k let me explain this so the whole deal can be put into perspective.
when making games teams are basically split into 3 departments. Art, Design, and Programing
we have a lot of artists, the vast majority of them are really good, and we even have a handful of professional artists on the team as well. so our mod looks really good, and has a really good flow of art work almost constantly because of so many people constantly working. if theres a problem with one member of the art staff, odds are some one else can pick up the slack, or can take over their task if need be.
everyone on the team is a designer. they all have a say as to the direction of where the game is headed, and can toss their ideas into the hat to see what everyone thinks might be a cool new game play feature, or if something needs to be tweaked to alter and balance something. we have the original game, sort of as a template and design document so the team has a unified vision of what the final game is going to be like.
for programing, we have had 3... 3 total in 3 years of development. all 3 of them have been rockstars when it comes to code as well. but the problem with coders is that, to be a good programer isnt like being a good artist. its difficult to train someone who only has basic knowledge. so getting new talent, and training them from the ground up is not really an option.
finding someone who knows how to code isn't that tough, we have quite a few artists on the team who know various coding languages. but non of them are at the level of being able to completely write the code for the entire mod.
to find a good programmer is hard
to find a good programmer, who can program for games is REALLY hard.
to find a good programmer, who is familiar with the source engine, and isn't already working on their own mod, AND is going to work for free... well there were about 3 of them in the past 3 years... and we got them.
we need a coders that are either at a really high level in college, or are already working professionals. and if they are that good already they should be getting paid for their work, but since we have no money, its almost impossible to get people that good to work for free.
so when we have one of our programmers have something happen in their personal lives, like they get a job, are in finals for college, or some other personal issue comes up, things slow down on the code side of the mod, and its really difficult to keep it moving. that doesn't even include things like the multi fire bug which valve screwed us with that also slow down the mods development. balancing for the beta wasn't the main priority, it was getting new content in.
our programmers have tried really hard and squeezed GES into any free time they have had for years. Scott coded on Xmas eve....twice. give our programmers a break they are doing this in their free time for you, with out pay, and often without thanks.
if you know a way to get us a handful of talented programmers, willing to work for free, let me know
