I occasionally browse craigslist.org's ads from time to time, mostly the jobs and computer gigs section, to see what's going on out there in my city, and maybe see a project I could contribute to. From time to time, I see an ad like this. I have my own opinions, but I wanted to get some of yours while I was at it (primarily, so I don't end up making the same mistakes). I figured it's smart to learn from other experienced people's views in the industry.

Also, I don't mean to slander anyone or cause anyone negative feedback or saying "Let's make fun of this guy" (especially those with a serious proposition), so mods can delete or close this thread if necessary.

Seeking programmer to help develop new video game (montlake) Before you get too excited, I can't offer you any money. Yet. What I can offer is that if you help me develop this game, and we sell it, we will split the proceeds 50/50. I will put that in writing.

I am an artist working here in seattle and I have a great idea for a game I am really excited about.
The programming for it shouldn't be too hard. I don't want to get too specific about what the game is, but if you could program a game of 3D tetris (3D objects, collison detection, little to no animation) then you could probably do this. I will provide all the models, graphics, sound effects (I have a friend with a recording studio) and anything else on the creative side. All I need is someone to put it all together and make it run.

Please only respond if you think you can actually do this. There are plenty of people out there (I am friends with a few) who are pretty sure they could do it, but have never attempted anything like it and don't really have the free time to even get started. I would love to find someone who has made a game or two already and has an example they could show me. Free time is also a must. If you work 80 hours a week, you might not be right for this project.

If this sounds at all interesting, drop me a line. I can tell you more about the game and even show you a couple screencaps from Maya. I am not fooling around when I say I think this game could be HUGE. This could be your chance to become a millionaire.

My thoughts:

People get ideas for games all the time, it's those that have the ability to bring it to life that are successful (usually). I say, if you have a game idea and you aren't a programmer, try learning to program yourself and implement your idea. Don't expect someone to come along and do all the hard/grunt work for you. Even if your idea is "gold", then how do you plan on marketing it? What's your distribution model and who's your target audience?

Also, there are a few things I learned while attending small business seminars and reading gamedev business books and articles. One of the most common mistakes that people make is "falling in love with your idea". It can be a recipe for disaster if a developer has all of his hopes riding on one game. What if it isn't as popular as you thought it would be? What's your backup plan or exit strategy? Hoping to retire off of one game is not a realistic expectation either. It's alot of work that isn't guaranteed to pay off either.

This person may have a good idea or even reputable game dev skills and even a well written business plan, but that's not the vibe I'm getting. What are your thoughts?

Shogun.

This "artist" clearly has no clue.

There are a lot of people who claim to be artists in Seattle; And everybody knows somebody with a "recording studio" (usually a spare corner of their apartment with fruity loops installed on a pc) in fact I know so many the title of "artist" alone creates great skepticism in me about their abilities. I could explain further, but if I did so, I would probably anger somebody who was an artist and actually deserved that title. ;)

The first thing that came to mind when I read this is I thought this wasn't as bad as the clueless Help Wanted here. At least, you would actually get to meet him/her in person, and actually craft this idea.

Then it mentioned that it had a friend with a recording studio, and I was like, okay this person got the audio/music covered. So it knows that games need some audio tracks, not just sound effects you pull online.

Then it mentioned it had a few programmer friends, but none of them could actually do the job. So I thought, okay this person's done something to at least recruit his/her friends first, and s/he actually have programmer friends.

Then it mentioned how this "could be HUGE" and you could become a millionaire. To me, this drops the ball. Ideas are dimes a dozen. To say and this person's idea can make you millionaires is just overly enthusiastic.

To be honest, the fact they claim to have developer friends, yet these same "friends" all said no, was enough for me.

If other developers - who know this guy much better than I would just meeting him for the first time since they are his "friend" - are not interested in his ideas, then I have to wonder why.

To be honest, the fact they claim to have developer friends, yet these same "friends" all said no, was enough for me.

If other developers - who know this guy much better than I would just meeting him for the first time since they are his "friend" - are not interested in his ideas, then I have to wonder why.

Maybe he doesn't want to work with his friends

To be honest, the fact they claim to have developer friends, yet these same "friends" all said no, was enough for me.

If other developers - who know this guy much better than I would just meeting him for the first time since they are his "friend" - are not interested in his ideas, then I have to wonder why.

That's a good perspective. If his idea is so "golden", then his programmer friends would gladly sacrifice the time to become millionaires in the end.

Eh, clearly the guy is a little naive about the earning potential, but he wants an honest split and he's offering to take care of all the artistic aspects. The mistake that too many programmers make in approaching partnerships is that they start with the assumption that the programmer has to do "all the hard work" -- they overvalue their own skillset and undervalue the skillset of a real artists. Its hard to say for certain what his level is, but there's little to fault him for here immediately. The "this could be HUGE." is indeed a warning flag, but its only the same hubris trap that 90% of people fall into, artists and programmers, especially when they're excited about an idea.

I understand the the excitability of an idea, and how much you value and treasure your own idea. However, I think everyone should approach any project with professionalism. Provide an analysis, why an idea would work, who are the competitors, how long would it take, etc.

Just imagine, what if somebody approached you and said, "I want you to work with me. I can't offer you money, but we will split profit 50/50. I can't tell you what it is unless you join, but it could make you a millionaire." Sounds pretty shady, right? What was his idea? Bank robbery? Facebook-clone with a twist?

At least it's written more coherently than approximately every Craigslist ad I've ever seen.

I'm not saying he's someone I would join up with based on his description, but if I were looking for that kind of partnership I might be curious enough to want to find out more, and not made wary enough by his post to be completely dismissive. Its unrealistic to expect an entire design treatise in a craigslist ad. Even here, which is only a tiny corner of the big-scary-internet that craigslist represents, we constantly have to remind help-wanted posters that they should give reasonable detail if they expect any help to come. And that's *after* we implemented rules and templates to make certain requirements of help wanted posters--Before those changes, Help Wanted was literally teeming with post like "I have this awesome idea. I need 7 artists and 5 programmers. I don't have any skills, so I'll be the idea guy and run the business stuff. Since its my idea, I'm keeping 50% of profits and the rest will be divided evenly -- but its ok, because we'll sell 10 million and you'll still get rich!"

The craigslist poster could do better, but he's a mile ahead of many of the old posts we used to see.