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#1 2011-09-26 15:11:59

Dinoclor
Scratcher
Registered: 2010-06-10
Posts: 1000+

Collaboration Tips

Since a lot of collabs fail, I thought I'd post some tips for collaboration. Post here if you want to add anything.

General Collab Advice


Make sure your project is doable. Even though you can do stuff with collabs that you can't do on your own, it doesn't meant that everything is possible. If it is your first collab, join one, don't make one. Make sure you aren't too busy. I figured out all of the tips above the hard way.
Make sure there aren't too much or too little people collaborating. If there are too little and some of them are busy, than that leaves you with 1 or 2 people. Some collabs can get along with 2, but that does not often happen. If there are too much, not everyone will know what they are doing. Try to have a little more people than you want join, because some of them will say "Yay! I'm on the team!" and never post again, and some of  them will be too busy. Make sure everyone knows what they are doing. And before you join a collab, make sure you have some scratch programming ability. It helps. You may end up programming even if you didn't join as one.

I find a forum thread works really well for communicating, but you could use galleries or project comments. I've only ever collaborated in the forums, so I need a second opinion, but using comments on projects might be hard to do, because people can find your beta, think 'WOW!' and post a bunch of comments unrelated to your collab. Also, with comments you have to go to the first new comment and read from the bottom up, which might be a pain. Try to post often so the other collaborators know what you're doing and how soon to finishing it you are.

Remember, collaborating on scratch often means that  you have to be online a lot, to collaborate with different time zones. So make sure you aren't too busy.

Getting People To Join

In my opinion, projects advertising your collab team are more effective during Collab Competitions, as people want to win, and an ad project that looks good can get a lot of good members, and also because the forum tends to get flooded with collab requests. Projects are also good for asking for new members for an existing collab. Forum posts tend to be noticed more, and are more suited to regular collaboration ads. Of course, you can make a forum post that links to a project which has a link to the thread, but I have not tried that. Also, there is the new 'Looking for a collab to join?' thread- you can advertise there as long as you have a forum topic, gallery, or project for people to join on.


The following tips are important for every kind of collab: Never assume someone is going to do something for you. Unless you seriously can't finish it, finish it before you upload it. Also, if something isn't done and no-one seems to be doing it, DO IT. If everyone assumed that someone else would do a particular thing, it wouldn't get done. Take responsibility.

Collab-Competition Specific Stuff

On the day before a deadline, get everything that isn't done done, and everything that needs to be there but hasn't been made yet made. I have done that before, and it takes a while, but it's worth it.

Work together. Pay attention to other people and whoever is leading the group.

Have a plan and a timeline of what people in your collab should be doing and what should be done when. It helps because that way you can see if you are ahead of the timeline or behind, and if you are working fast enough.

Also, if the people in the collab want to, they can keep collaborating. You don't have to stop at the end of the competition.

Hope these tips helped!

Last edited by Dinoclor (2011-12-22 00:51:36)


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#2 2011-09-26 15:21:36

scimonster
Community Moderator
Registered: 2010-06-13
Posts: 1000+

Re: Collaboration Tips

Stickyable material when it gets finished. ;D

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#3 2011-09-26 19:44:04

Dinoclor
Scratcher
Registered: 2010-06-10
Posts: 1000+

Re: Collaboration Tips

Bump  smile


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#4 2011-09-27 05:16:56

Paddle2See
Scratch Team
Registered: 2007-10-27
Posts: 1000+

Re: Collaboration Tips

Great tips!  Maybe we can get some more from other people that have Collab experience.

Any tips on communication between collab members?  What works best - a forum thread, a gallery, comments on a project, that sort of thing?  Frequency of communication?

I hope you continue to update this  smile


http://i39.tinypic.com/2nav6o7.gif

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#5 2011-10-16 01:59:26

mattb777
Scratcher
Registered: 2011-07-15
Posts: 1000+

Re: Collaboration Tips

Thanks for making this! It could help a lot of New Scratchers!

cool   smile


I'm back  big_smile

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#6 2011-12-04 09:51:08

ricarose
Scratch Team
Registered: 2008-02-12
Posts: 100+

Re: Collaboration Tips

Awesome! Thanks for creating this Dinoclor.

Do people have tips about finding a collab or finding people to collaborate with? I know some people create projects and others forum posts. What should people think about when creating projects or posts?


http://oi48.tinypic.com/2v1q0e9.jpgmg]http://oi44.tinypic.com/a4n4n.jpg[/img]

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#7 2011-12-16 07:26:02

mcpNOVA
Scratcher
Registered: 2011-12-05
Posts: 100+

Re: Collaboration Tips

I've recently started a collab with nightmarescratcher, so this really helped.


http://i43.tinypic.com/n5fqcz.jpg

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#8 2011-12-17 11:22:34

mmww
Scratcher
Registered: 2010-01-14
Posts: 500+

Re: Collaboration Tips

My collab (Shadow Hardware Inc.) has been very succesful and is also EXTREMELY possible.


http://i.imgur.com/AWFFO.pnghttp://www.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/1/4/10146167/4363061_orig.png Save the cheese!
I am http://blocks.scratchr.org/API.php?action=onlineStatus&user=mmww

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#9 2011-12-17 19:43:35

Dinoclor
Scratcher
Registered: 2010-06-10
Posts: 1000+

Re: Collaboration Tips

mmww wrote:

My collab (Shadow Hardware Inc.) has been very succesful and is also EXTREMELY possible.

Do you have any tips to give to other people in collabs?


This is a temporary signature. It will exist until I think of something witty.

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#10 2011-12-17 22:48:10

anuw
Scratcher
Registered: 2009-04-09
Posts: 50

Re: Collaboration Tips

I haven't personally done a collab before, but I do know some good places where you can chat if the collab members are online. They can easily chat on Chatzy or Xat . Hope it helped  wink


http://lolwut.com/layout/lolwut.jpg Lolwut?

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#11 2011-12-22 00:37:10

Dinoclor
Scratcher
Registered: 2010-06-10
Posts: 1000+

Re: Collaboration Tips

ricarose wrote:

Awesome! Thanks for creating this Dinoclor.

Do people have tips about finding a collab or finding people to collaborate with? I know some people create projects and others forum posts. What should people think about when creating projects or posts?

Will do ^_^


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#12 2012-02-01 01:36:10

Agentpieface
Scratcher
Registered: 2009-10-10
Posts: 1000+

Re: Collaboration Tips

Awesome! When did this get stickied?


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#13 2012-03-24 22:21:14

Magnie
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-12-12
Posts: 1000+

Re: Collaboration Tips

Another tip is to go to the Project Ideas forum and post your idea and see if anyone would be willing to join or play the game before it's created. Best to have a well planned out project. Keeps vague collabs more specific ("Making an RPG!" is not very specific, is it a space RPG, a medieval, futuristic, etc?).  smile

Edit: I created a small tutorial on how to make a successful project. Could be useful for collabs too. http://scratch.mit.edu/forums/viewtopic.php?id=95003

Last edited by Magnie (2012-04-16 13:48:53)

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#14 2012-04-20 05:26:26

15matwal
Scratcher
Registered: 2011-10-12
Posts: 100+

Re: Collaboration Tips

Thanks!

Talking about advertising, I am advertising a colab, just click on the link underneath my signiture! You can have YOUR Scratch charecter in this fight for the finish!


Call me The Jazzyman, not 15matwal! Jazzyman Studios News!
http://i45.tinypic.com/nbu0lj.png

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#15 2012-09-20 18:47:15

littlemisschic
New Scratcher
Registered: 2012-06-28
Posts: 59

Re: Collaboration Tips

As a new scratcher, I really appreciate you making this list of helpful tips and advice. You have given me alot of great ideas to help me make the most out of any future collaborations! Thanks for the tips:)

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#16 2012-10-01 07:52:59

lolstudios
Scratcher
Registered: 2011-04-27
Posts: 4

Re: Collaboration Tips

ok lol thats alot of info:P


http://www.punbb.org/img/small_logo.png produce
tongue  Cant figure out how to really do thisD:

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#17 2012-11-05 04:13:56

snickergr
New Scratcher
Registered: 2012-11-05
Posts: 8

Re: Collaboration Tips

Hello. I just logged in. I want to make a project collaboratively, with my students. The are in different schools, so I need a space online in order to work in distance. Which way? Thank you!

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#18 2012-12-02 18:01:43

YMIBANWAH
Scratcher
Registered: 2012-06-26
Posts: 100+

Re: Collaboration Tips

A tip I think is good is to find lots of people to join, make sure they get along, and make a project that everyone wants to make. People will disappear if you don't have them encouraged to do stuff. Good luck to all newcomers.


Ingarts read it today!

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#19 2013-01-06 21:40:41

kayybee
Scratcher
Registered: 2009-12-07
Posts: 1000+

Re: Collaboration Tips

okay, hopefully not too long of a time gap. some more tips:
--communicate efficiently
try not to spend 50 pages every month chatting on your forums thread. you're just wasting time and being inefficient. I would find it better to use another collaborative program to work that includes the option to publicly show you have read something, so your forum topic doesn't get spammed up with "ok"s and more "ok"s

--there's no need to make it all formal
you dont need a president and a Vice President and a 2nd Vice President and a 3rd vice ... etc. it would make everyone feel equal that no one in their group "rules" over them.
you don't need a president just to assign tasks, if the programmer needs a sprite, they can directly tell the artists

--think about the collab
mentioned before, make sure you have time to join the collab instead of just saying so.

--filter through to find the best
say for some reason 30 people suddenly want to join your collab (this works for any amount extra). if you haven't already, make a sample work requirement. for scripting, it may be "build the wall-jumping engine" or maybe something easier. unless wall jumping is an important skill in the game you're making.
*****a good tip I sometimes use a lot: don't just ask for random samples; either ask for previous works or a sample that would be useful in the game, like one of the sprites, or the unique physics engine. esp. art, try requesting for a title screen or something, so you get a feel of how they would do and the style they use.

--do (not) kick people out for inactivity
first, if they just aren't helping or even showing up for a while now, do what you wish.
but, if they're slightly active but helping, don't go making a list saying "you're active", "you're partially active", "you're about to be kicked off", etc. if they don't want to show up they don't want to be in the collab. if they forget, they probably aren't committed. leave 1-2 comments on the projects as reminders several days before you kick them out, however.
just in case they have amnesia or something.

--take things one step at a time
okay. you're making this new collab right now.
DON'T EVEN WORRY ABOUT BETA TESTERS. OR ADVERTISERS.
Why?
because you don't need them. Yet.
most collabs don't get to that stage. worry about the project first, and once it's done, request for help.
but worry about the main, important jobs first. programming, art, music, etc.

I'll probably think of some more later.

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#20 2013-01-19 05:21:58

markbosell
New Scratcher
Registered: 2013-01-19
Posts: 2

Re: Collaboration Tips

Dinoclor wrote:

mmww wrote:

My collab (Shadow Hardware Inc.) has been very succesful and is also EXTREMELY possible.

Do you have any tips to give to other people in collabs?

Now a days younger generations  are comfortable collaborating on social networking  and because of this, they anticipate their company to provide cooperation resources and a very “social” atmosphere.

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#21 2013-04-21 04:42:49

kattenelvis
Scratcher
Registered: 2013-02-06
Posts: 100+

Re: Collaboration Tips

i have been wondering how i get in to the game. do i get a password or download it and send it or... how do i it?


http://i38.tinypic.com/35b8d4n.png

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#22 2013-04-22 12:14:09

kattenelvis
Scratcher
Registered: 2013-02-06
Posts: 100+

Re: Collaboration Tips

lol


http://i38.tinypic.com/35b8d4n.png

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