Mod Recruting 101 - Need Help

[Dieblein]

Ive been working in the mod scene for a long time now and Ive checked out many mod teams before I decided to form my own.

Im currently leading RtM http://returntomana.mods.de so I can hopefully help you out a bit with this issue.

First of all ask yourself: Is your mod idea unique or do you find a mod team that tries to fullfill most of it already by itself?! If you find a mod team then pull some of your works together and send them a mail. Getting in a mod team is almost plain simple but staying in it is even more difficulty.

If youve got your own unique idea then I can tell you the following: Just go fo it. Do what you can do best, model if you feel like it, make some envirounments just go for it. Ive learned pretty much everything of the visual content workflow from modeling, animating, skinning and leveldesign though I only started as a noob mapper. Its important that you want to learn everything. Just play with the tools and try to learn them a bit. Its not important that you are best in everythings its just that you recognize that you can do MOST of the content all by yourself.

If people see your will and passion you go into things then you will find good people. And Im not talking about 16 year old joe who can do cs maps and wants to apply. Keep your team small and powerfull. RtM has a small amount of very very skilled people who are dedicated. Dont think that your skills are good enough. Always try to learn more and get better and better. Modding is on the one hand the goal to make a game but learning on the other hand as well and whats more important: improving your own skills.

I started with my mod all by myself like I was used to it. I did ugly models and learned the proportions a bit better. Still a lot to improve but the progress is incredible. Im now only responsible for the leveldesign and models but basicly I could do the skinning as well. It just wouldnt look best. Its important that a leader is dedicated to work. The leader has to push the members to work by his dedication and NOT by making ridiculos deadlines.

Hope that helped you.
Best of Luck

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edit:

Some links if you want to enter a mod team: Check out www.moddb.com the site might old but it still is THE mod database where all the big mods keep their content updated and show off with updates. Thats the place to look for a mod to apply.

And of course dont think of most of the mods to be profesionall. I wouldnt call us profesionall either only a VERY small amount of mods can be called profesionall. This means that youll propably be dissapointed by the lack of dedication and the hapit of stealing textures and showing off with million polygon renders.

[Fingernail]

My tips:

Scoop up as many freebies as you can. From people I know in certain online communities, and other mod projects I was on, I was able to secure an ftp server as well as a personal, customised forum for my mod (The Dark Mod, www.mindplaces.com/darkmod (http://www.mindplaces.com/darkmod)), from people I had met.

Additionally, the support of a particular games community is very useful. Try to find a forum of a similar game to what you are trying to make, and without imposing yourself on them, try to get some of them interested.

Moddb is a very good idea, as Dieblein suggested.

Whilst as he also said, it is not a good idea to let in inexperienced untalented members, also acknowledge that there are uses for less talented individuals. No high-flying pretentious modeller will want to work on modelling a bucket or crate, but it's great practice for an intermediate.

The best way to attract attention is publicity, but this does not mean a spamming of many messageboards. You first want to produce content; some concept art, models or level screenshots, and release it in one big bundle at various well-selected forums and the main news at Moddb. Then keep it up, and maintain each thread at each forum, and keep adding.

If people percieve a lull or lack of work or team, then people won't join or be interested. On the other hand, avoid giving away too much or being too open, as this can look like either desperation, and can destroy the 'mystique' of your team.

Also, don't take all of my advice as gospel, my mod isn't completed, and so far only one project (of maybe three) whose team I was or am on will be finished. It's a difficult business, and hard to get a good quality mod released. I expect about half of the hundreds of HL2 mods to fail (not Return to Mana, I'm sure, but more all of the CounterStrike-clones).

[Dieblein]

Well nobody knows about the future. But if your mod idea is unique and some sort of timeless so that you know you want to do it no matter what comes into your way, then you have got higher chances of finishing a project than you have with the mods that have to fight for the masses and maybe become useless with the next generation of games to come up (Battlefield2).

Its nice so see you guys here as well. Im hoping for you to succed as much as I do for us, just like I meantioned in your board. :)

[Littleberu]

Hey thanks for the replies,

Actually, I do think my mod idea is unique. Well for a mod anyway. But you guys are telling me I should actually start a website and post new things from scratch? And how general should I be when I describe my mod? Should I talk about deep gameplay element, or just go over the basic gameplay elements?

What could/would interest a programmer? Challenge or simplicity?

[spook]

like finger said my first advice is get as many freebies as possible check out this link for a lot of good placesto find free or cheap objects
http://www.gamespp.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?3dfreeobjects
next;when trying to get a team together i think you definetely have to be willing to most of the work yourself. like dieblin was saying, get some tutorials ask for tips and learn. post your progress on a forum for support and advice and when people see you are actually trying to do something they will want to help you and be apart of what your doing. its definetely hard to keep a team but its a lot easier if you have a few people who you've built arelationship with and are all about your project just as much as you are. it definetely doesnt hurt to have a few amateurs on your squad for grunt work because they eventually get better and have built a relationship with you and your team/company. that helps out in the long run. and when it comes to workload, everybodys different. some guys will work there asses off for frre and others wont give you the time of day. so tell people what you want but let them iknow that youre flexible, but dont be too flexible, dont sacrifice your vision. if youre not getting paid to do something i think it should be the best because you can take your time on it and get it perfect. and most importantly i think you should at least 85% of the time be enjoying yourself.

[Hellwolve]

Ah! Finally my lurking pays off ;)

That's because I'm in the same position as you, Littleberu. I've got the ideas, I've got the website ( http://www.perseverance-tc.tk ), I just don't have the team members...perhaps with the hints and comments already given, I'll be able to get a team together :)

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