Rule 1: Don’t bite off more than you can chew.
If you’re new to the industry and want to get your foot in the door with your own ambitious project, it might worth taking a step back and considering your scope.
While the games industry is full of lots of wonderful projects and games successfully making their way to steam and many other platforms, it took skilled and experienced individuals to get them there, many of them can tell you about their portfolio projects or their failed team projects of the past, but almost every one of them will tell you how worthwhile the experience was and how it helped mould the skills they have today.
Show you know where the project’s going.
If you want to succeed and get awesome people to come help you with your project, you need to show them it’s worth the time and worth the effort, demonstrate you know your project in and out and let them know that their opinions are also valued. When you first put pen to paper, make sure you know what you are making, a good way to start is to pick a fundamental mechanic that you enjoyed in another game, or even something you have come up with yourself, use that mechanic as the basis for your game idea, and try to mould the game world around it.
Try to gather as much information as you can to showcase your game. This is particularly helpful when you’re trying to get new members or contributors to your project, at the end of the day, the best functioning projects are when everyone is on the same page and understands the project to work towards the same goal.
Put yourself in the shoes of your teammates.
Remember that in a team project, they need to trust you, and you need to trust them, you need to demonstrate that you are willing to spend the time on the project as much as they are. To coincide with this it is also important to demonstrate an understanding of artistic integrity, everyone has their thoughts and opinions and it is only right to be willing to hear out your team members to help build that trust and teamwork!
