[Jon Alma]

Despite not having updated the Legends from the Lost Realms website for ages, work on the game has been continuing (latest addition a nice set of dungeons to wander through). Unfortunately, mainly due to changes with my (real/day) job I don't have quite as much time or energy to devote to development as I used to. This combined with the huge amount of content that needs to be fed into the game (something that I seriously underestimated when I started this project) means that I am beginning to look at different ways of organising development.

To explain, up until now this has been a solo project where I've worked on developing the code, creating the 3D models and other in game art assets and on creating the game quests and storyline (in other words do the equivalent of Morrowind or Oblivion with a team of one!). However, I simply don't have the time to work on everything and get the game finished within a reasonable timeframe. Instead I would like to concentrate more on getting the game engine completed (not too far off) and filling out the main story arc while seeing if I can collaborate with other people on for instance better animation of the character models and creation of side quests and other game content (or even in the extreme introduce alternative storylines and parallel game worlds).

The problem is that this remains a hobby project so the ability to pay people for work is limited to non-existent while at this stage there are no concrete plans to turn this into a retail title of any form (so discussions around revenue-sharing would be vague at best).

From experience what would your view on this be - is there any chance of getting other people involved 'just for the fun of it' or because it would give other people access to a solid (if still incomplete) RPG game engine they could use for their own projects (building up community content and code as we go along)? Or if the best approach is to pay/revenue share people are there any best practices or useful advice to take into account? Finally are there any particularly good online communities where I could post requests for help (for instance in adding art assets or creating new parts of the world)?

Any ideas you have would be most welcome - before I get going on another development phase I would like to have a clearer idea of how to prioritise what I do and stop trying to do everything at once!

Cheers,

Jon.
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Legends from the Lost Realms

[DeveloperX]

As a man in somewhat the same situation, and having dealt with these problems for quite some time now, I can offer a little advice.

Take these statements with a grain of salt, as I am neither the almighty expert on the topic of discussion nor do I claim that my methods will work for anyone.

With that out of the way, lets see if I can get my tired brain to help. :D

First off I believe that a solid project management work ethic is important to completing anything.

Secondly, to answer your question of if there is any chance to get people to join your cause without monetary compensation, I can tell you that it is possible to recruit people if you are willing to share enough about your game project's details to get them as excited about working on it as you are.

This is key: if you cannot get others at least as excited about your game as you are, then the project is condemned to fail.

You don't have to pretend that your game will make a profit, nor fill people's heads with false hopes of making any money at all on your project. (which, honestly, it is very unlikely to make a profit with games in this day and age - with a few exceptions of course)

Be open and honest with the people that you are trying to recruit, and do what you can to get them as interested in seeing your game finished as you are, and you will have a team that will do what it takes - if they have the discipline of course.

That brings me to another point.
Don't post expecting people to bite. That only gets you really bad help that causes more failures in a project than you want.

The key to building a team capable of successfully completing a project is to seek out people in the line of work you want them to do for you and see if you can pique their interests with your project.

This is very similar to pitching your game to a potential publisher.

If you can excite someone within 5 minutes about your game, then you have a higher chance of success.

If you yourself are not excited about your game, then it is time to refactor/revamp/redesign/whatever you want to call it - your project and repeat this until you are practically losing your self control to your project.


If you are seeking animators, then go hit some 3d forums, look at people's works and contact them -- don't make a post and hope that you get a bite.

I've never had any successful bites trying to recruit people in that manner.

Good luck to you and your project.
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Principal Software Architect
Rambling Indie Games, LLC

See my professional portfolio

[Locrian]

Making a Morrowind game with one person and no budget is indeed insane. Maybe 30 people and a multimillion dollar budget could get close.

DeveloperX brings up a good point. Though I've always been impressed by your screen shots I have no idea what your project is about.

To be brutally blunt it looks like a generic fantasy game, or a clone of the boring European parts of Morrowind. Pretty engine but not an interesting world. You might have trouble recruiting creative artsy types when there is nothing to invent, just a bunch of standard medieval European stuff that we've all seen a billion times before. Artists want to put their own spin on things. Exercise their "vision" and all that artsy fartsy stuff. I don't know, maybe thats just me since I'm more into the concept art side of things. Modelers might not care as much.

Investing time into learning a well known engine like the Unreal engine might be a good move if you want to expand your team. Its the first engine 3d modelers go to when they want to see their creations in a real time engine. They are already familiar with it, its free for non-commercial games, has sexy shaders and whatnot. Theres also the Source engine. If your game is awesome enough Valve might hire you.

Anyway I'm no programmer or game designer but I'd suggest to start with something small and fun that requires minimal art assets, release it to the public, then build on it. Epic Morrowind 2 The Second Coming of Christ Nerevarine is too much for any indie team. If you're hellbent on doing the epic RPG thing maybe start out with a small island that the player is restrained to until the next episode is released where "the weather is finally calm enough" for the ship to arrive to take the player to the next island. Or focus on one town and make it fun and alive, then release another town or quest later. Or find fun ways for the player to entertain themselves to take some of the burden off of you. Releasing in chunks would probably force you to take smaller bites. Maybe also put some pressure on you to not become lazy since people will be hounding you for the next episode of Awesome Game, and it might also bring you new recruits to help with following episodes.

[Jon Alma]