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**squeek.** · 05-01-2015, 01:31 AM

So much to do and no one to do it. You can only stretch a development team that consists of around 4 active people so far.

I've seemingly put myself into a bad position, where I'm the go-to person for almost everything.

New website? That was me.
New training mode? That'd probably fall to me.
Updated forum style? That'd probably fall to me (but if anyone is interested in trying, let me know)
Features/bugfixes/etc? That's me.
News posts? That's me.
Patches? Me.
Media? Me.
Map updates? Me, DrSatan, or R00Kie, probably
Lua? Me, DrSatan, or R00Kie.
Sound? Thankfully Bully exists.
Models/animation? As of now, no one. It seems to be on me to figure out how existing source files are used and then setup a public repository for them (if anyone is familiar with this and would like to help, let me know; I literally know nothing about it).
Social media? guy has really stepped up in this area and I am very thankful for that.
Any other misc stuff? Probably me.
Pickup community? I took that responsibility before I was on the dev team, so it's not really a surprise, and I've been very bad about making it possible for other people to help out. The admins/server owners have done a lot of good work, though.

In short, we are severely understaffed and even though the line between staff and community member is relatively small (with most things now being public and open to contribution) there is very little actual contribution going on.

So, what I'm saying is that it's very easy for me to get burned out, and I regularly question if it's worth it for me to continue to develop this game. Objectively, it's probably not, but I'm not known to be a good decision maker (and it's one of the few games I enjoy, so it'd be a shame if it were to truly die). I'm also very poor at maintaining motivation, so a long term goal like moving to a newer engine isn't likely to work out well either.

Keep in mind that this is mostly just an empty rant, and I place all of the blame for this situation on myself. The development of FF has always been almost entirely in the dark (even to other developers a lot of the time), and the fact that I'm posting this in some random thread on the forums proves that this is very much still the case. Growing a community is hard work, and when you're doing it for an 8 year old game with extremely niche appeal, it's not exactly a surprise that it doesn't work out too well (especially when you're already bad at it).

And now comes the time when I question whether or not it makes any sense to post this at all.

05-01-2015, 01:31 AM	#11
squeek. Stuff Do-er Lua Team Wiki Team Fortress Forever Staff Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Northern California Class/Position: Rallygun Shooter Gametype: Conc tag (you just wait) Affiliations: Mustache Brigade Posts Rated Helpful 352 Times	So much to do and no one to do it. You can only stretch a development team that consists of around 4 active people so far. I've seemingly put myself into a bad position, where I'm the go-to person for almost everything. New website? That was me. New training mode? That'd probably fall to me. Updated forum style? That'd probably fall to me (but if anyone is interested in trying, let me know) Features/bugfixes/etc? That's me. News posts? That's me. Patches? Me. Media? Me. Map updates? Me, DrSatan, or R00Kie, probably Lua? Me, DrSatan, or R00Kie. Sound? Thankfully Bully exists. Models/animation? As of now, no one. It seems to be on me to figure out how existing source files are used and then setup a public repository for them (if anyone is familiar with this and would like to help, let me know; I literally know nothing about it). Social media? guy has really stepped up in this area and I am very thankful for that. Any other misc stuff? Probably me. Pickup community? I took that responsibility before I was on the dev team, so it's not really a surprise, and I've been very bad about making it possible for other people to help out. The admins/server owners have done a lot of good work, though. In short, we are severely understaffed and even though the line between staff and community member is relatively small (with most things now being public and open to contribution) there is very little actual contribution going on. So, what I'm saying is that it's very easy for me to get burned out, and I regularly question if it's worth it for me to continue to develop this game. Objectively, it's probably not, but I'm not known to be a good decision maker (and it's one of the few games I enjoy, so it'd be a shame if it were to truly die). I'm also very poor at maintaining motivation, so a long term goal like moving to a newer engine isn't likely to work out well either. Keep in mind that this is mostly just an empty rant, and I place all of the blame for this situation on myself. The development of FF has always been almost entirely in the dark (even to other developers a lot of the time), and the fact that I'm posting this in some random thread on the forums proves that this is very much still the case. Growing a community is hard work, and when you're doing it for an 8 year old game with extremely niche appeal, it's not exactly a surprise that it doesn't work out too well (especially when you're already bad at it). And now comes the time when I question whether or not it makes any sense to post this at all. __________________ #FF.Pickup ¤ Fortress-Forever pickups My Non-official Maps Released FF_DM_Squeek - FF_2Mesa3_Classic - FF_Siege_Classic Beta FF_Myth - FF_Redlight_Greenlight Sick of the people on the internet, always moanin'. They just moan. - Karl Pilkington Last edited by squeek.; 05-01-2015 at 01:33 AM.
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