Collab #3 Time Frame

Collab #3 Time Frame

rbwhitaker 10 Mar 2015 03:57

I'd like to try to organize another collab, sometime before the next month-long competition. This is our typical 1 day long collaborative game development challenge.

I'd propose C#/XNA, though I don't think it would be too hard to convince me to go the MonoGame route, since I think most of us here could use a little more MonoGame experience (including myself). We'd get more done with XNA, I think, but MonoGame would be a good use of time.

And of course, if we get 5+ people jumping in, I'd probably suggest splitting into a couple of teams. Maybe even competing with different technology stacks or something. Just for fun.

We can talk about what game to make in a separate thread. I just want to know what day might work well for people.

Saturdays tend to be the best for the most people, so I think we aim for one of those. And I want to give people enough time to take time off from work or ask for a different shift, or otherwise make time available on their calendar. So I'm thinking sometime in mid-April maybe.

So I'll put the 11th of April, the 18th of April, and the 25th of April as options. Any thoughts? Any of those days particularly good or bad for people?

Re: Collab #3 Time Frame

Brett208 11 Mar 2015 16:46

RB,

I would be interested in participating and would vote for C#/XNA as I've never used Monogames. However, I also wouldn't mind trying Monogames out if others want to use it. Is Mercurial going to be the Version Control System? Will it be hosted on BitBucket?

My wife and I are expecting our second child around the end of April, so the earlier in the month the better. If things happen quicker then expected, I may have to flake out and not participate though. Also, I would probably only be able to commit about 6 dedicated hours of solid work.

Brett

Re: Collab #3 Time Frame

rbwhitaker 18 Apr 2015 03:53

I saw your question about forever ago and failed to respond before forgetting about it. The other collabs have been C#/XNA, but with the updates with MonoGame, I'd be up for trying that instead. We've used BitBucket in the past, mostly because it allows us to have private shared repositories for free (contrasted with GitHub). It would be my choice, for sure. But if everbody wanted Git, I'd probably be OK with that.

As far as your baby, with my other comments about rescheduling, hopefully that's better for you as well.

And 6 hours of solid work would be plenty. It seems like we've usually had a couple of people there the whole time, and a couple others who have had to be gone for part of it. So you wouldn't be alone. It's probably not worth it if it's only 30 minutes, but 6 hours is more than enough.

Sorry for such a late response.

Re: Collab #3 Time Frame

rbwhitaker 18 Apr 2015 03:50

So there never was a whole lot of response to this. And considering now we've passed my first date, we're a day before my second date, and only a week away from the last one, and we haven't even gotten things organized, I think I'm going to motion for rebooting it later on.

I think maybe at this point we can wait until after Competition #5. So Collab #3 might be late June or July. Based on what people were saying in the chat room and such, I think postponing by a couple of months will be better all around.

Anybody have any specific dates in late June or July that they'd prefer or already have filled up with other things?

Re: Collab #3 Time Frame

Marcus42 18 Apr 2015 23:17

Postponing the collaboration definitely increases the chances of my participation again, so having it in June or July sounds great, but as for an exact date, I can be flexible there. I might prefer July, though - I'm considering doing something a bit more ambitious for the fifth game development competition, and so I may want additional time afterwards to keep working on it without spending a day making another project instead.

Re: Collab #3 Time Frame

Brett208 12 Jul 2015 08:34

Hey everyone,

I would still be interested in a collaboration. Has any effort been made to reschedule? I would generally be available late July or in August.

-Brett

Re: Collab #3 Time Frame

Marcus42 12 Jul 2015 22:41

No, I don't think there's been any discussion about this other than in this thread. There might have been, but none that I'm aware of.

Honestly, I'd kind of forgotten that this was tentatively being planned for June or July, but I'm definitely up for it now that I remember! I can still be flexible on the exact date, but it would either need to be in July or early August (like, the first weekend) for me to be available.

Thanks for providing a reminder!

Last edited on 12 Jul 2015 22:41 by Marcus42 Show more

Re: Collab #3 Time Frame

rbwhitaker 12 Jul 2015 23:35

It was floating around in the back of my mind somewhere, but no, there's been no discussion recently.

So. I'm going to propose we try for mid-August. My first two weekends in August are booked for sure, and the weekend of July 25th might not be that great for me either. The 24th of July is a state holiday in Utah, and while I don't have any permanent plans yet, my wife and I have been talking about some possibilities. I don't think she'd be too happy if I just planned a collab instead.

That leaves this next weekend, which is kind of short notice, or mid-August. Maybe the 15th or the 22nd.

Of course, if one of those three weeks I skipped works best for everybody else, you could always do it without me. I've got no problems with that.

While we're on the topic of scheduling, I'm going to go open up a different discussion about Competition #6…

Re: Collab #3 Time Frame

Swatacular 13 Jul 2015 17:25

According to the family Calendar, (I have a family of 20+ so we need a online calendar) my sisters boyfriend has a "Big reenactment" (aka WWII reenactment or something along those lines) that we will probably go to on the 21st / 22nd. I am unaware of the exact time or any more details.. but looking this far ahead the 15th is open.. (at the same time as since its open.. something might get planned on that date that may conflict more than the reenactment.)

Re: Collab #3 Time Frame

Marcus42 13 Jul 2015 18:38

Okay, it sounds like the times that work for me to do this don't work very well for anyone else, so go ahead and set whatever date is best for you guys, and if I'm able to, I'll try to stop that day. And don't worry about picking a time that doesn't work for me - I'll still be around for the next one!

Re: Collab #3 Time Frame

Brett208 13 Jul 2015 19:49

Since another competition is coming up near end of August, it would probably be better to work this in earlier. I think 15 August would work for me. This way if the competition starts up either 22 or 29 August, they will not run at the same time.

Brett

Re: Collab #3 Time Frame

rbwhitaker 14 Jul 2015 02:31

It's always been hard to get people to have time for these collabs, and I think people's schedules have gotten busier since the last one we did. That's part of the reason why we weren't able to get one in before the last collab.

It does make me think we maybe ought to consider some variations on the theme here. Perhaps not for this particular collab. Perhaps yes.

In the chat room last night, a couple of ideas came up that were out-of-the-box thinking, and I'm open to others if it makes sense. (Perhaps we go with the normal plan for this one, and try out a different variation next time around. I don't know.)

1. Pick two week days and do four hours each night. If people's weekends are crazy busy, then maybe a Wednesday/Thursday thing makes more sense. I'm certain I could manage to get in four hours on each of two nights with the group. I don't know if that helps others though.

2. Perhaps we do the collab without necessarily being "face-to-face" in the chat room the whole time. Maybe we plan the collab for a weekend. We have a short kick-off on Friday evening for everybody who can manage to be there to kind of plan things out, brainstorm, and maybe divvy things up among the group. Then people can work on the game whenever they've got time over Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday. I could probably be around and available through most of that, so nobody would really be going at it alone blindly. I worry that it dilutes the collab a bit, but it does give people more flexibility.

Last edited on 14 Jul 2015 02:32 by rbwhitaker Show more

Re: Collab #3 Time Frame

Marcus42 16 Jul 2015 18:02

Interesting ideas. Personally, I think that the main fun of the collaborations is in actively working together with other people, so I'd rather avoid the second idea, but I'd be willing to try the first idea sometime. However, I'd also be fine with sticking to a single, eight hour time frame.

I guess it kind of depends on what we're going for with the collabs - if it's more of a team coding challenge, the single eight hour period might be better because it's more difficult, which makes it more of a challenge, but if we're just wanting to make something small together, probably the two four hour periods would be easier. And, I suppose that if no one particularly cares which way we go, we could alternate between the eight and four hours every collaboration to shake things up. Honestly, that's probably my personal preference (to go back and forth between the two).

Re: Collab #3 Time Frame

PiscesMike 21 Jul 2015 04:15

I agree with Marcus42 on this one in that actively working together simultaneously is a big bonus. I think most of the conflict comes in on my part, and here's what I've decided I'm able to do. Since the 15th works out for Brett208, and makes sense to have a little breather before the next competition, I'm going to say I CAN do the 15th, and ask for that day off. If something happens and I don't get the day off, I'm just going to call out of work. Thoughts/Ideas?

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"May the mercy of His Divine Shadow fall upon you." - Stanley H. Tweedle, Security Guard class IV, The League of 20,000 planets

Re: Collab #3 Time Frame

Brett208 21 Jul 2015 08:31

15 Aug still works for me. I'm +3 from UTC right now (Add 7 hours to Eastern Time). So starting earlier in the day helps me out. I'll probably drop out somewhere around midnight my time (4PM Eastern Time). I hate to see Pisces have to bend his schedule so much if I'm only there for half of it unless this is best for the whole.

Pisces, I was looking at the previous collabs and the videos you put together are great for both of them. It is cool to see something presentable of the results.

Re: Collab #3 Time Frame

PiscesMike 09 Aug 2015 02:13

Ok, so as far as things go for me the schedule has officially been made and I am off the 15th!

So, just as a quick reminder - thats coming up this weekend! I'd like a sound-off from all those who are going to be able to join us, and it's probably time to start mulling a time frame and project ideas!

The results of our last collab, if you didn't get to see it:

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"May the mercy of His Divine Shadow fall upon you." - Stanley H. Tweedle, Security Guard class IV, The League of 20,000 planets

Last edited on 09 Aug 2015 02:51 by PiscesMike Show more

Re: Collab #3 Time Frame

rbwhitaker 09 Aug 2015 02:26

I'm in for sure.

In the past we've aimed for something like 10 Eastern Time (Daylight time, in this case, which I believe is UTC-4). That works pretty well for those of us in the States, but I believe there are some people who are in Europe who were wanting to join to. Not sure where that puts you.

Me personally, I don't care when we do this. I'm willing to get up kind of early to make it happen if needs be, or start later and work into the night if that's of any use.

Bear in mind, if we have more than 5 people who want to do this, I'd suggest we split up into two or more teams. I don't actually expect that, especially since I think some of the "regulars" for this are not going to be joining this time around due to conflicts. But in the event that it does, if timing is our biggest issue, we can split into two teams based on time zones maybe. Just a (probably irrelevant) thought.