58
Aeron
7y

So, I was participating in a competition, but little did I know that you could only participate in pairs. Seeing that a lot of famous indie devs were participating I was extremely hyped. But since it seemed like I was the only idiot who didn't have a partner I felt like kicking myself. Then a guy about whom I had never heard of before, probably a newbie, comes out of the blue and asks me to be his partner. Since I had no choice, I reluctantly agreed to pair up with him. The rules of the competition were to create a game based on a particular theme in a period of 1 week. To get started, I asked him about his skills as it would be better to know what our strengths and weaknesses were. He said that he was good at art and proceeded to show me some of his "previous works". I was genuinely impressed. Honestly speaking his drawing seemed a bit off but was but for a newbie, it was good. So we decided that he would take care of the art and I would code, create some basic music (nothing too fancy because of the lack of time) and if time permits, refine his art(correcting ratios, colour combinations, shading, etc.). On the first day, he would like to work in privacy and would show only the finished products to me. It seemed a bit fishy, but hey, I am all up for respecting the wishes of fellow team members.
So all was going well, or so I thought, till on the fifth day the guy confesses that he didn't get shit done. Apparently, his "previous works" were random stuff taken from the great land of internet and that he had to leave town the next day. He just wanted to "experience the life of a game developer" and "meant no harm". I flipped out, half lectured half screamed at him then asked him to get the fuck out which happened to be the only fucking thing that he was able to do correctly. I thought for an hour or so, then contacted the staff and informed them about my situation. They said that if I was okay with the handicap, I may continue. I then pulled three all nighters with about 3 hours of sleep (that too in parts of about 1 hour) everyday and was barely able to submit my game on time.
I secured the fifth place, which was pretty good if I may say so myself, but it an important lesson in my life that taught me to never trust anyone blindly.

Comments
  • 5
    Nice story, and welcome to devRant!

    ...yeah, we've all come across those 'freeloaders' at some point.

    Just remember to never give away your work to someone in your team or to your partner. One guy once joined my team of three and got 80%, just because there was a free seat available and I decided to accept him and get him 'up to date'.
  • 2
    @cst1992 I do agree, but the thing is, in my case the rascal promised to do something, but didn't do shit. Heck if he would have said that he wanted to fill in and do nothing, I would have agreed due to the circumstances and would have been on hyper drive mode for the whole duration of the competition, but since I was depending on him, he actually did some damage as opposed to free loaders who are just extra baggage.
    If you want to free loaders, just say so. Don't make fake promises. I ain't saying that free loading is okay, but rather if you get a choice between free loaders and uhh... fake-promisers? Ah I got it! Insurance scammers, choose free loaders. But the best thing to do is not to repeat my mistake and get all necessary information before hand so you can properly plan and choose competent people.
  • 1
    Lol congrats dude! I'm an app developer and I swear artists and graphic designers are the hardest ppl to work with. I gave up and decided my shitty graphics will eventually suffice. +1 for taking matters into your own hands!
  • 0
    Nice rant. In most scenarios I tend to let things slide but what a pain! Tough luck. However, I bet you learned a lot from the experience!
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