Suggestions

If you have any ideas or suggestions for this organization, post them here.

~ Shadow Master

It is hard for me to meet on mondays/wednesdays I have classes all the way up 'till 9pm. Just sayin'.

Might be a good idea to have a main thread where we can all post resources we have found and have one person keep the first post up to date.

We should probably, eventually, get some boards specific to code help, or resources, etc.

This idea has more to do with just trying to put names to faces. What if everyone were to put up a picture of them as their avatar? This isn't like a normal forum, where we're hundreds if not thousands of miles apart, and will probably never meet each other. We're eventually going to work with everyone else, and this can expedite the process of learning who everyone is. Just a thought.

Break Man wrote:What if everyone were to put up a picture of them as their avatar?

Says the guy with the Mega Man character as his avatar... I completely agree, though. I'll throw up a post in General and have the Introduction thread updated.

I totally look like Proto Man, what are you talking about?

Break Man wrote:I totally look like Proto Man, what are you talking about?

Maybe a young Dr. Light. =P

We need separate areas:
-Gameplay/Game-Theory
-Graphics
-Story/Writing
-Sound
-Voice Actors/Actresses
-Music
-Programming
-Engine(s)
^my guess at the consensus hierarchy of most [of the] aware target audience(s) in terms of every thing any studio puts into a given game

I mean we need, say, an area strictly for Music where musicians can show off their latest work and comment on or constructively criticize another's work, and all in need of such musics and sounds can check out their options within our club. Threads can be like "Here's my latest remix/composition, what do y'all think?" or "We need music for this [game genre/idea]...And we want YOU! -impress us please-"

Graphics artists would have an area to post their latest and greatest as it happens, and find clients for their visual services.

For each expertise field, the purpose of the area may need little adjustment. But yeah.

What say y'all?

Also, I can't find where to add my profile picture...

Sincerely with Thanks,
nintendude794
But in case I don't see ya! Good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight!

P.S.: Here's my latest remix http://tindeck.com/listen/repm

Oh hey, glad you could join us man.

nintendude794 wrote:We need separate areas:
Also, I can't find where to add my profile picture...

Just click Profile up top > avatar in black text a bit below the big green bar up top.

Also, I agree that such sections/subsections should be created for organization purposes.

nintendude794 wrote:Also, I can't find where to add my profile picture...

Click "Profile" at the top. You should see "Avatar" right above the "iew" in "View my profile"

As for the categories, we thought about that a little, but we really want people of different interests to work together and communicate frequently. Separating them might slow that communication down a bit.

At the same time, you're right that categories are a good idea. It would certainly make it easier to learn from and/or teach other members with similar interests, and it would make it easier to advertise skills and find inspiration.

What do you guys think?

TallonRain wrote:Oh hey, glad you could join us man.

nintendude794 wrote:We need separate areas:
Also, I can't find where to add my profile picture...

Just click Profile up top > avatar in black text a bit below the big green bar up top.

Also, I agree that such sections/subsections should be created for organization purposes.

Thankye! -fer clarificationz, TallonRain is a best friend who invited me to help y'all help me- 'cause it's practice for everybody.

thasric wrote:

nintendude794 wrote:Also, I can't find where to add my profile picture...

Click "Profile" at the top. You should see "Avatar" right above the "iew" in "View my profile"

As for the categories, we thought about that a little, but we really want people of different interests to work together and communicate frequently. Separating them might slow that communication down a bit.

At the same time, you're right that categories are a good idea. It would certainly make it easier to learn from and/or teach other members with similar interests, and it would make it easier to advertise skills and find inspiration.

What do you guys think?

I don't see it as separating the people or crafts, only the topics. I mean, I'd rather it not be "Hey, you got some sound in my game!" "No, you got some game in my sound!"

Instead, it oughtta be -fruit ripens off of tree- "Ooohhh, look, sound! *picks it off the tree*" -and the tree is happy that its fruit was put to good purpose more conveniently-
Fruit is any given piece, tree is the artist. Artists picking better, fresher pieces off of each other.

There's always gonna be pros and cons.

One thing that would be cool to do is organize game jams. Linky In a game jam, everyone brings their laptop and works on whatever. (Programming, art, modding... whatever) Most game jams focus on doing a new little project for the day, but if people have projects they are currently working on, they can just continue them.
The cool thing is that creativity can really get flowing with everyone crammed in a room, and people can exchange knowledge and ideas. Beginners can learn while experts practice and refine their skills.

We probably would want to wait until everything gets going a bit more, but If people are interested then it could be something to look into.

Jake wrote:One thing that would be cool to do is organize game jams. Linky In a game jam, everyone brings their laptop and works on whatever. (Programming, art, modding... whatever) Most game jams focus on doing a new little project for the day, but if people have projects they are currently working on, they can just continue them.
The cool thing is that creativity can really get flowing with everyone crammed in a room, and people can exchange knowledge and ideas. Beginners can learn while experts practice and refine their skills.

We probably would want to wait until everything gets going a bit more, but If people are interested then it could be something to look into.

I've heard of GameJams thanks to Kyle Gabler, half of 2Dboy--the creators of World Of Goo.

Reminds me of NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month; in No Plot? No Problem!, a guidebook of sorts written by the contest's founder, he describes such "jams": getting in a room--say, at StarBucks Coffee--with other writers, feeding off of everyone's energy and creativity, and getting work done well.

In other words, absolutely!

I was thinking it would be cool to have a professional development section. Since one of the goals of this organization is to help people get hired into the business, it would be good to have a section that talked not about the work we are doing on new games, but the development process in general. Possible topics include:

• How to make a portfolio
  
• How developing art/writing/music for video games is different than for other mediums
  
• Setting up efficient workflow
  
• Candid development stories, such as important hiccups or communication errors in the process of game development
  
• How to get people interested in your game
  
• Writing resumes/getting game companies to look at your application
  

I like that idea, Spooty. I don't think it should be relegated to just how to get big in the industry. We also should see trends in the industry, news, discussions about whatever's happening so that we're up to date about it and when it finally does come time for us to get out there, we're not lost in a sea of bewilderment at what is really going on.

Definitely. After all, for some of us this is going to be our careers!

Yeah, that would be awesome Spoot, you know, I wonder if we could possibly ask some developers if they would join our forums as kind of mentors for us? To help answer some questions in a specific forum or to help teach us about the industry and how to get in and whatnot.

I call Gabe Newell!

I could see if I could get Mark Darin from Telltale to be of assistance. I've corresponded a couple times in the past asking questions(I had to do some interviews once for a research paper in HS about the career I wanted to go into) and he seemed pretty nice and friendly and willing to help. He's also a great designer in my opinion.

Threepwood42 wrote:I had to do some interviews once for a research paper in HS about the career I wanted to go into

I did something similar when I was at Westwood. I talked with a couple guys from Gearbox; hopefully I can dig up their contact info somewhere and shoot 'em an email. I also have a friend in Austin that knows some people; probably mostly low level workers, but it would still be interesting to hear from them.

As for writers, I know Gearbox's Anthony Burch...I can see about contacting him, and I know some other peeps in a could smaller companies, such as mumbo jumbo.

I think per-project, there need to be auditions of sorts. Rather than making the teams hunt for resources, let those responsible for said resources offer them directly to a given project.

Let the writers write: of the basic summaries and plots they craft from simple idea(s), the project's director picks his writer(s) to see the project through.

Let the composers compose: of the themes and melodies they find, the project's director selects his favorites and hooks that composer up to finish a score.

One thing I'm not solidifying here is whether any given project is allowed only one writer and one composer. But, say, all of our musicians working together on every single project just isn't as practical as one per game, because: we don't wanna distort and convolute the artistic vision/focus of any team, nor do we want every game to sound the same for having the same sound designer(s).

What d'y'all think?

^ That's pretty much the point of the Brainstorming and Recruiting pages and to a lesser extent the Specialization forums.

There are no hard-set rules for any organization in the club really. If a specialist likes an idea, he can offer his service to the idea person. Or if an idea person likes a specialist, she can send a message requesting their service. I've had both so far, and I like both. Now I'm waiting for those specialists to get their first ideas in to make sure their work will work for me.

Also, like was said in General guide for groups, people can form groups if they want or be "freelance" if they'd prefer. It really just depends on each individual and the person in charge of an idea. Obviously it would be inefficient to have everybody work on everything.

Pugovitz wrote:^ That's pretty much the point of the Brainstorming and Recruiting pages and to a lesser extent the Specialization forums.

There are no hard-set rules for any organization in the club really. If a specialist likes an idea, he can offer his service to the idea person. Or if an idea person likes a specialist, she can send a message requesting their service. I've had both so far, and I like the system.

Also, like was said in General guide for groups, people can form groups if they want or be "freelance" if they'd prefer. It really just depends on each individual and the person in charge of an idea.

Ohlrightyo, coolio.