Ywa Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 Having the Steamworks code doesn't mean you're allowed to use it. For example, you can already add it into your own code. But it won't work unless Valve gives you a developer account @ Steam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Thomas Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 It would be fantastic to have immediate access to individuals/groups who were willing to invest or even donate for projects like what everyone here is involved with and attempting to complete. I'm sure everyone knows the dire need for funds and it becomes more of an issue the further you progress. I have a few individuals lined up that are ready to invest but they're waiting for something to actually interact with and experience before deciding to take the risk. A ton of screen-shots of assets, characters, or in-game screens won't really influence investors that plan to take a large risk; however at the same time an impressive prototype is hard to make without those funds. There are plenty of places to find modelers, artists, programmers, but I have yet to find a place to find investors; and you probably won't ever find such a place. At least in terms of real financing instead of a few hundred here or there. Of course, that few hundred here or there is still a nice option, especially if it's a donation. One of the inventors I was speaking of is merely interested in investing into something different, instead of their normal routines such as stocks, and to be involved in a gaming/entertainment project without actually doing any work, but giving the financial support that the project requires to succeed. To change the subject up a bit, after rereading your original post, something caught my attention. Team management. Everyone knows that when you're forming a team together, and it's formed, you have to use a ton of third party programs to help keep everything in synchronization. MediaWiki for design documents, SVN for repository or easy file sharing, some sort of bug tracker, communication programs like a forum, project management programs for task lists, and so forth. It's a whole other job to get everything setup, maintained, while working on a game project, and it's just an unnecessary hassle. After using a forum, for example, for several weeks in a row, getting used to the flow when adding new members and I go back to add a member to our design documents, I forget exactly what I had to do (stupid MediaWiki) and have to spend time looking through help files just to add a new user. Don't even get me started on when one of the dozens of programs has an update. I had a plan once I was done my project to start a project to put all of these third party programs together as an all-in-one package or to start on that solution from the ground up. Either way it would take a lot of time hence why I'd have to wait until my project was completed. It would be great if there was a team that would take up this task, committed to it, and kept up with the project (for updates, bugs, feature requests, etc). Basically a manager built specifically for game project management with no intention to skip specific features because it's predicted that the whole team are on-site employees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted July 31, 2010 Author Share Posted July 31, 2010 I have experience with project management software, and I can tell you that everything out there is complete garbage. There isn't one program that does basic things I expected they would all do. Something built into the forum system would be nice. Beyond just peer financing ideas, I have developed some knowledge about real investment, and it would be interesting if I could research game financing and pass on the knowledge, or somehow create a link between real financing and the community. Quote My job is to make tools you love, with the features you want, and performance you can't live without. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Thomas Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 Definitely agreed about the management software available. I really dislike MediaWiki for one. I like it's concepts but it's actual control management is horrible and the only way to get beyond that is to use yet another third party program to make that program better. There are a ton of project management programs available, most worth while you have to purchase, sometimes pay monthly, but they're all geared towards standard project management. There isn't anything geared towards game development with all the features required. If you could link between real financing and the community I think it would have a huge impact. It would also give projects something to aim for and that would be to gain the financial interests of a financier. Not to mention make it much easier to gain access to financiers that are willing to find game development projects to invest in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L B Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 This is interesting, because there are people with excess funds (investors) and people who could use money to make returns, and even people who would donate just to get a cool project done, with nothing expected in return. I would like to connect those people in a way where the benefit of that relationship is measurable and documented publicly. +1. These three categories could fulfill all needs. People who are not confident enough to offer the warranty of finishing a project could opt for a "Donation only" plan, while others could enable "Donations and financing". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L B Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 I have experience with project management software, and I can tell you that everything out there is complete garbage. There isn't one program that does basic things I expected they would all do. Something built into the forum system would be nice. It is extremely easy to code a project management software (at least, one that would fit a game project's needs) in PHP. 1 programmer can easily do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Thomas Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 Yeah, if you expect it to be completed in several months. A full fledge game project manager with at least the functionality of all the software I had mentioned would take a single programmer months to complete, especially if you expect something of decent quality, and practically no bugs. That is, of course, if you meant building the whole system from the ground up and not just injecting into existing software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cocopino Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 Yeah, if you expect it to be completed in several months. A full fledge game project manager with at least the functionality of all the software I had mentioned would take a single programmer months to complete, especially if you expect something of decent quality, and practically no bugs. That is, of course, if you meant building the whole system from the ground up and not just injecting into existing software. I built mine in two days. It's not really "full fledged" but does what I want perfectly. Quote desktop: Quad core Q6600 + 4GB + ATI HD4890 + XP laptop: Dual core T6400 + 4 GB + NVidia 9600M GT + Vista 32 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Thomas Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 It is extremely easy to code a project management software (at least, one that would fit a game project's needs) in PHP. 1 programmer can easily do it. By "full fledged" and what I had in mind for at least the management part is software like some of these: A Roundup for "Developers, Developers, Developers..." Edit: BaseCamp for one of those examples Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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