[Idea]Newb Team

[mager]

Well, This is all just an idea at the moment because I'm working on my personal project at the moment. I was thinking of starting a small team to develop games, not like a team of skilled people. I'm actually gonna find people with basic skills - but still some skills. I think it would be good for a group of new game developers to be all at the same level trying to be creative and explore ideas together. I'm not a great programmer when it comes to games, but I do have a good enough experience to learn it.

I am NOT doing any recruiting of any sort whatsoever right now, I just want an honest opinion. Do you or do you not think it would be a good idea to start a team like this?

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Remember the team isn't to make amazing games, its to build our way up so someday we will have the knowledge to do so
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[B@z]

IMPO its always good idea to make a team.
if u get better, u have to work in team, so its good if u get used to it.
But also be careful when selecting members. Its not funny, if there is 4 story writer, 5 game designer, maybe 1 not-so skilled programmer, and no modeller, or 2d artist.

[mager]

Well one of the goals is to keep everyone learning the same stuff, if you don't have much modelling or programming skill. Theres virtually no point to be in a group thats bent on learning those 2 bases. A story writer is nice and all but if the team works together they can do it as well. Overall if the group ever winds up ending after I make it, they will be allowed to use anything we create as a group and as well they should have the knowledge to use it all quite well.

[teto]

In my opinion, working at 2 on the same piece of code without physical contact is very hard. You need to be very rigorous while distributing tasks and be skilled into designing thoses tasks. You will need something like svn or git which is also a difficulty.
I've been coding with people in front of me and through the internet, the first option is definitely easier.

If one is coding when the other one is modeling then that's fine ( you can switch positions every month).

[slavik262]

I recently started development on a game with a few friends - one is doing concept art/story, another is modeling, and another might be helping with some code. If you want to get stuff done, it's definitely nice to be working with people.

[Bate]

Yeah, only if it's a total

Newb Team

you probably won't get anything done in a convenient way. I think at least one member of a team should know a little bit about design and implementation.

[mager]

Well the goal is to learn, not have someone that already knows the way, but to build our own path into game development

[Bate]

Well, that's reinventing the wheel and there is really no glory in doing so. You should always try to learn as much as you can from more experienced people (this includes books etc) and by the time you've reached a certain skill level you can still go your "own path". The major difference: by then you actually know what you are doing.

[mager]

Some people learn better on their own. I've never had a single person teach me something when it comes to programming, and I've progressed quite well. I'm not saying go blindly into something, I'm saying a team of new people to learn, of course we will ask those more skilled than us for help when we need it. But if we don't need it then chances are the more experienced person will end up doing most of the work.

[freetimecoder]

I am also in a team and we are going to make the next MEGAPROJECT. The thing started out as a few noobs decided to make a real cool game that would beat anything commerical with ease.
Well, the projekt is going on for a few years, can't say we made that much of progress with anything, but hell yea I learned much! Take irrlicht for example thanks megaproject!
I also learned to lead discussions, organize tasks, advanced 3d modeling, glsl and many other things, not perfect but a team is a cool opportunity to learn.
Yes, the project did not (yet ) turn out like expected but I don't care, I cannot by far say I didn't accomplish anything.

And for small games, I think it would basically the same just a bit smaller or short lived per project.
The one ultimate tip from me: Stick together, do _not_ quit because someone angered you or something (we had alot of these, but the core team is still together).

The more blue-eyed you enter the ring, the more you learn. Often the hard way, but you will gain much.

Also, in our megaproject we have too less people for anything, that is why everyone was/is forced to learn alot on their own. Can't say how it is with smaller games but it is definitly worth a try.

greetings

[Edit] No, Magnon is not my megaproject

[lazerblade]

I think it's a good idea.

When you are new to game creation, you can easily be discouraged or lose focus.
But when working on a team, especially toward a specific goal you can not only learn a lot, but sometimes even accomplish a lot as well.

[Virion]

buy books. you'll learn like insanely fast. those subtle but important details were written in books, which normally wouldnt be found in free tutorial.

[slavik262]

Meh. Books are overrated when you have the entire ineternet, which is a lot cheaper than books. There's great tutorials, and a fair amount of books, like the GPU Gems series by NVIDIA, are free online.

[Dareltibus]

yeah. some books are a wasting of time.. you have to ask to other people for rights books or online tutorials. The best way to learn is to find immediatly what you need. And this not always appens.

I think a good team have members specialized in different part of the engine. Someone with the SL, some one withe the GUI , some one with 3d modelling ecc.

But there are some very difficult task when working on group.
How organize the work? How to subdive game classes for easy programming and good source distribution into source files.

At the start all programmers must receive general guidelines to attempt for easy integration with others' works.

I have my own project right now. but i'm interested on entering a team . (at the start i looked for Planeshift, but Crystal Space is very strange as engine and i abandoned it). Irrlicht seems the best chance for enter a team. I have a lot to learn and i'm always happy to learn new things.