I've got a somewhat simple question, that could easily become a complex discussion. Here it is simply. Is it possible anymore for a single person with good ideas but little experiance to actually find a team of people to help him implement those ideas? Have people become so jaded that few if any are willing or interested in aiding 'idea people' anymore? I will admit that I am such an 'idea man'. I have what could be (I'm not arrogant enough to say they *are*) some rather unique ideas that could be developed into a rather fun game. However due circumstance, I have almost no experiance with the needed skills for developing my ideas into what they could be. As such I am given two options, I can either put my ideas on a shelf while I train the time it takes to learn the skills to do it myself; or I can try to find and recruit those with the skills to help me out. Initially the latter seems like the shorter route to completion, but it has turned out this might not be the case. Am I looking in the wrong places? Am I just not making a good first impression? Or are people too jaded to become interested? I'll stop here cause I can hear the flames waiting to be unleashed. If by some miracle you might be interested in hearing more about my ideas, or even helping me in *some* fashion (even if it's advice on where to look, what to learn, etc), then either reply here or email me at TraceFox@hotmail.com. Take care all!

Indie developers tend to all have plenty of thier own ideas to try, so its gonna be pretty hard for you to find anyone who'd rather work on your ideas instead - it just doesnt make sense. And as for professional developers, theres absolutely no way they'll risk ideas from 'unknown person #xxx' when they can develope thier own ideas.

I'd advise learning the skills you need yourself, or at least enough of them to attract a team who can do the rest of the work for you.

Not interested but i have a few suggestions

an idea is worthless, no matter how great it is, there are just so many ideas out there and there are so many people that want there ideas made in to reality that i wouldn't even try option two ( I can try to find and recruit those with the skills to help me out. )

option one seems like the best idea, but instead of just leaving it on the shelf until you are ready. Start on the design doc and perfect your idea get all the bugs out, play test it with some models DO YOUR HOME WORK, then in 2-3 years when you are ready so will your idea...

A great design doc is the foundation to making a great game
Just a suggestion.

if you make it PM, i would love to see someone follow thou with there idea.

First of all u will need a Design Document. None will help u on a project u have "some nice ideas" for. I know this situation to well myself. Good ideas != complete game. Also, i think its good to know a bit of programming just to know how difficult it would/could be to implement those ideas.

There are no shortcuts. Getting other developers requires a fair exchange, which means you have to bring something very definite to the table. That doesn't mean ideas - it means skills, including leadership ability. Once you have a team together you can discuss ideas and come to an agreement. But drawing together a group through the vision alone won't work; that's the stuff of fairy tales. Unless you were doing a clone, something already tangible, nobody would be interested enough. Nobody can share your own vision, which means that only the lone developer can succeed in crafting a "pure" design, one that was tossed around by nobody but himself.

The trick to getting something done is to take each aspect of the development process, and over time make it something that you "get the urge" to do. Even if you say it's something you're not good at, if you keep at it you can cultivate an interest in anything. From there you get skills, and with skills you won't need other people.

The way I see it: you can't have good ideas without knowing how to implement them - the way the ideas will be implemented is a very big part of what makes them good in the first place. And when you do how to implement the ideas, then you don't need a team anymore.

Thanks for the replies everyone, it's nice to see some constructive criticism and comments.

Just for the sake of completeness, what kinds of information should go into a design document? What kind of basic formatting should I consider?

Unfortunately due to my lack of skill creating the prototype or the full thing is out of my reach without at least a few years of training and practice. While that is something I'm *willing* to accept, it's not my preferred option. Which means, according to your advice, I need to detail as much information about the project as possible to attract the talent I need.
And according to a few of you, Leadership ability is *potentially* a viable skillset to bring to the table when recruiting a team. Without seeming egotistic, I do believe I can fulfill this role in a development team.

The idea this project embodies isn't an MMOG, but it is a persistant-world, multiplayer, online RPG. The numbers of players I'm aiming for is considerably less than a thousand, and if I hit 500 players online at a time I will be impressed.

Which actually brings me to my second question, for anyone willing to answer.
What are some of the technical requirements of this type of game?
Here's what I can forcast, but if I've left anything out, lemme know:

Server-Side Team:
Data/Account management
Networking/Connections
Gameworld database
Runtime engine (what actually makes everything in the game move)

Client-Side Team:
Networking/Connections
Graphics (2D top-down art)
Sound and/or Music
Interface

Did I miss anything?

Oh, in addition, I do have what *might* serve as cannon-fodder for writing a design document. If you feel otherwise, or have some suggestions to make, feel free to reply here or via email.

***
Thanks for replying!

Lemme tell you a little about the project I'm starting. The title is called
Shattered Prism: Lost Wasteland.
It's a combination of two earlier ideas/projects I've worked on but never
finished.

About a year ago I started designing a tabletop RPG (Pen & Paper) titled
Shattered Prism, based on ideas which had been growing in my head for years.
Early this year I burned out trying to overwork on the RPG rules and getting
it 'just right'. So I put the project on hiatus, and started working on a
new idea.
Lost Wasteland was turning into a rather interesting MUD project, and in
fact is still under active development by a friend of mine. Unfortunately
the basic idea could be taken so much further if I had the programming and
other talents needed to turn it into a graphical game, something a MUD
server can't do.

For a little information about the game itself, here's some theme text I've
written recently:

***
The world of Wasteland was once created by an advanced alien race to be a
massive laboratory. An artificial world, with two moons and orbiting a
single star, all contained within a pocket dimension. To collect their
experiment 'samples' the aliens devised a system of autonomous 'gateways'
which could be sent out into our corner of the galaxy. These gateways
functioned only one way, and when they encountered a viable sample, the
subject was pulled in and dropped on the surface of Wasteland.
That was millions of years ago. Since then the aliens have left, but their
legacy remains. The gateways continue to function, dilligently pulling in
samples from throughout the galaxy and depositing them here. You are one
such 'sample'.
Wasteland is a dangerous place, a largly savage wilderness inhabited by the
Outsiders and the Enclaves. The Enclaves faced their situation by banding
together to form some semblance of civilization on this world. The Outsiders
however, faced with the fact that none of us can return to our homes, have
reverted to a savage state. Preferring to live in a 'survival of the
fittest' mindset, they form into gangs and warlord nations scattered all
over Wasteland.
In addition to these sentient threats, there are many non-sentient creatures
dropped here, and many of them would like nothing better than to have you as
their next meal.
Welcome to the Wasteland...
***

It needs a bit of polishing yet, but that's the basic idea behind Lost
Wasteland.
Now, as for Shattered Prism: Lost Wasteland, it will be the combination of
the ideas expressed in my SP RPG, and the LW MUD. You see, in the MUD you
can be any race, any character you want because those 'gateways' roam the
entire universe. The system developed for the MUD doesn't restrict you to
race selections because you can write a description for anything you want.
However, I've come to the determination that this won't be the case for a
graphical game, where art for each 'race' selection needs to be done
beforehand. Which means I need a limited 'list' of racial selections; and
that brings me back to Shattered Prism RPG.

The SP gameworld is populated by 26 different alien species, and covers
roughly one quarter of the galaxy. For SP: LW, we will keep this list of 26
races, and drop them onto this world in a hidden corner of reality,
Wasteland.

Well, I suppose that's enough information about the setting, what about the
game?
The game will be a combination of three gameplay elements: Combat,
Economics, and Strategy.

Combat:
Wasteland is a dangerous environment. There are plenty of intelligent
creatures who have joined the Outsiders, and most wouldn't think twice
before killing you if they saw you wandering the wilderness, looking for
minign sites or whatever. Even more, there are plenty of non-intelligent
beasts/animals which would like nothing better than to make you their next
meal. All of this means combat is likely to occur anytime you're outside one
of the Enclaves. One major difference from most combat-oriented MMOGs is
that gaining power/advancement in SP: LW will not be based on killing
things. No rabbit bashing for the newbie player just to get to 'Level 2'.
Combat in this game may be inevitable, but the player *can* choose to try
and avoid combat and still be effective. But for those that do want to go
kill stuff and loot the corpses, they can.

Economics:
I want players to have the eventual option to make all the equipment they
and other players might need and use. Weapons, armor, gear, vehicles, etc.
This means I need some form of economic model. I've decided to take a page
out of Star Wars Galaxies and use a similar model.
Here's how it works. The first step to building, say a sword, is to go out
into the wilderness and mine some Raw Materials (metal ore). Then you can
bring this back 'home' to a workshop and you have to turn it into Processed
Materials (metal ingots) through smelting. Thirdly you take the processed
material and craft Components (Hilt and Blade) using metalworking. Finally,
you assemble the components into Finished Goods (the sword) with
weaponsmithing.
Each of the above four steps requires different character skills, different
resources, and different tools. Players who don't have the tools or skills
to finish one of the steps themselves must buy from those players who do.
This creates trading. Buying and selling at each of the steps.
In addition there are two basic commodities which can be harvested and are
consumed by many things: Energy and Food. All Enclaves need both of these to
continue functioning. Creating a form of resource management simulation.

Strategy:
Finally we get to this element. In the later stages of play, after a player
has built up their 'capital' and resources, they have access to some
interesting play options. Players with the cash and resources can purchase
or build what they need to found their own Enclave. First by building an
Outpost in the wilderness. This can be upgraded into a Fortress, and you can
start claming territory around your base. You can then hire/create troops to
defend your base and your land. These are NPC units which can be commanded,
given orders, sent on missions. If someone attacks you, a battle will take
place where you can give orders to any of your units defending your base.
Further, a Fortress can be upgraded into a full Enclave, with the ability to
claim more territory, and to form new Outposts and remote bases. Enclaves
are like small cities, with lots of NPCs 'behind stage' doing many things a
Fortress can, only better, faster, and without player supervision being
required.

Allright, enough about the game. How about the interface?
Okay, this part is going to be the most sketchy because I don't have the
background to know what is or isn't technically unrealistic. But here
goes...

The game interface will be largely a top-down perspective of a 2D world
using tile-based mapping and a keyboard/mouse interface. There will be
different interface screens for various elements of gameplay: Combat Maps,
Travel Maps, In-Building Maps, Inventory, Manufacturing, Base Management,
Vehicle Travel, etc...
Here are some screenshots of a game one of my friends started some years
back. The game is called Wormhole, and he started it as a demo for getting
into the games industry. Why am I showing you this? Because these images are
the primary source of inspiration for what I would like SP: LW to look like:

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v258/TracerFox/Wormhole/

The graphics from Wormhole were very early and simple. If all I can find is
talent to do things like that, so be it. But if I can improve the graphics,
then all the better.

So, those are the basics of this project idea.
Any questions?
***

Okay, I didn't read the whole thing here because I have no interest in RPGs, but my opinion is this:

Plan on doing it yourself. If you get other people involved, you will still not be able to count on them. Plan to do it all yourself, and once you have something real to show for your labours, then you can get other people onboard - and at best, all they will create is additional content (additional models, characters, maps, etc) - the base, starting game will be yours and yours alone.

You might not do it on your own, but that stuff is rare. The one-man-team is the reality of the indie, because those additional people will do whats quick and fun and convenient for them - like maybe a soundtrack. But the game will have to be yours.

Now, you won't develop it from scratch. Nobody does. Engines are expensive and time-consuming to develop. Hell, even with an engine, it will take a long time.

The fact is, starting out your best chance is a mod. Find a game or engine with a featureset you like. Before using a free engine, make sure that people have done good, useful things with it. Most free game engines are at a "proof-of-concept" stage that means they have neat features but are impractical as a full environment (I'm tinkering with a few).

Look into the UT engine, or some other large-scale FPS engine. You can make a nice RPG with a 100 player count. Its not your 500 player group, but its something.

Imagine a guy named Art who is a young and talented architecture student. Art has a ton of great ideas for designing buildings, he's come up with lots of fresh designs to make a building look appealing from the outside, and he's a genius at designing the interior of the building to most effectively use the space. Art has even drawn up several blueprints of his ideas- buildings that would take people's breath away if they were ever built.

So what is Art suppossed to do? He needs people and materials to make these buildings- he certainly can't do it all himself. And he obviously can't pay anyone. So basically, Art needs a bunch of hard laborers who will freely donate their time to helping Art's creative vision be realized.

But what do YOU think about Art? Do you really think that he can find a team of people to do his project without pay, just because he has good ideas?

(footnote, this post was inspired by The Fountainhead :) )

I think these last two replies might show I am probably on the wrong forum to find the kind of talent and skill I'm hoping to recruit.

One, this is not in any way, shape, or form going to be a 3D FPS game, so why should I look for a 3D engine?
*This is a top-down, 2D art, tile-based game!*

Second. I'm not trying to make a professional game. I'm not trying to make a commercial game. I'm trying to make a fun little online 2d game.

Please! Stop trying to point me at 3D engines, renderers, etc...
3D games are not everything under the bloody sun!

For those who actually expressed an interest here, I apologize for this little rant, but I felt it needed to be said.
Read my posts before you reply!