With a gradual rise in and stalling of various smaller campaigns and over-ambitious projects, I think the time has come to once and for all answer the all-important questions that new project leaders may have regarding campaigns. I've created this thread in order for project leaders of completed or developing campaigns to post suggestions for future campaign leaders, this way to better benefit and assist new campaigns.
Note: This is an FAQ that also serves to suggest guidelines for new projects and mods. This is in no way intended to offend or reppress on reasonably-sized campaigns.
Some important notes that new campaign designers should consider before beginning:
Staff and Crew - This is one of the first questions that a designer should ask himself/herself: what size staff am I going to need? The designer should evaluate his own skills: if he is a competent FREDer, but lacks story-writing skills, than a story editor should be called upon. While storywriters may be easy to come by, this may not be true for other modders: modellers, voiceactors, 2D/3D artists, and especially FREDers are difficult to come by in this day and age.
So the designer must consider that if his project is too large for a very small crew or even just himself to complete, it should be either broken down into smaller chapters or generally downsized. The details of this will be discussed next.
Do I Need This? - A part of the Staff question leads into the next part: is a feature essential for the campaign? We all know how much voice-acting, command briefing animations, and new effects can add to the game, but you must stop before going on with these features. As stated before, CBAnim and 3D artists are hard to come by with the major projects already working them. Should you get a hold of one of these talented modders, it should be considered as to the time that would be taken to create these new features and put them into the campaign.
With all of these factors to consider, you should ask yourself: is this really necessary? Does my campaign really
need new CBAnims, new Source Code effects, or voiceacting? If a campaign can tell a story effectively and effeciently without any of these, than the FREDing should be the most important aspect, not overambitious designs and add-ons.
Spare Time - Building a campaign, be it mini, medium, or large, takes a great deal of time. Your rate of FREDing may differ from others, but because the meat of FREDing is playtesting and bughunting, the process of creating missions can take much longer than you anticipate. This especially rings true if you have other people doing your FREDing; some people may a good or bad mission put together in a short or long period of time.
Leadership Skills - If you do have a team of FREDers or others in your campaign, then the next issue of leadership ability arises. Do you have the ability to assign tasks to specific team members, and then keep reasonable tabs on their work? Effective leadership is necessary to hold a campaign staff together and to handle issues regarding the story, features, or whatever conflicts arise.
Don't be too lenient: if you show no presence in the campaign leadership, then your team is likely to desert you, or, even worse, throw together sloppy work because you didn't give them proper guidelines or instructions. Don't be overbearing either: if you're too strict on your team members, then they will not be able to do their best work in their own style, and they will likely abandon you.
Team members can also be an invaluable source of feedback and ideas. Quoth Trashman, developer of
Flames of War: "Don't ever be afraid to ask for advice when this is concerned - either from your other staff memebers or some talented outsider." You should never be afraid to ask your staff members for help or advice whereever you feel it needed. For projects with a forum, set up a "feedback and ideas" discussion or similar thread. Take advice from your FREDers in particular: they make the missions, and they probably have some interesting ideas of what to do with missions.
FRED, FRED, FRED - The single-most aspect to a campaign involves the missions. Otherwise, the project is no longer a campaign, but a mod with new ships or weapons. Story-driven campaigns need FREDing talent behind them: effective campaign stories and well-designed missions can lead to the success of a campaign in the eyes of the community.
If you do not know how to FRED, is it suggested that you learn at least the basics. Use the FRED Walkthrough available in FRED2 (or at
GTD Bastion) and get the basics down, even if you aren't your campaigns chief FREDer. It is good to know how FRED works, as you can give advice to your FREDers and better help with playtesting the missions.
If you know how to FRED well, then you have a significant edge over campaign leaders that don't know how to FRED. It is suggested that campaigns be run by the FREDer type. The FRED leader can lay down a couple of missions to guide his other FREDers along, and then help them with design should questions arise. Even a FRED project leader can keep a project going solo, as he/she can create missions.
Most importantly, however: respect your FREDers, and give them some space. As before, don't be too overbearing: many FREDers work best with their own style and talents, and restricting these may lead to a FREDer quitting, which is a pain worse than death if you are not an effective FREDer yourself.
Publicity - Are you ready to unveil even small aspects of your campaign with the community? Publicity is often one of the most important aspects of leading a project: how much do you want the community to know about your campaign before you release it? Some guidelines follow:
Don't give too much away. Posting screenshots of every mission in the campaign every few days is a surefire way to kill interest in your campaign. Likewise, releasing a demo too soon or incomplete can lead to a false perception that your campaign is being hastily put together, and therefore create a lack of interest.
Give some away. Don't be afraid to post some screenshots occassionally. One of the best ways to generate publicity or interest in your campaign is to post in Skippy's Freespace Campaigns Thread. With a small teaser paragraph, a general release date, and even a mission count, the campaign could catch the eye of a community member.
Remember: even one interested player can lead to your recognition by the community. One person tells another to "go play campaign XXXX", and then that person tells another... Sooner or later, if your campaign is as good as the first made it seem, you'll have a fanbase.
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Well, those are the basics. If anyone feels like adding to this, please do so: this can only get better with feedback.
