( Beginners Mod 1 ) The Deep Dark Spiral : RECRUITING

[Nixt]

Hello. I have thought up an idea. As advanced people in the modding industry may know, it is hard for a person to first get into a mod without spending ridiculous amounts of time by themselves building up a decent portfolio. I wish to lower this time by making mods with beginners directly for the point of making a portfolio for them, and for learning. Every map will be released to the public for reviews, which the beginners will then learn from. This particular mod is a Gothic Cthulu themed mod. I am sure many of you have heard, read or even played a Cthulu game, be it on a console or pen and paper. This game will challenge beginners and teach all the people in the team how to work together, the standard of work required of them, and what they need to do.

But more on the mod, we shall be adapting it from a script. Here is an excerpt -

'' Down The Rabbit Hole

It’s rainy. The sky emits thunder that strikes a tree in the distance. You get out of your taxi, throwing the driver a tenner; and walk towards the hamlet in front of you. The hamlet is obviously old, and just a few small wooden logging houses surround the large hotel. You enter the hotel to greet a bored lady in her early twenties twirling her hair and chewing bubblegum. Her eyes rise to meet yours. She speaks in a dull monotone voice,

‘Are you the visitor? ‘

You reply equally monotonously that yes, you are. She tells you to catch and throws some keys at you. Barely catching, you turn to her and ask your room number. She indicates for you to look on your key. You do so. You are now the resident of Room 42; you descend the stairs and enter your room. Flinging your bag aside you crawl onto your bed and enter a deep peaceful sleep.



You awake suddenly, feeling sick and rubbing your eyes and look around. You catch a glimpse of your alarm clock and your eyes swerve around to meet it –

4:32 AM

Groaning, you lie back on the bed and turn to look at the window. You could swear something’s wrong. Something feels wrong, at least. It’s still raining, and it seems to have gotten heavier. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow it’ll be sunny. Turning over on your side, you fall back into your slumber.

In the darkness, something shifts.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
The dull sound of the electronic alarm clock ringing snaps you into reality from the world of sleep. Raising your arm numbly you smash your hand against the alarm clocks silence button, stopping the device from continuing its foul noise. You get up, and look outside the window. Fog. Swearing to yourself, you stumble out of bed and open your bag, rumbling through it until you find your toothpaste and toothbrush. Staggering into the toilet, you apply them, and then begin the daily routine of upper jaw front, lower jaw front, upper jaw back and lower jaw back. Sometimes alternating be0tween them to vary things up and keep it interesting. Sometimes not. Fumbling with the door handle, you exit your room and make your way downstairs. Today is a new day.

''


Positions required :

Mappers X4
CodersX2
ModelersX2

If interested please add me as a friend or send me an email at AlternativeAccounts@live.co.uk

NOTE :

Advanced people may join, but this is aimed towards beginners. If you are advanced and join do not get angry at beginners for taking their time to learn or to do something that you already know. Be considerate. Help them.

[Mr.Unreal]

Welcome to the forum

I'm not posting here to lecture or anything but beginners should never start making a whole mod. I might be new to the forums but I'm not new into modding so I'll tell you this. I had the same beginners excitement and tried to just gather up a lot of people and make a big mod. That really didn't end up well.

So I'd recommend you to start small and smart. Just get used to the engine you're using so you get a quick look at all of it's aspects. Then you should join an existing mod as a part time developer or such. I'm not trying to get you quit of anything. I remember very well what it was like to be new to modding but I encourage you to start slowly and small becouse a lot of things in modding might not be as you first imagine and the engine might have limitations for certain things you thought would be easily done.

In my opinion you should lower the amount of people you're recruiting and start slowly developing a mod with just a few guys. That many beginners is going to make things more complicated than it should be.

I wish you the best of luck with this mod but don't aim too high just yet

By the way what is your position in the mod team?

PS: Seems that you have some interest in writing a script for your mod. I encourage you to do that but it is even more easier to get sidetracked and write things that are too hard for beginners to handle. So get to know the engine you're working on before that and write the script based on the capabilities of the engine.

[Nixt]

I am familiar with the hammer engine and the source SDK as a whole. I think you misunderstand me.

I am trying to get beginners acquainted with the system so THEY can go off and get into other mods. I have not yet fully decided the number of people for this mod, so I have left the number high. I am sure that when I get a more advanced scheme of the mod the amount of people needed will be bumped down, team members fired and so forth.


Trust me, I know what I am doing.

EDIT : I am a project leader. I have work experience professionally as a project leader. If I thought I was over my head, I wouldn't be doing this. And I'm not a coderboi, so I probably wont be sidetracked to much by code.

[punky]

I am familiar with the hammer engine and the source SDK as a whole. I think you misunderstand me.

I am trying to get beginners acquainted with the system so THEY can go off and get into other mods. I have not yet fully decided the number of people for this mod, so I have left the number high. I am sure that when I get a more advanced scheme of the mod the amount of people needed will be bumped down, team members fired and so forth.


Trust me, I know what I am doing.

EDIT : I am a project leader. I have work experience professionally as a project leader. If I thought I was over my head, I wouldn't be doing this. And I'm not a coderboi, so I probably wont be sidetracked to much by code.

What exactly is the hammer engine? :p Welcome to the forum, good luck with the recruiting

[Nixt]

The hammer tool is a sub-engine format that provides a genesis base make-up of the Source SDK engine.

Why thank you - I hope there is.

[Surfa]

Well I wish you luck in finding a good coder. You will need it (unless you have access to a time machine).

[Nixt]

Well I wish you luck in finding a good coder. You will need it (unless you have access to a time machine).

I don't think Doctor Who would mind me borrowing the T.A.R.D.I.S for a while.

[Mr.Unreal]

Alright. I thought you we're new to modding.

And I'm not a coderboi, so I probably wont be sidetracked to much by code.

That is just why you could easily get sidetracked. If you write a script out of your mod and don't know all possibilities and limits of the code and engine there is no way to know what you can or can't make to the mod. That was the only reason I was saying that.

If I thought I was over my head, I wouldn't be doing this. And I'm not a coderboi, so I probably wont be sidetracked to much by code.

Good that you know that yourself. I certainly hope you're right.

[Nixt]

Good that you know that yourself. I certainly hope you're right.

As do I. As do I.

[vcool]

Right off the bat Surfa is 100% correct. Coders are extremely hard to come by. It seems that the number of coders drops wth time. Why? I don't know. Maybe because the coders are not your common 14 year olds, but are (mainly) mature and grown up people, and they know coding because they grew up with computers and computers grew up with them. 4 - 5 years ago they would probably be interested in modding because they wouldn't be much older than the modder majority. Right now the main body of modders, the 14-17 year olds (I am talking about majority, that is Facepunch-level mods), have it the easy way, with minimum of CMD windows and maximum fancy GUIs which spoiles them and scares them away from code.

When the modding pipeline becomes more artist driven, less and less must be done by a coder, thus most wannabe-modders focus on the art and not on the code.

I don't know if I made much sense, because that was bascailly a stream of consciousness, but that's how I feel about it. It is pretty sad, actually. I mean, what will happen 3 years in the future? Will there be 2 coders for every Source modding forum?

Anyways, I deviated from the topic here, so getting back on track I wanted to wish you good luck. It's a nice thing you set up, and excellent oportunity for portfolio growth, but as we said - coders are effing hard to come by (impossible if you ask me) so I would suggest doing something less ambitious and less to do with code, but more to do with assets.

Good luck.

[Nixt]

This project is not code orientated. This is modelling and mapping orientated. I simply put the coder bypass up there so if there were any fledgling coders out there they could practice here.

[Nixt]

Alright, we've got some progress up on the first level, although it is untextured we have the basics for it. There is still space on the team.

[mat_de_b]

i might be interested in doing some modelling... have done very, very little... but i guess thats what this project is for :S

[Nixt]

Of course you can join. Be sure to add me on MSN

[Ennui]

Coders are more furtive, quiet, and/or busy than they are rare.