Keeping the team .. From Start to Finish?

#1 A clear plan all typed out from start to finish with lots of details is a must IMO. Keeping everyone motivated will be very difficult without this because some people cant see the whole picture or timeline as well as others without a physical reference to view or review. Make no promises you can't keep. Do not hype your project, sell it. Look for people that want to work on your idea, take them before people that are just looking for work. Look for motivated and responsive people. An eager beaver will reveal himself quite nicely. Try not to take the best you can get as your hiring approach. Chances are your candidates are not going to be the terrific artists or programmers you had hoped for, so it's better to do some research on them and find the ones that show clear and definitive improvements in thier skills. Fast learners can become valuable team players and teachers. Meet each unseen pitfall head on and find the positive side of it to relate to your team. No matter how big the blunder there is an equally big lesson to take away from it, reinforce the lesson and downplay the mistake as "bound to happen sometime and could happen to anybody" and keep the group focused. Free up someones time. If you know that you dont need a programmer because everything is in good shape for a while till the artists get a couple of weeks worth of assets finished, let that programmer know that he can just sign off for the week and not even worry about the project any more than he want's to. Explain why he's found himself in a lucky position and encourage him to go have some fun. Coming back with a fresh head will make long hauls easier to deal with. Try to create some time off for everyone with your milestones. Having a set start to finish plan can be hazordous IMO because you start to get into schedule pressures and setbacks. Making sure there is some slack can make a big moral difference.


IMO there is no real set formula for a sucessful team up, but there are massive amounts of little tricks and learned experiences that can help you maximize your chances at a successful teaming. Read some horro stories from industry professionals. Take some of what they hate and make sure you eliminate it from your atmosphere. Overall, just remind your people how important they are, acknowledge work as it develops, and be open to other ideas. What will happen, will happen.


EDIT:
And here's a link I had planned to include, lol.

www.dexterity.com/articles/working-with-teams.htm

#2

Quote:Make no promises you can't keep.

I concur. The key to being a good leader is getting people to believe in you. Delivering on goals and promises is a sure way to do that.

#3 I disagree on delivering on goals. As a leader you have to set goals and have the team reach those goals. If your team has not reach those goals then the leader has to determine what is at fault the leaders direction or someones lack of effort in the team. If it is someones lack of effort it needs to be addressed quickly. If it is the leaders fault they need to look at the goal at hand and ask themselves two questions. 1) Is the goal realistic? 2) If the goal is realistic did they communicate with the team clearly what their objectives are? However, as a leader you need to share your vision and yes keep your promises whatever they may be.

#4

Quote:finding talent

Some of the best talents I've worked with for my current project I can only describe as having found them through luck, or better yet by THEM finding ME. Like attracts like; if you have talents to offer yourself you'll find people on the same level quite naturally.

Quote:and trying to make a game with no capital,

Frankly, this is a lame excuse. I've always been puzzled as to why people use this as something to keep them from pursuing their dreams (game dev or otherwise). More often than not, it's rationalization for sitting on their ass complaining that their "dream" game isn't being just handed to them. There's a quote that goes something like "You won't be remembered for what you dreamed or planned, but for what you did." If you want to do it badly enough, nothing should stop you -- certainly not a lack of funds.

An axiom that Jeff has always said is "right size your life." That's not only true after you're an indie developer, it's true on the way to getting there. I live very inexpensively and offer myself few extras in order to put every last dime into creating IP for my game. Admittedly, as a single guy with no kids, a good job, and financial discipline (rule #1: no credit cards), it's a little easier. But find ways to cut back -- or moonlight a 2nd job nights or weekends.

Even saving up just $50 a week is huge (quit [drinking/smoking/going out], find ways to cook healthy for cheap, take the bus, stop buying toys and video games, dump your friends that make you do only expensive things...). After a year you'll have enough to make a small game. And all it takes is a small game to get you on your way. From there, if it sells only enough to pay for itself, then suddenly you have a "revolving fund" to pay for your next game, and you can quit that 2nd job and relax your frugalness a bit. Eventually, if you're really lucky, you might be able to quit that 1st job too -- but as an indie, chances are you'll always have to be frugal.

You have to not just right-size your life but right-size your game. I've had to make so many trade-offs for features I'd like to have but can't afford, which is fine as long as the "core" features and gameplay fun is there. I can always add the goodies to the next version if the first version is even a modest success.

Quote:having team members scattered across this earth.

This is a legitimate challenge, and a second twist is if your team members speak various different languages with only moderately good English. Good communication will make or break your team. In fact, if you have poor communication, it won't even feel like a "team" in the first place. There are people with doctorates degrees in communication who've written excellent books on the topic, so I won't discuss it here. But if you have moderate to poor communication skills, you need to look into how to improve them if you plan on spearheading a project that requires anyone other than "you and your friend."

Quote:Then once you got a team how to keep them motivated.

This one is a no-brainer. Turn it around. When you join a team, what keeps you motivated? Obviously a baseline level of compensation is required, but that's only a starting point. When I'm working for someone else, what keeps me motivated beyond that is feeling like I'm truly appreciated, feeling like I have some direct involvement and something at stake in the bigger picture beyond my own small task, and having fun. It's motivating when someone is excited about your work. It's motivating to have a hand in how the final product will turn out. And fun is always a self-motivator.

That's my piece. It ain't the gospel, and I encourage you to find out the answers to these questions for yourself by diving in and trying it. Nobody ever succeeded by not trying!

#5 What I was trying to present in this thread was real indie issues. Example if someone wanted to make a game and has no money to offer talent, how to find that talent that will work for no money? Once a team is together what made a project fall apart? Everyone can say lack of communication, direction, or members of the team. The questions I would like people to answer is how and what ( How did it break down and what happened because of it). Was there a way to revive the team after a pitfall or was it to late.

Yes you have to be motivated. There is no question about that. I want to know what teams do to stay motivated. I want this thread to be helpful for beginning companies as well as established indie companies. To find ways to succeed and not get stuck in every pitfall, there is already so many issues that are involved with any project and to help out others so they might not make the same mistake that is what this thread is all about. I believe strongly that with good management there would be more success.

Even being payed isn't a motivator, I know every boss deals with people that they pay that only work 50% or less. Hopefully if they are good they will get rid of that person. I agree totally you shouldn't go I don't have the money I can't make my dream happen. That is crap thinking if you want to be a 3D modeler get Blender, if you want to be a texture artist great get GIMP, if you want to be a programmer fine c++ it is all free to learn. The internet is a open library.

I also want to know the success and what made the project come together and get finished and tips, tricks, and just good old advice. I fill that we are a community of people trying to find there voice for a dream wether it being a great programmer, an awesome artist, a terrific leader, or trying to pull a team together so that these talents can pull together and achieve there dream together. This is what I want out of this thread.

#6 I can see by your profile that you're relatively new to the GG community. Welcome!! It's great to see someone as eager and curious as you are.

It's been my experience however that there are no simple, specific, or correct answers to the questions you're asking. If you keep up with the forums and plans, participate in some Game in a Days, check out the Indie Game Conference, read some books on independant game development (not programming/art books, but specific to starting up/managing/etc), you'll get the answers you're looking for.

But it's a slow absorb from many sources over a great length of time, not something you can learn from one thread quickly.

Still, I'm sure others will chime in with some good advice.

#7 "how to find that talent that will work for no money?"

That question is easy to answer, you can't. The question is actually a flawed way to approach this issue. The real question is, how to find people that will work for "value". Nearly everything has a value, money is just another object that has value to us. Diamonds have value, books have value, knowledge has value. You need team members that understand the inherent value of ideas, value of their skills, and value in investing their time to capitalize on those values. People will do work as long as they see the value it's adding to their lives. There are multiple ways to capitalize on this as long as your mentallity is focused on what value you can build and not what cash you lack.

#8

Quote:You need team members that understand the inherent value of ideas...
People will do work as long as they see the value it's adding to their lives.
...[focus] on what value you can build and not what cash you lack.

Gonzo, you can talk smack sometimes, but other times you say things that are just brilliant in clarity. That was really well said. :)

#9 Gonzo .. that is what I want to see in this thread .. that is very valid advice and a awesome way to look at something besides dollars and cents.

#10 Yup, that was a good one. Very true from my personal experiances.

#11 Plan for turnover.

#12 Yeah, just in the last 6 weeks, I've had the following:

1 team member leaving due to an urgent personal issue
1 team member leaving due to an unrecoverable hard drive crash
1 team member disappearing for a week and a half due to internet downtime
1 team member's work being very late due to a family death
1 team member disappearing without a trace

and I still have another 2.5 months to go!

expect the unexpected -- and never assume the worst if someone does dissappear, you never know why and it could be out of their control.