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[Ajene]

For several months me and my friends have been working on things, only now they have been too busy and have started to forget about this.

2 of my artist have girlfriends.

1 also is busy with school, and taking on church responsibilities and he will also be finding a job, he's still trying to help when he gets a chance but Its rare to get anything from him. He also rarely picks up his phone anymore so it makes it hard to reach him.

The composer i just havent gotten anything from him, gave him software to use and he took his time downloading it, and I've yet to hear anything from him and now i'm talking to him through his cousin (the artist)

The other artist has a girlfriend and works 30hours a week. but when hes not working I havent been able to talk about the project for nearly a week.

1 programmer is out of town

so this is leaving me and another programmer working alone for some time now. I'm at a loss at what to do, we wanted to release the game in a few months but without help don't think we can, and now i'm thinking whether risk working on games and or possibly ruin my friendship by stopping working with them. Kinda knew this wouldn't last forever, however i expected us to atleast release one game together, and a simple 2D side scroller seemed like something we could handle no problem.

[William Broom]

How simple are we talking here? It must be pretty complex if you need 5-6 people working on it.

[Alex Vostrov]

Why not let the current project chill and work on something by yourself for a while?  Some time should clarify things a bit.  I don't understand why you say that stopping working with these people will ruin your friendship.  Presumably, they realise that they're too busy as well as you do.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i also don't understand why a simple 2d side scroller, presumably the first game by you guys, requires a half dozen people. i'm all for indies teaming up, but i think it's a good idea if each person at least makes one game alone first. all the people i'm working with on my current project (saturated dreamers) have finished games before, finished them solo. that shows me that they know how to get stuff done. i wouldn't risk working with someone who hasn't empirically shown they can get things done.

[Ajene]

well originally the game was bigger, but we we started to make things much more simpler.

And yea I hear you Paul, so far only 4 of us have experience making at least one game, the other 2 havent, and they dont have plans to get into games after this either.

[bateleur]

Yes, time to rethink things.

My recommendation (extreme though it may sound) would be to put the entire project on indefinite hold, letting the other participants know, and start something fresh. Trying to rescue struggling projects is almost never worth the effort.

[Martin 2BAM]

Do something by yourself first and team up with people that already worked in games in the past.

There's an "I can do everything in 1 month" sort of syndrome when people think they know how to handle game developing but never actually pushed a finished project (which I suffered myself )

Regards

[jrjellybeans]

i also don't understand why a simple 2d side scroller, presumably the first game by you guys, requires a half dozen people.

When you're making your first game, it can take you a long time if you don't know what you're doing.

The Cherokee Indian took us about 9 months to make and that's about as simple as you can get.

[weasello]

Diffrn't strokes, I guess... I had never made a game previously, and:

I was able to teach myself a new programming language,
and teach myself Object Oriented programming,
and build a full working game,
with full polish,
music,
launched,
and marketed...

in 30 days.

I'm no artist so that includes about a week of me trying my hardest to do up the graphics myself.

Even if you don't have the skill, it's a really good idea to try out all the roles -- so you get an idea for what your teammates are actually doing in your game development cycle. You'll end up finding a few tips and tricks that you can use to ease development a bit.

Understanding what everyone is doing really helps organization, particularly if you have no management.

If you have any schooling/experience in programming (a year or two in high school, as a minimum perhaps) you can probably get a basic game design done in 48 hours (without polish).

[StudioFortress]

Don't continue with the game, or think that you shouldn't drop it just because your all friends. It's good that your all mates, but you should treat it as a business.

I would call an emergency meeting. Raise your concerns, go over what's been done and whats still left. People might have other jobs, lives and girlfriends that come first; but if they aren't working on the project then they aren't a part of it. Try and get down how much time people can give to the project each week, and ensure it's realistic. A guaranteed 6 hours a week is better then an imaginary 30.

Your team mates might just need a little prodding and leasership, or they might be just too busy and it's time to move on. Whatever it is, don't spend any more time dithering around this issue.

[Ajene]

Yea this will be our first project as a team.

I did the whole design of the game myself, but had some good input from the others, but we stripped a ton of things after we finished. cause it just seemed like too much of a load on our plate.

Our original plans was at least 8 hours of work a week cause we all decided an hour a day wouldn't be so hard. and we do have a meeting planned next week Saturday.
We dropped one project (mainly because we dropped a designer who only argued and only "designed")

Might be, if I cant get them together then it'll be time to move on, maybe i'll just do some small things alone or collaborate.

[biino]

I can completely relate to this. From experience, I agree with the replies to drop it and start something on your own. You can't beat game development out of someone, it has to come willingly.

It's also clear they have lives full of other time consuming activities. Even with the idea of "just put 1 hour a night", if the person isn't willing and is mentally exhausted from the day, it's just not going to happen. If they aren't returning your calls, I'd say they're politely giving you a hint.

My random thoughts on starting out as an indie from experience.

- Don't have someone there with no game development experience as a game designer. It's a waste of time.
- In addition, someone who plays a lot of games may not necessarily game a good game designer.
- A lot of people LOVE to talk about making a game. They also LOVE to start making one. You know the fun bits like brainstorming over beers. And although they have good intentions to see through it to the end... it's just not going to happen. Don't waste time getting blood out of a stone. Move on.
- You don't need 6 people to make a game. It might not be the game you want to make but you can still make a decent game.
- In your case, instead of using energy to chase people up and worrying over it. Redirect that effort into developing a game on your own. You may need to take time off to learn skills such as programming, modeling or a game development package. This is ok. Do it. It's just as rewarding as developing a game and you end up with some good skills. If this is the case for you, stop reading this thread and do it. No more talk.

Bino

ps: Ahh I missed that you still have programmer on board. Why not start something the two of you can handle?

[Ajene]

in the end the  2 guys left, which left us at 4 and another artist wants to help us. was planning to continue with the game, but after working on it, and finding its hard to talk with some of the rest of the team. I went over the game idea after leaving it for several weeks and now I'm thinking "I'm just not feeling it"  we've closed one project when the designer left, and now we may close another.

Now I'm thinking what to do now, this project is dead, and I don't think I'll be working with friends ever again.

[Hajo]

I once had a really big project going. I lead it for about 7 years. The first three years I worked alone, then I was able to gather help. Team size changed between 2 and 5 people or maybe 7 once for a short time (most of them inactive ...) Team members joined and left, seldom that people stayed for more than 2 or 3 years. Well working teams were mostly small, it is hard to manage more than 3 teammates. Better have two people who really help, than 7 who keep you busy with mails, but don't get things done.

After 7 years I felt the need to leave, and one of the former team member took over the lead. The project still lives, reaching year 12 of age. It was playable about 8 or 9 of those years, but continued to grow in features all the time.

What I want to say, if some team members leave, you don't need to call it quits. Try to manage with a changing team. I know it is a lot of effort to teach new  members how everything works, and it takes a while till they can become productive. But it's how bigger projects work, I think.

Having said that, I've concluded that such projects are killers and I do not want to do it again. After my leave I took a 2 year break from game development. Later I wanted to get into game development again, but I'm going solo for the time being, and with much smaller projects. Looks more sane to me, at least for hobby/noncommercial projects.

[rayteoactive]

A 12 years indie project? man, I wanna see that

But personally, I would never work on something that's going to take more then a year... nor will I want to lead a 7 man indie team, especially when everyone is working home and communicated via email/msn. It sounded like a full-time job, and all you end up doing is planning timeline and communication. Producer stuff.

My recently release game (on XBLIG) took me 9 months, and it's more of a 3.5 man team, with friends and hired helps working over misc stuff. The 1st 3months, everyone was sort of part time. Follow by 4 months of absolute full time hell, working more than 12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. And the last 2 months was me preparing promo stuff while the programmer work on peer review over the weekend.

I was working as the producer, game designer and artist the whole time and was losing lots of hair, lol. I don't think I ever wanna do that again.

[Hajo]

A 12 years indie project? man, I wanna see that

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simutrans
http://www.simutrans.com

I didn't even know that indie games exist when I started that First i jsut wanted to do it as a training project for C++ and OOP, but it soon picked up interest by players, and so it grew bigger and bigger.

7 years were too long though. I should have left earlier, or at least reduced the amount of time that I spend on it. It's not been fun anymore in the end.

[Ajene]

dude 12 years that's fucking insane. 

For my team I was Pr, Marketing, Managing, Art, and helping with Programming. Spent most of my time talking with other groups trading info and learning, another half working on site, doing some art work and sketches, learning C++, and talking to members of the team to see if I could get something from them, or would I have to do it myself. most people stood around waiting for me to give them something, and they didn't spend a lot of time talking about the project.

I'm thinking of doing things for educational purposes and continue working on art and programming, this way I don't have to worry about everyone on the team. thinking of doing small projects with others soon too.

[gangsta59]

i wish  we have more indie guys for work together in turkey to