Years ago, I participated at making open-source computer games. My experience suggests that if you want people to join your project, you should show them that you are able to do the project alone, if necessary.
You should make, as soon as possible, a version 0.01 of the game, containing a playable first level with ugly graphics. That demonstrates that given enough time, you would be able to complete the game (you could complete the code, and you could hire someone to do graphics and music). Thus people who decide about joining you have a signal that their contribution in this project will be meaningful: that likely one day their work will be a part of a complete product. (Another way to achieve the same outcome is to already have another project complete, and make that known. But you can’t do this with your first project, obviously.)
For the contributor, it is a sad experience if they spend time and energy on your project, and it never gets completed. People who got burned like this will be looking for red flags. “All talk and no code” is pretty bad, even if you have detailed plans and tons of beautiful pictures or 3D models. (I knew a group of people who spent the first year doing detailed 3D models containing thousands of polygons, without writing a single line of code. The models were truly beautiful. But after the year, when they started writing code, they found out that actually the hardware existing at that moment was unable to draw one such model in real time… and they planned to have hundreds. The project was never finished. You want to find out this kind of bad news as soon as possible.)
I think this generalizes outside of computer games like this: convince people that the project would eventually get completed even without their help, preferably by doing a smaller version of what you want to do. If you want to write a book, write the first chapter. If you want to draw a comic, draw a few characters and then an example page or two of the story. If you want to organize a summer camp, organize a small party...
And I completely agree that sometimes (actually, quite often) the right thing to do is to join someone else’s project. But then you need to examine the red flags.
But maybe the desire for individual ideation points to something important. A really large amount of people seem to want to partake in creative endeavors.
Creative work is a signal of many things. Most directly, the skills you are using, but also self-discipline and long-term thinking (that you spent your time learning the skill, instead of e.g. reading social networks in your free time), social skills (if the project requires cooperation and support of other people), and also wealth (the less time and energy you waste doing your daily job, the more you can spend on your hobby). Of course people would be happy to radiate these signals.
But I am afraid it is a zero-sum game. I mean, from the perspective of the creative people competing for the audience. If as a side effect, many cool things are produced, that is a positive externality.
Years ago, I participated at making open-source computer games. My experience suggests that if you want people to join your project, you should show them that you are able to do the project alone, if necessary.
You should make, as soon as possible, a version 0.01 of the game, containing a playable first level with ugly graphics. That demonstrates that given enough time, you would be able to complete the game (you could complete the code, and you could hire someone to do graphics and music). Thus people who decide about joining you have a signal that their contribution in this project will be meaningful: that likely one day their work will be a part of a complete product. (Another way to achieve the same outcome is to already have another project complete, and make that known. But you can’t do this with your first project, obviously.)
For the contributor, it is a sad experience if they spend time and energy on your project, and it never gets completed. People who got burned like this will be looking for red flags. “All talk and no code” is pretty bad, even if you have detailed plans and tons of beautiful pictures or 3D models. (I knew a group of people who spent the first year doing detailed 3D models containing thousands of polygons, without writing a single line of code. The models were truly beautiful. But after the year, when they started writing code, they found out that actually the hardware existing at that moment was unable to draw one such model in real time… and they planned to have hundreds. The project was never finished. You want to find out this kind of bad news as soon as possible.)
I think this generalizes outside of computer games like this: convince people that the project would eventually get completed even without their help, preferably by doing a smaller version of what you want to do. If you want to write a book, write the first chapter. If you want to draw a comic, draw a few characters and then an example page or two of the story. If you want to organize a summer camp, organize a small party...
And I completely agree that sometimes (actually, quite often) the right thing to do is to join someone else’s project. But then you need to examine the red flags.
Creative work is a signal of many things. Most directly, the skills you are using, but also self-discipline and long-term thinking (that you spent your time learning the skill, instead of e.g. reading social networks in your free time), social skills (if the project requires cooperation and support of other people), and also wealth (the less time and energy you waste doing your daily job, the more you can spend on your hobby). Of course people would be happy to radiate these signals.
But I am afraid it is a zero-sum game. I mean, from the perspective of the creative people competing for the audience. If as a side effect, many cool things are produced, that is a positive externality.
Your advice about demonstrating that you are capable alone is really interesting. Thanks for the extended examples!