I can't remember where I read it but one good dev told me that it was important to start the community early- but not TOO early in the game development process.

His reasoning was solid

• To generate a following
• Prevents you from slacking
• Allows you to draw inspiration from fans
• To allow those following you to feel like they played an active part (more likely to promote or talk about)

The reason to not start it too early is pretty obvious- you want to give them SOMETHING exciting and your early prototypes will be anything but! (to MOST people)

If they have to wait too long they WILL get bored and move on.

PERSONALLY. I would start a community only for games with replay value- multiplayer games especially.

After they beat a single player game there'd be no reason to remain part of the community (maybe there's a way to fix this? doubt)

Don't start a community unless you intend on following through though- you can ruin your credibility.

Good luck, you! : )

Community management be hard yo.

Depends on the project. If you're ready to invest time on a constant basis and it's an open source project then it's a given.