Thread: One Man Job?
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Old 11-09-2006, 10:41 AM   #8
Valg
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Home MUD: Carrion Fields
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Valg will become famous soon enough
After a while, I think trying to run an entire game from scratch is only useful if the creation of the game is an intellectual exercise or training for yourself. If your goal is to make a game that other people will play, it's simply bad management.

Put another way, if I wanted to make a company that sells widgets, there are tons of things I'd want to do myself at first (design the product, keep the books, negotiate with lenders and major buyers, etc.). However, people would think I'm nuts if I insisted on also driving the trucks, sweeping the floors, running all the machines, etc.

Even one or two trusted volunteers would make a huge difference in your project. Now, locating those volunteers can be a challenge, but you have to view that investment of time and energy as no different from the investment of time and energy it would take to do the work of several people yourself.

You want creative control of your areas and storyline? Get a volunteer who will check them for errors, and make suggestions for changes and improvements. Want to design your own combat system? Get someone else who can help you playtest it and try to locate degenerate strategies and bugs. None of that requires signing over your vision to anyone else, but it will save you hours and hours of slog. Eventually, you'll also have the core of a senior staff when you're closer to thinking about beta-testing or going live.

This is crucial. We have the luxury of recruiting 100% of our staff (typically 25+ active members) from long-term players of our game, so we always get people who know the story, know our tastes, have some roleplay chops, and have a schedule compatible with making an impact. You won't. Identifying a couple 'right-hand men' early on will save you a lot of pain down the road.
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