May 10th, 2013
I published my Call for Participants about ten days ago; since that time, there have been 175 visits to that page. I have publicized it in an array of venues, and have approached a number of vendors about it. The net result: nothing. Nobody has expressed interest in participating in the project.
This comes as a bit of a surprise. I certainly didn’t expect a stampede, but there is such an oversupply of people coming out of game design training programs in schools that I believed that there would be at least a few who’d express interest. Not so. I won’t speculate as to the reasons behind this turn of events, but I will have to proceed on the assumption that the team will consist of Louis, Jacob, and myself. That leaves a big hole in the art and facial animation areas, but I’ll just have to hire people to do that.
In order to hire people, I’ll need some capital, and that means Kickstarter. After my bad experience with that, I am a bit chary of trying again, but there will be two big differences this time: I’ll be asking for a lot less, and I’ll be able to offer contributors more. How much less? I’ll need to get bids from vendors to see, and before I can do that I must have precise specifications. Hey, anybody who requires money up front can’t ask for artistic freedom. But it will take me quite a while to put together those specifications, so things will be moving slowly. That’s fine with me; I am nowhere near ready to begin coding, so there’s no rush.
So here’s the rough project plan:
Continue design development until I have a clear view of the design
Prepare screen layout
Prepare new specifications for custom Storyteller code
Obtain directives from Louis on proper client-server code segregation
Begin writing code for standalone version. Use stubs for graphics and animation
--- long delay ---
begin testing game as standalone
--- delay until standalone game is good enough ---
Gather bids and select the best
Prepare Kickstarter campaign
Launch Kickstarter campaign
Louis begins work on client code shell
Collect funds and get the vendor to work
Tune and polish the standalone game.
Integrate components and test the browser version
This is going to take at least 18 months, probably two years. Oh, well.