by Enjay » Fri Jul 26, 2019 12:45 pm
Graf Zahl wrote:In the end it's a clear sign of incompetent leadership - as harsh as it sounds. A good producer would try to channel the available resources toward finishing the product, but the overarching goal here seems to be that "if we got something better, let's replace the old stuff." Sadly, much of the existing content isn't very good to begin with. I still find it baffling that with all the creative work going on over the decades this supposedly important project always got the crap and not the good stuff.
Fun fact: Some 15 years ago I made a 12 level episode out of the then playable parts of the game. Of these 12 levels, I think only two have survived until now and only one of these survived in a form that's still recognizable. So should Freedoom eventually get released, this episode will probably share nothing with the finished product.
Yeah, I've never really understood the FreeDoom development philosophy. There has been constant making and remaking the relatively low hanging fruit items but most everything else seems to be ignored. Many of the resources do need touching up, of course, and some of those items could be good if that was done (e.g. mancubus enemy).
The project seems basically to have ended effectively in development hell despite that fact that many, many projects have come to fruition during the lifetime of the FreeDoom project. I check the project page and repository every now and again, but very little happens.
I understand that everything in it needs to be completely free and not based on anything that the authors do not have the rights to distribute as free (which means no frankenspriting/frankentexturing of Doom resources (etc)) but there has been plenty of original stuff produced elsewhere in the community over the last decade and a half too. Every now and again there is a spurt of work. The most recent bit of optimism that I can think of was when Raymoohawk did some spriting work. That stopped rather suddenly though. I don't know what happened to him. I haven't seen him around anywhere for a long time.
There was such enthusiasm and drive concerning FreeDoom when it first started, but it just stalled and nothing much has happened for a very long time. I'm sure that some content from other projects could have been donated but I bet most people don't even think about it. I'm not sure how much drive there is to even get a completed game. I mean, I know that there is something in every essential lump slot, but much of it really can't be called much more than a placeholder. It doesn't feel cohesive at all, and quality is massively variable. It really doesn't feel "complete".
In saying that, I really haven't helped the situation either. Though, most of what I could contribute is covered and the stuff that I couldn't do well is what is needed; perhaps that's a more universal situation?
[quote="Graf Zahl"]In the end it's a clear sign of incompetent leadership - as harsh as it sounds. A good producer would try to channel the available resources toward finishing the product, but the overarching goal here seems to be that "if we got something better, let's replace the old stuff." Sadly, much of the existing content isn't very good to begin with. I still find it baffling that with all the creative work going on over the decades this supposedly important project always got the crap and not the good stuff.
Fun fact: Some 15 years ago I made a 12 level episode out of the then playable parts of the game. Of these 12 levels, I think only two have survived until now and only one of these survived in a form that's still recognizable. So should Freedoom eventually get released, this episode will probably share nothing with the finished product.[/quote]
Yeah, I've never really understood the FreeDoom development philosophy. There has been constant making and remaking the relatively low hanging fruit items but most everything else seems to be ignored. Many of the resources do need touching up, of course, and some of those items could be good if that was done (e.g. mancubus enemy).
The project seems basically to have ended effectively in development hell despite that fact that many, many projects have come to fruition during the lifetime of the FreeDoom project. I check the project page and repository every now and again, but very little happens.
I understand that everything in it needs to be completely free and not based on anything that the authors do not have the rights to distribute as free (which means no frankenspriting/frankentexturing of Doom resources (etc)) but there has been plenty of original stuff produced elsewhere in the community over the last decade and a half too. Every now and again there is a spurt of work. The most recent bit of optimism that I can think of was when Raymoohawk did some spriting work. That stopped rather suddenly though. I don't know what happened to him. I haven't seen him around anywhere for a long time.
There was such enthusiasm and drive concerning FreeDoom when it first started, but it just stalled and nothing much has happened for a very long time. I'm sure that some content from other projects could have been donated but I bet most people don't even think about it. I'm not sure how much drive there is to even get a completed game. I mean, I know that there is something in every essential lump slot, but much of it really can't be called much more than a placeholder. It doesn't feel cohesive at all, and quality is massively variable. It really doesn't feel "complete".
In saying that, I really haven't helped the situation either. Though, most of what I could contribute is covered and the stuff that I couldn't do well is what is needed; perhaps that's a more universal situation?