I'd really want to see some more teams. Instead of people desperatly trying to finish off games on their own. I don't mean, teams made up of 18 members. It's like a little game for atleast 2 players. Humans, need support. Someone to kick your butt if you start slumping. Therefor I write this little post.

The key to a good team? The secret to progress? How to get the right people? Talents vs motivation? The last important question...

1. THE KEY TO A GOOD TEAM
Motivation. One of the keywords. Nothing can be done without it, since these are free projects taking up a lot of your spare time (i'm guessing). After awhile, in my solo projects, I start thinking "Man, 3D studio would be fun to play with." The project is forgotten (talking about solo-projects). However, if you have an daily active team you meet online, they will automatically be able to remind you that things are happening. A good team keeps themselves alive and active, and others alive and active. As a founder, I've never really tried to take control of team Lightcharm. I don't tell the character animator (Josh) what to do, he knows his job better than I do.
He has to be able to work solo in his area, but still keep himself in the team. I picked Josh by random, he's a great character artist and has taken care of a lot of things he doesn't even have to do. Searched artists, helped on ideas for designs and more. The members of Lightcharm, excluding myself, are the best of kinds I've ever met. We work on the sole purpose of Finishing Confluence, and doing it with style. My own motto is, "The game will be finished, even if I have to do it alone, in Qbasic and replace the characters with ASCII.". My hints when you choose team members, are summed down to this:
- Dedication
- Motivation
- Maturity

2. THE "SECRET" TO PROGRESS
Inspiration. The thing that makes you pull an all-nighter. You glance at the new map the tile-artist pulled out yesterday and start thinking how the scene would be built up, how the music should sound. Or, you make some music and when the artist hears it, he/she starts thinking what kind of character would suit that sad and lonely melody. The circle of inspiration has kept us alive many times when we were heading downwards. Never close to quitting, but we have our slumps just as anybody. We're working in a more steady pace right now though.
Another "secret" might be the constant work. I and Seung work at least an hour on Confluence daily as a policy. This provides us constant new material.

3. HOW TO GET THE RIGHT PEOPLE
Start advertising, tell your 'demands' and hope you get just the people you want. Become friends, talk for a while. Friends work better together than people who don't know eachother. The motivation in a project with people you don't know can very soon start dropping. Get to know the people you work with, learn how your schedules look. Organize a little. Showing organization (not strictly, just some kind of an organisation) is always attractive to people who want more serious game-making.

4. TALENTS VS MOTIVATION
Ok, there is sadly "lousy" skills and real wonderful talent. Like love, looks won't matter in 40 years, it's the ability to talk, the interests. Motivation is far better than talent, cause that person has the will to increase her/his skills. Always weigh motivation more than talent.

5. THE LAST IMPORTANT QUESTION
Why are you doing this? Most people will probably say "it's a dream i've had" or "for fun". A hint, don't shoot too high, set your goals short. Start with doing something little, then extend it. Confluence wasn't a GBA project from the beginning. Firstly it was a solo project I thought of, then I asked Afterglow (Josh) if he could do characters, since he is so great at it. He said yes and was intruiged, we increased in numbers and now we're doing great. Seung the wonderful writer of Confluence found my request for people on this board. Thanks to a very pro writer, Confluence story is going to move a lot of people and has that really unique and detailed story.

Why am I telling you all this? Have I released a game? Where is my credits?
I just hope you find something you can use out of all this.

I'd like to see more teams and less solo-projects dying.

Kind Regards,
Hampus 'zaril' Berggren.


PS. PANT PANT PANT DS.

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zaril@hellven.org - ICQ 7698022

TQFA is a great game! :D and I feel lucky to have been able to get to know you.

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zaril@hellven.org - ICQ 7698022

This was the first post i read in here, about ten mins after dowlnoading V2... and it was very inspring to know that people work together like that around here :)
Thanks for your words, Zaril. I envy you and your team ;)

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