Oswald Rant: Managing the Mod: Part 2
Part 2: Amateur by Name Only
It is important to recognize that the only real distinction between amateur developers and professional developers is that amateurs do not get paid for their work. In fact, since Urban Terror started in 1999, it has cost team members money in various direct (printing of T-shirts, attendance at conventions, paying for Internet access) and indirect (missed days at work) ways.
Amateur does not mean that the Urban Terror team is less skilled than a professional team. Amateurs can be highly skilled, and may be professionals in other fields. Matt Vainio (SweetnutZ), a 2D artist on the team, is a professional graphic designer based in Seattle. Vainio designed the mod’s user interface and did a lot of concept art, along with level design. Bryan Dube is a professional application coder from Santa Cruz, CA who added in a number of enhancements to the game. Dube now lives in Wisconsin, where he works for Raven Software on SOF2 and soon on the upcoming Quake 4.
It is also worth noting that the mod’s player modeler, Justin Hayward (Odd), now works on an upcoming commercial title for U.S. software developer, Bungie, and one of the team’s level designers, Brent Waller (WetWired), is working for 4D Rulers, an emerging commercial developer developing GORE. The point is that this amateur team has plenty of professional quality talent.
Amateurs also work as hard as a professional team. Many team members put in 40 or more hours per week on the mod, which is a major commitment of time when taken in conjunction with other commitments to work, school and family. Many team members already hold full-time employment, and so working on the mod constitutes two full time jobs.
Perhaps the best illustration of the professionalism of the team comes from a comment made by one the team’s members: “…I go to my software project engineering class for example, and my professor is teaching us about things that must take place in software development…and it ends up that we’ve been doing the same stuff all along, right here on this mod.” (Miles Harrison)
The most important point that needs to be made about amateur teams is that they do not need less organization than a professional team. There is an idea often expressed by new mod makers that the process of mod development is a kind of free for all. This notion is that each individual in the team does what he or she wants, and somehow the project will organize itself at some point in the future.
For some kinds of mods this may well be true. Mods that have only one or two team members or a very simple theme may not need much organization. Similarly mods that are made purely for the developer’s enjoyment of making a mod (rather than for people to play) may not need any organization, but these mods also may not ever be completed.
In the case of Urban Terror, the team needed to decide what it wanted to achieve with the mod: whether it was going to be a mod for the developers, or a mod that had more significant goals. The decision to develop a successful mod required a certain amount of agreement and, in some cases, compromise for most team members.
While Urban Terror has been lucky to attract a team of highly talented individuals, whose work has been exceptionally high quality, it can be argued that what makes Urban Terror such a “professional” amateur team is not just the individuals, but the way the whole team is coordinated.
