Starting a Development Team - Calling all Developers Thread

Hello all,

I'm Derek with GameSomniac and I'm putting together a dev team. I've decided after countless hours, days and months of searching the internet for work with Dev teams that just isn't there, I'll start one. I've seen many others in the same position as I on these forums and this thread is a call to arms for all of you. Send me your best work, resumes, send me messages telling me what you do I'm looking for awesome people with a passion to make video games just as I have. Even if you're not in it for the long haul but are willing to help on a project, send your stuff to me, let me see what you got. I'll start first, I'm an audio engineer with 8 years experience in the field. I have a bachelors (BS) in the recording arts and much like any other audio guy in gaming I specialize in sounds and music. I've worked on three independent titles, one was simply a custom Unreal Tournament map called "Red Square", the other was a game that 5 strangers and I created in 24 hours for the 2013 Click Jam Competition and the final project was a 14 track OST I composed for an indie survival horror game her on indiedb called "Slender Memories" the game currently resides in development hell however I did release the soundtrack myself.

Included is my portfolio where you can find samples of my works including other projects I've done such as video editing, graphic art and more. (MY PORTFOLIO)

Thanks for taking the time to read and consider this, I hope we can get started on something soon.

- D.B.

Edited by: GameSomniac™

I feel there are a lot of missing details here...

Putting together a dev team to work on what? Where do you see the team going in the future? What kind of games will you make? What engine will the team have to use? What platforms will the team's games be targeting (pc, console, mobile)? What do you anticipate a typical development cycle to look like, 6 months, a year, 2 years? Are you making 2D games or 3D games? Do you want a pixel artist or a realistic 3D character sculptor? Is GameSomniac a registered company or just a name? Are you making commercial or non-commercial games? How will profits be divided up? Is anyone getting paid? As a sound guy are you looking for someone else to be the game designer and come up with concepts and mechanics?

One thing I will answer now as I can see it may cause confusion, when I introduced myself as "with GameSomniac" I wasn't referring to a company or dev team, that's something else completely different and has no bearing on this discussion at all WHICH may have been the root of your reply this entire time. Now with that said and forgive me if this comes off as rude but seeing that the main focus of this site is video games and the fact that I made mention of video game development It kinda sounds by context clues that I'm starting development team for gaming. Secondly, You want details that don't yet exist. These are questions you would ask a team. There is currently no team, I could tell you what I want to do but why would I recruit other developers based solely on my wants and interests? That would restrict the building process. Everyone has their own areas of expertise, they all have their own style. For example "What engine will the team HAVE to use?" - The team isn't being forced to use any specific software, they will use whatever engine they are all mutually comfortable working with. We will do whatever works in the beginning and then focus more on future goals and where we're headed when we're established.

Obviously with the question "Putting together a dev team to work on what?" I was looking for a more specific answer than 'video games'. Believe it or not when people put a team together they do it with some idea of what they plan to create... they try to rally potential teammates around a concept that they believe in. People here want serious and structured ventures. What if one guy wants to make a 3D racing game and you never envisaged wanting to do that? You should at least specify whether 3D or 2D and a genre, or as a bare minimum what your favourite type of game is and what inspires you to be doing this.

I don't want details that don't exist yet I want what should have been your thoughts on what you want to do with your life and with your team.

I guess when you're just the sound guy you don't really give a damn about all the technicalities about how a game actually gets made and just talk down to people.

Nobody cares about your tea-party, come back with an idea for a video-game and some real, solid plans. Otherwise, you're bluff.

It sounds more to me like you guys want a safe bet, you want something you can just join in on half way through rather than put in for the long run when unfortunately that's not always the case. This isn't my first rodeo, I'm sure you can understand if I'm not just willing to share all of my plans with every person who comes along. I'm not here to waste time with passerby's exchanging life stories which end up leading nowhere I'm looking for a team of dedicated people who know their craft that are ready to dive into a project and WORK. Now HU-LA you speak for everyone on indiedb apparently and yet you don't even seem to understand what it means to recruit a team. Naturally people interested in said opportunity would want to know more and venture to ask questions themselves which would inspire further conversation between both or multiple parties which then puts us on the grounds to proceed or part ways but like I said you guys want a sure way in, not much for working towards something.

Bottom line is I could give you a promise land speech and tell you the same thing everyone else does. "We're going to make this game and that game and we're going to be big and pitch our games to all of the major platforms" But nobody is looking for bullshit. If that's what you guys need then god bless. I'm giving people the chance to come into a team with an open mind where everyone is starting at the same time. Those who want it will find this thread and those like you who are clearly not interested will just talk.

Okay, so entertain us with some genres you think you'd like to be developing games for. Which would be the first and for what platform? What engine do you see yourself using and what are you most familiar with?

You need some kind of plan. That's like wanting to start a band without knowing what kind of music you want to play. You'll get nowhere.

And btw, it's far from a safe-bet. Nobody's asking you to talk BS, we can smell it from a mile away. But come a little more prepared.

You're not the first person to have their ass torn when posting a crappy thread, wanting to develop a game or start a team. Get over it and go to the drawing board.

Edited by: dreamland85

We're looking for a safe bet? hahaha. There's no safe bets in indie development, this is months of our lives we give up for passion projects essentially.

And mate let's be honest, joining with you could never be a safe bet, all you do is provide the music. Games are made by an artist and a programmer, that's how something that looks presentable and is playable comes into being. Obviously sound is an important part of a game but it's relatively minimal effort.

Ideas are a dime a dozen and worthless until they become something, you not sharing things and fostering trust isn't endearing you to anyone. No one is going to steal your ideas, people inclined to copy take proven and successful ideas.

dreamland85 is asking questions that you're going to get all defensive about like 'what platform?', 'what engine?', and you're getting all defensive about it because you aren't actually the person porting to any platforms, or using any engines, all you do is make music, so you don't care. You're a glorified ideas guy in this little scheme with a high and mighty opinion of yourself.

Dismissing us and saying our questions are not valid is completely stupid since we're part of the audience for this thread and we had legitimate enquiries, we're also actually game developers who know how to run a project. You're asking people to commit to literally nothing, there's just you (no one else, no vision, no assets, no concepts, no thought put in shared), and you know nothing about making a game, that much is clear.

GameSomniac™ wrote:

It sounds more to me like you guys want a safe bet, you want something you can just join in on half way through rather than put in for the long run when unfortunately that's not always the case. This isn't my first rodeo, I'm sure you can understand if I'm not just willing to share all of my plans with every person who comes along. [...]

Bottom line is I could give you a promise land speech and tell you the same thing everyone else does. "We're going to make this game and that game and we're going to be big and pitch our games to all of the major platforms" But nobody is looking for bullshit. If that's what you guys need then god bless. I'm giving people the chance to come into a team with an open mind where everyone is starting at the same time. Those who want it will find this thread and those like you who are clearly not interested will just talk.

The majority of the people in the recruitment thread, who are looking for work are mostly interested in a project that's close to the finish-line or even already available for the audience. People want to contribute their work to a project, but it's not just for the sake of contributing, they want their work to be used and seen. That's why people don't join just any team, but rather the teams that leave a professional impression.

You have to offer some kind of payment for the people, who you think should join your ride. If there is no monetary reward involved, you have to think about something else to pay them with. Those people are investing their time into your project so what's in for them? For most non-budget projects it's about getting your work to be seen by a wide audience and being a part of an awesome project, which many people will play. But if you are not offering any kind of safety, you are pretty much asking for an all-in. Why should anyone risk that?

Asking for people who are passionate seems to me like you're just looking for people whom you don't need to offer anything to, because they are all driven by their passion anyway, right? That's a big mistake though, people who are passionate don't just join any project either, they are still looking for some kind of safety, too. They don't want their time to be wasted either.

You are saying that this is not your first rodeo, but I highly doubt that your other rodeos were led by you. You've probably contributed your music to other projects, but you haven't built your own project yet. I'm not trying to offend you here, I think it's awesome that you have already contributed your audio to other projects. However, leading a development team is something critically different and a skill in itself. It's not something people just have. Just with any other skill, you have to gain experience in the field to get better at it.

It was already mentioned that your way of dealing with the comments here is not really the way to go. These people are trying to help you and yet you don't show any kind of thankfulness. Your passive aggresive way is not going to get you very far.

GameSomniac™ wrote:

Secondly, You want details that don't yet exist. These are questions you would ask a team. There is currently no team, I could tell you what I want to do but why would I recruit other developers based solely on my wants and interests? That would restrict the building process. Everyone has their own areas of expertise, they all have their own style. For example "What engine will the team HAVE to use?" - The team isn't being forced to use any specific software, they will use whatever engine they are all mutually comfortable working with. We will do whatever works in the beginning and then focus more on future goals and where we're headed when we're established.

Those are not questions you'd ask a team, those are questions you'd ask a teamlead. And yes, you would restrict your building process, but you need to draw the line somewhere. Just recruiting anybody and saying that they can work with whatever they want is not going to work out. Every game engine has their pros and cons and every game can be built in various programming languages comming with various pros and cons. You're mentioning that you want to do just whatever works in the beginning and then focus more on future goals when you're established. How is that ever going to work though? What are you going to do with your group of people who joined you? Since you're just looking for anybody, they vary in skill level and tools. What are you going to do with one programmer who only knows Java and another one only being experienced with C++?

cheers.

Edited by: iqew

I could echo most of the comments, questions and concerns others have already posted, but let me try a different approach: (Asking questions that will speak to different desirable qualities a team leader should develop.)

1. How long were you part of each of the projects you mention, and the works you show on your profile? (both in overall, and specific time spend) Commitment, Discipline, Time management

2. "Slender Memories" seems to be archived on both moddb and indiedb, to what degree were you involved in this specific project? (what roles and interactions did you frequently have with the team members? Teamwork, Communication, Engagement

3. In any of your experiences and these projects did you take a leading role? Responsible for overall vision, organization, tasking, scheduling, and morale? If so, how so, if not, what do you expect from leaders for you to perform at optimum efficiency? Leadership, Management, Workstyle

4. What kind of people do you tend to work well with? And those you don't? Personality

I don't really expect you to tell us all of these things, but you should be thinking about these kind of habits and behaviors.

If this isn't your 1st rodeo, show us what you've learned in the past, so we can consider trusting you with our future.

From a brief look at your portfolio, I get the feeling you prefer the horror genre, I can understand the importance of staying open minded, and adaptable, however, without clear goals of what you wish to accomplish, with actionable documentation, your not ready for a team, let alone leading it.

We're here to help make sure people understand what kind of commitment game dev really is, and although I hate to say this, as the audio person, your job only comes into play after a majority of the art and coding is nearly complete. I'm not saying you or any audio person doesn't work equally if not harder on mastering his/her craft, as we all do, but know your place.(It's all in the timeing)

TBH, I don't currently know any gamedev team that has an Audio person as the project lead, I'd think it just has to do with the nature of the job, although audio does interact with all departments, to varying degrees, it usually doesn't have to deal with the details of Art and Code, beyond animation and importing into the engine. As others have stated, those fields make or break the game, hands down, where Audio gets the job of bridging that gap to make sure everything flows to the ear, so there is little or no dissonance.

At worst, inconsistent audio, becomes annoying, or frustrating, at best, it's heralded as what makes the game.

Exploring those emotionalaties, and both being part of what is noticed, and what is not.

Your task is crafting immersion.

Getting in at the ground level is a good thing, but there needs to be a house, a room, or at least blueprints of what we are getting into.. (In all likelihood you'll spend a few months in preproduction, regardless of what you do.)

It's fine for everyone to start at the same time, but they need to have a good direction and concept of what they are starting

For example,

A few weeks ago, I saw a very similar thread on here, person was less qualified, but said basically the same thing, "I want to start a team, yall should join, we'll figure out what we're doing once I have a team"

No details, that's it, that's not enough I said, we need a few of ^, or a least start a GDD, he said, he wanted to create it with the team, I said he wouldn't get a team if he didn't create it, he repeated himself. (few days later, he announced he was drafting a GDD)

I told him, He's essentially going to the trouble of scheduling and inviting people he didn't know to a meeting, telling them all, they would figure out what the meeting would be about once everyone got there. And then I said, unless he has free food, no one will dbother to reply let alone show up.

So, ditto to you.

Edited by: GeneralJist