Question about running a team project for AGS games

[chapter11studios]

Hi there!

Some of you may know me. I'm the project manager for Rise of the Hidden Sun, an in-production comedy western being made with AGS. As project lead, I've worked closely with various artists and musicians to get the assets we need for the game. Doing this has been fairly straightforward: I draw sketches of scenes and/or characters, other people with more talent than me make them look pretty.

Pretty soon I'm going to start plugging all those assets into AGS and actually building the game, though, and I just assume I'm going to get stumped along the way with some scripting issues. (In fact I already have... even basic programming is a little intimidating to me.)

So, one thing I'm considering is recruiting some AGS scripting wizards to join the team, possibly even in a paid capacity, to help out. (In fact, PM me if you're interested and we'll talk...)

Anyway, now I get to my question! What's the best way to work on that part of the game design while communicating only via the Internet? Do I provide all of the "stuff" needed and a really detailed design doc, and then send the game files to the scripter to work on and then send back to me?

Any suggestions from people who've done it successfully are greatly appreciated.

[Vince Twelve]

First off, I would encourage you not to hire some scripting wizards, but to keep it to a single scripting wizard.  AGS doesn't lend itself terribly well to having multiple programmers working simultaneously, though it can be done.  Even having different programmers scripting different parts of the game at different times can cause some problems unless some strict programming practices and version controls are implemented.

Once you have that person, a detailed design doc will be a necessity if you want the game to turn out just how you imagined it.  What Ivy and I did while I programmed Spooks for her (and what we are doing again on Nanobots) is precisely that.  She produced a detailed design doc with a description of all the interactions in each room (what items can be used where, what can be clicked on, what text displays when you examine a hotspot, and what animations will be provided) as well as a separate walkthrough document that listed every step necessary to complete the game including any restrictions on the order of actions.  I used the walkthrough document as kind of a check list of my progress, marking off each step as I completed it (occasionally skipping around, though mostly working from the start of the game to the finish) and giving her frequent compiled versions so she could make sure my work was matching her vision.  As I went, I often found that I needed things that I didn't have, so I'd ask her in the next update for text to fill an interaction, or some graphics or animations to fill some holes.  Rinse, wash, repeat, finish.

Since your team has several artists from which the programmer will need to collect assets, it would be nice for him if you could organize all the assets for him to make things easy on him.

[aussie]

The only thing I can say is that group projects are generally more difficult to complete than individual efforts, particularly if the project is big.

This is simply because the more people involved, the greater the chance is that one will drop off. Then again, you may be paying the programmer, so perhaps this rule won't hold in your case.

I agree with VinceTwelve, though, I would personally go for one programmer rather than several.

[chapter11studios]

Great suggestions. Just what I was looking for. Thanks!

[TerranRich]

I'm surprised no one mentioned this: start up a wiki and let your team members have access to it. You can track changes, so it's perfect.

For example, I'm using a developers' wiki for By the Sword (password-protected though), and so far it's working great. I used the PmWiki software at http://www.pmwiki.org

[SSH]

The newest AGS beta has built-in source code control integration and ascii-based source files, so should be much more amenable to group coding.