Team vs Solo

Hey guys,

I’m conflicted whether I should develop games by myself or work in a team. I understand it takes large teams long periods of time to create complex games. So my prospects for going solo aren’t amazing. But I have poor social skills and I don’t work well in teams at all.

There have been some great games created by individuals, although they are rather simple games. I severely hate the idea of compromise. In my opinion, compromise is a failure for everyone involved, and I simply can’t stand taking orders from anyone.

Call it a personality disorder if you will. Regardless, I would like people’s opinions to better gauge my prospects for developing solo. Taking in to account that I’m still learning Scripting, and practicing 3D perspective drawing. My design skills are probably my biggest asset currently but I’m experiencing a low of creativity.

What sort of game and level of complexity is a realistic project for one man, just starting out with unity?

Should I bite my tongue and try to find a team?

And if so, are there any teams that let passionate newbies help out by doing scripting/art/design elements for no pay?

This decision is stressing me out,
Thanks in advance.

well I talk in my experience and as “3D/2D artist”, doing all by yourself is fine and if you feel more comfortable that way , I don’t see anything wrong at going solo.

But you won’t be able to tackle a really big or complex project or at least this is going to take you a while certainly to do it.

I will say also that at minimum when you plan to make a game and start out think about gameplay design etc…2 head sometimes are better than one ^^.

if you make a game for other to play , you will need to accept compromise or whatever feedback will come from it.

I am doing art as freelance and on other side doing some coding work in collaboration with artist friend and believe me I am happy to not have to think about artwork to do when i am doing more script / coding work :)).

you can also , without think about a team , try to get some help at some point during your project , to figure out something you don’t figure out yourself or just to speed things a little in art side maybe.

but in my opinion if you want go solo , you first have to really think with care about the type and how complex you want your game, because you just take the risk to never finalize anythings soon because of the overhead of task that will wait for you.

Well, since you are “Wise-Monk”, I would say…. Don’t take your “personality disorder” so serious. Take a deep breath and dive.
Sitting in front of the computer is NOT a very humanizing process, so every change of getting in touch with the real world should be welcomed, working in a team is very much that.
I’m sure you will have hard times working together with someone else, we all do :wink:, but it can be al lot of fun also.
Think only about how great it is to be inspired by someone else’s fresh ideas, if we are on our own, we often bite our own tail.

Best regards, Robert

Team vs. Single.

Well, here’s a few points for and against, which I have experienced in many forms of projects, both commercial and personal.

For Single

  1. Things get done faster
  2. No bottlenecks from other people

Against (ie, for a team)

  1. You can get too attatched to something, and not see it objectivly… Code can be beautiful, but how it plays might, honestly, be shit. You need someone who doesn’t code to tell you that.
  2. It might be perfect in your mind, but in the mind of eveyrone else, it might look ugly, or dark, or too happy.

In short, there’s pros and cons to both. The simpler the project, the better it is suited for a single person. A large project will always benefit from more objective feedback.

I’m from post production, and the people who ‘make it’ are those who can have their work cut to shreds and move on. It’s their job. The ones who fail take criticism personally, and ultimatly, they’re fired.

You have to make a ton of compromises in a team unless your paying the bills.

And regardless of whether your paying the bills, finding reliable developers can be difficult.

My opinion - go ahead and work all by yourself. Continue to severely hate the idea of compromise.

You will be very successful I’m sure.

I’m big into doing everything by myself but paying for the scripting, which I have so little interest in learning. I have no real successes under my belt, but great hope I will get there on this project (not necessarily a great success but at least a finished product (not necessarily (but possibly) a commercial product) I can feel I haven’t compromised on). (too many parentheses)
It does make you your own boss for the most part.
But, as mentioned above there does need to be objectivity and I hope to get more of this once I can produce some sort of demo. I have often failed at things I do for the reason also mentioned above (though fortunately not in a situation to get fired over it), I always took things too personally. I have (and am continuing to) made quite a bit of progress in this area , of course I am 57 years old.
Guess this is too much “all about me”, just a little excited about some new scripts I received today.

:slight_smile:

I currently work alone and i love the freedom it gives me… Ideas I’m passionate about; creativity; work hours; etc etc.

That said, I would like to get a dev partner I could really work well with. I have tried team projects in the past but every time they have fell by the side due to internal conflicts or people just not producing anything.

Regards,
Matt.

your limited to what you can do by yourself for sure… I created osprey on my lonesome and it took ages but I loved the challenge and I also loved the fact that I had complete creative control…whereas in a team your ideas some times get diluted

all said and done My vote is for Solo …
:wink:

I’m working alone for the first time in my life. And I really like it. I feel more productive and empowered.

However, if you are just getting into it, I would say dont go solo if you can avoid it.

It’s easier to learn from others, provided you can surround yourself with the right people.

I would have never been able to build up my skills all alone.

Thanks for all the helpful advice guys,

I’m in a position where I can easily afford to pay for my game assets. There is probably a risk to learning myself some bad habits though.

In regards to code looking good but playing terribly. I’ve been a hardcore gamer for a long time, and I’ve been playing games since I could hold a controller (Owned every major {and a few minor} game consoles, inc. some expensive custom built PCs) and I’ve won prizes including cash at LANs doing some non-professional ‘pro’ gaming.

I absolutely can’t stand poor controls. Game controls, and general usability and functionality will be of my highest regard. I am constantly up to date with game news, and some specific things in the industry, I have to admit I skip over all the lawsuit stuff because I’m more or less just interested in what’s selling and games that specifically grab my attention (very few, I can enjoy a shitty game if I make myself, but I am very critical, we are talking Yahtzee, Jerret (Pure Pwnage), Angry Video Game Nerd, Mega64, and Ctrl-Alt-Del kind of critical. xD

However, learning about what it takes to actually make some of those ‘shitty’ games has made me quite humble indeed! -but I still enjoy criticism in good taste.

I also have an older brother (6 years older, I’m 20) who is doing a course in game design along with his girlfriend who is an artist specifically specializing in art for games. I can give my beta game to uni students to playtest.

I have absolutely no life… well, that’s not exactly true, I do have a girlfriend. What I mean is that I have lots of free time to devote to indie game development, and just because I want to work solo, doesn’t mean I don’t want to know you. I’m a pretty friendly guy, and I’m just starting out, so I appreciate all the help I can get.

I’m interested in learning through online collaboration, aka- scripting and trading scripts with other people. I’m happy to further other people’s goals as well as my own. But that doesn’t make me your b!tch xD.

And that pretty much sums up my introduction… wait Ahem; wrong thread? … I also have ADD (yes, I know it doesn’t exist). I will constantly go off topic (especially when I have time to spare). You’ll probably be able to tell if I’ve posted in a thread if it has nothing to do with the original topic. Just scroll down to my name to find where it deviated. ‘Wise_Monk’ is to make my game reviews sound important. I’m not a monk and my wisdom ability score is 2 on a good day. Oh yeah, I’m a GM (Game Master, as in Table-top role-playing games).

Okay, I’ll STFU now. Thanks for reading!

Hi Wise Monk

my advice not that you have solicited it…for your first project is to think of something simple… forget a action role play game or a epic adventure game not saying its impossible to do but as a first project not a good starting place…so brainstorm a simple idea and when you hit upon it make it even simpler … and then get cracking you will learn more that way and then in the future when your ready for the big one you will be properly equiped to embark on your final fantasy killer! Good Luck!:wink:

Hey there,

well I think both way got their advantages.

Solo:
You exactly know what you’ve got and you decide how to use your time. If you can do program work you’ve a good start cause you can create the basic gameplay on your own. And if you discover problems you can search for people to joinup too.

Team:
Well all have to have the same goal and of course there often are different opinions about gameplay maybe. Well that depend on people too but if you don’t know the people in reallife and only got internet contact it’s more difficult.

Personally I prefer a mix of both. Iam looking for my idea to move on in snail-speed g and if Iam lucky I find people to help me at some things. Therefor I would help them too on their project at what I can do. Unfortunately that’s only mapping, bugsearch, balancing and such and no scripting or modeling. So if you can do that yourself for sure you have got some advantage and can go forward. I myself am stuck at the moment. So good luck to you. =)

I tend to work alone. Mainly because to keep the ability to control and steer the project. I tried this several times in several teams with equal weighted members and found that a difficult condition (at least for me). For special tasks, like modelling, I’ll then hire someone and pay him for that.

Equal weighting for team members can’t work, especially in a virtual team. I really wish it could work, but it just doesn’t.

There are pros and cons to both methods of working (as has been stated multiple times here already).

Personally I’ve done both… and I prefer a team by far. It’s way too hard to know what “works” and what “doesn’t work” when you are working alone…you are too close to the project not to understand something. Not that I’m an expert by any means, but I find that great game design cannot be calculated, it can’t be defined with exact formulas or techniques…and I don’t believe one person has “all the answers”.

Collaboration is a great means to let you know what may not be working…as these will usually be the points of contention. Teamwork should always be with respect…if you don’t respect your teammates, you really shouldn’t be working with them. It’s not easy to find great teammates, but rest assured they are out there. If you start some simple collaborative projects…see who joins, who produces well, and who meshes with you.

You might just like collaboration more than you think. Compromise isn’t a bad thing, it’s only a bad thing if you give up and betray your own ideas completely. If you and a teammate are clashing…figure out why exactly you are clashing, and work towards a resolution that fits the spirit of what you were both trying to accomplish. (Easier said than done of course, but trust me, compromise can end up making great things).