unforum

[MageSteff]

Implosion, something to consider

[SirQuady]

And of course, there's your implied point that if you're making an ARG:

Get others to PM with you or at least help you!

[Ehsan]

6. Motivation. Before you start working on a project you can't help but imagine how cool it would be to become a PM. Running a game sounds like the most exciting adventure you could ever go through. When you start working on the actual game you find that the amount of work isn't really worth it. If you get through making the game, when it does go live you just don't know why you got into this in the first place. Tell yourself this: (6.1) Being a PM is not cool, not fun, not easy, not rewarding and not worth it. If you accept those facts then, and only then, proceed to make your game. And let me say it now because one of the players will: "Your game sucks!"... now, how does that feel?

7. Underestimating effort. You might feel like it's very easy to put a few websites together, write a general story and then present it to the world with a few puzzles thrown in for good measures. You will estimate the amount of effort you think it requires, and you will be wrong. If you think you need 3 hours a day for a month to make this happen then you actually need 6 hours a day for 2 months, and when the game goes live you need 12 hours a day EVEN if you have a team working on this. Do you have 12 hours a day to spare? Are you willing to quit your job, ditch school, or ignore your friends and family for the entire duration of the project and get nothing(see 6.1) in return?

8. Internal arguments. No two people in the world agree on everythings--it's just impossible. We are opinionated by nature and when you work with a group of strangers using the Internet as a collaboration medium it will show. You will get into arguements and if not handled properly they could cause the team to split, or even dissolve. Respect your team, accept criticisms and don't expect everyone to agree with you even if you come up with the bestest idea in the world.

9. Team procrastination. Not to be confused with Motivation, which is more personal. Teams procrastinate not by avoiding work that needs to be done, but by focusing on a lot of work which doesn't need to be done. You can spend hundreds of hours brainstorming and have nothing to show for it. You could end up designing dozens of the easy websites and have no one willing to make the hard trailhead. Make sure you have a clear project plan with milestones and deadlines. Assign a team leader to make sure everything is in order. People will judge you by the final product you deliver as a team, and not by how hard you worked.

10. Doing it alone. DON'T.



I can't pick biggest challeneges from these and MageSteff's list. That would imply that it's okay to go ahead with your project if you only have one of the lesser challeneges, but it's not okay.

I rate them all equally and say that if you might face any of these issues and you don't understand them or understand how to handle them, then back out now. With the expection of 1. and any other Force Majeure of course, everything else will be your fault.


Obligatory Ehsan Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions, I am not a PM and I usually don't know what I'm talking about.

[MageSteff]

[rowan]

11. Impatience. There is no need to rush right out and tell everyone you are planning an ARG, or worse, put up a trailhead with a counter on it when you do not have anything else finished. All it does is put even more pressure on you and the rest of the PM team. Plus, it really kinda makes you look unprepared - unless your launch date has some absolutely specific meaning (which really is a rarity), there is no reason to have one mysterious website with a countdown on it. A countdown might tease players into wondering "what is gonna happen when it hits zero" but it also gets them expecting something big to occur once it does. Nothing lets players down more than watching a countdown hit zero, only to find out that the big whatever never really happened.

Keeping your game a secret also allows you to control the pace of your development. If things happen, you can push back the launch without having to explain to everyone why. And if things don't work out, and the game never is completed, no one ever needs to know. Launching prematurely has been the bane of more than one ARG in the past. PMs should strive to have a fully completed game with backup plans ready before they launch (especially if you have a smaller team). With all that "extra" work already completed, you should have a decent chance of making it halfway through your game, since even the most carefully planned ARG can be thrown off track, leaving you scrambling for more material. The more you have to begin with, the less you'll have to make later, leaving time for other things.