Chinese Whispers

[Obsttorte]

There is a game called Chinese whispers. One say a word to his neighbour. This one say the word to his neighbour and so on and than you see what comes out in the end and everybody laughs and is happy because it is so much fun

 

Okay. That's not the theme of this thread, but it is something similar.

 

I don't know if it has ever been discussed or if I even came up with this before. But I think it is a funny idea anyways.

 

The idea is that some people just start mapping something together in DR. It doesn't matter if it is like basic geometry or a single detailed room or whatever. You don't have to have a setting or a specific story in mind. Just build what come to your mind and what you can spend the time for.

 

Once you don't want to continue or after a set time, you just upload it and the next one continues working on it. And this goes on and on and on. In the end we could think about if some results are worth making a mission out of it or are already at that point or if we could merge several maps into one.

 

I think it would be nice to see what arose from that, and as there would be no contest or similar beyond it, it would be just for fun. I've you lack time or motivation, you just don't work as much on your current map file. You can choose if you want to add new areas, or detail out new ones. Or you have a nice idea for a scripted event or a puzzle in a certain location that you just want to add.

 

Tell me how you think about it. And don't forget, it would be just for fun.

[someTaff]

Darkcraft? Sounds fun! How shall we begin?

 

Edited May 22, 2013 by someTaff

[demagogue]

In fact I was the project lead of exactly this kind of project for Thief2.

We called it The Chain Project.

 

It's a legitimately fun thing to do, and the resulting FM is crazy in a good way... But, it's actually harder to administer than you may think. It doesn't take care of itself. It's very important there's a project lead that will make sure each version is still in working condition before moving on, and controls how it passes from person to person. They need to be the hub sending it out to each spoke, which has to return it back to the hub & get tested before it goes to the next spoke, or it'll be a nightmare. Ideally you'd do it via SVN, with the lead authorizing who can lock & unlock it, so you don't get overlapping versions or confusion.

 

We tried to get a Chain Project 2 going, but I don't think it got as much support. (The first one took literally about 2 or 3 years all told and was a nightmare to clean up for release because it started badly... So I think that put people off trying it again.) But if someone is willing to administer it the right way from the start, then it could go smoothly and be a cool idea for Dark Mod, sure. The Dark Chain...

 

Edit: If anyone does want to do this, I'd have a lot of tips for them in what to do, or cool ideas, or things to look out for too. E.g., it can be a cool idea to have objectives, where the McGuffin of one person's area opens up other people's areas, so the player can branch out however they want, but still have motivation to see all the areas (otherwise they could skip over a lot of areas completely).

 

And you need a very clear policy up front, e.g., if somebody's part breaks the map it's good that they know in advance the project lead may need to cut it or change it to make the map work or if they turn in something obscene or whatever.... Authors get touchy when people touch their work, so it's good you have an upfront policy about it. Of course you talk to them about it & get their input & maybe a chance to fix it (sometimes they may be long gone), but sometimes you need to take editorial control. So have a policy upfront about it. And other tips like that.

[someTaff]

What if rules are strictier, like chain of closed small rooms. One makes one room, than another aurthor makes se cond room no style related and so on.. could be fun

Even more, each room contain hidden key to the next..

 

And each room no larger tha this and that px

 

Or there could be two or four doors, and people making fast chunky rooms with doors where they like. Details are secondary. So it would be maze-like

Edited May 22, 2013 by someTaff

[demagogue]

My advice is for anyone curious or interested to play the Thief2 Chain Project, and then come back here and we can talk about what worked and what didn't work and see if there are lessons. I'm actually happy TCP didn't have rules on the content because there is such a wild mix of sizes and styles, from single rooms to entire mini-FMs in there. Our only rule was it has to open into something already built, either a shared hallway or from the end of another FM... Even then it started branching, so it wasn't a single chain, but that worked ok too. But having other rules restricting it to chained rooms could be cool too. There are lots of variations to play around with.

[Springheel]

We actually did this years ago, before the mod was released. I wasn't participating (wasn't a mapper at the time) but I remember looking at the result on the beta-mapper repository. I think it was called the "community" mapping project, if someone wanted to try and search for it.

[grayman]

Well, there's maps/community/community.map.

 

It's extremely basic.

[Springheel]

That's the one...I don't know how far it got, but it was never actually completed.

[demagogue]

Maybe it could be resurrected & other mappers can apply... Might be sort of cool to have building stretching across the whole history of TDM.

[nbohr1more]

Since the project lost steam, Mortem Desino was going to take the best parts and release a mission as I recall.

 

Edit: Here it is:

 

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/10003-so-what-are-you-working-on-right-now/page__st__1000__p__229285#entry229285

 

It seems that his own progress has lost steam too these days so perhaps he'll return the work he acquired and restart this thing?

Edited May 23, 2013 by nbohr1more

[zergrush]

On a short side note, the better definition for it would that of a Cadavre Exquis.

[someTaff]

Cadavr Express

Anyone?

How bout start simple and fast( .map file links)

Edited May 28, 2013 by someTaff

[Obsttorte]

Cadavr Express

Anyone?

How bout start simple and fast( .map file links)

I'm the one who proposed it, so I'm definetely in. But I guess it would be more fun if there would be a few more

[Sotha]

I'm such a lone-wolf mapper and I just got my recent WIP out so I'm definately OUT.

Gotta cool off a month or five before starting mapping again.