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[MrMoxie]

I've been interested in game design for a while, I've participated in ludum dare and even made a simple android game that's free on the google play store. But I have an issue which is that I can't do art. I've tried to take on every part of the project I can, but it feels like the only really successful indie devs have at least a 2 person team with complimentary skills. So my question is: how did all of you meet your respective teams?

I want to do more game development but I feel like I need to find a collaborator of some kind because it's almost impossible to do everything in game development by yourself.

Sorry for my first post to be a bit on the whiny side, I love games, game development, and for the most part game developers seem like really swell people, I'm looking for tips on finding people to collaborate with? Or if I have most of the idea for a game (aside from it's look) should that just be a commissioned job I pay for rather than looking to find a collaborator or forming a team?

[Triturus]

If you have a prototype with placeholder art you can post about it either in the Devlog or Collaboration section and ask if anyone would like to help with the art.

[MrMoxie]

Well my Ludum Dare entry this time around is the inspiration for a fuller game I intend to work on but I think I should probably get the code much further along before I start looking for art collaborators, right?

Also just in general: people who have small teams with which they develop their indie games, where did you meet your team?

[MrMoxie]

I'd really like hearing stories, did most dev teams meet in school? Game jams? Just friends who all liked programming? Or was it through various projects they all happened to join in on?

[ANtY]

I've met my programmer friend back in middle school

and I've met my artist friend at work in the gamedev industry

[Gatlink]

All the people I work with are friends I've met way back. I find it hard to work with strangers outside of jams, as people tend to get less involved...

[netravelr]

Aside from my industry work, the artist I work with now we met from me commissioning her. On chatting we hit it off, and she was really interested in making games, I'm  a programmer so... it worked out.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i met mine on tigsource, livejournal, and the ohrrpgce game-making community. basically you are saying 'i have no friends who make games'? then make friends with people who make games!

[Whiteclaws]

I've met him here on Tigs after showing some people my prototype

[SundownKid]

I tried for a while to find someone remotely interested in making games, but I failed. Still, I just hire people who I need to make the game.

The one time I did collaborate with someone for a small game, I met them at Indiecade when I was waiting on line and decided to chat with them, they turned out to be an artist.

[Captain Uzi]

Just me and one other guy right now, used to be 2, and we all met in the same place, but meh.
We all met on a General Computer security forum. The admin was an ass, and he disrespected most members and regularly annoyed us. Eventually we all got bored of the forum and annoyed with it. One of the people (who is now still part of the team) started trolling the forum until he ended up the most negative repped user, and was perma-banned. I also made another friend on there who was a game dev, and moderator on my site. The admin didn't like me and that I had a site, and so he banned me and the guy who was a moderator on my site. Interaction kind of died off with the other guy, although I still see him on steam and skype every day, but with the guy who trolled them, I still talk to him every day, and we still plan to make our own games. He's also the guy who introduced me to this forum.

[Artoodiitoo]

I happened to move in the same town as an old friend of mine, and since we were both developing very similar things we thought might as well make it a joint venture.

[Venomlemon]

I guess it's bit like finding a partner, you never know where you'll meet up! If I were you I'd pitch my game idea, maybe playable demo/alpha build too and see if anyone wants to collaborate. Personally I have horrible past experiences from collaborating with people and this is why I chose to go alone with my current indie project. However there's alot to be gained from collaborating with people with similar skills on their own field.

Maybe find gathering or community nearest you and attend some meetings? If there is non, see if you can start your own

[spookgoblin]

Currently, my whole team consists of people whom I know on a personal basis.
My co-writer/level-designer/voice-over director is my best friend from high school.
My character artist is my cousin, my environment artist is her classmate.
One of the animators is another close friend from high school and the other animator is my brother-in-law.

While from a preliminary artistic standpoint, we have a well-oiled machine, without a programmer (or programmers), we're hurting--or at least we will be.  In that respect, this topic also interests me since we're thinking about branching into the online community for help in the technical department.

[ericmbernier]

I met mine over on the FGL forums. He posted some of his art, he seemed like a cool guy, so I sent him a message, and we found that we worked well together.

If you're really stuck on finding a reliable partner or two, try making a solid prototype and share it with the ones you want to work with. The worst they can do is say no, and then you just have to ask someone else.

Lastly, I'm not sure of your portfolio, but if you can afford to commission someone to work with, that might be the easier route until you prove to prospective partners that you can finish games. Good luck!

[Cenovis]

I found my coworkers (and my current working position) through a Meetup group I've created last year. As the organizer of such group I would definitely recommand you to check if there exist any Meetup developpers group arround your location as they are, usually, a really nice place where you can meet interesting people and do some networking.

[Devr0s]

For my personal projects I met my coder/partner at a skills-swap (was for procedural generation in Unity) held at George Brown college here in Toronto (in other words go where other game devs hang out - IGDA, schools with game design programs etc). For my day job a friend from way back was doing service work for broadcasters, we ran into each others and I interned for his company while in school.
Best way is to get involved in the community in your city (if you are lucky enough to have one). Good luck!

[Bobert]

my co-writer/co-designer is a close friend i met online a few years back. he actually started roleplaying as the villain of my previous game on an awful dating website for shits and giggles and in the process managed to come up with a lot of good ideas that got worked into the game's dialogue. sometimes he understands the details of my ideas better than i do. so i decided to hire him

[benjonesdesign]

I met my dev partner through my workplace. He was mucking around with some particle effects and I put together a quick screen to go along with it. Since then we have released our first game and working on many more!