Seeking very skilled Construct-or.

Hi.

I've recently undertaken a hefty project for an "island" survival game. Most of the details, storyline, etc.. have been worked out and after announcing the project to a handful of fellows, it suddenly picked up popularity, I was asked to set up a blog and now get daily, literally daily requests of people wanting to join in and help with the indie game. It's going to be an 100% free game.

Now the issue is simply that I've reached a chokepoint where I disappointedly realised I'm not skilled enough in Construct to achieve the entirety of this project by myself. Asking questions/getting assistance on IRC isn't gonna cut it, I literally need someone very skilled to hop into the project with me. I can act as manager and most importantly pupil if you're willing to toss some of your knowledge towards me. You can expect a hard working, fast learner and very interested person in me. I'm not intending on telling you what to do and letting you do the work. That's not my type of person. I'll want in on the fun and hopefully learn from you to be able to be a bigger help programming-wise.

The reason why I genuinely would love having someone join the project with me is the sheer amount of interest this project has popped up. Without help, by the time I reach the level of skill required to, for instance, program the crafting/inventory system, all the project's popularity/interest will fade out. I already have a very skilled artist working on graphics and about 10 more people wanting to help out, from sounds, graphics, story line to general design.

So I'm throwing this plea out there. If you're willing to undertake a good, fun and inevitably very popular project, let me know. This shouldn't take more than a handful of hours of work for someone skilled in Construct. Say three-four hours a week for two months-ish. Besides, you'll have me doing more basic stuff too.

In hopes that I can sparkle some interest, best regards.

Karl

Media:

http://www.digitalkarl.com/blog

<img src="http://www.digitalkarl.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/tilepack1.png">

<img src="http://www.digitalkarl.com/isgres/done/knife.png">

And much more that I can't upload here.

Hey Karl, nice pitch.

The problem with it is that you have too little to show for such an ambitious project. Speaking from experience, it's very hard to find someone to help you with a project if you don't have a sufficient amount of content on display. A playable demo really helps in this area.

Also, You say that the project is very popular, yet on your blog there are no comments, and only 2 screenshots of a few sprites.

by the time I reach the level of skill required to, for instance, program the crafting/inventory system, all the project's popularity/interest will fade out.

If your game is truly this good, people will not forget about it.

Also, pretty much all of the very skilled Construct users around here have their own projects which they tend to. Asking someone skilled in an area for large amounts of their time to build your game,for free, is a very large request. The payoff in the end better be huge; and the only way to show that is by adding more content yourself, or better proving your games popularity. In general, games become popular after they are played/reviewed, or released an amazing trailer showing gameplay, etc.

Of course I might be wrong, and someone will offer to help you for a while. You never know.

if you are stuck in such an early in development then try to make something a little less complex.

such as a platform game or a breakout.

btw is your Project related to a competition on mossader's forums?

Thank you for the reply.

My project isn't related to any competition, I started it for fun, because it seemed interesting and lots of people showed interest when I mumbled about it. The blog has no comments because you must be registered to post comments. I suppose people are lazy? I'm getting an armful of new hits on the website every day.

I'm not sure why you see it in such a light though, it isn't exactly "doing my game for free". It's more "I'm looking for someone who thinks that project is equally as interesting/cool and would like to work hand in hand on it with me. I'm not the best Construct-or but I'll learn very fast." Needn't be so pessimist.

I'm not sure what I can show you yet, the demo isn't all that interesting, you can walk around, there are items, they are pickup able, the code knows what items you have and how many.. I can show some proof of the people interested in the project though. Also here's some screenshots of our organisational stuff:

http://www.facepunch.com/showthread.php?p=24086631

<img src="http://i37.tinypic.com/mrco75.jpg">

http://i37.tinypic.com/2q3b3ud.jpg (Not tagged because it's big)

<img src="http://i37.tinypic.com/i4mp7s.jpg">

<img src="http://i34.tinypic.com/2ilw93.jpg">

All that is besides the people who I have on MSN/Skype thanks to this project now.

I'm not sure what more you'd like to see. This isn't a "hey, do my game" thread. It's a "hey, help me out actually come through a project that has sparked up more interest than I had imagined." - the amount of work isn't "huge". For someone really skilled, I doubt it'll even be a challenge at all since all the logic is there.

So hopefully, someone will take the leap of faith.

the amount of work isn't "huge". For someone really skilled, I doubt it'll even be a challenge at all since all the logic is there.

If this game will be as cool as your blog says with items that can be combined and so on the amount of work WILL be huge. Plus, taking time to help you learn will take as much time or more than doing the work themselves.

So I think it is clear to everybody that this will be a lot of work....and you really have nothing to show for it. The few graphics are pretty, but you have little to nothing to show for the rest of the game.

Also, if so many people are indeed dying to get in on helping with the game then surely one of them will want to help code. You would do much better to have them get up to speed on Construct (which doesn't take too long) than to try to entice somebody here to spend 4+ hours a week on your game. Two months is 32 hours at that pace and I doubt you will have anything close to a finished game by then...unless maybe Davioware volunteers himself.. .. ok probably not then either.

You clearly have the excitement and passion for the game which is great, but my suggestion is to bring more to the table.

It's more "I'm looking for someone who thinks that project is equally as interesting/cool

I don't see how anybody reading this post would get excited or interested with how little you have showed. Not trying to be a downer... just my two cents.

I'm not sure whether you're not putting the effort into reading the posts I made or simply misunderstanding me; I'm not expecting (nor "enticing", thanks for making me sound like an evil overlord.) for someone to code what I tell them to code. I'm looking for someone that finds the idea of an island survival game with this complexity interesting and will want to jump in the project and code with me. They won't have to code everything, I'm not completely illiterate when it comes to Construct and I'm learning daily.

It's fine if you're not interested at all, I'm not sure why you're trying to bring the thread down though. I perfectly know and understand it won't be easy to find someone to help, but I'm a persistent little bugger and I have hope. The amount of work IS huge, but diluated onto two people, it'll just be a "considerable effort". 32 hours a months is not a lot by the way. And I'm entirely certain that by then it'll be finished according to my plans, especially if we're two persons working on the project. Most of the things I can do, but there's a few nitpicky complex things that are beyond my level of Construct.

Thank you for your useful two cents though.

Your game seems interesting. If you've lurked here much, you've probably noticed that when people pose interesting consturct coding questions, they usually get quick responses, often with demos. I think you should stick out trying to advance your construct skills yourself and asking for help with things that are beyond you. You might build some good momentum for your project this way.

Keep it up, though I'm not skilled enough to help you, I look forward to playing your game.

I think the reason you're being met with such resistance, is because it's a tradition here at scirra that dates back to the...

ok, no, but seriously, this is about the 2,000th "please help me make my game" post. There's nothing wrong with that in and of itself, but over time there has developed an unofficial, but fairly consistent, and generally agreed upon set of standards by which the people who've been here believe a potential collaboration should be evaluated. Reading through the posts, I can see how it probably seems everyone's jumping down your throat. Basically though, I think what everyone's trying to say is that anyone skilled enough to help you, can get to the point you've gotten by themselves in a fairly short amount of time, but with a game completely tailored to their tastes in every way, with their own terms as far as how much money they might want to make, and a level of absolute control over the project.

So what you're offering is to take away full control, take away the possibility of financial gain, to help you create Your vision. It will probably be a tough sell, but nothing to feel like an evil overlord about. And don't hesitate to ask in Help/Tech Support, some of the dead ends that made you turn to asking someone else to do it for you might not be as bad as they seem. Asking in the forums for advice on how to make an inventory/combining system would probably yield better results than chat, there are plenty of people here on the level to help you, and although I consider myself fairly skilled with construct, sometimes the simplicity of other peoples' solutions surprises me. So basically, as hard as it seems to get up to speed in Construct, it'll probably be easier than finding a lead coder or tutor. If you showed a storyline written by orson scott card, and artwork by hr giger, I'd probably hop on, but in the meantime it's your baby, and most people are already busy with their own.

good luck though

i highly recommend that you try and experiment until you get what you want .

I am, constantly and daily, along with some help, yet I'm still eagerly seeking to swallow in a minion coder in my lair of evilness.

Basically the mistake people are making when they reply to topics like this one is that they try to be "helpful" and say "I won't help you because of this and that, and others wont for the exact same reasons". Which isn't true. It doesn't matter how many people won't help, what matters is that there might be one or two people who will, who are exceptions to the rule, to whom your reasons don't apply, for their own reasons. So why bother replying? "I won't help"? That's okay, 6,863,399,999 out of 6,863,400,000 people won't. This doesn't mean we need a topic with 6,863,400,000 replies. "No one will help"? Speak for yourselves.

I won't help!

What I can do is help you define your workflow, review your documents, propose ideas...

Usually when people come in here asking for help they have a lot in mind, but just a few things on paper. And since we can't read their minds, the users demand more info on your project, anything visual or interactive to help them understand what the project is up to.

Of course, having previous experience, released games or prototypes, a blog, or anything related to games helps a lot when convincing people that yes, this project will be a kick ass thing and everybody should be working together.

For me, the best thing you should do now is develop a GDD (Game Design Document), and organize all the ideas you want to put in the game, in a very detailed way. Write the avaliable item, what does what, how many characters, write the story, maybe a few of the dialogues... Design a sketch of the interface, a flowchart of every screen... And then proceed to actually making the game.

And since you stated this is a free game, when you have the GDD, post it in here. Don't waste your time hiding your thoughts, because it will only make people ignore your project. Show it to us!

If it's truly awesome as you say it is (and I'm not using any sarcasm here), people will gather up!

Also, posting Filezilla screenshots to prove that you have a few .exes won't work. Let us play!

You said it is a free game, so there's no need to hide your contents! Also, people in here are used to test shitty prototypes, with bad graphics. And a lot of them evolved into beautiful games. Of course there will be trollers, eventually, but just ignore it and don't let it get to you.

Anyway, I can help you organize your thoughts and create a consistent GDD. With it you'll even be able to precise how many people will be needed to make the game, and I'm pretty sure everybody will be pleased to read it and feel more inclined to help in anyway they can.

So, what do you say?

Basically the mistake people are making when they reply to topics like this one is that they try to be "helpful" and say "I won't help you because of this and that, and others wont for the exact same reasons". Which isn't true. It doesn't matter how many people won't help, what matters is that there might be one or two people who will, who are exceptions to the rule, to whom your reasons don't apply, for their own reasons. So why bother replying? "I won't help"? That's okay, 6,863,399,999 out of 6,863,400,000 people won't. This doesn't mean we need a topic with 6,863,400,000 replies. "No one will help"? Speak for yourselves.

This is why I just watch these threads from afar. To be honest though Karl, many people have been helping you out on IRC, and you've really just started with Construct. From what it sounds like, you're totally capable of doing this, you just need the time to get some experience. You've barely scratched the surface of what Construct is capable of, and that's totally understandable given the time you haven't had to learn it.

If your artists don't understand this, I'd get some new artists. Tell them to take a break and go outside and play in the sun or something for a week while you figure something out. They don't need to be drawing 24/7.

Thanks a lot for the offer gammabeam. Currently, most of the game design document is well thought out and written up, just needs assembling. It's what I'm really good at.

Karl...I don't think you are an evil overlord. I actually think your project sounds really interesting. My only point in posting was to point out: that the game was a lot more difficult than you think.. and that to get somebody and put in that much time you have to show more to attract them... That's all. You should keep track of the # of hours spent on your game as I think you will be surprised how much time you spent when it is all over. I sure know I did on even the demo's I put together. I would be overjoyed if somebody joined your team, seriously. I think you will find that everybody is very helpful, in general here, and will be more than willing to help you out with problems.

If nobody joins up to code I'm sure you will have enough resources here to create the game on your own... and if they do then that's awesome. Hope to hear some good progress!