Efficient Teamwork

When working on any software projects, such as game modifications, team work can be a crucial element to finishing it. However, when poorly managed, teamwork can kill a project. This article will try to help you with choosing between a team and solo work, and give you tips on development in teams.

Solo or team

Working on a mod alone is entirely possible, but working in a team will make it much more bearable. Whether you need help with level design, programming or something else, having productive people around will make the development faster.

That said, do not assume working in a team is always easier than working alone; there are upsides and downsides.

Upsides:

• Teammates can concentrate their skills in a particular area (level design, programming, writing, etc.). The resulting output might have higher quality because of this.
• You get to combine the best ideas of many people.
• Others will notice things worth improving which you might miss.
• Teammates can push each other to improve, which results in not settling with mediocre effects.
• Teammates get to learn from each other.

Downsides:

• You will get less creative control
• You might come across conflicts in creative vision and the way the project is heading
• Some people may not work, or may not know what to work on.
• Incomparably more time will be spent on organisation.
• Deadlines need to be set - without them, the project will come to a stall.

Having a team requires managing it and making sure work is actually getting done, which is a considerable challenge.

Working solo

You might choose to work solo, but that does not mean you can't consult other for ideas and feedback. If you can't or don't want to get people to work on your mod, even having someone to talk about it with is very helpful. Furthermore, participating in public discussions about modding can help you and others learn. This can be done in the modding channels on the Frictional Games Discord server. Share your work and ask questions!

Pitfalls of working solo

Asides from having to do literally everything yourself, one of the biggest issues with working solo is that there is no-one else who knows the project well. This means that if you get a bug which is specific to your mod (and not an engine one), you are on your own to fix it. This means that if you can't work it out, you will have to cut content and revert changes.

Anothe pitfall of working solo is not having anyone to confront your ideas. While this might sound good, it mostly means that your mod will be published with unrevertable issues which might have been easily prevented at the start.

Working in a team

Starting out

Idea: If you are going to work in a team, make sure to create the mod idea together. An unfortunately popular phenomenon is people joining a team, getting a sneak-peek at the mod and losing interest. Creating the mod premise together can help keep the members invested.

Your first instinct might be to invite anyone who wants to help - however, a good practice is to keep the team small. Adding more people to the team does not mean more work will get done. The more people you have, the more time gets spent managing them.

This article is under construction. Feel free to add new sections and write in the existing ones.

Communication

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Leadership

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