What kind of game? Indie? Commercial?

For an indie game, you MIGHT be able to get people to help you build the game you design. It would have to be a pretty cool idea though and you'd need to be mighty persuasive.

Commercially, you'll have a terrible time finding a company willing to pay you to come up with game ideas since everyone who plays games has game ideas. I've seen some game companies who look for sucessful novelists when hiring game designers. That might be one venue to take. Just write a few great novels and get them published.

If you just want to make a game alone, you could look up some of the game maker programs out there.

I should also mention that modding a current game is a great way to express your own ideas. I'd definately recommend Unreal Tournament 2003/2004 since 3DBuzz.com has a ton of videos that show you how. You may at some point have to learn some basic programming if you get into unrealscript, but there's a whole ton of stuff you can do without it.

Quote:No, but you need to be conversant with the limitations of programming to be a productive game designer. That, or have a really close relationship with a game programmer who understands you and can constrain you when you're too far "out there."

And it also lets you know when a programmer on the team is being lazy by telling you that you're going to "far out". I've come up with a few programming concepts which helped convince the coders ;-)

If you are an "ideas" designer, you will get nowhere as most people have ideas. However, if you have a full design document that is coherant and interesting you have a chance of becoming project lead.

I know this, as I am a designer who is leading my project. I also do a lot of 3D art, music and some coding, as well as most (at the moment, though we are looking for scritpers) scripting.

Personally I think someone who is an "all round" sort of guy, as well as a designer should be the lead of the project, as they have the skill needed to intice people in all areas. Basically it comes down to how you present. No offense, but having a name like "w1cked" us not a good sign of you being professional and mature and that your project is likely to get far.

If you want to get people to join your team, it is good to get a grasp of programming, art and music - on a small level, so that you know what can and can't be done. What it really boils down to is how you present and lead your project.

Quote:Original post by w1cked
How big is the chance of gathering a team of Developers of all kindes? Where to get help doing this?

The chance of developing a team based solely on an idea is quite low, but it can be done if your idea is good and you put in some work.

Firstly, you'll need to present your idea well. You need to be able to show other people exactly what your idea is, and make them want to help develop it. You can do this with:
-Concept art
-A design document (check out the articles here)
-A prototype (probably beyond you at the moment)

You of course can't present your idea well and get people excited about it unless it's well thought out, and you've got a lot of the detail figured out. If you've looked into creating a design document, you've probably realised you may need to flesh out your ideas a bit. GDNet can help you out here. Check out some of the articles on the subject, and discuss your ideas with others in Game Design (this forum!) and/or Writing for Games, as appropriate.

Ok, so you've polished up your ideas, and you've created a good design document, and maybe even got some concept art done. Now you're almost at the stage where you could try to recruit a small team. The only problem is that when you say you've got good ideas, and show them off, people will still ask "but what do you DO?" If you learn some very basic programming, some very basic graphics, and maybe even some sound - basically a bit of everything, then you'll be in a better position to try to hire. You've got ideas, and you've got just enough skill to know they can actually be done, but you can't do them by yourself. You've got some basic skills so that you can help out, and because of what you've learned, you're easily able to talk to programmers, artists, etc - you know what most of the terms they're using mean now.

At this stage, you might actually be in for a chance. Create a basic website showing off what you've got, and make a post in Help Wanted. Make sure you read the Help Wanted FAQ, follow the relevant rules, and use the posting template found in this thread, or I'll have to be nasty and yell at you to fix it. [wink]

The Help Wanted FAQ also has a section down the bottom linking to some articles that I consider recommended reading. I especially recommend the ones on recruiting and working with a team, and highly recommend the others as well.

Hrm, that got quite long... Ah well, there you have it, my guide to recruiting a team with only an idea. [grin]

Hope that's of some help, good luck with it. [smile]