Hierachies in the project?!

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Trilarion
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Location: Central germany

Hierachies in the project?!

Post by Trilarion »

Right now with roughly a handful of active people we discuss the direction and any other project related issue in a very informal setting. It's the easiest, most comfortable choice for a small group.

However, for being well prepared to a possible later stage of the project, when the game is kind of working and many more contributors come and go a more formal level of organization might be advantageous. Here I want to present my ideas about how much hierachy there should be. Actually I was inspired by a question about whether I would like to have team leaders for graphics, programming, ... Please feel free to comment on anything.

The different roles and their duties I see are:
  • Founder Is a for lifetime position and supposed to be the creative soul of the project.
  • Chief manager is the person coordinating everything. Should give guidance to team leaders, helps in finding team leaders. Should know everything about the project and keeps in on track. Compares progress with overall project vision. Should have the support of a large majority of project contributors. Must be present regularly and over a very long time period.
  • Team leader in (programming, graphics, sound, other). Is the person coordinating and giving guidance in their respective field towards realizing the project goals. Makes sure all contributed contents meet our quality and open source licensing standards. Also documents intermediate results so that later editing is possible (graphics, sound). Must be an experienced person in his field. Should have the trust of other contributors. Must be present regularly and over a longer timer period.
  • Webmaster is responsible for and change the website of our project. Keeps it nice and functional and uptodate.
  • Community moderator Rarely needed but present in every forum for various reasons.
  • Contributor Gives input into the game in the widest sense. In form of programming, doing graphics, assembling sound, testing, writing reports, searching for useful information, discussing concepts, ... the list can be really long. May the contribution be very small, it's still important.
  • Fan Someone who plays the game and likes it. In the best case he/she comes along and says a "thank you".
That was all. Actually I think this still counts as fairly flat hierachy, or what do you think?

Important note: This was just a list of duties, not or rights (although it sounds so). We will still keep it as informal as possible and certainly we don't want leaders running around bullying others. It will never make any difference what you are, in such cases you will be kicked from the project.

Also the current distribution is as follows (and quite boring too):
Trilarion: Founder, Chief manager, Team leader programming (and currently only member :lol: ), Webmaster, Community moderator
Veneteaou: Team leader graphics and music

So this whole thing was a bit silly :) , but if we grow in the future, we have already set a course here.
Veneteaou
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Re: Hierachies in the project?!

Post by Veneteaou »

You should let everyone know that none of these positions are permanent, and that you are going to be regularly reviewing the list to make sure the right people are in the right positions. For two reasons:

- People who aren't around can't lead teams; and
- Better leadership might come along.

Also it's probably not an issue right now, but sound and music should be two different teams. The reason I say this is that sound effects is probably going to be a team effort due to the sheer volume of assets needed. Much like graphics in that sense. Music will probably be created by contributors, while sound effects will probably be scoured from open-source libraries on the internet. It's just two very different efforts that don't really overlap as much as one would think. Then again, I could see Creator and I with long beards and crazy eyes sitting together and knocking out all of that as well, so...
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Trilarion
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Location: Central germany

Re: Hierachies in the project?!

Post by Trilarion »

You're right. These position aren't permanent. And even more important, their task is to help organize the work of all, not to determine the goals. The goals will be set by everybody together.

And especially since this is open source: Everybody is always allowed to do things differently, you can programm something different, you can make new graphics for existing graphics, new sounds, propose new game rules, ... do anything you want. However the decision if these works are included in the project is made by all contributors together. The coordination of personal freedom to do what you like to do and the overall project goals is done by the team leaders. That is their function and nothing more.

Regarding sound and music: I trust your judgement. So we separate it and you probably will take over music.
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