Life Updates | Dev Team Applications

[Commander]

On 8/22/2017 at 4:56 PM, Jan said:

That being said, I've been trying to reply to some of these personally via quoting, but it seems like that's not working that well... so that's fun. (I tried to substitute that by liking all the ones I've read, lol. That works, right?)

One thing I tend to do is write the letter a in a post before replying to responses. That way I can move stuff around in case it gets funky. I also learned the hard way to not try using BBcode on the site as [Spoiler z]...is glitchy.

 

6 hours ago, laggless01 said:

^ I think there are many people who would like to help, but doubt if they're capable to do so. That's why I think it is important for Jan to submit some qualifications to give a general idea of what capabilities applicants would need for specific roles.

Don't take this to heart or anything, but that line is absolute and complete bullshit (also you misspelled who). If I had to put a requirement and only one requirement for people signing up, it would be this: dedication to the project to the point you do your best effort to complete tasks you are given. You see, game making is a lot of work (mods are significantly less to the point you choose your workload) which sucks up a lot of time. While it can be a lot of fun, there are parts that are not as enjoyable and very draining. This part causes a lot of people to quit or drop due to the illusion it's always a blast to work on a game. I enjoy modding, but trust me that I don't enjoy everything about it (like eventing).

 

The second most important thing I'd look for is communication. Having people work on a game probably is far more stressful than a storm of complaints about why a game is taking too long to release. I've almost up and abandoned Hardcore due to getting people who said they'd help but not respond at all. It's frustrating beyond belief as I need to know what you're doing and how things are looking. It's sad because this is the best things about a group as you get feedback and ideas you normally wouldn't and you tend to get to know each other a lot more. At base it might be a simple "I'm going to get this done within a month", but then you'll kind of realize it's a support pillar.

 

Now let's talk about the skills. For an RPGmaker game, you either have never bothered trying to learn the skills (sorry if it sounds harsh, but it is true) or don't believe you can. I know Rejuv uses a lot of Reborn's tilesets which creating a tileset is actually not that hard with the hardest part being creating the actual graphics. Some people can do it really easily and others, like myself, it takes a long time. The other stuff you kind of just slowly learn over time as most of it is easy. Music I don't really know much about other than how to make a loop so I can't really speak on that behalf. Point is that pretty much anyone could acquire the basics for Pokemon Fan-game making rather easily.

 

but the tl;dr version is simply that the hardest part of making one of these games is the dedication required as you'll always keep improving.

[Filthy Casual]

@Commander, I pretty much agree with everything you said. With that being said, I can add a bit regarding the music category (at least from my own experience).

 

For music, I personally find it to be deceptively difficult. It doesn't take much time to make a track, but it takes ages to make sure it is of the highest quality (especially if you make it from scratch). Music has to match a lot, such as the personality of the character, the intensity of the moment, and the overall appropriate instrumentation. For example, if you were doing a battle theme for a character such as Madame X, you certainly wouldn't want the theme to be upbeat or in a major key such as in C. In fact, depending on the fight, you might not even want to pick up the tempo. For example, if the player is supposed to lose the fight, the music could be slow and ominous, creating a sense of dread. However, the most important part is to make sure you have the correct software.

 

This is only from my own experience, however, so it's best to take my opinion with a grain of salt.

[laggless01]

4 hours ago, Commander said:

Don't take this to heart or anything, but that line is absolute and complete bullshit (also you misspelled who). If I had to put a requirement and only one requirement for people signing up, it would be this: dedication to the project to the point you do your best effort to complete tasks you are given. You see, game making is a lot of work (mods are significantly less to the point you choose your workload) which sucks up a lot of time. While it can be a lot of fun, there are parts that are not as enjoyable and very draining. This part causes a lot of people to quit or drop due to the illusion it's always a blast to work on a game. I enjoy modding, but trust me that I don't enjoy everything about it (like eventing).

 

The second most important thing I'd look for is communication. Having people work on a game probably is far more stressful than a storm of complaints about why a game is taking too long to release. I've almost up and abandoned Hardcore due to getting people who said they'd help but not respond at all. It's frustrating beyond belief as I need to know what you're doing and how things are looking. It's sad because this is the best things about a group as you get feedback and ideas you normally wouldn't and you tend to get to know each other a lot more. At base it might be a simple "I'm going to get this done within a month", but then you'll kind of realize it's a support pillar.

 

Now let's talk about the skills. For an RPGmaker game, you either have never bothered trying to learn the skills (sorry if it sounds harsh, but it is true) or don't believe you can. I know Rejuv uses a lot of Reborn's tilesets which creating a tileset is actually not that hard with the hardest part being creating the actual graphics. Some people can do it really easily and others, like myself, it takes a long time. The other stuff you kind of just slowly learn over time as most of it is easy. Music I don't really know much about other than how to make a loop so I can't really speak on that behalf. Point is that pretty much anyone could acquire the basics for Pokemon Fan-game making rather easily.

 

but the tl;dr version is simply that the hardest part of making one of these games is the dedication required as you'll always keep improving.

To be fair, you're right in thinking that I don't have experience with game-making. I do know it is a lot of work, but I wondered if how the load of development would be spread. If Jan is looking for two-three developers to spread the workload over, how much time is spend by each person might be different from when it is spread over a dozen for example (not that those numbers are necessarily realistic, they are just for illustration). Not everyone can assure they have tens of hours per week on hand in the future (In my case surprise projects/labwork in college), but they might have a couple hours spare to help with minor parts. Or a very variable schedule might mean they have loads of time for some weeks, then little in others. If that would be too erratic or insufficient to properly rely workload on, then I think that might be good to know. This is all from someone who has no experience in this, so I might just be rambling about something that would be obvious for someone that does. This applies for the rest of the post as well, it is likely that I'm wrong on multiple occasions.

If Jan wants to rely on people with decent experience (which would make sense), then he could ask for example to submit something to see if they're up to snuff. That might already be what's happening in PMs, so yeah. And also in this case, it is possible that it is better that people who are ill-experienced with the program don't apply, regardless of how excited or dedicated they are since struggling with (relatively) new programs can possibly take up loads of time as well. Also, sometimes there are things you can't do, no matter how dedicated you are to them. You might call bullshit on that, but nobody has learned to live without eating anything and not die of starvation/deprivation, even though some people like to disagree (it's thermodynamically impossible...) no matter how much they wanted it. So knowing if those things are feasible seems rather important to me, and with a program I have never used I can't judge that properly. (Also what version of the program is used? I would guess XP but idk much about this...)

I don't have the program, so I couldn't know how intuitive it was nor if I am capable of handling it. Personally, I only have some rusty-okay experience with Python, which I guess might not be quite the same since it is rather fundamental programming. Given this, if that program is rather graphics-oriented (creating tilesets, sprites etc.; for lack of a better word) rather than code-oriented, I might have a bad time with it since I'm quite bad anything that requires drawing.
Imo it would suck for everyone to apply for something, then realizing you're a drag on the team. Personally, if I want to help, I want to be sure I'll be actually helping.

[Quinn]

I know little to nothing about coding and developing the game within itself, so I don't see myself applying; however, I'm always open to helping with creative ideas if you ever need me! 

I'm really glad you took the time to step out and take a break because everybody needs to once in a while. It's unhealthy to push yourself and if you have to disappear for a while it's nothing to feel bad about. You have dedicated fans who love your creation (I've done like 3 different monotype playthroughs of Rejuv now in the past month or 2 lol). Idk about them but I definitely would be right here waiting patiently for your return, for it to be a well done and polished product for release to the public you need time and if people are impatient oh well. Basically all I gotta say is: Jan, take the time you need. Your health and personal life is more important than anything else in the end even if it doesn't seem so in your eyes. You gotta take breaks, even if it's from the internet but still working offline, or else you'll go boom.

 

I really look forward to v10, be it come out in the next year or next 3 years (or even later who knows) and don't mind how long it does take. Good luck to applicants and to Jan on development on v10!

[ShadeStrider]

I'd Actually kind of prefer it if we didn't have a Status threat. I wouldn't be as distracted during the upcoming school year. 

 

 

[caius]

No sweat Jan da man. I'm just glad you're gettin' back into it. Breaks from development are a good thing if you're stressed, I worked on one that got nuts for a while, but in my case everyone left without telling me.
or they just dropped me and kept working i guess

 

You can always take a break man, and props for asking for help since I never do that ever. 

[lokighost]

@Jan I've always told you to take your time not rush or push yourself to much and as for game making I have no idea on how to do that but have some story plots if you like to hear them 

 

[sakurajinguji]

On 8/25/2017 at 1:42 AM, Quinnox said:

I know little to nothing about coding and developing the game within itself, so I don't see myself applying; however, I'm always open to helping with creative ideas if you ever need me! 

I'm really glad you took the time to step out and take a break because everybody needs to once in a while. It's unhealthy to push yourself and if you have to disappear for a while it's nothing to feel bad about. You have dedicated fans who love your creation (I've done like 3 different monotype playthroughs of Rejuv now in the past month or 2 lol). Idk about them but I definitely would be right here waiting patiently for your return, for it to be a well done and polished product for release to the public you need time and if people are impatient oh well. Basically all I gotta say is: Jan, take the time you need. Your health and personal life is more important than anything else in the end even if it doesn't seem so in your eyes. You gotta take breaks, even if it's from the internet but still working offline, or else you'll go boom.

 

I really look forward to v10, be it come out in the next year or next 3 years (or even later who knows) and don't mind how long it does take. Good luck to applicants and to Jan on development on v10!

This goes for me too! I don't know anything about coding and developing games, but if you need more ideas or just anything with writing, just leave it to me (or should I say, us) but, Hurricane Harvey is being a little butthole so I don't think I'd be able to do it now if you were to ask. Also, I know how depression is, it's a pain in the ass. But don't worry Jan, as your fan, I'll always be by your side. You just take the time you need. 

Edited August 29, 2017 by sakurajinguji

[Tempo17]

Hey man I truly do admire the work that you do and can completely respect the amount of time and effort that goes into this kind of project. My friend and I started our own but it fell apart within 2 months since school and life came up. It was one of those projects that I have always wonder "what if?" To be completely honest I do not have the skills to help you out even though I wished I did. But let me tell you one thing about doing what makes you happy. I and everyone else can see how much time and effort and love you put into this game. I have waited months for a single release a few more cannot hurt. Hell I have waited years for something to get released as a sequel a few months to a year is small compared to that. Take things as fast or as slow as you feel comfortable with. When working with a team, set goals for them to keep within a realistic time-frame. It is easy to give out promises on the internet, but it is truly hard to actually produce results. It is better to have a few consistent, loyal members that will get their work done over a giant group that has little direction. Best of luck to you in the future.

[Alphagar]

*Offers hugs* Hang in there. :3

[Tringus]

Welcome back, Jan!  It's good to have you back.  Don't worry about status threads or anything like that.  Games take time, and the wait is what makes it more fun!  We'll all be here for you every step of the way.  And work takes time. don't overwork yourself.  Health before all else, after all.

[una]

Dude I may be new but I have been lurking (Before i made this account) but Jan, holy Jesus your work and effort is amazing. I appreciate how much effort you put in, and I will never be on your level. I loved playing Rejuvenation from V7 I believe it was, and I didn't mind V9 having bugs. Everyone makes mistakes.

Also plz let me in the Dev Team bro

[Mukkod]

i am fluent in HTML LUA and Python, how similar is this to those? if its not that different i could possibly be of use.

 

EDIT: Found out its ruby and it is similar to python, will study up and see if i can get good enough to help jan out. Give me two weeks and i should be half fluent and able to work with it on a basic level jan needs.

 

EDIT2: found out that a newer version of RPG Maker supports android and iPhone(ew applecrap). i may see if i could use that to port the game to those at a later time, giving credit to where its do of course.

 

EDIT to EDIT1: Newest version uses html5 and JS, both of which i am fluent in, port could happen with/before v10 if i can use RPG Maker MV. (i will port the entire game over to it if i have to)

Edited September 7, 2017 by Mukkod

[lokighost]

@laggless01 I say yes to that but I know I can not make games as tbh I donno how to dev games or the right software to use 

[Commander]

2 hours ago, Mukkod said:

 

EDIT2: found out that a newer version of RPG Maker supports android and iPhone(ew applecrap). i may see if i could use that to port the game to those at a later time, giving credit to where its do of course.

 

The reason why fan-game makers haven't transitioned already is due to essentials being written in Ruby which later RPGmaker versions do not support. When there is a good way to transition (and the essentials maker supports it as well), we'll likely all transfer over to that. But for now, it's a backburner issue we tend to ignore.

 

Now for Rejuv it's a definite hard no and I'm sure Jan would say the same thing. Rejuv barrows a lot of ideas and content from Reborn in which the coding would have to be converted or some mumbo jumbo which would cut off that resource. Reborn is also nearing the end of its completion so they won't want to convert until it is finished if possible at all. Kind of a little Paradox.

 

As for finding a fan-game to work on, we've hit a real dry period as most people have enough people working together to help them out (I'll need some people but not for coding...probably). If you're willing to work on behemoth tasks most coders wouldn't dare trout into like revamping the AI or fixing it, I'd say sign up and go for it as you may still have a shot (but sign up soon as Jan is checking apps over the weekend).

[DemICE]

v9 was rushed he says ...    meanwhile i didn't feel it at all...   

if that was rushed then i can't imagine a non-rushed v9

[Mukkod]

20 hours ago, Commander said:

As for finding a fan-game to work on, we've hit a real dry period as most people have enough people working together to help them out (I'll need some people but not for coding...probably). If you're willing to work on behemoth tasks most coders wouldn't dare trout into like revamping the AI or fixing it, I'd say sign up and go for it as you may still have a shot (but sign up soon as Jan is checking apps over the weekend).

its more of i have a full time job thats usually 8am-7pm my time and i dont know how big this task truely is (lines of code wise). i am up for the challenge (i was going to personally port rejuv to HTML/JS and update it as needed, rewriting essentials along the way) but im not really familiar with ruby. i can learn fast and i have sort of a team to help me when i get stuck so i just dont know yet.

Edited September 8, 2017 by Mukkod