I have said this already probably ten thousand times, but here goes
again...
A game
can not begin development before a full story
and design document have been completed. Without these two things, a game project is bound to fail for these reasons:
- No particular Direction
- Disagreements on the story during development
- Spaghetti code *
- Patch work on the project as a whole (parts done here and there)
- No particular order to anything
I cannot stress the importance of the story/design docs. Without these, a project has no aim. It is only after both of these have been completely written and agreed upon by
all members of the development team that a project can go into the development phase.
I say this from experience. While I have not been on a professional team before, I have involved in countless projects that went down the drain because the project leaders couldn't decide what to do with it (ranging from new games to 'total conversions' to expansion packs). It's awful to have someone ask you to start work on something only to have that work mean nothing when the project falters and withers away.
So, with that said, I hope that my point is clear. I would also like to point out that I myself am doing only preliminary work for myself which is indeed related to this project simply so that I can have a firm grasp of what I need to do when the time comes for the project to go underway.
I would also like to make clear that a story is being discussed and an outline will be posted at some point in the very near future for people to be able to look at and discuss (including constructive criticism, suggestions, pointers, etc.).
As a note to all involved in the discussions of this project, please remember what I said and remember to get all the information before making posts or taking initiative. There is a reason that project leaders and various other lead positions (e.g. lead programmer, lead artist, etc.) are assigned: to make sure that things are done right and in an orderly fasion.
