Tips for starting a community project?

What are you supposed to do when you host a certain community project (I.E. Plutinya 1024, Minimalist Challenge, etc.)

You hear a calling in your soul and you follow it.

It helps if you have something to show, such as at least one map of your own to kick off the project.

Have an interesting idea/concept.

+ free booze for everyone that joins...

Then What if I have to compile all the submitted maps? I'm not an expert at checking if the maps are ok to be put in the project, like Plutinya 1024 did, and I don't even know that.

Something that I think is very helpful is to stay active in the project your leading, even if no one else is. In my experience, any project I've ever lead has usually slowed to a crawl when I've stopped making updates and progress. So just stay as active as you can and usually the other people contributing will follow suit.

At first, you should be sure that at least some people will join - to achieve so, attract them with an interesting idea that's literally tempting to try out, and also by showing your own good work to make people trust in you (oddly said, but basically that's it). Your project rules shouldn't be too distractive, overly restrictive, vague, or just long to read. You're expected to take care of the project management and keeping the project alive (by mapping yourself, bugging other mappers to work). Also you'll be responsible for quality control - either you do it yourself, or hire someone - in any case, the person doing quality control should be skilled at judging map quality and suggesting improvements. Mainly, be prepared that hosting a community project will keep you busy for a long time.

My personal advice: Unless you feel confident in your management skills, don't ever start a community project where people claim particular mapslots. It'll give you a lot of trouble when somebody gives up, can't make a map in time, or his map is bad. It's easier to announce a free collection style CP, where anyone can contribute a map if it complies to your rules, and when you get enough of good maps, they'll get compiled and released.

You could also try starting small. Perhaps a doom 1 9-map episode or 10 levels of doom II.

Breezeep said:

Then What if I have to compile all the submitted maps? I'm not an expert at checking if the maps are ok to be put in the project, like Plutinya 1024 did, and I don't even know that.

Compiling maps is fairly straightforward, so long as contributors are using the same textures and flats.

scifista42 said:

At first, you should be sure that at least some people will join - to achieve so, attract them with an interesting idea that's literally tempting to try out, and also by showing your own good work to make people trust in you (oddly said, but basically that's it). Your project rules shouldn't be too distractive, overly restrictive, vague, or just long to read. You're expected to take care of the project management and keeping the project alive (by mapping yourself, bugging other mappers to work). Also you'll be responsible for quality control - either you do it yourself, or hire someone - in any case, the person doing quality control should be skilled at judging map quality and suggesting improvements. Mainly, be prepared that hosting a community project will keep you busy for a long time.

My personal advice: Unless you feel confident in your management skills, don't ever start a community project where people claim particular mapslots. It'll give you a lot of trouble when somebody gives up, can't make a map in time, or his map is bad. It's easier to announce a free collection style CP, where anyone can contribute a map if it complies to your rules, and when you get enough of good maps, they'll get compiled and released.

Do everything scifista42 says, plus from my own experience :

- be sure about what you want from the start so that the rules/guidelines of the project are clear and you don't start needing to make decisions on direction months into development.

- regarding contributors, there are 2 ways to go. Inclusive or exclusive. Examples of inclusive are Hadephobia, D2INO, Interception, NOVA, where any mapper can call a slot and as long as a minimum standard is made and the map is finished they get to keep the slot. This is good for filling slots and useful for developing new talent but will result in a mixed quality final product. I took this route as I was not confident I was a good enough mapper to lead by example and attract experienced mappers. Examples of exclusive projects are the DTWID projects, TNT2 and Plutinya. In these you don't get to own a mapslot you make a map for consideration and the best or most suitable ones get in. Mappers can be giving feedback or helped to make their makes good enough for selection if they show promise. This is likely to result in a higher quality project but you will have to be capable of working to your own standards and it would help if you'll need to make slightly more ruthless decisions or use more mediation.

- be prepared for the amount of time it takes. You will end up with a to. Of files at different version dates that you need to keep track of and eventually compile into what might feel like endless betas. You need to be capable of doing anything that needs doing yourself including compiling, testing and mapping. For fancy things like new original music, graphics or DeHacked work either be flexible in your rules or be prepared for the possibility of making them yourself.

- in the case of new textures or other new resources that affects mapping, have as much of it available before the project starts as possible. See a cool new texture set is a good way of enticing people and knowing that the resources are going to change in a month is a good way of putting people of working on their maps.

- if you're using some funky guidelines that you're not sure people will be receptive to it might be worth starting a pre-project interest thread like DTWID and Progressive Fiction did. Just asking if people would be interested in the idea.

- if your project does not depend on an amount of maps you can afford to be up front and tight with deadlines. 40oz's project is the best example I use of deadlines that I've seen. If you need to fill mapslot it's harder to enforce deadlines but there are still things you can do. With Progressive Fiction/Hadephobia I followed the inclusive model but made mapper's slots revailable if they missed a deadline so a quicker mapper could potentially take their slot.

- make sure you communicate on a regular basis on the thread to avoid your project appearing dead. See D2TWID, which had very little feedback on the thread or it's own website making those not using he IRC channel either forgetting the project is going or assuming it's inactive. Not every project can have a Tarnsman to come and finish it for them.

- Discourage Opus Magnus Syndrome. See CC4 or D2INO. this is where every mapper wants their level to be the one that everyone remembers the megawad for and, rather than making the most fun map, they attempt to make the longest. Maps made for this reason (unless they are Thunderpeak) will usually drag the project down. Too many of them will exhaust the player and probably cause problems in development aswell, such as missed deadlines and make playtesting difficult. It's not nice feeding back to a player who has clearly spent months making a map that it lasts too long but there are compromises - bits can be cut off and for a new map or be added to another, massive areas can be made optional or secret.

That's all I can think of right now. Was there a TTV on this subject? If not there should be!

scifista42 and purist have solid advice.

purist said:

Inclusive or exclusive. Examples of inclusive are Hadephobia, D2INO, Interception, NOVA, where any mapper can call a slot and as long as a minimum standard is made and the map is finished they get to keep the slot. This is good for filling slots and useful for developing new talent but will result in a mixed quality final product. I took this route as I was not confident I was a good enough mapper to lead by example and attract experienced mappers.

The first NDCP was Inclusive and started on a whim and no rules were thought of until after people started showing interest on the forums. I took the inclusive route because it was started by Sparky and thus I ended up taking the reins when he didn't want to do it anymore although I was doing what I could beforehand to help out. We ended up with a mixed bag but most of it turned out well considering the ups and downs. I found the biggest frustration from people who took slots and then didn't produce and from those who completely disappeared. I should have been less lenient on the procrastinators who disappeared and I had no contact with (get everybody's email address) or on the ones who were dragging their heels for that matter..

I don't think it's a good idea to allow anybody multiple slots at the same time, although Exl for example came through with flying colors and filled the two spots he had from the get go and then went on to do a third... there was other multiple slots taken by single authors that didn't make jack shit (one guy had uhhh four slots and made nothing... geeze). If I was to start another team project I'd only allow somebody to take a 2nd map slot if they finished the first.

Expect that everything isn't going to go as planned as you don't know when somebody is going to either disappear or just decide they don't want their finished map in your project anymore or you end up with a map submission that's a bit oddball. Man, people can be strange.

One thing I did do while the NDCP was in production was work on some extra maps for it just in case I needed to fill a slot. One of these ended up being a map some of us added parts to and ended up in the map31 slot. By the time those other guys decided they wanted to do the NDCP2 I was a bit burned out.

Definitely start with a plan and have a set of resources together. If it was me I'd gather my resources before even posting about it on the forums. So many good points were already covered by scifista42 and purist so I'll just shut up now. :D

Perhaps this is just me, but I think there is something odd in asking for guidance on being a leader. At least at the basic level; I guess you could argue there's always more to learn from others even if you have experience yourself.

However, when we're talking having to be taught the basics... Leading a project might be too much stress and unrewarding if you can't figure it out on your own, because ultimately it's not just about following a recipe, but managing people, which requires a certain amount of experience or intuition.

Another question worth asking is why start a community project. I'd think the most common reason would be you have a cool idea but can't turn in to life on your own. For anyone who's not sure where to go from there, it might make more sense to first pitch said idea to the community and see if someone wants to pick it up and organize things proper.

Of course if you're already done that and nobody stepped up and you really want to make this thing, then leading it yourself is your only option.

I admitted pretty early in the Plutinya thread that my intentions for starting the project were simply to see if I had the potential to do it. Seeing the success of both 1024 map compilations and community sequels to Plutonia, a community project with that premise statistically had to get some bites. The results of the project weren't necessarily the ideal maps I wanted to play, but I certainly did learn a lot from being project manager, and I like to think I did a pretty good job of keeping people motivated, active, informed, and happy, so I think my goal was fulfilled.

I've observed a lot of community projects turn into a shitstorm, and made mental notes of how it could have been avoided. A lot of it was already mentioned here, and are all very helpful advice. I'll tell ya the most important factors I've observed from being in the project lead position.

1. Avoid the /newproject response. In general, a Community Project is looking for maps, so before you do anything, you want to do some preliminary planning, and gather up all the resources you're going to need so that the very last thing you need to complete the project is maps. Starting a project thread with "What if we did this" is not a project thread, and asking for new music, new textures, new monsters, dehacked/decorate work up front is an easy way to announce to everyone that you're nothing if not an idea guy and completely unqualified to lead for what you're intending to create.

2. You make the rules. Being clear in your goals, intentions, and what your guidelines are up front is the best way, and being stern about them. This will keep people on track and avoid an influx of inconsistent maps that are unfit for your expectations. If something comes up that may have been an oversight in your original plan, you'll be the one who has to make the arbitrary response to it. Try not to allow too many outsider suggestions unless the idea is really good and you would have implemented it in the first place had you thought of it first. Being too pliant will increase the likelihood of rule suggestions, and in turn make you look a little unsure of what you're doing, so consider possible responses to your rules before posting your thread.

3. The direction of the project will go its own way if you're not there to guide it. Things on the internet tend to come and go fast, so if you're absent for many days in a row, it may be possible that worried members may begin declaring the project as "dead" or "dying," or worse, appoint themselves as the unofficial leaders and start telling other people what to do. It's also possible an outsider could come in and pillage your thread by rallying negative response (something that is quite common in the first page of a project thread, unfortunately). It's important that you are there as often as humanly possible to keep people on track by answering questions promptly and clearly to the best of your ability, dismissing assertive statements made by anyone outside the project, and checking in on the thread with a positive post once in a while to sort of defibrillate it in case it starts to plummet to the dreaded page 2 or below of Wads & Mods.

4. Projects don't always snowball into something extravagant on their own, so a good bit of advice that I've read somewhere but can't remember who said it, is that you really shouldn't announce a project thread if you aren't willing to do most or even all of the work yourself. People will volunteer at their own leisure, but you didn't hire them, so you shouldn't really expect anyone to do more work than yourself.

5. Be patient, constructive, and pleasant with people as often as possible. You represent the entire project and everyone in it, so you want to do your best to create a fun and inviting environment for everyone. You should view everyone's contribution to your project as a gift, and be thankful, and respectful to your team, even if it's not fit to your standards for the project. You may have to deliver bad news at times, but think hard about delivering it in such a way that isn't offensive or discouraging (which is difficult to do in text) sometimes a one-on-one PM approach is a good way to do it without outing them in public.

purist said:

That's all I can think of right now. Was there a TTV on this subject? If not there should be!

There was, but it's not an ideal resource, I don't think. I don't really recall much information I could take out of it, besides some horror stories that were shared and Tarnsman being at the pinnacle of his pretentiousness.

Inkie said:

You could also try starting small. Perhaps a doom 1 9-map episode or 10 levels of doom II.

Personally, I love the idea of an "exclusive" short episode community project with really meticulous expectations.

I only hosted the WOOO megawad projects so far, with those I don't think professionalism was the focus so it was really easy to host those.

I'm thinking about starting some serious TNT megawad (I have the map evidence underway now) but I will have to tie some lose ends before I start that:

DWMP14 map, NOVA 2 map, WOOO2 finalization, Test TNT Revilution content sent my way, a whole bunch of unfinished wads and possibly my first Duke 3D map.

Which brings me to a point I would like to make:

Do not host a project when you have other shit to do, I had to learn that the hard way.

40oz said:

I admitted pretty early in the Plutinya thread that my intentions for starting the project were simply to see if I had the potential to do it. Seeing the success of both 1024 map compilations and community sequels to Plutonia, a community project with that premise statistically had to get some bites. The results of the project weren't necessarily the ideal maps I wanted to play, but I certainly did learn a lot from being project manager, and I like to think I did a pretty good job of keeping people motivated, active, informed, and happy, so I think my goal was fulfilled.

You did great. Really. I'll be learning from your actions. :)