I'm the CEO of Deputy Dog Games, and I'm making my own iPhone game. I need some help with it, and that's why I came here. I was just wondering if anyone would like to help. Here's the current description: Santa's Smackdown, an awesome new Christmas sidescroller exclusively for iPhone! Play as Santa, travel the North Pole, shooting down naughty elves, picking up powerups, and more! To be priced at $0.99-$1.99! It's a work in progress, and I'd love it if anyone could help out. I have lots of ideas and some drawings all ready for viewing if anyone is interested. This would not be a paid job, but all staff would get promo codes for the game, and be listed in the credits! Really think about it guys, I REALLY hope you'll help! Thanks!!!
Yeah hardcoregamer. I doubt many people would want to work with you, since it's not paid. You said some of them would be paid. This means you'll be keeping all the money? Seems a little unfair to be. I also don't see any part you'll be playing in building the app besides ideas.
I understand some people don't have money to invest and they want to keep it as cheap as possible. I also understand some other people work for free because this is their passion and they just love to do it/it's their hobby. In the past I worked for free to build my own CV, and I have to admit that have been helpful, but... there are many ways to offer this kind of job. Telling "it's for fun!" is not exactly the best way to explain. They could kindly explain that they're a small company and they're looking for helpers in order to grow their business and in the future, if everything is going to be fine, these people might be involved in other projects and be paid. I think THIS would be fair and kind. The way the offered this job make the message sound like "hey...we need a helper, but we don't want to pay for him because the work is so fun. Either we make money or not, the helper won't be paid". Sounds like they want to use a person, but maybe I misunderstood. Sorry for my bad English, I'm not a native speaker.
16 random people != 16 pro's but then again, you're not asking for pros. but then again, pro's get games done.
There might be a lot of things wrong with Hardcoregamers original post, but I will just chalk that up to inexperience. Everybody has to start somewhere. If the project succeeds, then great, you all learned something. If it fails, you STILL learned something (hopefully). Everyone has pointed out the errors in the OP. However, I think my biggest problem with the whole thing is the lack of schedule, lack of deadline, and lack of focus. Giving an unlimited and lenient deadline does not, in any way, increase productivity. Developers need to see a steady improvement in the game over time- THAT is where the fun is. Stagnation leads to disinterest. Those 16 people can very quickly decline just as fast as they signed on.
Oh, wow! Congratulations! Now your team can be compared to the ngmoco's team. Good luck with your great titles, guys.
I'm only 14 and this is my first game. I'm not saying it'll be perfect or sell more than 100 copies, but I'm just hoping that it'll come out as cool as I'm envisioning it. If I was ten years older, I'd be able to pay people, hire a coder, etc. But for now, this is what I have, and it's pretty great.
Well then all I can say is 'keep the dream alive'. This is more ambitious than most 14-year-olds. I remember being 14 and dreaming of making a game someday... Making something 'cool' or 'perfect' isn't nearly as important as actually FINISHING the project. This is why a lot of developers start small, and clone an existing game.
It's won't be that hard, we're doing a Christmas sidescroller, I just need to make a santa, a few enemies, and some animated sprites of Santa shotting all of his weapons. There will be updates. We have been in development for 2.5 weeks, and after two when I saw that me and will090 were the only ones working, I thought I would try and get more gelp. I'm gald that skipper wants to help. The hard part will be getting a programmer, but I am offering promo codes for the game and a ten dollar iTunes card, which isn't really enough compensation, but it's all I can offer. If you would do it for that Flickitty, let me know.
I'm 14 too, and I make my own games by myself. Even when I get an artist, I actually split the profits with them, cause I don't have money to pay. You don't have to pay them, you can always share the profits. I don't see how you can not pay them and keep all the profits. You seem like the idea guy to me. I don't think it's fair to give others all the work, keep all the profits to yourself, and pay them with 2 promo codes and $10. So wait, you have 16 artists and need to find a coder? Wow, what a game.
I'm assuming the 16 artists you found are the ones that you said just sorta stopped working. I don't want to just flame you, I want to help you. You should really listen to what flickitty was saying. "Everyone has pointed out the errors in the OP. However, I think my biggest problem with the whole thing is the lack of schedule, lack of deadline, and lack of focus. Giving an unlimited and lenient deadline does not, in any way, increase productivity. Developers need to see a steady improvement in the game over time- THAT is where the fun is. Stagnation leads to disinterest. Those 16 people can very quickly decline just as fast as they signed on." [They already did, lol. Sorry, I had to say that] I think if you started making more deadlines and telling people "okay, I want santa, and his reindeer done by thursday" or "we have to have all the art for this level by friday" instead of just saying "doodle and fun" they'd get more work done. And don't say "hey, do you think you'll be done with santa tomorrow?" Say "we need santa done tomorrow, does that work for you? If not we're going to have problems with the schedule." I've talked with a few of your longer lasting workers. They don't seem to think any of your games are going to be finished. If you started making a more organized schedule of what levels and characters will be finished when and you make an overall deadline I think people will actually think the game is going somewhere. I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but right now I don't think your games will go anywhere and I feel bad for you and everybody on your team for putting "so much" effort into it. I think if you take this advice you might have a better chance of getting your game into the appstore. And it might help if you sound a little more professional. You can be professional and fun at the same time, but just fun doesn't work. Don't be too fun or relaxed with somebody till they actually start doing work and meeting your deadlines. When I first joined your team you invited me to a chat room with a couple other members of the team. My first impression was all you guys do is goof off in the chat room. Make a good, professional first impression and save the more casual talk for loyal workers. Just want to help, don't take any of this personal.
Well I do give them deadlines and talk to them like human beings. Will, Skipper, and I are working the hardest. Skipper told me yesterday that he'd have Santa done by tonight. I try to have everybody do one drawing, in this case Santa. I then try to take good aspects of all of them and mold them into one, using the best artist to do it. I could give the programmer a cut of the profits, but cash in the mail doesn't work, and because of stalkers, sending a check with my parent's names on it isn't good either. I also don't know how PayPal works at all. I talk to all of my staff often, and try to give them encouragement. Some do work harder than others, I know and I try to treat them all equally.
Making everybody do a drawing just for reference is sort of a waste of time. There's no point having so many artists if you're not going to use any of their drawings except one. That will really turn them off.
I've only started doing that recently, and it works better than asking them for ideas, because no one ever seems to have any. Yffum, all you do is cause trouble, just stay off of this thread.
Yeah, you can't do it that way. You either have 15 incompetent artists, or you will very soon have 15 disgruntled artists. The ONLY way you can get away with this is if you paid them a salary- then they don't give a rats hoot if their art is selected or not. Who is the art director? I can tell you for certain that art direction is not about choosing the 'coolest looking' or 'best idea'. There are far more concerns: what will work in terms of animation, sprite size, palette, SILHOUETTE, etc. I emphasized silhouette, not only because I can't spell it, but rather because too many artists forget its importance and impact. If you don't believe me, think about your very favorite characters- would you recognize them simply by their silouette alone? Most likely. A unique silhouette will define your character. Stan Lee of Spiderman fame even supports the importance of silhouette. ALL the art within Flickitty is completely silhouette-based and is very near an extreme. It is very likely that my art wouldn't have been chosed, because it isn't cool enough, nor is the idea great. But thats why I'm my own art director and artist.
flickitty is totally right on every point. Every team needs a creative director. Someone who not only understands and directs the art but understands and directs the gameplay as well and deals with the programmers. Those 2 skills are absolutely critical to being a creative director.
