Hackathon

[iammingy]

Some of you, particularly those who do programming in real life, may have heard of "hackathons". Otherwise, please read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackathon

Is anyone interested in doing a hackathon right here at MarvelMods, where we whip out a mod together in a cooperative manner?

In general, the duration for a hackathon is usally 24 hours. Since we are from different parts of the world, we are spread across different time-zones. So, it's not feasible to make a brand new mod from scratch cooperatively in the 24-hour period. If we tone it down to 7 days, would anybody be interested?

Currently 8 members have signed up:
iammingy
Nowhere Man
fox456
BLaw
Hman360
Dihan
DeeDooo
SuperNatural-Witch

I am simply the organizer of this hackathon. I am not necessarily the leader for making the mod in this hackathon. Please feel free to sign up if you are interested and you think you will have the time to participate in the upcoming 2 weeks or so. I will give people one week to sign up. Later on, each participant will come up with 2 characters that they want to see made into a mod. Then, we will make a poll out of the appended lists. Any characters that have been worked on or are being worked on by any of the participants will be scrapped from the list. The participant becomes the team leader of the mod in this hackathon if his/her character wins the poll.

No addition members are allowed to sign up now...

[Nowhere Man]

yeah, that sounds awesome! but what kind of mod do you have in mind?

[iammingy]

Ideally, we should come up with one on the first day (at the scene). However, nothing is set in stone. So, we can do it before hand. haha. I suggest that we decide on one character, particularly one where nobody to be involved has made or has attempted to make any progress on it.

I think it would be best if we can get as many people (both modders and non-modders) involved as possible. So, we should first have at least 10 modders sign up. Then, vote for a character. And then, set a date that will hopefully works for every one  involved. Finally, we brainstorm about the powers and costumes together on the first day and get to work on the second day.

[Nowhere Man]

Count me in. Already thinking about characters I'd like to see made

[fox456]

I'd like to give it a try -- if the schedule works out that I can.

[iammingy]

Ok, these are the areas of modding that everybody can offer for THE mod.

1. skins (most of the image-editing work)
2. icons/huds/loading screen (less intensive image-editing work)
3. talents (some coding)
4. animations (major amount of hex-editing)
5. powerstyles/fightstyles (the bulk of the code-intensive work)
6. effects
7. 3D models (new meshes, mannequin, boltons, etc.)
8. Ideas for any aspect of the mod listed above.

#7 is not strictly required for the mod in my opinion due to small number of people who can model.

Think about what you can do or what you would like to do.

[Nowhere Man]

9. voice sounds
10. power sounds
11. menu sounds (if there's a bunch of modders in a joint venture we should make a complete mod)
(?) 12. sim misson

[iammingy]

Good points!

We should aim for a bare minimum of 4 costumes, 5 powers, 2 boosts/debuff, and 1 xtreme.

[fox456]

What I'd "like" to do is skin, but since we're under a time constraint plus the fact that I'm a perfectionist, it would be better if I focus on some areas I've had a little success with so far: animations or effects or possibly voice/menu sounds.

[BLaw]

Put me on it and I'll make 6 costumes on 1 day +mannequin. I am not shitting you. But I'll only do it cuz it sounds interesting (very) to me.

[Nowhere Man]

My strenghts would be talents/powerstyle/effects. I won't pick any, I'll just take whatever of these people don't volunteer for.

[iammingy]

Hackathon is meant to make the most out of collaboration in a short period of time. The goal is not to make the best perfect mod ever (although it will be great if it is indeed the best mod ever ).

All ideas and progress for the mod will go in one thread at "Modder's Workbench". This hackathon will serve as a very comprehensive tutorial to making a mod because the topic will discuss everything from brainstorming to getting stuff done. Reading the topic will be like watching a reality show except that we are not staged.

I know that we have our own preferences and our preferences may overlap quite a bit. For example, all skinners will want to work on skins for sure. It's true that some of us are clearly skilled at certain aspects of modding. The hackathon would not be enjoyable if you aren't allow to work on something that you really like, right? So, it's best that we spread out the work.

Moreover, it's not sensible that one person work on only one aspect of the mod. If you look at the list above, you should see that some may depend on others while some are totally independent of others.

[Nowhere Man]

agreed, but at the same time it's kind of too much for any single modder to work on all the things that overlap. so some modders would have to be avaliable to cooperate via messenger or something of the sort.

[iammingy]

Hmmm... using instant messaging is not ideal, but I guess the closely collaborating people can do whatever they want. We don't have to split up the work very evenly, but here is what I think:

We should spent the first 24~48 hours of the hackathon week brainstorming/agreeing what we want to do for the mod. These are the questions that need to be answered for the mod:

Brainstorming Work:
1. Which 4~6 costumes to we want to see skins/meshes done?
2. What are the 5~6 powers and 2~3 boosts and Xtreme?
3. What are the 3 sets of animations to use?
4. Which animation(s) to use for each power/boost/xtreme?
5. What passives?
...

Once we have these questions answered, we can split up the work pretty easily.

Coding Work:  One participant will work on one or more powers/boost. That is, he/she will work on the powerstyle/talents/effects for one power. Another participant will work on another power/boost. The third participant will work on another power/boost. You get the idea. We append the code together as we move along.

Graphics Work A: It's the same deal for skins/meshes. One participant work on one or more skin/meshes. Another participant work on another skin/meshes. ... We share them as they are done.

Graphics Work B: Icons/HUDS/loading screen can be done by one or two people as they require little work.

Sound Work A: Power sounds will most likely depend on the powerstyle code. We can gather new sounds from the beginning. If we reuse existing sounds, it is the duty of the participants for "Coding Work" to report what sound files to use.

Sound Work B: Voices is almost independent on everything else. We can build and share them as it is ready.

Coordinator: Gather/Compile all up-to-date code/files as we move along. Build the herostat, packages, etc.

Each participant can work on one or more types of work listed above. Each type of work can be performed by one or more participants. Each participant's roles can change as we move along. Again, nothing is set in stone, the goal is to collaborate efficiently and enjoyably.

Once we have 5(?) modders sign up, we can agree on what each person can do. Then, we pick a start date for the 7 days of hackathon. We can vote for the character to mod before the start date. How does that sound?


Currently 4 members have signed up:
iammingy
Nowhere Man
fox456
BLaw

I am simply the organizer of this hackathon. I am not necessarily the leader for making the mod in this hackathon. Please feel free to sign up if you are interested and you think you will have the time to participate in the upcoming 2 weeks or so. I will give people one week to sign up.

[Nowhere Man]

let's just make it so whatever person whose character is chosen will be project leader.