Team and Asset Requesting

The world of the independent or hobbyist game developer is a strange and often lonely one. The majority of people who program or create media often do so on thier own. However, as any beginner will tell you, designing and completing a game is quite often to much work for just one person, mainly due to the multi disciplines that go into games creation. And the requirements for a good all around game at the end of the project are slowing getting harder to achieve for a one man/woman team, especially if the end goal is something marketable.

In order for a game to be sellable, it will often rely quite heavily on graphics and sound for the end product, yet these are completely different skills than programming. There are several options open to a programmer that requires media, such as graphics and sound.

1) Try to find already existing free to use media. This type of approach hardly ever yields results that will perfectly match your game.

example: http://www.planetquake.com/polycount/

2) Buy previously made material. There are often alot more choice if you are willing to spend some money to buy a pre made pack of artwork or a single model. But again, they might not fit your game well.

examples: http://www.turbosquid.com http://darkmatter.thegamecreators.com/

3) Commission an artist to create the art, paid on a per asset (model or image) basis or for a set of media. This option can yield some very good results, and also some very bad results, so it is always good to check out the artists work done for a similar type of game. This can also get quite pricey, but you will most probably get exactly what you want

4) Team up with someone of complimentary skills. It is very common for indie developers to start a small team, maybe one or two artists and a programmer, and if the team is kept small and in good communication then it can be very practical and fruitful.

Although it is best to try to find a team or artist in your local area, more often than not it is just simply not practical or impossible, so setting up an 'online' team via a forum is an alternative. However to get a good and committed team you need to word or phrase the request correctly.

A) Always check the 'Terms of Service' or 'Netticate' of the forum, different forums have different rules regarding team or media requests.

B) Write in proper English (or the national language of the forum), not in '1337' or 'txt' speak.

C) Clearly outline the idea behind the project or reason for getting the team together, be as detailed as you can, there can never be enough detail. Don't worry about anyone stealing your idea, because it should be far beyond just an idea before you post it.

D) Never try to get an artist from the absolute start of the project. If you are a programmer then only attempt to form a team when you have nearly completed the main engine coding and at least half way though the actual game code. The best artists are always in demand and have been around for a while, and know that more projects fail than get completed. If you need 'art' for your game before this, go with option 1, or just use 'programmers art' of cubes, spheres and 2D stuff skribbled in MS Paint)

E) Give a brief introduction of yourself, your background, how much of your time can you commit to the game etc.

F) Show examples of previous work (especially completed work) and a playable build of your current project (this can be sent privately if you don't want to publicly show it, but publicly showing screen shots will help alot). If this is your first project, then don't try to get a team or artist. Program a few smaller games before starting a larger one that will require a team.

Hopefully this will help you to 'fill the gaps' of your own skills.

Thank you.

Chris Bate www.chrisbate.com