Fantastic advice

This is about HL2 modding, but it really applies to any game development project, I think. I don’t think I posted it before, but it is really eyeopening when you consider that there’s a manual that tells the 5 billion failed fangames exactly what they’re doing wrong, right here on the internet!
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Making_a_MOD
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Su…l_Mod_Team_Tips
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/19991210/birdwell_01.htm

PS I didn’t post this already, did I? <_<

i was looking into making a hl2 mod for a bit there… NOT A GOOD IDEA FOR 1 PERSON. lol

Oh hey, something else I found.
http://planethalflife.gamespy.com/View.php…ls.Detail&id=20

We (P2D)'re guilty of a lot of that.

One thing I see P2D is doing:

You are waiting for more powerful hardware/software
You might end up waiting too long and find you and your team losing interest.

cough Metengine cough

I’m not part of the team, but agreed. Word of P2D has been around for quite a while, and I’m not so sure, at the point it was at, that completely scrapping any engine and progress made on it was a good idea. It doesn’t really matter now, however, and it didn’t seem that a lot of the team had a choice in the matter.

Perhaps all that most people here want to see anymore is progress, regardless of the efficiency of the engine. Sure, there is a (relatively) ton of spritework done and coming, but without an engine to pool resources into, all the graphic artists here can do for the most part is throw together a bunch of mock-ups, which is a waste of time in my opinion. It would provide some hype, perhaps, but no real product other than the image itself.

We can all learn though. >_> It’s not like any given graphic artist is destined to do only spritework and background art. Unless they think they’re just completely worthless at scripting, anyone could learn.

Once again, I am rambling. Apologies.

Premature announcement happens to be one I’m guilty of. Then there’s another from the interview with the guy that made Ark22 that I made. “Start small.”

Nope, I started with something very ambitious in mind, and I’ve certainly paid for it. :\

As far as making sprites first goes, I can say about myself that I draw something that looks fantastic on my screen, looks great in gif animated form, but then I put it in the game AND…

Eh… No. I need to redo it, it looks like crap when it’s actually in the game.

I don’t know if the P2D team is aware of that already, but it’s something I’ve come across too often with my Phoenixan project, and with the projects I’ve worked on with friends.

Hm, what was that about Ark 22? That was a fairly impressive GM game, much moreso than a majority of what makes it onto YYG. I haven’t beaten it (yet), but I’d like to think that I’ve gotten pretty far into, and am probably on the latter half of the game.

Well, he made a list of mistakes he’s made over the course of it’s 4 year development. :stuck_out_tongue: For example, he started Ark 22 as soon as he got Game Maker. As you probably know, this slows up things considerably. He points out, starting with a huge project with a tool you know NOTHING about. lol

One of my favorites among his comments though was “Think of the children.”

“No, not save your work for you children to work on! Though I ALMOST DID!”

Some more advice: http://timaster.googlepages.com/pixelbob.PNG (censored due to drawing of penis)

I lold

me too.

I’m offended.

Cause you know it’s about you? :stuck_out_tongue:

Burn.

I also lol’d just cause it’s true.

You shouldn’t expect to be picked up by a company. Mod for the love of modding…which is why I don’t mod. :stuck_out_tongue:

QFT?