Problems with GarageGames :-(

#1 why does it matter if the projects are over a year old? most games take longer than a year to produce. especially with people who have jobs (indie developers) if you really want to work with a team find one that has a project going that you like (even if it's a year old) and talk with them about working on the project.


- ian wheat

PS, if you want to work on your own game it helps to come up with an idea and create a project here and post help wanted ads. find a writer and designer to help you plan out the game then after it's well planned out dive into developing it.

#2 I could use a programmer on my team :)

Check out our site:

www.flashthunder.com

Btw, our project is "only" a couple of month old :)

// Clocks out

#3 I would suggest you start a thread called

"I will program for free"

I think you might get a few offers.

I am not trying to be snide. If you want to work on a game for the experience of it, there are people who would take you up on the offer. Pick through the help wanted ads and reply to everyone you see that seems interesting to you.

There is a great deal more going on here then what gets posted on the boards. Become an active member of the community and doors will open.

Joe

#4 I posted an add on GG two weeks ago for a coder and we still need one. You can go to our website or forums if you want to look at. We are currently making a nice game with TGE which consists of a multiplay plane game.

Related links : perso.wanadoo.fr/hysteria

#5 GarageGames is a collection of tools you can utilize to help make yourself successful. The carpenter uses his skills and the hammer to build the house -- the hammer does not build the house by itself. Success will take your active involvement, demonstrating your leadership skills and showing that your project is fun, unique and accomplishable. It will not be easy, we have never said it would be.

Karsten and Frank, your projects are looking great, keep up the awesome work. And don't forget to send us screenshots from time to time, we love seeing what people are doing with the engine. Who knows they might even get posted :)

--Rick

#6 I'm impressed with both of the games here. Rick, I think you guys may have a couple of winners here! Nice job to the dev teams in question (FlashThunder and Darkhand).

#7 if you want work mmakeing a fun game contact me at vinci_smurf@smurfs.com I got plenty of work for everyone :-) Anthony

#8 To Chris: thanks for the support ;)

To All:
I would like to add that it's quite difficult now to find people that want to work on a project when there are no fundings at the beginning (and I understand them). I was lucky to find two good 3D modelers, and a 2D artist (even if the 2D artist has some pbs actually which forbid her to put all the time she wants on the project). But we really suffer at the moment on the lack of a good 2D skinner/artist and a skilled coder. I post an ad on GG for the coder, and will soon post another one for the 2D artist/skinner (most important), and was a little bit surprised to get no contact for the moment.

I understand that people are much more interesting in renumerated project, but wonder how teams like the one on CounterStrike gather all their talented people. I think that project like FlashThunder & DoP offer some good opportunity for people to show their skills and have fun too.

To be brief, it seems that for a project like mine, we really need a good demo/beta in order to show that we want to have a good final product that will be entertaining, and then possible coder/artist might be interesting to work with us.

#9 To Frank

Well I basicly agrees with you, it is hard to find people to help, well it not hard to find the people who wants to help out, but to find someone who actually submits any work, thats the hard part.

What I have done is going to other game/mod communities and looking through their forums for someone who looks talented but are not a part of the actual dev team for that game/mod and then I e-mail them my offer, but still they are far apart.

Btw, I think Counter-strike is almost entirely made by 2 guys, but that only makes its so much more incrediable.

// Clocks out

www.flashthunder.com

#10 I think one problem people are having is the fixation that they must come out of the gate with a fully complemented team. I think if you start out very small one or two maybe three guys and get a little proof of concept demo going (granted it will likely look ugly with all the programmer art) but at least you will have something to show others and attract them to your team. If you are lucky enough to have an artist in the mix do some conceptual drawings, 3D models, get a web page up all this stuff helps show you are serious and have a fun game idea.

--Rick

#11 Once we ship my current game, I'm going to try and be a bit more active around here. This will involve adding/fixing things for the engine, but also maybe taking part in some code for single/multiple projects.

I'd love to help out with a load of projects, Ive been tempted to do all sorts of things myself, but I know that Ive sometimes slacked off in the past, (I'm sure Tim aint as slack as me :)) so I'm just basically trying to do things that I want to see as I see em.

What I'm saying is, perhaps we should get some discussion going about what kind of things you guys really need to get going? most of the games can be scripted, so do you really need a skilled programmer?

Phil.

#12 Counter-Strike was actually only made by one guy. Gooseman did the models and the coding but had various people do maps. The second guy, Cliffe, did the web work, some of the 2d art and some other small stuff. Gooseman had done some stuff prior to doing Counter-Strike (Action Quake 2).
I think he's probably an exception though and grabbing a good team is tough. But don't under estimate yourself. You may have a hidden talent for 2D art. If you can't find the team members, like Rick said, do some basic stuff. You may be surprised by the results. Even if your not though you'll have something in your demo and that might be enough to attract people.

Alc

#13 Concerning the skilled programmer, you are right Phil, TGE can be mainly scripted and so MOD scripter is a need. But for the moment, I'm more involved in the in-game coding (modifying TGE) in order to have some fancy fx, a new physic model for the plane, objectives based mission (trigger, ...).
I will also be very glad when you have time to get in touch with you if you want to help us on some parts.

#14 Phil's suggestion is right on the money and in my opinion is the best way for most "Indie" groups to get started.

A "proof of concept" always helps to sell your vision to potential investors and employees (especially if its a volunteer or a royalty pay scheme).

I personally think that more groups should work thier butts off and get some sort of proof which serves as a foundation, before they begin to "shoot for the stars" with their projects.

Logan

#15 You know I read a lot of the game project proposals on here and see some of the most retarded crap ideas I've ever been witness to. I don't want to point too many fingers but one features you playing a "big black guy" who yells "Get away from the car motherf**er". As a main character choice???? I sincerely hope I'm not the only person who sees the problem with this?


Sure I'm interested in work but if people dont have half the brain a wombat does I'm not even going to bother writing them .. I have no idea if your proposal rose above this level or not - but another major problem is there are 9 trillion people out there who are 'idea guys' who think they have the greatest idea in the world for a game, set up a web-site, and start trying to recruit a team to work for free ...even if I had time to work for all those people for free I wouldn't because most are so non-professional they won't even take the time to talk about a contract to iron out the terms of your working together. Do you really think I'm going to create assets for you, for free, with nothing in writing saying what I'm going to get out of it if you get a publisher?

I'm not saying your proposal was like that.. I'm just bitching about a lack of professionalism and projects that would actually be worth working on in general you know?

Anyways.. best of luck on your pursuits, just be realistic with yourself and your expectations youll get much better results.

Sincerely,

Melkior

#16 You're not alone, I've noticed that a LOT of projects that I've gone through lack professionalism, and even more are bad ideas to start with.

When we started talking about Children of Mars and decided we were "gonna DO this!", we knew right from the start that we needed to take a professional attitude towards it. Of course, we started off by asking people we already knew well if they wanted to lend their skills to the project, but when it came time to find other people whom we needed, we knew we had to write up a contract, NDA, etc. We informed them that we couldn't pay them a salary, but that paymen would be a cut of profits from the final game. And because we were so up front, a fair number of the people still went along with it anyway. Without some level of professionalism, nothing would probably get done.

Just my two cents.

-Ian McClintock

#17 You really want to get the attention of a decent dev team? Start working on Torque, add some new features, do new things with it. Add functionality. Post in the forums and let people know what you're up to, maybe even share some code with the newbies.

I can't think of a better way to show off your skills. I assure you, there are plenty of *good* dev teams here looking for help (mine included). But the good ones are not just going to take any coder who comes along. If they're smart they're scouring the forums even as you read this, to separate the gold from the chaff.

Also, GG is a great site.. but it isnt the only place to find a good project to join. For instance, I found my team (rather, they found me) on a T2 modding site.

There's another two cents for ya.