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[Ajene]

OK Me and my friends have a huge project we are working on.

First theirs 8 of us, 6 of us are working from my studio 2 of them are internet bound. though that may change with replacements and all.

But anyway we currently have a project that we are working on its an RPG (no not MMO) we wanna spend 4 years on this cause we are gonna put alot of stuff in it, but we also dont want this to be the only project we release for 4 years. so we plan to every once in awhile put in some 8 week or couple month projects. These projects will usually be mini games that are part of the bigger project, or simple spare time projects to put out.

Does anyone thing this is a good idea? as long as we arent like making 500 projects at one time? Many of us are still learning in our field of work. Like me i'm an 2D aritst but i working on learning 3D as well (though sadly my main job is managing director, and other business crap) coders got 3-4 years of C# and C++ but we are still learning.

For me i think we could do 2 projects at a time, if we spend several hours on each a day, we want our big project to be a really really good one so we wanna put all our best work into it.

btw engine of choice is Unity Indie.

[moi]

I found (and I think this is a generally agreed upon idea) that I work better if I start several projects at the same time.
But it only works if the projects are different, make you solve differnt problems, and if all the projects can be worked upon part time (not the kind of projects that require all your attention). I'd say no more than 3 at the same time.
Plus it's probably a good idea for you to start on other projects just for the simple reason that this mmo will probably never get done.

[aeiowu]

agreed moi

I work better with a few irons in the fire at once. It allows me to refresh by working on something else.

So yes... I think it's a good idea. I also think 2 months for a side-project moneymaking venture is kind of long. Especially with 8 guys. For our side-project flash games we usually cap it at 2 weeks.

I think the bigger question is how you're going to make money with those being in Unity and only being smaller games. Iphone? If you release them on the web that's a whole other ball of wax. I'm not sure you'd get what you wanted if you tried selling them as shareware since they'd feel more like freeware games with that kind of timeline. Just some things to start thinking about...

[Loren Schmidt]

Personally I have all kinds of trouble with organizing side projects, and have run into motivation issues and such as a result of taking on too much at once. I think, however, that this is more owing to mistakes I've made than anything fundamentally wrong with the idea.

Pastel seems to be having good luck with side projects. I'd be interested to hear his opinion. He has one large platformer he's working on, and he's semi-regularly making minigames which are eventually going to be part of that platformer. Some of the minigames are pretty awesome, and he seems to be having a lot of fun with them.

[Ajene]

Plus it's probably a good idea for you to start on other projects just for the simple reason that this mmo will probably never get done.

Not an mmo just a regular rpg, that's why i put (no not MMO) by it cause for some reason every time i say rpg people would think i was doing a MMO.

[inkBot]

I agree that a few extra projects on the side helps. If your primary projects starts feeling heavy you can turn to a smaller project to blow of some steam, but too many projects will have the adverse effect.

I only have one game project going on right now (and I haven't really started yet, still kinda in the planning phase) but I draw comics on the side as well.

[Bill Hoggett]

Not an mmo just a regular rpg, that's why i put (no not MMO) by it cause for some reason every time i say rpg people would think i was doing a MMO.

I think moi's comment stands regardless of the type of game. A project of that magnitude and with that sort of development timeframe has a very high chance of never being completed. 4 years is a very long time and all sorts of things can happen.

That's not to say you shouldn't press ahead - just that it's a very good idea to make sure there's always a "plan B". Most developers will tell you the same thing: the longer the project, the higher the chance it will fall by the wayside.

[Ajene]

yea its a big game, but its gonna be our studios trademark game, it could take less time, but right now we have planned for 4 years and are in the planning phase atm.

[letsap]

I'd be interested to hear his opinion.

Well, that should be pretty obvious. I'm a fan of side projects. They're like vacations in that they can give you a fresh perspective and new ideas, teach you new stuff, alleviate stress, and can add a lot in a lot of ways. 

Unfortunately, that can mean stress too.

You guys have a team. That can complicate the side project thing. For instance, say a few of your guys are making really good headway on something, it'd be weird if the rest wanted to start a side project because things weren't going well for them. In that sense, side projects can be risky, especially when the number of them starts adding up, especially if there's a time limit on them. I think in this case, it'd be best to set out a design doc so everybody knows what parts of the game need to be made before release, including side projects, even if it's something like "minigame 1" and "minigame 2," because that can be discussed as a group and it'll take away the "man don't we have enough of those" factor.

All that said, I think they're definitely worth a shot, but be careful. You gotta know what you're getting into. From the sound of it, you guys are gonna be spending a lot of time learning what you have to do as you go, and are all gonna have your own things going on anyway. So yeah, just be careful about it.

Best of luck.

[moi]

I have been able to do a lot of technical improvements on my main project because of side projects (notably TIGS competitions). It also gives me a boost (like vacations) and help take some much needed distance. It's good all around

[Ajene]

thanks for all the help guys, this will help alot, and yea for all our projects we make design docs, and design every last thing, from enemies to characters and cities and what not. also great news is that i got a free copy of 3ds max from joing my schools robotics team so i can ditch blender the interface is what annoyed me the most of blender.

[ZOMGBananas]

I totally agree with what pretty much everyone else in the thread has said. Side projects are always great to mess about with when then main project gets too bothersome, or you come across something you can't work through at that point.

I'm only just beginning on my journey into game creation, so I find I come across ideas I want to implement, but when actually attempting to get them working it becomes a whole different kettle of fish. So having a couple of things going at once helps cut that frustration, and more often than not I work out how to fix my original problem while working on something totally different.

I guess the important thing if you're dedicated to your RPG is to make sure you and your team don't get too side tracked with mini-projects, and all will be good.

[brog]

I think you should be warned: game projects always grow beyond the time you plan for them.  So if you're planning four years of work on a game, you'll probably end up spending at least six years on it (if you don't give up before then, that is).  Even when you think it's almost done, you'll be amazed at how long you need to spend polishing.  The gap between "playable, all content in place" and "finished, optimised, balanced, free of significant bugs" is surprisingly large.
Maybe you have enough experience already that your four-year estimate takes this into account - if so, great - but otherwise, I'd advise you to trim down your plan to something easier to complete.  Maybe just do the first chapter of your epic story for a start; then you can finish it, get it out there, and do the rest later.

[jugival]

If your main project is big than I can´t recommend having additional projects. It is ok to have small side projects which can be useful for the main one (code testing and such). A big and serious project require so much time that you can not afford to spend it on other projects, if you want to ever finish it.

Or maybe I am just too slow when working on my own project (not a very big one)