Invite and/or collaborate with universities

[Dade]

Hello community,

I've recently remember about some news I read much time ago related with new faculties establishing in my country universities (Spain), fully dedicated to games development. From a quick search, I've found the following:

• DigiPen (in english)
• ESNE
• Universidad Complutense de Madrid
• Universidad Complutense de Madrid - Máser

I am not aware if this has become common on many other countries over the years, but it may be useful to get some extra pair of hands in the development and artistic design of 0AD by collaborating with this particular institutions. I am sure it would be a nice curricular achievement for most students and an opportunity for 0AD team.

 

[wackyserious]

You can also try to contact De La Salle University Ubisoft recently established a studio here in our country, and has partnered with the university to create and offer a new major in their computer science program, which is video game development.

Edited April 3, 2016 by wackyserious

[AtlasMapper]

@Dade: I think it is really a wonderful suggestion. It is also close to a recent post (about 2-3 weeks ago, can't find the post, the search limitations is annoying) about a group of student eager to offer their help on 0AD as a part of their school project. I am sure many student would love to help 0AD this way. Also, art students maybe (visual arts, music schools) ?

[niektb]

@AtlasMapper: Could it be that you mean this one?

@Dade: For students we probably need some kind of mentors. I'm not sure whether these are available (that's also the reason that 0 A.D. never participated with GSoC)

Edited April 3, 2016 by niektb

[Dade]

@wackyserious thx

@AtlasMapper Here in Spain, there are not much art faculties using software design tools as far I know, but of course it could be interesting if that's not the case in other countries

@niektb I already tough this could have not be done early because of some sort of problem or organizational issue. I guess mentoring is a time consuming task but we could assist in something to make it easier for mentors? Also, what happened to that group of students?

[FeXoR]

In general there is nothing wrong with university/school projects working on 0 A.D.

If they come here, ask for a task or choose one and work on that and seek for help in #0ad-dev that's fine.

However, in general it's not that simple as the school likely wants to have some feedback about the progress/quality of their students work and a mentor to guide the students through their task.

 

There are several difficulties involved when it comes to 3rd party contributions like those of student projects IMO:

- New contributors in general need time to get familiar with the code base needed for the chosen task

- You usually have a limited ammount of time to work on a project (that may be nearly up when the participants got an idea how to fulfill the chosen task)

- Mentors need to be familiar with that codebase, too, meaning they could likely get further within a given ammount of time not mentoring

- The mentor has to actually have the time/will to guide the participants through the project (which might not be available in the first place)

- We had some bad experience with students not actually working at the task/disappearing (That is no harsh critique, just the outcome - maybe they underestimated the complexity of the codebase or the workload - I don't know)

[Dade]

Sorry, been busy this last week.

Thx @FeXoR for taking your time to explain this points, which were in my mind at the time of writing but wasn't 100% sure until I read you and @niektb.

As I can see, maybe this kind of proposal could rise with a bigger core dev team, when the game is in a much more stable situation or with a clear non-fundamental feature developement.

[VladimirSlavik]

My 2c: Just asking for / accepting students won't work.

School work is about having explicit, rigid goals and structure so that the work and progress can be evaluated and graded. Supporting materials are available, covering all the expected problems, and there is someone to consult with, whose job is being there for you. You know where you start and where to go.

Open source is generally a chaotic movement in the general direction. When you have time and motivation, you help pushing, when not, you are not needed. Information is scarce and you are expected to look yourself before asking, since no one is compelled to take care of you. You do what's fun for you.

These are two rather incompatible cultures. Usually you need someone who dedicates himself to taking care of the students - and screen them to get rid of these who would sink like a stone without constant support. In the best case, a student already taking part in an open source project decides himself to try getting credit for cheap out of his hobby.

[Stan`]

Back in Coventry early this year I gave reference to this project, so we might see some students coming by next year.