The Mana World Forums

So, since we have a rather gargantuan task in building the game world and even the CRs seem to be rather large projects in themselves: where are we going to find the manpower to do things?

Especially pixel artists are required. There are once again a few new guys posting into GFX dev and in dire need of some tutoring and integration into the project.

Should we go even so far as to have someone dedicated to tutoring new pixel artist aspirants?

What would make joining the project generally more appealing to newcomers?

Well, I've been observing this for a while now,

Almost 100% of aspirants are rather interested in hats and pans, not in maps and CR.

There are many request (from developers, game masters, content) for things that may not survive eA and we should think about TMWserver instead. We all should be pushing for content intended for TMWserver (CR1, CR2..) not temporary requests. This must be a combined effort of everyone involved in development

I suggest to create a pixelart contest (NO in-game rewards, please) with just honorific mentions, may be every week to see if they can handle small assignments that can be useful for the CR, that will motive others to try themselves.

Another possibility is get help from outsiders interested in pixelart

And last but no least is make an effort trying to recruit retired artists that are not active at this time but can return and help a lot because they already know all the specs.

Rather than calling things temporary and flimsy things like contests, why just not request small pieces from new people as a part of standard procedure? By this I mean stuff needed in CR subprojects. To me this seems like a nice way of tying in new people and also getting their effort into something sensible. Open request threads in GFX dev for simple stuff you need should achieve this. There can be different challenge levels of stuff (for example creating a grass tile to match a palette should be a simple pixel art chore whereas creating a plantset for a forest would be a bit more demanding).

We have always tried to have our AUTHORS file up to date and accurate so everyone contributing something would get credited for their work.

All this said, the project managers of the CR subprojects are free to run their projects as they see fit. I'm only trying to provide better tools and ideas for people to use. Also tidying and sanitizing the framework and foundations of how stuff works around here would come as a nice side benefit here.

Give people interesting tasks, keep the development transparent, show that you care about the volunteers and the contributors will come on their own.

People wasting their time with fluff like silly hats just do it because they don't know what else is needed or wanted from them. So don't be afraid to ask them directly if they would like to take a role in your sub-project.

That's the experience I made during the graveyard update.

Crush wrote:Give people interesting tasks, keep the development transparent, show that you care about the volunteers and the contributors will come on their own.

Indeed.

looking good, the contest pilot is starting showing results, please dedicate some time to give critique and tips to the participants. thanks

I guess before I finish the Tulimshar stuff I'm working on I rather help out with CR1 tiles. The Tulimshar stuff can wait until it will be released under TMWserv. So I'm open for suggestions what I can do for CR1. Maybe it can also be helpful if irukard is doing more of his wonderful byzantine building outlines and give the work to other artist to fill them with texture and details. Personally I would like to do it .

I've contacted all the possible aspirants, in most of the cases even giving assignments, now we have Skipy and Meway doing an effort on the beach and the sick tree, but both of them had stopped the progress due to a lack of time, my estimation is that they already know what is required in technical terms like the light source, color ramps, angle, etc. But they need to practice a lot until they master the pixelart and that requires time, effort, dedication in general.

getting to the point :

1. I already try to contact all possible candidates
2. If Meway and Skipy continue working and practicing pixelart they can learn and contribute to the TMW but still need dedication.
3. We need to find more contributors for TMW (not necessary for CR1) but seems like we are running out of internal options

Therefore :

1. I will offer and invite retired pixelartist to join us for CR1 and TMW in general (they already know how to) but don't expect much, they are busy with their own projects. (I have a plan for this)
2. I need to do a very specific list of requirements before I can invite any other pixelartist from external sources, like pixeljoint, wayofthepixel, etc. because is the first thing they ask. And most of them are looking for money not contribution.
3. We need more ways to find other contributors, may be banners on websites, I don't know.

Any suggestion or comment is welcome