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[Runefrog]

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[Runefrog]

Anyone interested?

[starsrift]

Game ideas are not even a penny a dozen, nevermind a dime.
Skilled people who can execute them are rare. Making a post like this is like walking into a writer's convention and telling everyone you have a great plot and characters, all you need is a writer, an editor, and a publisher to make your novel. If you want to make this game, you're gonna have to learn how to do some - or all - of it.

You are likely to receive much ruder responses.

[bjadams]

i'm afraid i have to agree with starsrift here.

i'm a programmer myself and have 100s of game ideas. the hardest part is not executing them, but finding the right partner to do the art in the proper style.

[Giaddon]

Runefrog,

It's extremely difficult to attract talented implementors with an idea alone. Game design as a discreet skill isn't really recognized (and hard to demonstrate in any case) and while no one bats an eye at a screenwriter or playwright looking for actors or set designer or whatever, a game designer looking for programmers and artists will be ignored. Basically, those programmers and artists probably have their own ideas for games, why should they implement yours?

Fortunately, implementation is easier than ever! Tools like Unity make the basics of putting a game together fairly straightforward, and there's a huge community eager to teach (like this very board!), and artists who give out assets for free.

So my advice is: grab unity, grab a book on game logic/design, and throw together a prototype! It's not something you'll do in a day, but with a little bit of discipline, you'll have the skills to create your own game! 

[Wilson Saunders]

Your design sounds very similar to a Ludum Dare project called "DownGrade"
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-26/?action=preview&uid=17604

There are probably many differences between the idea in your head and what the guy who made DownGrade executed.

Also don't expect other people to do the tedious aspects of game development so you can do the fun bit. Generally art, programming, and level editing is very tedious. Where as dreaming up new features is a lot of fun.

[louisdeb]

What every body else said. Shame how many times this has to be re-itterated.

[Runefrog]

I understand what everyone is saying (repeating) but I feel like you're mistaking my intentions. You seem to be getting the impression I'm looking for a get-out-free card where I can put my feet up and watch everyone else do the hard work.

The truth is the opposite. I've seen some teams form on these forums, not much different from myself, and this is an opportunity to make a game with possibilities of forming a small team (hence why I was originally seeking UK-based creators).

I don't have anything visual or a demo to show, but the same can be said for a small team looking for a dialogue writer or actors; they're pitching with what they've got and wouldn't be satisfied to 'do it themselves'.

This is a collaboration forum, not a tutorial DIY forum, so I would like to hear from people who are interested and not people who think they are helping. I'm grateful for what's been said but I'm acting on advice/career guidance I have received from others prior to my GDD.

[wccrawford]

They're not misunderstanding at all.  They not accusing you of being lazy and trying to get others to do all the work.

They're telling you that *everyone* has ideas and you need to bring more than that to the table if you want to make a gamedev team work.  Money is another possibility, but I wouldn't generally consider it wise to fund your first game out of your own pocket.  It's smarter to learn a skill (programming or art) and do part of the work yourself.

It's really hard to bring a team of 2 together.  A team of 3 is way harder.  And that's assuming that the 3 of you can somehow get everything else you need, like sounds/etc.

[Whiteclaws]

Why do you think artists and programmers will work with you for free when other people looking are looking for them constantly?

Face it, everybody can come up with the most amazing ideas ever, but achieving them is the hard part, and you are asking other people to do that job for you for nothing...

Those team you are talking about have talents you don't, like programming or art, +we don't need you, you need us, so that's not the same

Also, you call yourself a writer\designer but I want to see experience

[Runefrog]

I'm not denying everyone has ideas, I encourage everyone to do something about it. That's actually what I'm doing now. I'm making an active step to find interested collaborators. Your input isn't welcome if all you can do is show no support, I can find that on anywhere. I didn't quite expect it from a community that is supposed to nurture creativity, especially in this industry.

I'm trying to get the experience to show you. What do you think the game design document is? I'm trying to build a tiny team to demonstrate my ability to direct people to create a coherent fun game.

You're right; I do need people like you, like programmers and artists, but you can't say you don't need writers. Show me something you've written and I can critique with certified professionalism.

All I'm getting from this so far is cowardice. It's like a fireman turning up to a burning building and saying he can dowse the flames but doesn't. You keep telling me you're all skilled game makers, but unwilling to put those skills to use when an opportunity arises.

I encourage you all to make your own games, but ignoring ads (whether free or paid) seems like a contradiction to me.

Anyway, the roles are still available if anyone is interested. 

[Whiteclaws]

That's the deal, it's sunflowers and rainbows on your side and nothing on ours, we get nothing from this collaboration, you are asking experienced people to work with an amateur that never made a game and wants to boss around to show off that he can boss around, and this is support.

You could keep this thread forever, but i doubt you'd get experienced people working with you,
as they say so well, you get what you paid for...

Opportunities rise like flowers in the spring, as I said, a programmer could find a secure paid job without much hassle around here, artists are also looked for a lot, you just don't understand that we need to pay our bills and rent every month just like you ...

And I don't think a small indie studio would need a writer, we already are on a tight budget and we know how to write, DIY

Anyways, I suggest you volunteer in a few projects and get some experience, or get a job and release some games, otherwise, good luck at finding people interested in you ...

[Sub]

I'm not denying everyone has ideas, I encourage everyone to do something about it. That's actually what I'm doing now. I'm making an active step to find interested collaborators. Your input isn't welcome if all you can do is show no support, I can find that on anywhere. I didn't quite expect it from a community that is supposed to nurture creativity, especially in this industry.

I think you're receiving push back because it doesn't seem like you are doing something about it.  If you're really serious about creating games, you need to actually learn how to program, or how to create art, or sound/music.  A person dedicated to only writing/designing is quite simply not needed for small scale projects.  It comes off as someone attempting to get others together to build their game for them, without them doing any of the heavy lifting.  If you do happen to get on a team without one of those skills, I can almost guarantee that you're going to hit some resentment from your teammates eventually.

There's room for your role in major studios.  Not so much on the scale that you're talking about here.

All I'm getting from this so far is cowardice. It's like a fireman turning up to a burning building and saying he can dowse the flames but doesn't. You keep telling me you're all skilled game makers, but unwilling to put those skills to use when an opportunity arises.

I encourage you all to make your own games, but ignoring ads (whether free or paid) seems like a contradiction to me.

It's not cowardice.  It's quite simply the fact that people don't think you're bringing enough to the table to want to collaborate on something with you.  You need to learn a skill, and that's the end of the story.  This stuff is entirely learnable by anyone who puts their mind into it.

[Kingel]

There's room for your role in major studios.  Not so much on the scale that you're talking about here.

This. However, even AAA teams who hire specialized writers rarely seem to give those writers creative control.

The quality bar for writing in indie games is set very low. Most players are going to care a lot more about the gameplay, art and sound/music than the writing. It makes more sense for a small team to let someone already involved handle it, and then, if necessary, use a friend, relative or paid editor to do editing afterwards.

The team I'm currently a part of actually consists of a programmer/coder, a pixel artist and a sound tech. Of course there are other tasks, but we have to divide them up between us for a project of this scope. When all the remaining work is assigned to existing team members, there's no room for a specialized team member whose sole task is writing. It seems counterproductive that this is the type of team you wish to recruit.

[bjadams]

I think one viable & very realistic option here is to save some money and use that to hire people to work or your project

[Runefrog]

That's the deal, it's sunflowers and rainbows on your side and nothing on ours, we get nothing from this collaboration, you are asking experienced people to work with an amateur that never made a game and wants to boss around to show off that he can boss around, and this is support.

You could keep this thread forever, but i doubt you'd get experienced people working with you,
as they say so well, you get what you paid for...

Opportunities rise like flowers in the spring, as I said, a programmer could find a secure paid job without much hassle around here, artists are also looked for a lot, you just don't understand that we need to pay our bills and rent every month just like you ...

And I don't think a small indie studio would need a writer, we already are on a tight budget and we know how to write, DIY

Anyways, I suggest you volunteer in a few projects and get some experience, or get a job and release some games, otherwise, good luck at finding people interested in you ...

I knew I'd be butting heads making this thread but it was a shot worth taking.
I do pose one question for you though: How is me volunteering to join a project as a writer any different than me seeking other volunteers as I'm doing now? All I've done is reversed the recruitment process.

Anyway, I'm going to call this one a day. I haven't got the money to be paying for professionals. I wasn't looking for pros to start with, I was hoping interested collaborators/volunteers would get involved. That backfired, obviously.

[matwek]

I do pose one question for you though: How is me volunteering to join a project as a writer any different than me seeking other volunteers as I'm doing now? All I've done is reversed the recruitment process.

If you join a project and work for free, you're essentially a stone filling a gap in an otherwise working wall.
You on the other hand are asking for several people to help you build a new wall from scratch.

[Kingel]

I haven't got the money to be paying for professionals. I wasn't looking for pros to start with, I was hoping interested collaborators/volunteers would get involved.

They don't have to be professionals. The point is, if you can't do a large share of the amount of work required by yourself, you'll need to offer something else in its place.

You have writing. You could do marketing as well, maybe? Anything else you can add to that will make it sound like a much better deal. You don't necessarily need to get into an entirely new field. The important thing is to do something that will considerably lighten the workload for the rest of the team.

If you don't wish to start out that way, you could offer your help to existing teams instead. Showing specific examples of your work and your ability to work with others will make it easier for you to later recruit a team for your own project.