I follow the help wanted pretty closely and lately I have noticed very little interest in working on other people's projects. Most have no response or very little response. Surely most of these ideas never come to fruition. For me, it becomes depressing to read all of these posts because it gives me little hope for my own project. I have an idea that I think may help this and I wanted everyone's opinion on it. I was recently apart of a project that disbanded because of lack of progress. What happened was that people got busy and lost focus. This caused others to quit because of lack of progress. I was thinking that instead of people looking for people to join a project from start to finish to be more task oriented. This means that instead of posting "Hey, I have this RPG project that I want to do. Here is the premise of it. I need 3 modelers, 2 programmers, and 1 composer", they would post something like "I need 5 models. Here is the concept drawings for them." or "I need a programmer to implement a cool water effect" or "I need a good story for my game. I am looking for a love story similar to X". This would allow for people to come and go as they please. People do not have to commit months of their lives to a project that may fail to no fault of their own. If they get busy, then they stop picking up tasks. Of course, credit would be given for contributing and if they are offering profit sharing then they can still do that based on the amount of work they contribute or whatever. It also is beneficial because if the team lead does not have time to create tasks, then he doesn't have a bunch of team members sitting around waiting for a task. What does everyone think about this way? What are some of the pitfalls you see? What solutions would you suggest for those pitfalls?

I think Version 5 of the site is completely changing how help wanted works. I'd just wait.

Mandatory response

Anyway, in my honest opinion I do not think Help Wanted has lack of interest because of what people are proposing, rather, I think it has lack of interest because of who the people are that are proposing.

Let's be honest. Everyone would prefer to be working on their own project. But, if you can't, or if you're learning, you at least want to work for someone you know is dependable, and has at least proven themselves to the community.

Your first example of

Quote:
"I need 5 models. Here is the concept drawings for them."

is a great way to get responses. Why? Because the person has done some of the work already, which shows that they are dedicated. I'm more willing to model something someone has already drawn over a person just asking for models.

The second example of

Quote:
"I need a programmer to implement a cool water effect"

would probably only get a response if the game was already complete. If you want to add touches to the game, it's easier to find people than if you want a cool water effect that might never be implemented.

The third example of

Quote:
"I need a good story for my game. I am looking for a love story similar to X".

would probably only get a response if you have a proven track record of having released a game or two previously. It's honestly no better of an approach than the person stating they have an RPG project and are looking for X, Y, and Z.

Not to get all Biblical, but people are more likely to help those who help themselves. A sure fire way of not getting a response is to ask for something that is unrealistic and unreasonable. How do you determine such? Well, if you've never done it before, then it's unrealistic. Yes, this even includes Tetris Clones.

Quote: Original post by landagen
"I need 5 models. Here is the concept drawings for them."

I can only see things like this working if someone is willing to do some work without any promise of monetary gain, and that would only be likely if the project was going to be distributed as freeware. If not the person creating the models would most likely expect to be paid as they deliver the models, which could seriously limit how fast you're able to have models created for your game if you're working off a limited budget like most projects here do.

Quote: Original post by landagen
I was thinking that instead of people looking for people to join a project from start to finish to be more task oriented.

Several of the more succesful projects that have made use of Help Wanted do something very like that and have gone through a great many team members -- some of whom only did small bits of work here and there -- over the duration of their projects. I don't think it should neccesarily be done exclusively, as if someone is willing and able to stay with the project for the entire duration instead it can be quite valuable, but I do think that when a team is willing to have people contribute small pieces to the project rather than staying for the duration they'll often have a higher chance of success in the long run.

Quote: Original post by JimboC
I can only see things like this working if someone is willing to do some work without any promise of monetary gain...

I think that doing it for monetary gain is still possible, but it would definitely require more work from the project leads. They would have to be able to determine what percentage of the profits is that task worth.

Quote: Original post by jbadams
I don't think it should neccesarily be done exclusively, as if someone is willing and able to stay with the project for the entire duration instead it can be quite valuable

I definitely agree. In fact, I think the project would almost require at least a small team of people to stay on the project for long periods of time. The reason being that someone has to keep the project on track and keep creating tasks. While it could be done by one person, it would be better to have a few leads. Maybe one for art, another from programming, and another for story/music or something like that.

Quote: Original post by jbadams
Several of the more succesful projects that have made use of Help Wanted do something very like that and have gone through a great many team members -- some of whom only did small bits of work here and there -- over the duration of their projects.

That is definitely encouraging.

Quote: Original post by Sirisian
I think Version 5 of the site is completely changing how help wanted works. I'd just wait.

My understanding of version 5 is that it will have a way to search for a project to join. The problem I am bringing up is the problem of long term commitment required for these projects and how to minimize the amount of risk of joining a project.

My thought was that projects could maybe start seeing the gamedev community as a pool of resources for specific tasks instead of trying to secure resources for months at a time.

Quote: Original post by Nytegard
Not to get all Biblical, but people are more likely to help those who help themselves.

Creating tasks, organizing the project, and having a vision is a good start to helping themselves. I was imagining that the the project leads are working on it constantly and kind of "outsources" help for the project on a task by task basis. In my opinion, this way helps ensure that the group has completed at least something and also has more than just an idea. They have a direction.

FYI - I think the quote you are referring to is actually Ben Franklin. "God helps those who help themselves."

[Edited by - landagen on June 24, 2009 9:25:49 AM]

The main problem I see with it is that people are trying to do MMO's when they have nothing to show but a crappy chess clone or such.

It is also impossible to get artists that are unpaid unless you have a game that looks like unreal engine. Even then the artists you get for free are probably going to be so amateur it's sad.

Quote: Original post by Sirisian
I think Version 5 of the site is completely changing how help wanted works. I'd just wait.

Unrelated, but have there been any announcements or unofficial postings about "version 5"? This is the first I've heard of it.

PS sounds awesome

Quote: Original post by CadetUmfer
Unrelated, but have there been any announcements or unofficial postings about "version 5"? This is the first I've heard of it.

There are bits and pieces of information floating about, but superpig's journal is probably the best source of information -- he's been updating as he gets more functionality in place. Oluseyi's journal had a few entries on the visual aspects on the design a while back as well.