hi ppl, i dunno if this is the rite forum for this question .... but i guess that u ppl can help me with this ... i wanted to know what is minimum number of (ppl and their roles) needed to develop a decent 3D game ..... i mean if one wanted to start a small game dev company willing to put in some investment ..... developing their first game trying to create a profile ..... how many ppl wud be needed .... especially what will be the roles played by the ppl in the company ..... i was dicussing this with some friends and here is wat we came up with: Director/Game Desinger: deals with all the non - technical issues like story, concpet art etc. director guides the overall process .. Programmers: All coding. Modelers/Animators: ppl who can model, map and create textures Sound/Music: one person or two working on the sounds(splashes, gunfire etc etc) while the other can work on the overall game music.. we thought that these are bare minimum that are needed ... plus there are other important issues like how much investment and time frame ... i wud like to hear ur thoughts on this ..... especially ppl who have professional experience of working in a game development firm and have faced the problems concerning development of a commercial game.... also it wud be very helpful if someone cud refer me to some resources on the net abt this ... i hope that i have expressed myself clearly .... thanx in advance, enygmyx. Sorry abt the double post .... i also posted this on the beginners forum by mistake [edited by - enygmyx on January 12, 2004 5:06:45 AM] [edited by - enygmyx on January 12, 2004 5:24:09 AM]

The absolute minimum is one person. Yep, you can''t have your team any smaller than that.

It really depends on a lot of things. For instance, it depends on if you are refering to an online team or a 'true life' team, how much you can contribute yourself, how dedicated and talented the team members are, how large the project is, how long you expect it to take etc. One large contributing factor is whether or not you have a engine to work with - if so then less programmers will be required.
Me? I believe it is best if a team is as small as posible, so as things are managed and organized. Here is my team at present day. Note that there is only four people, and of those four only three are actually working on the game. Now, if this were a 3d game, you might add one or two 3d modelers to that. If you are an online team and you can, I suggest you only have one 'main' programmer, so as that things do not get messy.
However, unless you feel that you are ready for a challange, it is unlikely that you will want to take care of game design, project lead, programming and graphics yourself, meaning that you will likely split these roles up and further expand the team.
Also, I suggest you build up some experience in game development before you attempt to recruit a team - it is best if you can at least contribute something other than 'director' and 'game design' to the game - you should be capable of understanding the progamming that is done etc. Another advantage is that you can still keep the project moving even if a member quits the team.
Note that my experienced in this subject is limited, but I understand what is required and our project is very near release.

[edited by - jack_1313 on January 12, 2004 5:53:13 AM]

I suggest that the "Director" take on another role also. And be open to design ideas from your teammates. If you just sit around making up ideas wityhout helping to implement them, the rest of the team will get pretty mad pretty quick. Here''s my idea of a minimum team:
1 Programmer
1 Artist
1 3D Modeler (Could also be artist, your discretion)
1 Sound Person

This is a bare minimum (or the 1 person team, as earlier suggested). You may also wish to have a story writer, or have a team member double as that.

i think you should try to get as much people as possible....of course they must be willing to commit(the most important factor) cos whats the use of having 50+ teammembers when they are slackers and dun give a damn about the proj.

[edited by - AcRiD_aCiD on January 16, 2004 4:11:45 AM]

If your serious about creating a game for distrabution you can''t forget the all imporant buisness and legal postions. Most people seem to forget these people but they are very important. Afterall someone has to manage the money and ultimatly decided what libraries and software you can use.

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Writer, Programer, Cook, I''m a Jack of all Trades
Current Design project
Chaos Factor Design Document