I think, there are things you have to talk about.
and you all have to meet, at least once a month or so.
without this, an a-title game is impossible to do.
maybe you have a core-developer team nearby, and some guys are elsewhere to do some of the stuff. that could work. communication is very important
Distributed development experiences
I don't think it works well either. I've done QA at two places, one we used SVN to download the latest builds from a local server, the other the Dev Team had to upload the game to a server (They were in a different country) and we had to then download (10gb+!), burn it to DVDs, pass the DVDs around and get people installing a couple at a time.
At the second place it always meant we were a couple of main builds behind the devs. The first place we could upadte in anywhere from 1 to 30 mins and start testing right away.
At the second place it always meant we were a couple of main builds behind the devs. The first place we could upadte in anywhere from 1 to 30 mins and start testing right away.
Quote:Original post by SmitOnly one problem :) cost of 1Mb in some countries may reach $1 and internet speed 5Kb/sec.
I don't think it works well either. I've done QA at two places, one we used SVN to download the latest builds from a local server, the other the Dev Team had to upload the game to a server (They were in a different country) and we had to then download (10gb+!), burn it to DVDs, pass the DVDs around and get people installing a couple at a time.
At the second place it always meant we were a couple of main builds behind the devs. The first place we could upadte in anywhere from 1 to 30 mins and start testing right away.
Quote:Original post by SMP
Only one problem :) cost of 1Mb in some countries may reach $1 and internet speed 5Kb/sec.
Then that's arguably not a great country to run your remote development studio from.
I'd also like to draw a line of division between professional remote development, and a hobbyist swarm. The two concepts seems to be used randomly throughout the thread.
Boomzap does a lot of remote development, working with developers across SE Asia, US and Europe. We also outsource artwork to dev studios in Manilla and St. Petersburg. These are well paid professionals, and the scope of our projects (casual games, team size 4-8 people) makes the communication overheads manageable. We run 6 concurrent games at this point, with a shared technology and design department. We use a combination of Skype/MSN/Email communication, together with Basecamp and CVS for assets and project data.
I have far less belief in a random cluster of developers from around the world pulling together to make an MMOG; especially if you assume that you can somehow 'swarm' the task like bit-torrent. Development doesn't scale that way.
Allan
Just wanted to link to this IOTD from our latest game, Jewels of Cleopatra.
The entire game was done virtually, with me (programmer) based in Singapore, Chris (the designer/producer) based in Seattle, Ben (the main artist) working from Kuala Lumpur, and Cameron (the junior designer) working from Minnesota somewhere (to this date I'm not certain where).
In this case, though, we were all full-time paid employees (well, Chris and I own the company, and our salary isn't what it used to be before we became indies), and there was a strict minimum 40 hour a week rule. At times we did more, but we also had a very flexible working hours. Ben, for example, usually wakes up sometime past noon, since he enjoys working at night :)
Boomzap's currently got 6 projects in development with teams scattered across the world, all working virtually. I wouldn't recommend it for large-scale products ('AAA'), but for the small games (4-8 man teams) we do, it's actually really liberating. Chris is spending a month in Japan with his inlaws right now, but continues to be as productive as ever from his WiFi office in Yokohama.
Allan
The entire game was done virtually, with me (programmer) based in Singapore, Chris (the designer/producer) based in Seattle, Ben (the main artist) working from Kuala Lumpur, and Cameron (the junior designer) working from Minnesota somewhere (to this date I'm not certain where).
In this case, though, we were all full-time paid employees (well, Chris and I own the company, and our salary isn't what it used to be before we became indies), and there was a strict minimum 40 hour a week rule. At times we did more, but we also had a very flexible working hours. Ben, for example, usually wakes up sometime past noon, since he enjoys working at night :)
Boomzap's currently got 6 projects in development with teams scattered across the world, all working virtually. I wouldn't recommend it for large-scale products ('AAA'), but for the small games (4-8 man teams) we do, it's actually really liberating. Chris is spending a month in Japan with his inlaws right now, but continues to be as productive as ever from his WiFi office in Yokohama.
Allan
Do you guys also feel that the distributed development of an operating system or distribution of one would fail miserably because people would leave the project to get paid?
How about the same for the development of a programming language?
How are these things different from a game?
How about the same for the development of a programming language?
How are these things different from a game?
Any large projects such as those really need a team that can collaborate with each other very closely otherwise people won't be able to convey a lot of their ideas and thoughts effectively and lots of stuff is bound to be lost in translation. :(
> How are these things different from a game?
GNU compilers have been around for - Oh - 20 years now? Games are consumables with very short product life cycles and even shorter marketing attention spans. Should a game have taken 20 years to develop and perfect even to AAA standards, its value would have dropped down to zero a long time ago.
-cb
GNU compilers have been around for - Oh - 20 years now? Games are consumables with very short product life cycles and even shorter marketing attention spans. Should a game have taken 20 years to develop and perfect even to AAA standards, its value would have dropped down to zero a long time ago.
-cb
Quote:Original post by cbenoi1
> How are these things different from a game?
GNU compilers have been around for - Oh - 20 years now? Games are consumables with very short product life cycles and even shorter marketing attention spans. Should a game have taken 20 years to develop and perfect even to AAA standards, its value would have dropped down to zero a long time ago.
-cb
Neither Python nor Ruby took 20 years. I too can find arbitrary data points for use as my evidence. Anyway, I cannot think of a GNU compiler that took 20 years to complete. However, there have been concerted efforts at updating, forking and releasing "sequels" to many of these tools.
I am not arguing as to it being unlikely. I am arguing with the "impossible" response.
Quote:Original post by kordovaI am not arguing as to it being unlikely. I am arguing with the "impossible" response.The difference is very thin.
This topic is closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Popular Topics
Advertisement