Making A Mega Campaign

[Wild Bill]

Since so many of you have gotten into the Mega Campaign scene, I thought I would share what it takes to put one of these jewels together.

Constructing a Mega Campaign has been one of the most difficult tasks I have ever undertaken. Perhaps you would like to know something of the process.

Step One: The first step is David Heath and the Matrix Staff in picking a theme and the ideal person to coordinatge the campaign creation and development.

The person then chosen begins by looking for the best designers and testers he can find to work with him.

Step Two: Once a team is formed, the leader of the project must be sure that every member of that team understands what is being done and what is expected of each one.

Step Three: An outline of the project would be next, picking the battles of a particular area and time period that adeequately portray the action. This takes time and quite a bit of research. Team Captains and members are urged to do some reading also and get their own background on the subject. Preparing the outline and the flow chart for a mega campaign takes time...a lot of time.

Step Four: Scenarios are assigned to the designers. Each is given a list of the scenarios he is to do. The size of that list will depend on the time and the ability of the designer. The team captains also beginning assigning scenarios to be tested by the testers.

Step Five: Simultaneously, the Project leader, while keeping up correspondence with team leaders and members and in addition to his own scenario work, is continuing to research, looking for ideas for articles pertinent to the subject at hand.

This means many more hours of reading, then writing, then correcting, spell checking and putting literally dozens and dozens of documents in order.

Also involved here is looking for and scanning dozens and dozens of pictures, sorting them renaming them, cropping them and then turning them into lbm files.

Step Six: almost simultaneously the project leader is working with the musicians and artists who will be doing the title page, the special medals and awards pages, the campaign maps and other battle maps. Then there are the sound files, so very important to the campaign. We want to be sure they are done properly and provide the proper ambience to the campaign.

Step Seven: The testing and retesting of all the scenarios continue. Designers receive reports, adjust scenarios and send them out again. WHile this is going on the project leader is sorting the articles and the pictures and then placing them within the mega campaign according to the nodes. This is a much laborious process than what you might think. The names have to be typed in exactly as they are. One letter out of place and the MC won't find them.

Also during this time the project leader is writing at least six text files for each node. That includes the intro file and the five result files. That means that anywhere from 300-600 text files will have to be composed, written and checked. This is in addition to the other documents that are included with each node.

Step Eight: The finalized scenarios begin to come in, they are put into the Mega Campaign. Collating all of this material is a monumental task...no way to describe it.

Step Nine: Now that all the material is finally in place, we have to see if it works. That means testing the campaign as a whole. A few hearty individuals again volunteer this arduous task.

Further corrections are done as the reports come in. Pictures that don't appear, articles with mistakes, nodes that don't follow the proper sequence, all of that has to be checked.

Then one day, one glorious day...it is done, or as done as we can make it. With great apprehension we send it to Matrix. Now the real test will come. The gamers will have it in their hands.

All those many hours of work have come to a point of no return. I assure you that this is a rather unnerving experience. Will they like it? Did we do it right? Does it work okay? Will there be problems?

We do everything we humanly can to eliminate any difficulties and then prepare for the worst.

Telling you all this is not a cry for sympathy. We do it because we want to do it. I just wanted to give you an idea of what is involved in creating and producing a mega campaign.

Its always a relief and a pleasant surprise when the gaming community responds as you have done.

Thank you very much. you great gamers make it all worthwhile for me and the teams with which I have been involved in creating MCNA and MC-W. We appreciate all of you.

Wild Bill

[Phil]

Thanks for that explanation Bill. I thought it was a long process, but I didn't even think about the pictures of medals, music and sound bits. Heck, 300 text files alone is daunting.
Well I know that I'm not the only one that appreciates your hard work. The Mega Campaigns I have purchased have been well worth the price.
Tell me, for the guys involved, is this a full time job or is this being done in addition to other full time jobs?

[Grenadier]

A great description of the process, but you did forget to mention the hair lost from tearing it out in frustration because you typed ONE wrong letter in a photo or document or scenario name in the Mega editor and taking the hours to find that needle in a haystack or the huge accont at Starbucks for coffee by the drum:D

Not to mention the time taken to write up the documents and the photo captions for the documents section and the time taken to scan the photos and then convert to LBM format and the time to write for permission to use the excerpts from the various book and website sources and the time to retrain a new team captain beacuse you lose one and then to train another one because the 2nd one was taken away to another project by the Fuhrer...Oh, I forgot, that didn't happen to you;)

Then there is looking at the scenarios to make sure they are the latest version and the parameters have all been met for the design...
Not to mention the galloins of Visene for the incessant redeyes:D
and the nights sleeping on the couch bgecause you worked too late to go to bed without waking up your spouse and in the morning getting the lecture "you were up how late working on that damned game?":eek:

[Wild Bill]

Touche, Grenadier! I stand corrected

It's a bitch to do, but boy do you feel good when its done!

Wild Bill

[WhiteRook]

Amen!

[AbsntMndedProf]

Thanks for the background on making an MC WB! Just having played the three SP:WaW MCs has given me a deep respect for all the folks who put them together. It is evident from the care that went into them that they were indeed labors of love. Bravo! I'm just sorry that there probably won't be any more SP:WaW MCs. I was rather hoping for a folllow up to MCNA or MCLV. Perhaps when Combat Leader comes out, a CL follow up to MCLV could be done. (I hope!) Matrix blows the mega-game companies that have bought out the older game companies like Avalon Hill and ruined them, IMHO.

Bravo!

Eric Maietta

[AbsntMndedProf]

I meant to say that Matrix blows the mega-companies away. Somehow I forgot to add the 'away' part. Sorry! :rolleyes:

Eric Maietta

[Bernie]

Bill, you didn't mention the whippings....?

[tmac]

to me, being a history buff, extremely well read and always looking to learn more, especially about WWII. I can empathize with frustration of finding a needle in haystack and deadline pressure, but I'd love to be involved with something like this. Is there an application/waiting list for us newbies? Or do we just have to prove ourselves through gameplay, scenario design, or intelligent postings until one of you old salts decides we might have what it takes, lol? Let me know,
Tim

[Bernie]

Originally posted by tmac
to me, being a history buff, extremely well read and always looking to learn more, especially about WWII. I can empathize with frustration of finding a needle in haystack and deadline pressure, but I'd love to be involved with something like this. Is there an application/waiting list for us newbies? Or do we just have to prove ourselves through gameplay, scenario design, or intelligent postings until one of you old salts decides we might have what it takes, lol? Let me know,
Tim

Actually, I think the process is pretty much automatic, like getting a draft notice, or jury duty summons. I think it gets triggered by your 1,00th post.

[tmac]

was that 100th or (shudder) 1,000th you meant Bernie? The former I have a chance,the latter won't be until a year or two from now.

[tmac]

I'm still trying to lose this **** "recruit" label I've been pinned with. Whats that take?

[Bernie]

Originally posted by tmac
I'm still trying to lose this **** "recruit" label I've been pinned with. Whats that take?

About 30 seconds...to go to your "User CP" and change it in your profile with a custom one.

[Jim1954]

tmac, you may not be able to change that name in your cp or maybe not. Long ago it was an option, then it went away, then it came back and I heard that an upgrade or so ago, it dissappeared for new users that didn't already have it as an option. All you can do is try it and see. If you can't change it, post a lot more comments and it will change. That's what the default is tied to, your post count. IIRC it changes at 50, 250, 1000 and if I ever make it , 2500.

[tmac]

lol, ok, I'll try both. I plan on being around here alot longer

[Orzel Bialy]

that I figured it took a lot of effort to make a MC...now that I am actually helping out on one...that should be changed to "in awe" of what it takes to make a MC.

My hats off to all of the people who have worked on and co-ordinated the prior MC's. I can appreciate the effort you all put in now that I have been experiencing some of it myself!

[tmac]

I'm in awe and I've only just starting playing my first. I echo what Orzel said.

[KG Erwin]

I was one of the relative newbies to the MC team who, through fortuitous circumstances, was asked to volunteer for this latest Bill Wilder effort. Of course, I leaped at the opportunity, and I'm learning just how intensive and how interlocking all of the various sub-teams are in seeing this project come to life. I'm starting to get a feel about how complex an actual military operation is to plan, much less execute successfully. Most if not all of us have real day jobs and families, and admittedly it is stressful. I'm just a writer, not a scenario designer or tester, but Bill thought enough of me to ask me to participate in this. For all of us, it is a labor of love, but it does require much research and "stick-to-it-iveness." For me, personally, it isn't the success of the venture that will be most rewarding--I regard that as a given. The most rewarding part is getting to know and work with this immensely talented group of individuals.

[tmac]

thanks KG, best of luck to you and the whole team, and I look forward to experiencing the fruits of your labors. Maybe someday I'll get a chance to contribute to everyones gaming experience like you guys are currently getting

[KG Erwin]

If you have a desire to get into this business, then start writing or designing scenarios. New talent is always needed in the wargaming field. E-mail me privately and we can discuss this further.