I was very lucky in finding this website because I believe I could really benefit from the knowledge and experience of the people in these forums. I have several questions concerning starting a development project with little previous management experience in the field and also virtually no experience in any process of actual development. I first got into this sort of business joining a modification team for the source engine. I had no previous skills when I entered into the project, I wouldn't of even been there unless it was for my friend's interest in doing concept artwork for the project and me being the only person he new with a broadband connection. So when I wasn't uploading his artwork to the svn I just had allot of spare time to hang out in the dev forums. After proving myself in a few weeks I got the management role and re-wrote the design template for the game (actually there was no design planned up until then which was sort of sad). Shortly after that I decided to leave the project due to the immaturity of some of the key members that would not stop fighting with eachother. Awhile later after tracing out a very basic design document and grabbing some web space I began my own source modification project called Black Helix hoping that the skills I developed with working with these kind of people would help me in finding proven development members. I couldn't of been more wrong, aside from my artistic friend and one other person who showed great enough interest in the project to make a professional website for it there was no one devoted or professional to keep it going. Those that did offer to join disappeared almost immediately and produced no work and those that where actually of a professional quality refused to take me serious since I had no actual in-game development skills. So the project came to an end. Now this is where I want to ask for some advice: Am I more then likely never to find someone of any professional degree to help since I am worthless to the game development process? Or is there a specific method of finding candidates that I should take since having none of these skills that seem required of a project leader? I am fully confident in my abilities to coordinate such a project and I had the imagination to come up with a fun, yet thorough and well balanced multiplayer game design but will this be even enough to draw the attention of a serious modification developer? I would appreciate any advice anyone has to offer, even if it's telling me to go learn something about development before starting such a project (which I assume will be among the majority of the answers to the thread).

Quote:Original post by Narkolepzy
Those that did offer to join disappeared almost immediately and produced no work and those that where actually of a professional quality refused to take me serious since I had no actual in-game development skills. So the project came to an end.

This is very common in indie game development - people tend to get excited about working on a neat project, but when they discover that there will actually be hard work involved they lose their enthusiasm and disappear. Professional quality people realise this and generally won't work on someone else's project unless a) it can be demonstrated that there is a good chance it will get finished or b) they will be getting a paycheck from you.

Quote:Now this is where I want to ask for some advice: Am I more then likely never to find someone of any professional degree to help since I am worthless to the game development process?

I would appreciate any advice anyone has to offer, even if it's telling me to go learn something about development before starting such a project (which I assume will be among the majority of the answers to the thread).

A good bet would be to work on your skills (coding, art, music, etc - whatever you're interested in) and finish a small project on your own. People aren't going to join your team or want you on their team unless you have something useful to contribute. It will take some time, but if you're persistent you can develop those skills.

I know, it sucks - but that's reality. Ask yourself this: would you want to join a team that was led by someone who had little management experience and virtually no actual development experience?

If you are interrested in joining/starting open source projects you should check out sourceforge. They are hosting thousands of projects. Many of them are well known and professional. They offer great services like website, cvs and compile farm for every project.
They also have a service where developers can join existing projects, or advertise for help to start new ones.

I wasn't offened at all by your comment cgame. I was planning on taking a programming class (or atleast buying a few books) just so I can have a better understanding of how to set up a project's agenda, development timefram, and to also understand the point of veiw of the programmers working with me. Actually I hope to learn a little bit of everything (in my case Valve's hammer editor and 3dsmax) to have a better understanding of everyone working with me then focus on which area interests me the most so I can be a valueable asset to the others.

It sounds like Narko has the most importans skill already... Not beeing distracted by ice cream all the time. Have you done any UML? It could serve you well as a planner/organizer.