Top 10 Warning Signs of Failure
Having spent a lot of time lately at ModDB, I've rediscovered something that I had forgotten in my 2.5 year hiatus from game modifications. Namely, that most people don't recognize the signs that the project that they are working on, or the project they are following the progress of, is in serious jeopardy of failing.
If you've been avidly following the progress of a promising game modification project, or are yourself working on such a project, see how many following list of "Top 10 Warning Signs of Failure" apply to it:
#10: The mod puts "Source", "Doom", "Far Cry", or any other engine name anywhere in the name.
If you have to emphasize the fact that you're using a specific engine more than your actual mod name, chances are your idea isn't well-formed enough to develop. Doesn't apply to every mod that fit this mold, but certainly fits for most.
#9: The mod developers spend more time detailing "story" than developing anything practical like learning how to get models in-game.
Everyone has ideas. Everyone thinks their story idea is the best ever. This is not unique. It's not special. It's not even particularly useful in mod development. Story doesn't mean anything if you can't back up your storyline with matching gameplay, artwork, and effects.
#8: The developers used Poser to generate their character models.
Poser is a program which creates really lovely character models, really fast. The stillframe images produced by Poser are exquisitely detailed and intricate, and it's very easy to spot them if you know what to look for. The problem is that the models produced by Poser have hundreds of thousands of polygons that no engine in the universe can render - and bringing the complexity of the models down to something an engine can render is more work than creating the model from scratch. If modellers are using Poser and asking their coders to import them into the game, they should be fired on the spot and replaced for sheer incompetence.
#7: The mod says "realism" is one of its strengths.
Most FPS games are plenty realistic enough as it is - adding more tends to detract from playability. This in turn reduces the fun factor. Realism does not directly equate to quality. It boosts immersion slightly, but immersion at the cost of annoyance is stupid (for instance, if your "realistic" weapon can't hit the broad side of a barn at 20 feet).
#6: The developers have more untextured renders of objects than functional in-game objects.
Modelling is a tricky art. Getting those models into a game engine and working is a much trickier art. All the models and textures in the universe won't do you any good if you haven't a clue how to make them do what you want once you kick up the game.
#5: The project does not have at least one competent coder.
Let's face it, almost everything that is fun and cool in a mod requires changes beyond what the basic editors can do. Without a coder, you can't get any new gameplay, effects, or much of anything else working.
#4: The project wants to recreate a recent game in another engine.
It takes a huge investment in time and energy to produce any total conversion, and trying to do that with a perfectly playable existing game is an incredible waste of time.
#3: The mod is based around some commercial product that is actively protected by copyright.
Yes, yes, I know other video games and anime and such are really fun and interesting. But they're protected by copyright, and unless permission is explicitly asked for and received to do a modification using a particular character / idea from a commercial work, chances are the original owners will send a very unpleasant Cease and Desist from their lawyers, which will stop the project dead in its tracks with no options, unless the developers are crazy enough to try spending a LOT of money (read: many thousands of dollars) defending themselves in court. And no, the fact that the mod is free does not protect developers from prosecution.
#2: The project leader's primary role in mod development is "game designer".
Mods operate on practical skills first, ideas second. No one is going to let you boss them around just because you think your ideas are the best things since sliced bread. I don't care how good or innovative you think your design skills are; no one is going to care if all they see you do is talk about ideas and never get your hands dirty with the technical aspects of your game. All talk and no results is the province of vaporware.
#1: The project aims to make a massively multiplayer online game (of any type).
There are strict limitations to what current generation game engines will handle (not to mention problems with net connectivity). There's a reason why massively multiplayer games have budgets of 30 million dollars or more (sometimes much, much more) - it's hard to make them, and incredibly expensive. No mod team has this sort of resources at their fingertips, so I think it's a fair statement to say that any projects that want to create a new massively multiplayer game can be immediately classified as vaporware.
If you've been avidly following the progress of a promising game modification project, or are yourself working on such a project, see how many following list of "Top 10 Warning Signs of Failure" apply to it:
#10: The mod puts "Source", "Doom", "Far Cry", or any other engine name anywhere in the name.
If you have to emphasize the fact that you're using a specific engine more than your actual mod name, chances are your idea isn't well-formed enough to develop. Doesn't apply to every mod that fit this mold, but certainly fits for most.
#9: The mod developers spend more time detailing "story" than developing anything practical like learning how to get models in-game.
Everyone has ideas. Everyone thinks their story idea is the best ever. This is not unique. It's not special. It's not even particularly useful in mod development. Story doesn't mean anything if you can't back up your storyline with matching gameplay, artwork, and effects.
#8: The developers used Poser to generate their character models.
Poser is a program which creates really lovely character models, really fast. The stillframe images produced by Poser are exquisitely detailed and intricate, and it's very easy to spot them if you know what to look for. The problem is that the models produced by Poser have hundreds of thousands of polygons that no engine in the universe can render - and bringing the complexity of the models down to something an engine can render is more work than creating the model from scratch. If modellers are using Poser and asking their coders to import them into the game, they should be fired on the spot and replaced for sheer incompetence.
#7: The mod says "realism" is one of its strengths.
Most FPS games are plenty realistic enough as it is - adding more tends to detract from playability. This in turn reduces the fun factor. Realism does not directly equate to quality. It boosts immersion slightly, but immersion at the cost of annoyance is stupid (for instance, if your "realistic" weapon can't hit the broad side of a barn at 20 feet).
#6: The developers have more untextured renders of objects than functional in-game objects.
Modelling is a tricky art. Getting those models into a game engine and working is a much trickier art. All the models and textures in the universe won't do you any good if you haven't a clue how to make them do what you want once you kick up the game.
#5: The project does not have at least one competent coder.
Let's face it, almost everything that is fun and cool in a mod requires changes beyond what the basic editors can do. Without a coder, you can't get any new gameplay, effects, or much of anything else working.
#4: The project wants to recreate a recent game in another engine.
It takes a huge investment in time and energy to produce any total conversion, and trying to do that with a perfectly playable existing game is an incredible waste of time.
#3: The mod is based around some commercial product that is actively protected by copyright.
Yes, yes, I know other video games and anime and such are really fun and interesting. But they're protected by copyright, and unless permission is explicitly asked for and received to do a modification using a particular character / idea from a commercial work, chances are the original owners will send a very unpleasant Cease and Desist from their lawyers, which will stop the project dead in its tracks with no options, unless the developers are crazy enough to try spending a LOT of money (read: many thousands of dollars) defending themselves in court. And no, the fact that the mod is free does not protect developers from prosecution.
#2: The project leader's primary role in mod development is "game designer".
Mods operate on practical skills first, ideas second. No one is going to let you boss them around just because you think your ideas are the best things since sliced bread. I don't care how good or innovative you think your design skills are; no one is going to care if all they see you do is talk about ideas and never get your hands dirty with the technical aspects of your game. All talk and no results is the province of vaporware.
#1: The project aims to make a massively multiplayer online game (of any type).
There are strict limitations to what current generation game engines will handle (not to mention problems with net connectivity). There's a reason why massively multiplayer games have budgets of 30 million dollars or more (sometimes much, much more) - it's hard to make them, and incredibly expensive. No mod team has this sort of resources at their fingertips, so I think it's a fair statement to say that any projects that want to create a new massively multiplayer game can be immediately classified as vaporware.
posted by Jim Tran at 3:26 PM
10 Comments:
I think my mod must fall to about 3 or 4 of those rules! Although, the game with which we are apparently basing our mod off was released long after the mod was started.
Nice read. I agree with all your signs of failure except #7. Not just because I am a fan of realism games, but because one of the most successful mods won the UT contest a couple years ago. Red Orchestra is arguably the most aggressive realism mod you can find and that team won 100k dollars and a UT license, then turned around and made retail version that was profitable on pre-orders alone.
Re: mark
There's nothing fatally wrong with having a couple of items on the warning list, as long as you're working to address them.
Re: d6veteran
Please don't take my realism comment as a knock on the team that made Red Orchestra. It's a well-polished effort, and extremely well-executed. Nonetheless, the strength of Red Orchestra's impact is not it's realism, but rather the excellent gameplay. The realism is just added flavor to well-designed maps and excellent play balance. I don't feel that it, in itself, improves or detracts from the quality of RO.
The actual practice I am decrying is that of mod projects that focus intensely on their concept of realism, to the exclusion of more important issues such as gameplay.
Jim I didn't take it as a knock on RO specfically. But I would disagree with you that RO's gameplay succeeds despite it's realism - the gameplay is a direct result of the realism features they implement. You remove those realism features and you have nothing interesting. You have a game that plays worse than CoD2 and looks like CoD. That excellent gameplay is gone, and so are 90% of the people playing the game.
Furthermore, with the exception of the RO retail release, fans of realism look to the modding community to produce games they enjoy.
Fans of realism don't want/like realism just for the sake of realism. They believe it improves gameplay. You cannot separate the two in the eyes of a *fan* of realism, and that is where I think you are missing the point of realism.
Of course I am just as biased as you on the subject of realism ;)
I agree that Red Orchestra's appeal is tied intrinsically to it's realistic weaponry, but I also think that there are a lot of good gameplay mechanics in there aside from the realistic weapons which make it shine. You can't really separate the realism from the appeal, but it's not really the entirety either.
I do believe that a large minority of the playing public believes realism improves the quality of their experience (and when done right and under the right circumstances, it absolutely does).
Perhaps my larger issue is too many developers completely ignoring viable gameplay in their pursuit of realism. That's really why realism makes the list for me. I just see so many attempts at realism fail to coalesce into something playable and appealing, even to die hard realism fans, and I do feel that failure occurs often enough to merit its inclusion on the warning list.
#2 & #5 Worry me. I hold the 'Art director' and 'Co-Leader' tags in my mod.
I came up with the idea, developed it artistically, and now i look over my team while contributing to things like administration and 2d design for our website and public media. I also make sure that all the gameplay mechanics and gameplay concepts are written and given in a clear and concise manner for when we start coding.
So, I do not have a direct role in game content. Do you really think that this means my project is destined to fail?
I have worked with indie studios before and i have always seen a huge amount of stress piled on the project leader because they have had too man active roles. This has caused projects i loved to fail. Some of those studios are now large commercial successes, AFTER they restructured into a more 'real word' environment where they had dedicated project leaders, admins and directors. I simply dont agree that its bad for a mod to have a dedicated leader who cant code (etc).
#5 is clearly relevant in a mod you are "following", but it still scares me, as we have not yet found a good coder. Its hard enough trying to find dedicated artists.
Anyway, nice article, and blog.
-JohnnyP
JohnnyP wrote:
I do not have a direct role in game content. Do you really think that this means my project is destined to fail?
Not destined, but it's definitely something to be concerned about.
The problem with not having a coder is that without the technical know-how behind how a game engine functions, any changes to gameplay are a shot in the dark, from a design standpoin. Changes that seem very simple on paper can be nightmarish when you actually try to implement them. Without a talented coder to assess your chances of implementing any given feature, you always run a risk of incorporating something into your design that simply cannot be accomplished in a realistic timeframe. If that happens, your entire gameplay design can unravel swiftly if you end up with too many systems that depend on that one element.
The item regarding lead designers is more of a social issue. While it's true that commercial projects often do have a lead designer who does general direction of a large team, such an environment is extremely rare in the game modification community because it's nearly impossible to find enough permanent long-term staff to fill those other roles, as the majority of the modding community consists of hobbyists working on projects in their spare time.
As a result, while it's possible to hold a team together without tangible skills of your own, it's very, very hard. People are much less likely to work hard on your project unless they see and recognize that you are producing something that takes as much effort and of the same or better quality than what they themselves are producing. It keeps them motivated, and drives them to excel. Without that, it is much harder to get quality content from your team, even if they're extremely talented.
JohnnyP wrote:
#5 is clearly relevant in a mod you are "following", but it still scares me, as we have not yet found a good coder. Its hard enough trying to find dedicated artists.
Anyway, nice article, and blog.
Good luck on your search, JohnnyP! There's a lot of programmers out there - the real trick is finding the good ones who have what it takes to keep to a mod production schedule.
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I'll wrap up this post by thanking you and everyone else who has taken the time to read my blog, whether you've commented or just perused.
Jim
I think this is a great Blog, and really quite valuable if you are into (or like me) thinking of getting into the mod scene.
Thanks Jim
I think this is a great blog.
Really usefull for people involved or (like me) wanting to become involved in the mod scene.
Thanks Jim
methinks that these certainly apply to some mods. The one i had the biggest problem with was source. Because of games like hidden source, perfect dark source, incoming source, mario kart source, the list goes on and on. I do agree that this is legit but also there are quite a few exceptions to it. nice blog
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