task. Also, before you comment on how long a project will take, talk to your team first ... then make a decision based on the feedback. Throwing an arbitary date is sort of pointless.

[Dataflashsabot]

About #SRWeternity : What network? Esper? As a general rule, get your channel registered with Chanserv and such before you talk about it publicly

[projecthappy]

Well I hate to be a downer, but you're going to have tough luck trying to get a programmer...that's a ton of work for a hobbyist. I imagine it would take closer to a year total. I've been working with someone on a relatively simple iPhone game, no cutscenes or complicated mechanics and it's been about 5 months. And he'll be making most of the (hypothetical) profits, a fan game gets nothing.

[Sasori_Zero]

estimated time would be at least 5-6 months with a very dedicated programmer, 4 with two imo. But only if they works well together, if not, make it 8...

Realistically? We're expecting something along the lines of 8~12 months. I originally said two months because I'm not exactly aware how dedicated the people are on this board. I just threw out a random number and wanted to see what kind of reaction I got.

Sasori_Zero

Thus, don't corner a programmer into using a language or library that you don't really know much about other than reading its feature lists

What we've got so far was made using the previously mentioned C++/SDL. The problem is that it's so negligible that it's not exactly something we want to stick to. If anyone here is interested in this project, willing to volunteer, and can make something matching our requirements with another coding language then please feel free to contact me. I'm not going to reject anyone willing to help out.

About #SRWeternity : What network? Esper? As a general rule, get your channel registered with Chanserv and such before you talk about it publicly

As I've said previously, it's on Rizon, and it's registered on chanserv.

[Stegersaurus]

Realistically? We're expecting something along the lines of 8~12 months. I originally said two months because I'm not exactly aware how dedicated the people are on this board. I just threw out a random number and wanted to see what kind of reaction I got.

Sure ya did buddy... whatever you say.

[dspencer]

Realistically? We're expecting something along the lines of 8~12 months. I originally said two months because I'm not exactly aware how dedicated the people are on this board. I just threw out a random number and wanted to see what kind of reaction I got.

It's not going to help your cause to lie to the people that you want to get to do your programming.

[William Broom]

Realistically? We're expecting something along the lines of 8~12 months. I originally said two months because I'm not exactly aware how dedicated the people are on this board. I just threw out a random number and wanted to see what kind of reaction I got.

What you've done here is escaped from a minor embarassment by claiming something far worse instead. It's like saying "Honey, I would have picked up the milk like you asked me to, but I didn't have time after burning down the orphanage."

[Montoli]

estimated time would be at least 5-6 months with a very dedicated programmer, 4 with two imo. But only if they works well together, if not, make it 8...

Realistically? We're expecting something along the lines of 8~12 months. I originally said two months because I'm not exactly aware how dedicated the people are on this board. I just threw out a random number and wanted to see what kind of reaction I got.

So you're saying that either

• you have no ability to make your own programming estimates and tried to fake it.
• you are deliberately underestimating the amount of time it will take in order to try to attract people to your project.

I don't mean to sound overly harsh, but neither of these scenarios are going to help your ability to attract a programmer!  You have listed a VERY substantial list of game features, and you are basically saying "hey, any programmers want to come work on a project with us for free for a length of time that either a) we don't know because we can't plan well, or b) we're willing to lie about in order to get you on board?"

Also, while I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor, I suspect you're going to have trouble finding a programmer in any case, at least on this board.  Most programmers have no shortage of ideas of their own to work on, especially if the project isn't likely to be paid work.  Why would I want to come spend several months working on your idea that you're excited about, when I could just spend that time working on my own idea that I'm even more excited about because it's mine?  Basically in order to get someone, you have to convince them that your idea would be more fun than whatever they have in their head, which will, if nothing else, be an uphill battle.  (A lot of the programmers on this board became programmers in the first place because they had game ideas they wanted to turn real.)

Anyway, best of luck either way.  I would recommend though, that if you're serious about this, you either learn better planning skills, or not try to jerk potential collaborators around with deliberately bad estimates.

-Montoli

[Alex May]

Hahah, looks like everyone saw through that one :D

About #SRWeternity : What network? Esper? As a general rule, get your channel registered with Chanserv and such before you talk about it publicly

Haha, you are a filthy little channel troll aren't you. 

[William Broom]

What's a channel troll? Is it something to do with having an unregistered IRC channel?

[Colon Semicolon]

I can see communication kind of broke down around all of this, so let me try and help with explaining.
 
 Basically, when we first came here, we didn't think it'd be all that bad to allow just anyone from our group to post information and a request for help. Obviously, that backfired pretty badly, as he only ran what he wrote by one person, and led to the original first post. 
 When we told him to change it, instead he decided to try and explain everything as a means to smooth things out. This also obviously backfired as he posted misinformation about goals and other things about the project.

I apologize for this inconvenience, as it shouldn't be a representation of the rest of the team. We have changed the first post to reflect this, and hope there's no ill feelings to us for this whole dilemma that sprang up. Feel free to ask any questions you want about the project, and I'll be sure to answer them in a clear and concise manner.

[Sasori_Zero]

The following was added to the opening post. Just wanted to bump so people could notice it.

*Update* We have created a design document that better explains what we're doing. You can download it here or here.

[William Broom]

That document is fine as a summary to get people interested in playing the game. For attracting a programmer, it's not so great. If I were you, I would write up a list of different sections in the game (i.e. battle, customisation, cutscenes etc.) and under each section, a list of the features you want (i.e. special attacks, victory conditions and so on). Then you should have lots of numbers about (roughly) how much you want to do - how many characters, how many levels, how many attacks per character, etc. This will give your prospective programmers a good idea of how much work they will have to do.

Of course, this will probably lead most programmers to say "far too much work, forget it" but it will still be more attractive than the nebulous goals you're setting right now.

[Don Andy]

Oh man, reminds me of my Naruto times.

[Lurk]

You guys should look into RpgMaker XP (or DX) from Enterbrain. It uses scripts, and there is one for making tactical type games. That would allow you to concentrate on the graphical and story aspect, which you seem to be doing fine right now.
http://www.rmxp.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=32656
You could probably combine this script with an isometric graphic script, and achieve the SRW look.

[Corpus]

I'm over it.