Would Like Some Team-mates!

Hi there!

I've allways wondered why indy-gamers don't cooperate more then they do. I mean, creating a game is a huge amount of work, and for a good game you need many innovative ideas, clever ways to code your ideas, and an artistic talent to make the game look good.

Not too many people got all that. With a team of three or four persons you could create a game in a third of the time it would take to create the game by yourself. Not only that. The game would be of much higher quality because everyone is doing what they are best at, and you would have three diffrent people to find bugs, coming up with new ideas and finding thigs that might be annoying in the game.

Now this is the case.

Now this is the case.

I've had the big game fever (http://www.create-games.com/article.asp?id=1760) for a few years now, but it's got better and better. What i've done now, is that i've gathered all the best ideas from my abandoned games, and written them down in a word document. The result is a five page long description of a game that, if it was created, would be one of the most innovative and complex indy games ever. I realized i won't be able to create it myself, but as a teamwork project it wouldn't be too overwhelming. Also, I was just about to start when i discovered construct, which made things a lot easier.

So the big question is; Would someone be intrested in working on a team project? I've got some people to help me allready, but you are the only ones who knows construct.

If you are intrested; tell me, and i'll send you the plans for the game!

Jonatan

I think a lot of indie developers work alone because they want complete control over their projects. If they're like me, they've had problems with the whole design-by-committee model. Too many cooks spoiling the soup and such. Not to mention people want to make their own ideas come to life, not necessarily someone else's.

If I found a project I was seriously interested in, and I didn't already have projects of my own brewing, I might consider working with a small group of people who have well-defined roles. This would mean that a sprite maker is a sprite maker, a coder is a coder, a music person makes music, and they don't try to interfere with each other too much. All the team efforts I've ever been a part of were total chaos with people trying to take on ten different roles at once, and no one could agree on anything.

Regardless, I do have projects of my own going right now, and it's hard enough to find the time for those, let alone a collaborative endeavor. Good luck finding people, though.

i can't commit myself to your project but i'm definitely willing to help out from time to time, i'll just need to know what you're trying to accomplish and i'll see what i can do.

Nice! if you give me your Email, I'll send you the plans for the game.

This isn't bashing you specifically, or anyone really, but a pet peeve of mine is someone with a "great idea" for a game, but not willing to learn how to make it on their own: so they gather team members to make their game for them, in the meantime playing inexperienced director. Is somewhat sad, mostly humorous.

I am "just an artist," but know a hell of a lot more than these random 14-year-old dreamers know about all areas of game development�and I'm not out looking for coders to make real my incredible game idea. My best suggestion to anyone excited about games is to read, read, read everything that persons in the industry have to say, read blogs on projects, absorb as much information as possible, and then consider your ideas. Plan it in excruciating detail.

It's just, not everyone seems so willing to gain an understanding of the process and demands (as well as compromises) before diving in. Pardon my unnecessary ranting, but. I mean, I suck at programming, but enjoy figuring it out to pull my own story and art together. The creation process becomes a hobby, not a chore or means to craft some game I myself wish to play: it is a game I intend to create and share.

all things are circumstantial and unlike most random 14-year-old dreamers, attan has already specified that he has documented a game proposal. some dreamers are willing to make full-time commitments to projects while others aren't but one can never know for sure until the end but that same process, whether completed or not, will help them learn so even if the dreamer is inexperienced, doing just about anything will definitely provide them some experience. everyone's gotta start somewhere! =P

some dreamers are willing to make full-time commitments to projects while others aren't but one can never know for sure until the end but that same process, whether completed or not, will help them learn so even if the dreamer is inexperienced, doing just about anything will definitely provide them some experience.

This is another reason I am hesitant to get into projects with people. I wouldn't want to work with someone who doesn't already have a body of their own work to show. Working with an inexperienced dreamer is a risk. You risk wasting time and effort on something that may never be finished.

As it stands, I myself am just an inexperienced dreamer. I've never completed a single one of my game projects. I don't even know if I'm capable of completing one, and I won't know until that magical day that I do. Until then I wouldn't expect anyone to want to work with me either.

Yeah, i understand what you mean. <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_rolleyes.gif" alt=":roll:" title="Rolling Eyes">

It's not that i don't know how to code it. Before i wrote an idea down, i thought about if it was possible to make or not. And i DONT want you to make the game for me! I love creating games, and i really look forward to doing this, but since it's such an extensive project it would take too much time to do it on my own. Please don't missunderstand me. I'm not trying to use you.

I think you would understand better if you read the plans, But trust me. I'm serious about this, and it's not something that just came to my head. I've been planning on this for a long time.

One more thing that makes me believe that this game will be completed is that i've allready got people to help me. About a year ago i joined Silvernova, doing the music for jamies revenge, and they will help me out with things, and two other persons eccept them have promised to help me. I just thought it would be nice with someone who knows construct allready.

I sent you the plans vinny! Thank you for not being so grumpy <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=":wink:" title="Wink">

well, if you don't start, you'll never finish! <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt=":P" title="Razz" /> better to actually have something than nothing, don't you think?

Yeah, and even if we don't finnish the game, we get a lot out of the trip! <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt=":P" title="Razz" /> But i really think (and hope) this will be finnished.

Edit: there you go! I forgot to klick the "send" button in Gmail.

Yeah, i understand what you mean. <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_rolleyes.gif" alt=":roll:" title="Rolling Eyes" />

Yikes, I hope I didn't offend you. I didn't mean to insinuate that you personally didn't know what you were doing, or that you'd never finish your project. I was just expressing my personal opinion on the subject of working with groups in general.

No you didn't offend me <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_cool.gif" alt="8)" title="Cool" /> That's why i wrote "i understand what you mean"

You have all right to be suspicious, as i don't have a body of my own work to show. The body of my own work i have to show is what's in that document of plans, the music for jamies revenge, and a bunch of engines.

What i do know though, is that every time i've worked in a group, i haven't abbandoned the project.

I do know that i've abbandoned most of my projects, but i also know why. The most common reason is that a new and better idea came to my mind. Another is that i've got just some weak fantasy about what the game should be like, but when i started making it, i realized that i really didn't know what i was doing.

I've guarded myself from these things for this project, and working in a team is like an ensurance that i won't give it up, since i don't want to abandon the others. But if you have bad experience from working in groups, I won't bother you <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_rolleyes.gif" alt=":roll:" title="Rolling Eyes" />

I wasn't being mean or grumpy either. <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_sad.gif" alt=":(" title="Sad" /> You sound very intelligent and confident, as well as realistic, so the negative perspective cannot really apply to yourself. It's just something I felt vaguely relevant and offered up.

It is much more exciting working on a project with a team, but only when each member is, with some amount of talent, contributing to the process. The opposite is sadly something too often encountered.

Not to say people shouldn't 'start somewhere'. But before trying to add to a team effort, one should have individual experience to draw from. One particularly disappointing example is, when a team of teenage dreamers were making their epic RPG and I was drawing/modeling some stuff for it, they went and recruited anyone and everyone regardless of skill level, as though they (the core developers) had no discerning eye at all. It rather disappointed me to find that, despite all the frontal semi-professionalism, the founders of the project knew approximately nothing about games and game development at all. The design document had a massive fantasy world described, but was vague on play and content issues; a strong starting plan and direction being so important, I couldn't help but feel it was a lost cause to try righting.

On the other hand, it was probably a lot of my being critical that caused myself to leave them. I did learn a lot about teamwork from that brief encounter, and if ever I would join a team project again, my perspective would be different and much more open, if always remaining skeptical at first.

i guess the problem with many epic projects is that people plan the story, and the world first. Well... that won't be a problem since i haven't planned anything about the story. It's five packed pages of gameplay.

What sort of visual style does the game demand?