Game Collaboration

MohboDesigns

Being fairly new to GameSalad, I wanted to hear some input from the community on experiences with collaboration. I have a plethora of ideas and some graphics (my art is passable). I imagine that collaboration could be an awesome way to work (ideally), but wanted to hear what you find to be "best practices" (work arrangements, potential profit sharing, etc...)

Thanks for any feedback.

Armelline

Unless you're bringing something pretty special to the table you'll struggle to find a collaborator. Most of the developers here are limited primarily by their graphical ability. I'd be surprised if there was any experienced dev who doesn't have a bunch of ideas just bubbling away. I find most projects I abandon I do so because I just cannot back the idea up with good enough graphics.

A really solid artist won't have any trouble finding a developer to work with, though.

MohboDesigns

Out of curiosity, do you have in mind would be "pretty special" or is that just a general evaluation?

tatiang

I've started several collaborations and finished none. It always sounds great but doesn't live up to the promise. Getting paid nothing to work is not a great motivator except when you're working for yourself. And it's hard to strike the right balance between ideas and skills. If one person has the ideas and the other the skills to implement them, then the latter person is doing 95% of the work; do they get 95% of the profits or 50%? And what if there are no profits?

Anyway, I'll also add that there have been a few very successful collaborations here. I think finding a partner/team organically is your best bet (that is, participating in the community, learning to use GameSalad, making a few sample games and then after a few months asking specific people to join your efforts), rather than posting an "anyone want to work on my great ideas together?" type of request.

MohboDesigns

@tatiang said:
I've started several collaborations and finished none. It always sounds great but doesn't live up to the promise. Getting paid nothing to work is not a great motivator except when you're working for yourself. And it's hard to strike the right balance between ideas and skills. If one person has the ideas and the other the skills to implement them, then the latter person is doing 95% of the work; do they get 95% of the profits or 50%? And what if there are no profits?

Anyway, I'll also add that there have been a few very successful collaborations here. I think finding a partner/team organically is your best bet (that is, participating in the community, learning to use GameSalad, making a few sample games and then after a few months asking specific people to join your efforts), rather than posting an "anyone want to work on my great ideas together?" type of request.

Good feedback. I didn't really want to post a big general "come join me", but I did want to hear about others experiences. Very helpful. Thanks.