I’m a firm believer that one of the biggest and most underutilized assets we have as mod developers is our very own community. The people that make up the modding community eagerly want to be involved, whether it’s by posting feedback, playtesting a build or contributing [insert asset type here].
As both a producer and community manager, I’m constantly looking for ways to tear down the wall between developers and players, and to make those same players an integral part of the development team. Overwatch was, in a sense, as much a learning opportunity as it was a modding project. I built close ties with our fans and got them involved early in the mod’s production. The direction Overwatch took after every release was heavily based on the comments and suggestions received from its players. I went so far as to give the public direct access to SVN, to get immediate feedback on every change and addition. This tightly-knit relationship definitely played a big role in Overwatch’s success.
It was a great first step, but I wanted to push even further.
As some of you may know, I’ve taken part in various episodes of Podcast 17 since the start of August, and I always try my best to spark interesting conversations and debates between participants. This past Saturday, I grabbed a few fellow developers, hopped on P17 and moderated a lengthy discussion about the F/OSS approach to software development, how it could be applied to video games (specifically mods), what the advantages would be and how far we could take it.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, F/OSS stands for Free and Open-Source Software. In short, adopting a F/OSS approach means that other developers would have complete access to a project’s source (code and assets) and would be able to either contribute to it directly or use that source in their own projects.
The combination of end-user involvement and an open development model, blurring the lines between projects, developers and players, is where the term community-driven development applies. I have no doubt in my mind that collaboration will give us an immeasurable advantage over others, which is why both Overwatch and Resistance & Liberation are currently moving in that direction, and we hope other mod teams will follow.
I’ll be revisiting this topic in upcoming blog posts as both projects near the next stage. In the meantime, I invite you to listen to the podcast (located here) and to share your thoughts on the subject.
Thanks for reading and until next!
