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Joint project

(18 posts) (9 voices)

Started 2 years ago by arian487
Latest reply from shivaz

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arian487
Member

So I've been thinking a lot and I want to know what you guys think about doing doing a joint project? We all have different and valuable skills but we'd all come up with an idea and just roll with it.

Of course not everyone, just whoever is interested. The idea is that most, if not all the proceeds go to the cocos project and riq (the only thing we'd get back are costs in resources I guess) and we use it as a platform for promoting our own personal games. So if it's big enough, we could literally promote it within the game (not some crappy ad), add in a little popup after posting score or something with it saying like: "be sure to check out this game as well!"

The ultimate goal is to get a connected network going, as in any game I make will also promote that of other people who worked on this joint project and vice versa. And by promote I mean text and links WITHIN the game, not an ad. This seemed to work nicely with hopple, after I released it on cydia (and thus expanded the user base) people seemed to respond to personal message I sent out within the game. There are tonnes of amazing devs here and it should be so that when they see the cocos stamp, they'll know it'll be a good game.

I know this is a bit far ahead but it all starts with a joint project. I'll of course commit as much time as I can to this, classes begin soon so I can't devote my full time. It's a raw idea and tonnes of details need to be worked out but I think it's a good idea.

Posted 2 years ago #
arian487
Member

By the way I was going to say this project should be a big game, I was thinking full fledged RPG. Make it big enough that promoting things on it will be easier and of course gets attention. There's literally only one RPG on the market thats any good, and RPG's generally attract attention.

Posted 2 years ago #
natanavra
Member

I think this is a pretty good idea, it would also give most of us more crowd, I mean our applications will be seen more = success.
I don't really have too much time either as I have a lot of courses and stuff, but I'm ready to try and contribute to the project and help with it's distribution.
I believe it would be a major jump for Cocos2D and Riq can be credited as we are all here thanks to him! Thank you Riq!!
Let's do this.

Posted 2 years ago #
Clain
Member

Creating a "cocos game ring" has been discussed a couple of times on the old google forum (I remember Brad Parks throwing some good ideas back then). But I don't think we mentioned starting a joint project. It sounds nice but is it really doable ? (sorry for being pessimistic)

2 days ago, I read the Arianne project history (because someone posted a link to the tile editor this project uses). I think this is a very interesting reading, especially when considering starting a big joint project : http://stendhal.game-host.org/wiki/index.php/History

This will show you what worked and what didn't for them. It's a similar project, I'm sure you can learn a lot from it. One of the most important part is to find someone to manage the project (like riq with cocos2d). I don't have the time to elaborate more, read the whole story and see by yourself.

Posted 2 years ago #
arian487
Member

Yes, obviously the proper way to do it would be to release it under his developers license, so he gets the benefits and everything. I think, if this goes through, we'd have to get the devs to sign some kind of agreement. Not that the people aren't trustable, it's just there wouldn't be anything stopping someone from just taking the game or something...

We could open source the code of the game but not the graphics. This is to stop people from simply pirating the game and throwing it on the free cydia store or something.

Posted 2 years ago #
arian487
Member

@clain

I understand it's a big project and not easily done. But the approach I think to be taken is an approach that ISN'T deadline based. I mean, we all have other things to do, just take our time, slowly build it up. Make it better and better through time. And then towards the end do a push to finish it up. It does need a manager of sorts to organize the code writing but not necessarily riq. It can be anyone really...

When I get home from work I'll read the link. I think the key here in making this work is not to communicate weekly and do this and that and have all these things done, just casually work on it. We could have a system where people can put up required classes or something and then whenever one of us has the time we can write it. If no one has the time then we just leave.

If we attempt to get TOO serious and FORCE things to get done it simply won't because of the nature of the project and because none of us are actually linked through work or anything.

Posted 2 years ago #
jd
Member

On a semi-related note, I was considering a "Other Cool Cocos2D" games section in my credits. I'm not releasing until next month, but I would be interested to find out if anyone wants to participate - and of course add my game to their section as well.

Posted 2 years ago #
arian487
Member

^^Yes, but I think before we do anything like this we should create a nicer interface for displaying the games. It should be web based because I personally wouldn't want to update my game with apple every time newer cocos games come out. If you want to contribute you'd simply add the module into your game and then it'd display the games automatically through a web interface so it'll be easier for all of us to add and remove games the module should show.

If you choose to add the module, then your game will be added to the list of games to be shown (I guess at random whenever they click the games section). That's definitely the best and most effective way of doing it.

Posted 2 years ago #
Clain
Member

I agree with arian about how to do what jd proposed (similar to what was discussed in the old google forum). But talking about that here is thread hijacking. One should start a new thread...

@arian487 :
I wasn't trying to say riq should be the one to manage such a joint project. When I said :

One of the most important part is to find someone to manage the project (like riq with cocos2d)
It was meant to be read : "(like riq does with the cocos2d project)".

Not that the people aren't trustable, it's just there wouldn't be anything stopping someone from just taking the game or something...
Yeah, sure. And no, people aren't trustable, especially the ones who hide in the shadow. You know, the ones we don't know about who just take and give nothing in return. I'm a bit scared because that seems to be one of the way to succeed nowadays...

I like the sound of such a project not being deadline driven. What I'm skeptical about is all the possible abuses and how to prevent them. Anyway, we've been 4 people posting in this thread, I'd like to hear more opinions.

Posted 2 years ago #
arian487
Member

Thanks for your input clain. I know not making it deadline driven poses many potential problems but I assume that anyone that wants to get involved is passionate about the project. And I understand we won't have time all the time. I mean, I have school and I'm sure people have other things but some days on weekends when I'm bored I might pop in and add some things, make some improvements, and update.

I mean literally like cocos2d. I can contribute whenever I want but riq doesn't give me a deadline and says I have to get this and this done by tomorrow.

For a game it'll be more difficult because we want it to be consistent in terms of quality. I guess we could construct a team of regulars and really anyone else that wants to join and only give those people the source control. I envision an initial planning process where we come up with the game ideas, story, and all that jazz but then the actual game creation would be a free form project that people simply contribute to.

I to would like to know what more of you guys think.

Posted 2 years ago #
shivaz
Member

Sounds like a nice idea.

From my point of view, I just don't have the time to commit to a major project. The time I have is to do parts or pieces. I can do little things at odd times.

So if you had a "plan" or a "skeleton" or a "road map", people could either take ownership of a small part - or check out pieces to build on and grow.
If it is organic, it can be about building something together that gives back to the community and helps further Cocos2d.

I wouldn't worry too much about piracy, one of the points is to get Cocos2d out there - to promote it (and games built with it) - and to increase the skills of the people developing with it. So make it open source, make it easy for people to develop and add to the source.

Its a big call to do that, because there is a fear that someone will take your code and go make money out of it, but is that a problem? They will always be a step behind, because they are copying the source - not developing it. They might even learn something from it and give back to the community. Also if they do do it, and don't return code back to the game - then they are breaching copyleft (depending on license) - and we can hunt them down and Apple should deny their app (Cydia is different).

Just some thoughts.

Justin

Posted 2 years ago #
pabloruiz55
Member

I think it is a great idea!
In my opinion instead of starting with a big project we could make many different types of games (small ones of course), that could be later used as "starter kits" like the ones in XNA. So we could vote between a basic platformer, a puzzle game, etc,etc. And start doing one of them. If it were to be sold, the incomes could be used to pay for assets for cocos2d like a logo(?), ads?, a party for us?:P
Just an idea :)

Posted 2 years ago #
Steve Oldmeadow
Administrator

In my opinion I'd rather see development effort spent on improving cocos2d rather than making a game. There is so much that can be added to cocos2d, we haven't even started on OpenGL ES 2.0 integration which is going to be a huge development effort. Then there is freshworks' idea of developing some editors. I'd also like to see people working on making things like StoreKit, GameKit and the music player simple to use, similar to what Joao and I did for audio with CocosDenshion.

I'm also skeptical about how likely it is to succeed without strong leadership. Just getting a group to decide on something as simple as a name can be a nightmare, I'd hate to imagine a democratic process applied to the design of a game.

Posted 2 years ago #
arian487
Member

@Steve, I definitely respect that I opinion and I see where you're coming from but a potentially successful project such as this would further cocos and this whole project A LOT. Sometimes it isn't about improving it now and working on it now but more so about committing time and effort to potentially take it to a level we couldn't have by simply working on it more.

Remember, gaining potential userbase in a game means gaining more users for cocos, which means gaining more contributors, which means faster growth.

I understand there are A LOT of barriers to work through, making it work in terms choosing ideas and all and good methods would have to be thought of. I just think a project like this will benefit riq and cocos a lot.

This is all very preliminary talk of course I just wanted to see how you guys around the community felt about this.

Posted 2 years ago #
arian487
Member

Sorry for the double post but I was also wondering if I could for example take this project and create a club in the school. I mean I do go to one of the worlds top Universities for undergrad studies in CS and there are A LOT of smart and experienced people that would be willing to contribute.

I could get as many people as possible and the whole point of this club would be to contribute to this open source project (it also bodes well for all of their resumes, open source is usually nice).

Maybe I'm just getting ahead of myself and maybe it's not a realistic idea but I also believe that if we can get organized and conduct this in a mature manner, it'll do A LOT more good for cocos then me simply contributing some source material to the project.

Posted 2 years ago #
Game Smith
Member

I think the idea has potential, but maybe a scaled approach would be best. Like developing the modules and pieces needed for the game before worrying too much about the game as a whole. An example would be the "Other Great Cocos2D Games" module you mentioned. It helps to give something back to the community, while at the same time giving you another building block for the community game.

I think if you focused on the pieces instead of the whole to start with it would allow you to get the team organized and ready for the actual game project.

Posted 2 years ago #
jptsetung
Member

Nice idea but I'm sorry to tell I don't believe that a big project can be achieved like this. I believe more in a bunch of small funny games we all provide. Then somebody must integrate the small games to provide an "All in one" 1$ game. All games must implement a short API like startGame, stopGame.

Posted 2 years ago #
shivaz
Member

As far as the cross promotion goes, what about Kwigbo's AppAroo?
I am sure he would be willing to setup a solely Cocos2d games version.
http://kwigbo.com/wp/advertise-your-app/
Why reinvent the wheel?

Posted 2 years ago #

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