generic image
Processing...
  • Games
  • Catalog
  • Develop
  • Robux
  • Search in Players
  • Search in Games
  • Search in Catalog
  • Search in Groups
  • Search in Library
  • Log In
  • Sign Up
  • Games
  • Catalog
  • Develop
  • Robux
   
ROBLOX Forum » Roblox » All Things ROBLOX
Home Search
 

Re: A Community Christmas Event: What went wrong

Previous Thread :: Next Thread 
CloneTrooper1019 is not online. CloneTrooper1019
Joined: 19 Jan 2009
Total Posts: 6227
08 Dec 2013 01:58 AM
~ A Community Christmas Event: What went wrong, what we learned, and whats next for us ~

Hio, my name is CloneTrooper1019. You might know me since I do a lot of stuff related to game development on roblox. This is a rather interesting story about whats been happening over the past month. I was thinking about making this a developer journal, but its a pretty good tl;dr post and I'd rather explain it through my own words.

About a month ago, I was talking to Sorcus, a content team member at Roblox. They had just turned off their Halloween event, and I was wondering if they were going to be making a Christmas game this year. Understandably, they had a lot of stuff to do and he said they probably wouldn’t have the time to do it. I asked him if he was interested in me organizing a community made one, and he was interested too.

He told me that he could host it on the games account if the game was good, but he wouldn’t be responsible for bugs. At the time, I wasn’t too sure if he was serious since he is Sorcus after all, but I saw this as a really awesome opportunity. It would be a chance to show the Roblox community what a collaboration of popular roblox developers could create. But I made various mistakes attempting to organize and oversee this project.

The first mistake I made was hyping it on social media before we even had a game organized. I wanted to get people excited for this event. It was going to be the first Christmas event since 2007, and we wanted as many people to contribute as possible. I posted information about it on Twitter & IronNoob, and people wanted to help out. However, I was having trouble figuring out how I was going to make sure everyone could contribute in some way, and I decided to take the project to Skype.

I got about 6 community members, each with recognition from the community. Ozzypig, GollyGreg, Kuunan, Quenty, dom2d2 and me. We discussed how the game would play out for a while, and we started to come up with a game where elves and robot elves were in a conflict. Our original plan was to create a game where robot elves had taken the elves jobs, and they had to fight AI robots through a mazelike map all the way to the North Pole, where they would prove to Santa that they deserved their jobs.

We talked about that idea with some other developers including Gusmanak, the creator of Apocalypse Rising. He basically said that our idea probably wouldn’t work out because it still didn’t make a lot of sense, and it wouldn’t be a fun game. He made some very good points, and pointed out the flaws we had in our idea. So we decided to throw out our original idea, keeping the topic of Elves vs. Robot Elves.

Unfortunately, I lost most of my team after that. GollyGreg and Kuunan had another idea in mind, and they decided to split off to form their own team. We wanted to have a friendly competition to see who could create the best Christmas game. It would motivate us to improve our game when they had a good idea and vice versa. Then it would be up to roblox to decide which game would be official, and maybe even hosting both of our games. As for OzzyPig, he became inactive shortly after due to college, so we understood why he had to leave.

Soon after GollyGreg and Kuunan formed their own team with other developers, we started seeing other Christmas collaborations, including one being made by Team Rudimentality. We were a little worried, because now we had a lot of competition, and I didn't know how Roblox was going to respond to this.

I decided to get three more developers. TechTeam911, finwei and mechawaffle. We began discussing what became our official game plan. We wanted to create a class based PvP game between the elves and robot elves. They would be competing against each other to collect the most gifts. The game was simple. At the center of the map, you had the North Pole. Near that, was Santa’s Sleigh and the runway where he took off to start delivering presents. A cannon was attached to the back, and would shoot gifts every 3-5 seconds. Players would have to grab these gifts and return them to a Christmas tree they had captured. The team with the most gifts at the end would win.

I sketched up a map for us, and we started dividing the project among us. We announced our team and game plan to Twitter, and began work on the project. Although we had a really good idea, we had huge organization problems. Our team eventually grew to 10 people due to my developers adding people to the skype group and because of this, the project started becoming hard to divide and things began to get confusing.

I was acting really bossy most of the time because I had this straight forward vision for the game, and when someone suggested something new, I became really skeptical about it. We aimed for a release date of mid to late December, but I made another mistake. I decided that we were going to work on all the content outside of the actual game, and then we would throw it all together into a playable game when we were ready.

This never really happened. I was having trouble tracking what people were doing, and things started getting quiet over the next week or two. I was mostly working on PropHunt 2, a new game that I’m planning to release before the end of the year. I got a lot of motivation for it after thinking about it one day, and because of this my motivation started decreasing from the Christmas event.

My eyes were opened when I saw a due date of December 8th from chiejustus. If they were going to have a community game, they wanted to have it running around the weekend of Mid December since the traffic on the website is higher for Christmas. We began to panic because we were so behind. We eventually lost finwei because he knew we wouldn’t be able to finish this project in time.

I asked chiefjustus if he would give us more time, and he said at the latest December 10th because the content team would have to hook it up. We started trying to getting back on track, and we got some work done over the week. But we still didn’t have a playable game, and our map was still very empty and plain. So unfortunately we decided to drop the official status so we can have more time to develop our game.

The due date was really stressing us out, especially because of how much work we still had to do. We really wanted this project to succeed, but we didn’t want to rush it either. I’m going to try and finish it because we’ve come really far, and we don’t want to just throw away this awesome idea we had in mind. I’ll be hosting it on my account as a non-official game, and we’ll try to get it on the front page. I think it’ll work out a lot better.

We were still unsure how Roblox gifts would work out in our game, so we don’t really need them anyway. Although me and my team went through some stressful times, we had a lot of fun developing this project. We learned a lot about collaboration, and if we try to collaborate again, I’ll make sure we develop it as efficiently and as organized as possible. I’ll make sure we set our goals and deadlines, and you can expect us again when the winter games come up this January.

We hope you will enjoy our game if we release it. We’re aiming for a release of mid to late December, and I’ll keep people updated about the status of our game. As of right now, most of us are in High School or College, so we have finals. Because of that we might have slight delays, but we’ll try to get the game out as soon as we possibly can.

Thank you for reading! Stay tuned, we'll keep you guys updated on the status of the project. Right now the game is about 40% done, and we are still working on it actively. We will have open beta testing for feedback, and then we'll begin advertising it. So keep an eye out :)

- CloneTrooper1019 and Da Christmas Crew
Report Abuse
Sherknock is not online. Sherknock
Joined: 07 Oct 2012
Total Posts: 31628
08 Dec 2013 01:59 AM
Make a Christmas game k
Report Abuse
Fargey1 is not online. Fargey1
Joined: 03 Apr 2011
Total Posts: 1908
08 Dec 2013 01:59 AM
Too lazy to read...
Report Abuse
P0Ptartfudge is not online. P0Ptartfudge
Joined: 13 Nov 2011
Total Posts: 19577
08 Dec 2013 01:59 AM
....
Report Abuse
coolguy0409 is not online. coolguy0409
Joined: 07 May 2009
Total Posts: 5544
08 Dec 2013 02:00 AM
tldr
Report Abuse
CloneTrooper1019 is not online. CloneTrooper1019
Joined: 19 Jan 2009
Total Posts: 6227
08 Dec 2013 02:02 AM
I had a feeling it was going to get tldr'd
Oh well, I'll just give it to Alan and he can make a Dev Journal for it :P
Report Abuse
TheLastBrick is online. TheLastBrick
Joined: 06 Dec 2011
Total Posts: 9323
08 Dec 2013 02:03 AM
We still have time. Can we see what you guys have done so far?
Report Abuse
Jakeup10 is not online. Jakeup10
Joined: 29 Nov 2008
Total Posts: 6782
08 Dec 2013 02:04 AM
Honestly Clone, I'm not trying to be rude but you should have seen a nearby date. Roblox often releases events a week or two early, and preps them up for months. While I do understand you guys are busy, I'm just saying you might want to have prepared this better. It's just a mistake though, but maybe next time you could try another event...Like maybe an egg hunt! Everybody loves those! You could even get started in January!
Report Abuse
CloneTrooper1019 is not online. CloneTrooper1019
Joined: 19 Jan 2009
Total Posts: 6227
08 Dec 2013 02:05 AM
@TheLastBrick

We are testing stuff on the account ProjectBenSukz
(The name is a reference to GollyGreg, his name is Ben and we created the account after he left with Kuunan)

Nothings public yet because its not in a playable state :(
Report Abuse
Ultralegend is not online. Ultralegend
Joined: 01 Oct 2011
Total Posts: 6326
08 Dec 2013 02:05 AM
Read it all and I'll just say Good luck to you and im going to be
looking forward to that game
Report Abuse
zoomgoom is not online. zoomgoom
Joined: 24 Aug 2008
Total Posts: 9507
08 Dec 2013 02:05 AM
[ Content Deleted ]
Report Abuse
DominusVento is not online. DominusVento
Joined: 11 Jul 2013
Total Posts: 104
08 Dec 2013 02:05 AM
Good luck in the last 60% of producing!
Report Abuse
SuspiciousLookingAlt is not online. SuspiciousLookingAlt
Joined: 21 Nov 2013
Total Posts: 8919
08 Dec 2013 02:05 AM
The great thing is, I lurk IN, so I don't need to read this because I already know what's going on. On another topic, I might make a few cabins because you're in need of them, but it really depends on if I'm willing to actually commit or not.
Report Abuse
Sherknock is not online. Sherknock
Joined: 07 Oct 2012
Total Posts: 31628
08 Dec 2013 02:06 AM
Isn't it against the rules to share accounts?
Report Abuse
CloneTrooper1019 is not online. CloneTrooper1019
Joined: 19 Jan 2009
Total Posts: 6227
08 Dec 2013 02:07 AM
@Shernock
Only if the account is personally owned by someone. If the account is created for the purpose of collaboration, its fine.
Report Abuse
Jakeup10 is not online. Jakeup10
Joined: 29 Nov 2008
Total Posts: 6782
08 Dec 2013 02:10 AM
@Clone,


Didn't know that was a rule...Cool, at least I know people like SpeedySeat are allowed...
Report Abuse
Sherknock is not online. Sherknock
Joined: 07 Oct 2012
Total Posts: 31628
08 Dec 2013 02:10 AM
I better go get my brother back.
Report Abuse
stickmasterluke is not online. stickmasterluke
Joined: 22 Oct 2007
Total Posts: 3135
08 Dec 2013 02:10 AM
10 new posts in the time it took me to read.

Still, good luck with the un-official version. :)
Report Abuse
SN1P3R3D is not online. SN1P3R3D
Joined: 10 Nov 2011
Total Posts: 30891
08 Dec 2013 02:12 AM
>elves vs robot elves

Lol wtf is this bullcrap
Report Abuse
P0Ptartfudge is not online. P0Ptartfudge
Joined: 13 Nov 2011
Total Posts: 19577
08 Dec 2013 02:12 AM
Can you just give us a rare badge?
Report Abuse
SuspiciousLookingAlt is not online. SuspiciousLookingAlt
Joined: 21 Nov 2013
Total Posts: 8919
08 Dec 2013 02:13 AM
Do you know if the other competing games will make get their game to win the competition and get the spot on Games profile?
Report Abuse
Vexedly is not online. Vexedly
Joined: 15 Sep 2006
Total Posts: 7011
08 Dec 2013 02:14 AM
[ Content Deleted ]
Report Abuse
CloneTrooper1019 is not online. CloneTrooper1019
Joined: 19 Jan 2009
Total Posts: 6227
08 Dec 2013 02:15 AM
Heres a list of people who have contributed to the project significantly

CloneTrooper1019
mechawaffle
Quenty
brandonhare
dom2d2
TechTeam911
leates
mechawaffle
iBarragei
Quenty
finwei

Also you guys, we REALLY need help since we lost finwei. I can show you the map we currently have, and it is very empty. I'll build some of it myself, but if you guys contribute, we will put your name in the secret credits that we'll hide somewhere in the map. We need some small houses for the elve's town which will be their main spawn, we need a small gingerbread town and we need a variety of trees and small props for the map.

I'll open up these places for you guys to check out in a moment:

http://www.roblox.com/Quenty-ONLY-QUENTY-SHOULD-UPLOAD-TO-THIS-place?id=134851433
http://www.roblox.com/finwei-place?id=136345378
http://www.roblox.com/TechTeam911-place?id=134851496
http://www.roblox.com/CloneTrooper1019-place?id=134850050

Keep in mind, we've just testing stuff. I'm still coding the round based gameplay, and you can hopefully expect that soon.
Report Abuse
Vexedly is not online. Vexedly
Joined: 15 Sep 2006
Total Posts: 7011
08 Dec 2013 02:15 AM
[ Content Deleted ]
Report Abuse
SuspiciousLookingAlt is not online. SuspiciousLookingAlt
Joined: 21 Nov 2013
Total Posts: 8919
08 Dec 2013 02:20 AM
I'm willing to talk about contributing if you have Skype.
Report Abuse
Previous Thread :: Next Thread 
Page 1 of 1
 
 
ROBLOX Forum » Roblox » All Things ROBLOX
   
 
   
  • About Us
  • Jobs
  • Blog
  • Parents
  • Help
  • Terms
  • Privacy

©2017 Roblox Corporation. Roblox, the Roblox logo, Robux, Bloxy, and Powering Imagination are among our registered and unregistered trademarks in the U.S. and other countries.



Progress
Starting Roblox...
Connecting to Players...
R R

Roblox is now loading. Get ready to play!

R R

You're moments away from getting into the game!

Click here for help

Check Remember my choice and click Launch Application in the dialog box above to join games faster in the future!

Gameplay sponsored by:
Loading 0% - Starting game...
Get more with Builders Club! Join Builders Club
Choose Your Avatar
I have an account
generic image