[Tips] For those who want to start a team

[tomsamson]

This should become a thread with tips for people who want to start a game dev team, add any suggestions,i´ll link to this in the Readme


Ok,so let´s get rolling:

-First of all: Make sure you yourself are absolutely convinced of the poject and want to stick with it a longer timespan

-If you want to create a team coordinated over the web,for most game types, its a good idea to have at least 1 member of the team dedicated to one game dev area:
You´ll at least need one graphic artist,one coder,one musician, one game/level desginer,a creative director and a project manager/executive producer; unless you choose people which are skilled in various areas and have enough time to also work on things in those various areas.

This is a difficult to balance point, on the one side it gets more difficult to manage a bigger team and also various people working in one field may need more time to find a common sense/get their part coordinated,on the other side its hard to find people which are really skilled and experienced in various fields and also have time to fully deliver all parts the member for that area should deliver)

-vey important: think which of those tasks you can do.
Seriously.
If you want to work in one of these areas you should be skilled enough to handle it on yourself. If you aren´t skillled and experienced in any of these areas, rethink if its not better to not try to get rolling with a team.
You should be a good team member just like you expect the others to be ones.

You should for example not attempt to do the Project Lead/Coordination position if you have no experience in that field at all.
(better apply for a position you can do better then or go ahead and finish one or more smaller games on your own ahead)
Clearly state what you´re good in/want to do; if you have no experience in any of the fields make sure that you state you´re a beginner and want to start an experimental thing with learning aim among beginners.

-Make up a concept and game design doc for your game. Sure your team members can all give their input but beeing able to show you thought propperly about the whole thing and have some good ideas will motivate people.

-Don´t raise the bar to an unrealistic height:
You´re just starting out in game development? Then don´t start a gta or (mmo)rpg project with the aim to finish it. That´s just examples, generally speaking: Don´t try to create something which is so far out of your available time and skill scope that you´d have no idea where to start with it, what to do next and when it could be finished.
(Again,if you clearly declare something as experimental learning project in case its something you´re not sure you can do (or where you´re actually sure you can´t complete it thinking about it in realistic way), say it and you may find fellow newbies/learners who´re into for fun experimentation.
If you declare something as serious game project with aim to finish it,it should be something that can be achieved,otherwise you and the team will be disappointed afterwards. People are also not into joining into things which sound unrealistic right from the start)

[Squize]

Nice tips blue ( Be a love and re-edit it with some white space in there though, it's a bit text heavy, those words need some room to breath )

"Make up a concept and game design doc for your game."

Hmmmm I wonder if I should post the Sumo Smackdown GDD up here, if anyone would find it useful ?

Squize.

[tomsamson]

Nice tips blue ( Be a love and re-edit it with some white space in there though, it's a bit text heavy, those words need some room to breath )

haha,ok,will do

"Make up a concept and game design doc for your game."

Hmmmm I wonder if I should post the Sumo Smackdown GDD up here, if anyone would find it useful ?

Squize.

would be nice,yeah,but better once the game is sold

[VENGEANCE MX]

Nice, very good tips. Was wondering: how is Stimunation set up? Who does what on the projects, who gets the clients, etc.?

[tomsamson]

glad if its liked and even more if it helps
Stimunation was started as coop by several single fk members and dev teams a good while ago after they worked on some games together and wanted to join forces some more.
Initially , and for a long timespan, it was a freetime thing as some members were students,others employees at some design agencies and yet again others had an own biz running already.
Meanwhile SN biz is doing well enough that we´ll soon (in October) turn it into a fulltime thing so that at least the core members will work fulltime on SN stuff.
We have two main ways of money making right now:
1) One of the teams creates a game on own will to their liking,once its done we licence it to multiple clients (or a single one if that one pays enough)
2) A client orders a specific custom game tailored to his wishes. Those members who suit the project and are into it work on that and split returns.
Any of us can get a client, i´m the one who does the regular daily client talks though.

There are several teams and brands made up each by 2-4 sn members,for most projects we make up a custom dedicated team for that project though.

[VENGEANCE MX]

How many members are in Stimunation?

[tomsamson]

14

[guiaki]

hum , if i want to make a game team , i'm post in games section?

[tomsamson]

yeah,you can post about such things in the game forum, not inside this thread though. This thread is for giving people tips.

[J-Rad]

-Dont be bossy. You have to at least consider other peoples thoughts and opinions for a team to work.

[random10122]

The biggest tool i can recommend using is an SVN client and CVS server.

The difference it makes to larger projects is huge. The main advantages are:

- If a team member updates code you get notified and asked to download the latest version
- It stores all previous code copies in individual revisions
- You can highlight all the changes which have been made in any revision
- If two people work on the same file at the same time it can smart merge the two, this usually works but can be reverted and done manually if required.


You can get a free CVS account (with limited space) here:
http://cvsdude.com/

And a free SVN client here:
http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/

The few hours you spend setting it all up is more than worth it.

[VENGEANCE MX]

There's a Mac program called SubEthaEdit which lets multiple coders type into the same file in real-time, and it highlights the parts that each coder has done. All done using Rendezvous/Bonjour, Apple's no-setup-required networking system.