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So I am working on a massive medieval game in UDK and was wonding if any of you have any ideas you would like to give me or any advice that I can get to help manage the massive workload while also trying to work with other jobs?

-How would I manage this?

-How do I complete such a massive task?

-How would I make a cave system? How do I plan something like this?

-How long do you think it would take when I have a team of 2 modelers, a programmer, and a level designer (Myself)?

-Is there like a content system out there that when I add content into my udk my team gets it?

Jot down the plot and the basic elements you want your game to have.
Make a portfolio on your vision of the game.
Take a look at it and delete everything you borrowed from bigname medieval/fantasy games like Skyrim, The Witcher, Dragon Age etc.

Get people fired up to help you work on this.
Dont work in a standalone engine you barely understand. Concider making it a mod of something.
Be prepared to work on it for the next half decade or longer.



Make it less massive.



A cave system is just a bunch of models that tile well together. Thats really it. Any freelance artist should be able to do that for you. Shop around!

Or buy this.



Concidering that you want it to be massive and you assume that you would suffice as the only level designer...
Well. Lets assume you guys really work hard on it and lets assume that your programmer and your model people are ace at what they are doing. 3 years for you to achieve the necessary excellency to do something one can concider massive. A really long time to make the necessary levels. Ages for your lonely programmer to get all the games logic and scripts up and running. Dah! lets just be optimistic and say 5 to 10 years. Also scratch the other jobs part.



There are cloud/storage services out there. I dont know of one thats specifically designed for udk.

Uh huh... So lets do that...

Reduce down on Crafting system and work on it after release and release updates.
Add features after release.



How does one do this?



Well I bought some content that has really helped out. (THANK YOU TGC!!! )

So that took about half the modeling job but the scripter is like freelance level.

Don't plan.

Seriously - if you stop and work out the costs, the time it'll take, and all that stuff, then you just won't start. Man didn't first climb a mountain, by inventing crevice clamps - crevice clamps came later, after a bunch of people tried and failed. I'm saying you need to decide what you want to see first - how do you envisage your game working and playing - take a snapshot of 30 seconds in your minds eye, and aim towards that.

If you can get something together and working well, then that's a much better start than 2 years of procrastination - which is all that would result if you try to plan this mammoth task. It has to be interesting to work on, it has to be organic - your whole team will come up with ideas all the time - things they decide to try, things they'll want you to add.
Strict technical designs only work in a professional environment... where it's someones job to adhere to that design. When it's a hobby project, go organic, you can't set your design in stone.

I think it'd be more productive to have weekly meetings, and the whole point of the meeting is to calibrate your team to working towards common goals. Like get the modellers making concept sketches and character ideas, something to share at the meetings and get everyones juices flowing. Concept art will get everyone thinking, and the artists will know when they are on the right track, if everyone is stoked about a cool new boss character they've sketched up - they will be happier and more confident when making the model.

The most interesting games are often developed organically - from tech demos that some bored guy did in his lunch hours, from some sketches that an artist did on their commute home, from a general discussion with other gamers about the state of games and the industry. With solo projects, or projects that involve a small team - then the only way to be big, is to start small and get big - don't plan on being big... that seems to have worked quite nicely for Notch... start with a simple game idea and build on it gradually. IMO there is no other way - a small team will only work if they feel that their contribution is appreciated, and their ideas are considered properly - and organic development leaves things a lot more open and accesible, ideal when you have a mountain of work but only a handful of help - don't even let them see the true scale of your project .

To further add to what others have said in this thread. You should probably make a prototype first which focuses mainly on the game play.

If the prototype isn't fun to play, then chances are the full production game won't be either!

If you designed the prototype correctly, you can build on some of the source code you already have in there.

@ Van B and Bigadd

Thats the best advice anyone has given me. I printed it out and hung it in my room. Literally.

I\'ve read the thread, visited your website and read the info but I still have absolutely no idea what this game is. Is it story driven? Is it a sandbox? How does building and crafting work? Will you need to gather resources? Do you need to manage an empire? Is there real-time combat? Are there NPC\'s?

http://www.carnageproduct.com/hero-s-legend

I'll see what I can do about that.

____

Edit - What do I do financially?