We can all agree that programming is long and very complicated when we get to the core of a large project such as the physics and systems. We all been there when we had that one error that left us scratching our heads for a day or a week. Because programming is a long task, which do you think is better off with handling a large project?
Having a Team of programmers sound great, I mean why wouldn't it? It's literally a group of programmers working on a project. However, the bad side is that fights can happen, people can start getting lazy, some can program functions that ends up eating up all the ram, and others just become unresponsive for about a month. With large projects, one of the members can just leave the group with a portion or all of the game code and just continue it on their own. The good side with a team of programmers is that it will make programming much faster because everybody can work on one system at a time with one person making sure that everything works together.
Programming solo is great because a programmer won't be pressured to finish something in a certain amount of time and just get back to it in another month. And even if that programmer gets a serious error, he/she can just use the forums to get some ideas to fix them from really experienced developers. However, an issue is the time to program the project. Also, the fact that as a single programmer, he/she will always think their code is incredible, when there might be a more memory efficient way to do the same job. That programmer won't have that extra person to criticize their code in a good way. For example, a programmer might be doing a while loop to remove a character from an essay-length of text when its faster to just do a for loop, but for that programmer, its great cause at least it runs. Now remember that we're talking about a large project here, not a game made in a day. Something that requires at least half a year of serious programming.
Reply with which choice you believe is better and why. It can be both or neither, meaning have some guy to do it for you. You can also share your experience with team programming/solo programming.
ID:1963020
 Oct 16 2015, 6:37 am (Edited on Oct 16 2015, 6:50 am)
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Personally I'd love to work on a game in a team. If you're on friendly terms with everyone and assuming the team isn't filled with chronic procrastinators you can rely on each other for support. It also helps to reduce the workload and allows you to pass ideas around.
Unfortunately a lot of people (once upon a time myself included) are unable to work in a team. I find that most people are either going solo or are already established in a team, so I'm a little disappointed that I wasn't able to fit in anywhere. So I've been working solo because of that. On the bright side, posts such as these may attract recruiters. ;-) | |
bunnyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy I'm work with you hit me up! :X :X: :X :X :X!
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The problem with low-tier indie game development is that no one wants to take charge and be "the boss". No one wants to be the manager. People like being called the "Lead Developer" but no one really knows what actually is entitled of that position.
Being a lead developer is all about knowing what needs to be done next in order to continue moving along with the project. It's being able to create a development order for all of the systems to maximize efficiency and make the programmer's jobs easier. Basically, the only person who really needs to know where in the pipeline the team is with the game. Every other position, be it Artist, Programming, Music, etc, they just need to know what to work on next. Individual programmers jobs should be able to do exactly what they need to without access to any of the core source code, that's the job of the lead programmer. This means the tasks they should be given should be creating modular, library-like systems that the lead programmer can plug into the core source. Here on BYOND, however, projects are more-often-than-not led by the lead programmers. We are those who speak the mysterious languages of the computer and generally have the most experience in actual game design and development. It's just what we do. A lot of people, such as myself, choose to do everything on their own because they can. I for one have plenty of knowledge and experience in art, programming and music, which is generally the best policy an indie game developer can have. You should pretty much expect to be working alone, because at the end of the day, when the only motivation to create a game is because you want to, no money, no rewards, the only person you can really count on to get it done is yourself. | |
True, but programmers do tend to fall on a completely different scale than designers.
Typically people who do both are generally proficient in either one or the other, but it's difficult (if not impossible, according to my psychology lessons) to find one person who can do both with the same level of skill. (Unless, of course, we are talking about a person who is proficient in neither - there's plenty to be found in any group.) | |
Solo or a very small team (no more than 4 persons) for indie development. I'm currently the programmer for two teams of 2 members - one for a Unity project, the other for Byond - as well as for a solo project of mine.
A large part of why this setup works for me is because I'm well-acquainted with both of the other team members and we click easily; we're all on the same page and share the same goals. Ideally this is what you want for your team if you plan on being successful in the long term. | |
I'm the kind of person who is a Jack-of-all-Trades. I prefer to be able to handle any situation that may pop up at at least a proficient level. I'm no master at any one category of game development, but my intermediate proficiency in everything is all that's really needed to get stuff done. Because as the saying goes, a jack-of-all-trades is a master of none, but better than a master of one.
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Kats wrote:
I'm the kind of person who is a Jack-of-all-Trades. I prefer to be able to handle any situation that may pop up at at least a proficient level. I meant no disrespect. I was only explaining why it's difficult for someone like me to get somewhere. | |
It's okay, I took no disrespect. I just think that for indie developers, they're much more productive when they have at least a basic ability to do any job that needs to be done. It's perfectly fine if you specialize in one or two positions, but that's the point where you need a team to cover the others.
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Poorly led teams are awful. Stay away from them.