New Project looking for Contributions.

Shay

Ok so I have a sci-fi project that I would like to start on. I'll spare you the details of all the ground-breaking features and the usual "awesomnest game of all times ever"

I am no artist(not a good one anyway). I can't draw concepts, I can't model. I have a semi-fleshed out story, ideas for characters, and some solid gameplay ideas and am working on implementing them into the game engine I plan on using for the project.

So my question to you guys is. What can I do or show you, to get your attention over all the other "Free Projects"?

Joao Sapiro

content

Shay

My point exactly.
What is a non-artist going to show?

Our plans are to create a tech demo of the combat and character progression system to kick off the project. If someone could play a demo, ignoring the placeholder art, would that be enough to show that we are serious, and attract some artists?

Cubik

Yes.
A working game - graphics + decent gameplay = way more than what 99% of the requests here have or ever will have.

aesir

Heres the type of thing that attracts inexperienced artists: "We're making the most ambitious gaming experience ever created in the history of man"

Heres the type of thing that attracts more experienced game artists: "We're making a small, simple game with some very cool gameplay mechanics. We don't need too much art, but we want it all to be very polished."


Everyone making these game projects seem to freakin over ambitious. You plan out a game that needs so much art that it would take a professional team of 10 working full time, 2 years to make. You want my advice? Come up with a very cool, polished, SIMPLE, idea.

Shay

Ok, so I will post a formal recruiting thread when we get that finished.

While we're on subject though. Is this why "mod" teams seem to recruit talent much easier? Because they have an engine of a game to build from and they know that part is out of the way.

aesir

Well, its certain that mods are easier to make then full games, and very few people want to join a project when there isnt even an engine to export into. However, if you have already coded a good deal into the game, you can usually find recruits pretty quick. The real problem is whether or not the recruits are any good.

Jarrod1937

[ QUOTE ]
Yes.
A working game - graphics + decent gameplay = way more than what 99% of the requests here have or ever will have.

[/ QUOTE ]
my request has graphics, working gameplay (to an extent), working lan and online capabilities, part of the indepth gameplay implemented... all our team needs is another artist to do the rigging and animating for us... yet there are no replys to the request topic i made.
i am thinking these forums are excellent for improving your character modeling, but is not the best place to look for help (unless you're paying).

Joao Sapiro

who will help you if you dont have anything to show ?

Jarrod1937

[ QUOTE ]
who will help you if you dont have anything to show ?

[/ QUOTE ]
is this a reply to me or the original poster?
if it is to me,i gave a link to our site which has tons of information on it (including about a large amount of bits from our design doc), screenshots of the working ingame gameplay, images of our already existing character and head models, and a lot more. excuse me if i didn't give a download for a demo, but just like large companies we will not release a demo unless we have reached atleast a somewhat polished state, if i release a demo of it now you'll get a large amount of placeholder models since our main content is yet to be imported into the game.
however if this is a reply to the original poster, then i agree, he hasn't shown anything, which isn't enough to persaud any artist here.
however in reply to the original poster, if you want to get our attention make your design doc available by download for us to see, perhaps show something working in the engine you have made, or even release a demo of it displaying a model, just give us something.

Shay

I wasn't really asking for help just yet. I was asking what artists would like to see before getting involved with a project. I am currently working on the game features and have my character controls working the way we intend them to work. Still have a lot of features to implement though.

Thanks for the feedback everyone that posted. Hopefully others looking to put together a team can get some info here that they need to get their projects rolling.

jec1183

Artists are a bit fickle when it comes to posts like this. A way to bridge the gap you need to show certain things.

Screenshots: Why is this important? One it gives us a clear view of what you are trying to achieve or have already achieved. Second it shows us that you have working code done and that you have coders team members can count on.

To often mods and personal projects get started before any coders have agreed to the project. Artists will come on board and after a month of producing content will see none of it in game because there are still no coders.

Sound Plan: Just because you are creating a personal or mod project does not mean you can not have a detailed plan of how things need to get done. Do you have a the necessary game documents to keep everyone on track? All of these are issues artists want answered before commiting time to a project. If none of them can be answered then there is no point for an artist to join you because they will be wasting their time and effort on one of the thousands of projects that stand no chance of making it.

If you want artists to join your cause show three things.

1. Game Document: Written plans from pre to post production.

2. Screenshots: Show us the direction this thing will take.

3. Video if possible: This shows us that your code is working and tells us how competent your team already is.