*******READ BEFORE POSTING!!!*******
Marc. Help Wanted template | Game development isn't easy! | Indie interviews
Bloodlust is back! -Leave your morals and political correctness at the door.
(Thread title: Arists/programmers/music needed)
Team name:
Lags11
Project name:
Spacey invaders
Brief description:
A 2D shoot-em-up set in space, whereby the player controls a spaceship defending a base station against enemy invaders. This has been in production for three months.
Target aim:
Freeware, hopefully to build up a website and a name for ourselves!
Compensation:
Plenty of credit for work done! [smile]
Technology:
DirectX, Promotion, Photoshop
Talent needed:
Sprite artists, a.i and sound programmers, from beginners up.
Team structure:
Currently, I'm the concept artist and designer, we also have two 2 engine programmers who have been here for the duration.
Website:
(obvious what goes here!)
Contacts:
(and again!)
Additional Info:
Go here <insert links> for small demo of what we've done so far. Also we have a lot of ideas for cool weapons and features that we've put into a design document and would be happy to show potential help.
[Edited by - mlambert on March 29, 2005 9:16:03 AM]
Marc. Help Wanted template | Game development isn't easy! | Indie interviews
Bloodlust is back! -Leave your morals and political correctness at the door.
(Thread title: Beginners needed for collaboration)
Team name:
To be decided
Project name:
n/a
Brief description:
I want to put together a small team of beginners to help each other learn and develop small games. I would like to get a website and forum up and running where we can show our progress and talk about our ideas.
Target aim:
Freeware, just for experience
Compensation:
n/a
Technology:
Preferably C/C++ with OpenGL.
Talent needed:
Any beginners who would be interested in helping! This means programmers, artists, sound engineers, basically anyone willing to learn!
Team structure:
At the moment it's just me. I've been programming for a few months now and am building up a steady knowledge of C++. I've managed to start a pong clone, so it might be cool for some help with that.
Website:
Contacts:
Additional Info:
It would be cool to hear from anybody, even if you don't think you'd be much help! You never know what we could achieve.
[Edited by - mlambert on March 29, 2005 9:20:44 AM]
Marc. Help Wanted template | Game development isn't easy! | Indie interviews
Bloodlust is back! -Leave your morals and political correctness at the door.
My biggest concern is this:
Should these be seen as rules, requirements, or guidelines?
---Are we required to pretty much copy/paste and fill in the blank...
---or are we simply required to include each item in the list in a distinct and clear fashion?
---Can we change the order of items?
How much are we allowed to elaborate?
---Can we include a header image?
---Can we modify the formatting to something equally or more organized/aesthetic?
---How much can we put under the "Additional Info" section?
Should these restrictions be seen as temporary?
---How long are you planning to use these restrictions?
---At what point will you say "Okay, I've seen enough"?
You see, I'm not trying to look like a rebel or anything. I have a ton of respect for you and the decisions you've made in the past. But you asked for comments and concerns, and this time around, I've got them.
We're about to recruit, again, and in the past, we've done very, very well with recruiting here: if I'm not mistaken, you've actually given us positive feedback, occasionally. But many times, our recruiting posts are not at all "standardised", and include much more information about the project and what we need than is allowed by these rules- unless, of course, the "Additional Information" section is allowed to be several paragraphs long.
I guess my biggest question is simply whether or not we should make our posts follow these cookie-cutter guidelines, or if we're allowed to view these as guidelines, rather than a fill-in-the-blank.
It seems to me that what you are trying out here is forming more of a reference sheet of hiring projects, so potential applicants can browse through all of the teams, neatly standardised, and then visit their website to get to the nitty-gritty, if they're interested. I'm sure there are mixed opinions on this, but in my opinion:
GarageGames has already tried it, and failed miserably.
I've always loved GameDev because the Help Wanted section is a forum, rather than a database. You can learn an awful lot about a team simply by how much thought and time gets put into their recruiting post, and, again, in my humble and respectful opinion, standardisation has a very good potential to kill the "individuality" in recruiting posts.
Just my opinionated two cents. ^^
[Edited by - TheArtifex on March 29, 2005 9:54:20 PM]
Quote: Original post by TheArtifex
You asked for comments and questions, and I'll gladly give them. ^___^
Excellent!
Quote:
Should these be seen as rules, requirements, or guidelines?
---Are we required to pretty much copy/paste and fill in the blank...
---or are we simply required to include each item in the list in a distinct and clear fashion?
---Can we change the order of items?
These are requirements for now. You can be creative with what's there in terms of the order, but the "Additional info" section should be further down (for reasons following) and everything should be included.
Quote: How much are we allowed to elaborate?
---Can we include a header image?
---Can we modify the formatting to something equally or more organized/aesthetic?
---How much can we put under the "Additional Info" section?
You can elaborate as much as you like, it's still a case of the more info the better, including header images and the like. The "Additional info" section is where the meat should go, the others are mainly for people to look up and get interested, kind of like a c.v.
Quote: Should these restrictions be seen as temporary?
---How long are you planning to use these restrictions?
---At what point will you say "Okay, I've seen enough"?
It all depends on how well it works. For now it's a test, but it may or may not be adopted full time, but more than likely will be adjusted and upgraded as needs permit.
Quote: You see, I'm not trying to look like a rebel or anything. I have a ton of respect for you and the decisions you've made in the past. But you asked for comments and concerns, and this time around, I've got them.
That what this thread is still open for, and I welcome everything you ask and will do my best to answer as quickly as possible.
Quote: We're about to recruit, again, and in the past, we've done very, very well with recruiting here: if I'm not mistaken, you've actually given us positive feedback, occasionally. But many times, our recruiting posts are not at all "standardised", and include much more information about the project and what we need than is allowed by these rules- unless, of course, the "Additional Information" section is allowed to be several paragraphs long.
While your posts are usually amongst the best ones we get here, using this standardised method shouldn't change that, especially since you can still use your headers and the "additional info" section can be as long as you like.
Quote: I guess my biggest question is simply whether or not we should make our posts follow these cookie-cutter guidelines, or if we're allowed to view these as guidelines, rather than a fill-in-the-blank.
You should follow everything that's there, but you are open to be creative within the guidlines. As everything I've answered above says.
Quote: It seems to me that what you are trying out here is forming more of a reference sheet of hiring projects, so potential applicants can browse through all of the teams, neatly standardised, and then visit their website to get to the nitty-gritty, if they're interested. I'm sure there are mixed opinions on this, but in my opinion:
GarageGames has already tried it, and failed miserably.
I've always loved GameDev because the Help Wanted section is a forum, rather than a database. You can learn an awful lot about a team simply by how much thought and time gets put into their recruiting post, and, again, in my humble and respectful opinion, standardisation has a very good potential to kill the "individuality" in recruiting posts.
Just my opinionated two cents. ^^
This is exactly what I'm trying to keep, the community spirit. This is a discussion I've already had with another mod about. You see the forum needs to change, it cannot continue the way it is going and there have been many ideas, but the one major one floating around is some kind of database/form filing system, which I'm not sure I like the idea of. I want to keep the community as it is, but make sure that everyone posts in a more "standard" manner so people can scan through the early sections to get an idea of what is there, and proceed to the full on part (as you keep saying, the 'additional info' section) if they like what they see. Another benefit is it should cut down the flames and repeat questions of "what will you be doing", "is it paid", "website?" and the like, which is a major turn-away for people likely to want to actually help.
This should also have the added bonus of forcing people to actually think about what they want before posting two lined-threads here.
If you have any additional idea's to modify the template, then please send them my way - along with responses to what I've said, of course [smile]
Thanks!
Marc.
Marc. Help Wanted template | Game development isn't easy! | Indie interviews
Bloodlust is back! -Leave your morals and political correctness at the door.
I'll be back in four hours with a recruiting post. ;)
Oh, and:
Quote: your posts are usually amongst the best ones we get here
Thank you very much. *ego++*
[Edited by - TheArtifex on March 29, 2005 11:21:37 PM]
I don't feel that they should have to wait for a team to ask for them.
Quote: Original post by linternet
What about people looking to offer their services to a team as a member or for freelance work?
I don't feel that they should have to wait for a team to ask for them.
Yes, good point and one that was previously brought up (before the post met with an accident)...
I'm going to draft one up very soon and get it up here shortly. In the meantime, I'm open to suggest on what to add in.
Marc.
Marc. Help Wanted template | Game development isn't easy! | Indie interviews
Bloodlust is back! -Leave your morals and political correctness at the door.
Quote:
and one that was previously brought up (before the post met with an accident)...
I didn't read the pre-accident thread, forgive me if my suggestions have been repeated.
- I would add an entry for what stage of development the team is in. Either use a scale (Pre-Alpha, Alpha, Beta, etc..) or something descriptive ("We have our design doc and some concept art) or both.
- In the team structure category I would suggest people also tell of previous game development experience (if any).
- I'm not quite sure how to articulate this one, but I think the "target aim" section should be expanded. I worked on Starflight 3 for a VERY long time before realizing that the team's goals didn't match mine. I then found Reactor Interactive and it's a match made in heaven :). The difference was that Starflight consisted of fans with no real ambitions for the game industry while Reator Interactive is looking to make games for a living. As commercial games have a seperate recuritment area I think there should be something for "overall goals" (is this for a hobby, a line on your resume, or are you looking to turn it into a game studio?). Sorry if I can't be more clear with this one.
-Use constructive titles on the threads. Almost everyone is making a game, so you don't need to include that. Including the positions available if there are only a couple is good (ie. "Composer and Artist needed"). If there are more than a couple of positions, a big list would probably be too much information for the thread title, in which case the games working title and/or genre could make an appropriate alternative (ie. "2D Sidescroller seeking team"). Remember, the body of the post is where most of the information should go, but the title is the first thing people see - so it may as well be at least slightly informative.
-Some people are advertising thier services rather than looking for people to help them. This has been raised once more already - an additional template for this purpose is probably the most elegant solution. My suggested fields would be: Name, Service (Artist, Composer, SFX, Programmer, etc), Experience (links to relevant websites a plus), Portfolio (link to website), Additional comments.
-Posting images: While not really a neccesity, it's nice if you can post thumbnails of images, so that they load quickly, and more detail is available if wanted. Also saves people looking through all your full-sized images when they may only be interested in a couple. In addition, it's good practice to fill in the alt attribute of the image tag, in case the images don't load or a user either has them disabled or is using a text only browser.
Hrm... well, that wasn't so short, but still a lot shorter than the original I think... no matter, I believe that covers most if not all of the previous points acceptably.
- Jason Astle-Adams