Who acts as the producer for this mod?

Black Mesa Archive The Cafeteria
#1

New on the forums but I’m a long time lurker. I was watching the extra credits episode for this week “So You Want to Be a Producer”
https://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/so-you-want-to-be-a-producer
in this episode they talk about the producer being the counterweight for the development team’s dreams for a game and is the person who really makes sure that a game ships (skip to 5:00 for their disscussion of this).

and I was wondering who provides the vital role of the ‘realist’ on the black mesa team.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not winging about the game taking too long, we all know that you want to make this game the best it can possibly be, and we know that we will be rewarded for it in the long run.
But who makes the descision, “Ok guys, thats good enough… lets ship it.”

Because realistically during every game’s development someone is going to have to make that descision, be it at 75% (see Gears of War PC port) or 99% polished to a mirror shine (insert awesome game here)

#2

I’m pretty sure its a group consensus. I think the project leader is still Cman2k if its one singular person I’d say its probably him.

EDIT: I have to say this is rare for a new member to ask something with some level of intelligence so kudos to you.

#3

https://wiki.blackmesasource.com/Team_Members
See that little title called “Project Leader”?
That kind of means “I’m the overseer, da boss, the overlord, the Producer, the architect”

#4

I’m not “The Producer”. We don’t have producers, we run ourselves, collectively. Kinda like Valve does.

The first big problem I tackled when joining this team was “How do we remove all of these terrible bottlenecks in production?”. Producers become bottlenecks really quickly when you work on a mod with people all over the world, working 24-hours a day.

The answer was simple. Let people govern themselves and remove any semblance of “producers” (there were several). This happens to work extremely well IF you have built a team of people who actually care about the projects and the work.

So then my focus became building the perfect team.

#5

^^ thanks for the answer

this seems like a great system for getting things done, but part of my original question was who acts as the moderator for deciding when it is finished.

In the extra credits episode I quoted they state that while developers never really want to ship a game (because a game is never really finished, it can always be polished more), the producer is the guy that makes sure that the game get shipped, even if features have to be scrapped and the game isn’t 100% the way everyone wants.

I can see that the dev team has some semblance of an overall mental idea of this though, co-op was scrapped and other features were removed because it was decided that they would be too much work. But my point I guess is that although the current system is super efficient, it might be difficult to get a consensus that the mod is “done”.

at least Valve’s got Gabe.

Good luck on facing this challenge, we all support your awesome dedication. I look forward to playing this game, whenever it is released.

#6

P.S.: This isn’t a commercial game, so the role of “producer” isn’t even really applicable.

#7

thats ridiculous, just because the game isn’t commercial doesn’t mean it doesn’t need someone there to do all the things a producer does. I expect you haven’t gone and watched the EC episode I cited.

#8

Your mom’s ridiculous.

…I’m ridiculing her right now.

#9

In other words, the team members in this perfect team communicate enough with each other in such a way to ensure that every level stays on par with the other levels quality-wise.
That’s a relief: So we can conclude that there are absolutely no team members who “go rogue” and improve their map/level to the extreme, because that would mean all other maps/levels have to be improved to the extreme also to be of the same quality. And if there were team members like that, they are being halted in time.
If not, there would never be an end to the development, and a “producer” in one person would be needed in the end.

Why not?? By that logic, what makes the role of “Project leader”/“Lead designer” applicable?

#10

You dare to rephrase the words of the PROJECT LEADER!!!111!!!:fffuuu:

#11

@ JohnWorfin: I know, right? What the hell was I thinking… :slight_smile:

He was defending the theory that the team members govern themselves and each and every one of them kind of embodies the “producer” role, so imo I believe I rephrased it right as to how they put it into practice.

Just wondering if my logic is somehow flawed though, cman2k?

#12

yeah but now there are 160 maps (minus some test levels)

#13
#14

WOW RLY???

NVM I’ll just assume it’s the same ratio, therefore Ram probably worked on ~143 maps out of 160.

#15

See?

Being a huge dick really does help obtain more info out of devs.

tries to run away

trips

breaks leg in inexplicable manner

hears monster truck roaring in the distance

I’M SORRY I DIDN’T M- gets crushed

#16


“ZUUL, MOTHERFUCKER!”

#17

Why do you need all those test maps?

#18

I’m working on a L4D2 campaign and so far I have about 10 “test” maps so I can figure out an idea or prototype something before putting it in the actual maps. They are obviously making a hell of a lot more than just a few maps so they clearly have a lot of things to test.

#19

Plus, most levels are designed in iterations in case Source SDK inevitably fucks something up. Most of my maps for my current mod project are around nine or ten iterations deep, with another 10 or so test maps for specific idea testing to cut down on compile time.

Also, another example is Adam Foster’s “Someplace Else.” The map name indicates he did 18 iterations on the level before ship.

#20

zOMG, Easter Egg!

:retard:

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.