Author Topic: Collaboration Idea  (Read 4393 times)

patrickgh3

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Collaboration Idea
« on: March 05, 2015, 04:14:56 AM »
During a long bus ride the other week, I was pondering ideas for ways I wanna game creators could collaborate or some kind of community event. I was inspired by Experiment 12, a project where 12 talented independent game developers each created games in 72 hours as chapters in a sequential story. The chapters all have distinct styles, and there's an overarching narrative through all of them, which is a really unique experience that I enjoyed a lot, as well as being enjoyable for the developers to make. I was trying to brainstorm ideas like this, that would be unique, worthwhile, and inspirational, for both players and creators of the project.

Here's what I came up with: "piecewise" deveopment, where multiple people handle individual aspects of the same room / screen, but only work on them sequentially. Once you finish your part, you hand it off to the next person, who does their part and hands it off, etc, until it's finished. The order I was thinking of was: One person selects a music track, the next person creates graphics / tileset, the next person does static level design (no moving parts), and the last person does scripting, anything from moving spikes to graphical effects to whatever. No communication of ideas, thematic direction, etc may be communicated between developers; you only see what's been done so far. When the game is finished, you get to see what the scripter did with your level design, how the graphics were inspired by your music choice, etc. And you also see how cohesive and quality the game is as a whole: it might be amazing, so-so, bad, hilarious, strange, etc!

If each of 4 people do all 4 components (music, graphics, level design, and scripting) once, then you can make 4 whole games / screens, as shown here.

(click to show/hide)

Detail ideas: I was envisioning groups communicating over Skype or another chat service to send project files, chat, etc. And the group would set hard deadlines by which each step needs to be completed, which might be one day for each part, or maybe one hour, depending on what the group wants. I also think it would be fun if the final 4 resulting screens were compiled into one game, with some kind of in-game display of who did what for each screen. Also, I was thinking groups of friends would do this, but also groups of people who don't know each other, and can trust everyone is of similar level of competence. I'd like to try this both with people I know and people I don't! It's pretty low investment / barrier to entry for a group to do this, and it might encourage some people to try out experimental ideas in a low-risk environment, collaborate with others, or even take a stab at making a game for the first time.

I hope this makes sense to you all despite my awkward working and explanation. I'm excited by this idea, both to be in a group myself and to see what other groups create! :) Do you have ideas for improvements, see any flaws, have any ideas or thoughts about this "piecewise" jam idea?
« Last Edit: March 05, 2015, 04:21:14 AM by patrickgh »

infern0man1

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Re: Collaboration Idea
« Reply #1 on: March 05, 2015, 01:05:41 PM »
I've had this idea myself actually, although I never thought anything would come of it.

I personally dislike choosing the music before the graphics, because I like to choose a BGM based on the mood created and not vice versa, but that's just me.

Kyir

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Re: Collaboration Idea
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2015, 06:59:07 PM »
I can already predict that none of you will use a suitable amount of jump refreshers.

Sudnep

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Re: Collaboration Idea
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2015, 07:18:22 PM »
Dropbox would probably be better for file transferring since multiple people can have the same updated folder at the same time. The idea is interesting though.

RandomFangamer

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Re: Collaboration Idea
« Reply #4 on: March 07, 2015, 03:26:11 PM »
I definitely like the idea,
it would be very fun
(as long as no one sabotages the game :Kappa:)




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lawatson

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Re: Collaboration Idea
« Reply #5 on: March 07, 2015, 10:44:00 PM »
"As long as no one sabotages the game"


tfw i remember how backups work
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lemonxreaper

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Re: Collaboration Idea
« Reply #6 on: March 12, 2015, 10:15:09 AM »
"As long as no one sabotages the game"


tfw i remember how backups work

im pretty sure he means more along the lines of, nobody makes something retarded.

which is something that has happened every time a "public" collaboration has happened.
just doesn't work out.
« Last Edit: March 12, 2015, 10:17:48 AM by lemonxreaper »
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lawatson

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Re: Collaboration Idea
« Reply #7 on: March 12, 2015, 03:12:34 PM »

im pretty sure he means more along the lines of, nobody makes something retarded.

which is something that has happened every time a "public" collaboration has happened.
just doesn't work out.

Oh, that makes more sense.
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patrickgh3

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Re: Collaboration Idea
« Reply #8 on: March 13, 2015, 04:07:28 AM »
Alright, I'm glad some of you guys think it's an interesting idea. I'm excited to give this a try one of these days, over just a 2 hour time-span or so. Whoever's interested in giving this a shot, add me on Skype (username: patrickgh3) and hopefully we can get a group of 4 going over the next few days! Also, for those who might be interested but don't think it's worth your time or something, it's just 2 hours so it's not a big loss. We could even go for just 1 hour or so.

Also, Inferno, I usually do things in that order too, I just thought music first would be best for this. It might be fun to try out different orders, or maybe even silly stuff like jump refresher placement -> block placement -> spike placement.

Also, anyone, feel free to add me on Skype if you just wanna chat. :)

Edit: I'll also try to hang around in the teamspeak tomorrow.
« Last Edit: March 13, 2015, 07:35:53 AM by patrickgh »

infern0man1

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Re: Collaboration Idea
« Reply #9 on: March 13, 2015, 08:56:17 AM »
I had another idea just now about level design: maybe one person could make a recording in Record My Jumps of some random design, then get rid of the blocks, and someone else make an interpretation of what they think that design was like.


I don't know if that would actually work in RMC, but it's worth a shot.

OhNoezEinPandy

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Re: Collaboration Idea
« Reply #10 on: March 13, 2015, 11:09:20 AM »
I advise to not use RMJ for creating screens. It just lines you up to make basic needle screens instead of gimmick based screens.