There's a fine line between looking for staff and looking for people to do the work for you!
Here's the deal. People post in the developer forums asking for the help of others on their game. This post is addressed to them.
When you advertise that you are looking for X, you are sending out a message, "I want to enter a contract with you. You work for me on my game, I get my game, and you get Y." Although, a lot of these game makers don't ever mention what Y actually is!
You know, there's an old anime out there, some of you may be familiar with it, Fullmetal Alchemist. The key message was "Nothing is really worth the cost of a human soul" but that's not important. The message I am thinking of is:
"In order for something to be gained, something of equal value must be lost. This is the principle of equivalent exchange"
This phrase is law to those of us who love Mathematics and Science! Balancing equations! And this principle is used throughout life as well. But as far as interactions between people, what matters is only how each person feels about their end.
Suppose I have a cow and I really want a box of apples. You have a box of apples, and we trade. Your box is much smaller than mine, so an outsider viewing the trade may wonder, "Why did that person trade a large cow for a small box of apples? That's not a fair trade!"
Well that's pretty much it. What matters is only that the two traders view that it is a fair trade. To a dying man stranded on an island, an arm may be worth the hope of seeing a boat the next day or it may not be.
So you put out the call for your team. You figure that whatever Y is could be negotiated after interest has been found. Everything's cool. Now I notice that a lot of ads say "Unpaid." And you know, that's understandable. Personally I don't trust the internet AT ALL! I wouldn't trust someone to pay me over the internet. And I imagine many others feel the same way. But that's not the point here. You put out the call for your team, perhaps you want to fulfill your long-awaited destiny of creating a Mermaid Melody game! So this is what your ad looks like.
Looking for Group:
So liek ai want 2 maek mai Mrmaid Meldy game! I needz halp frm others. If u want 2 halp, rply.
This is a bad post. When you are posting that you need help for a game, it's always best to go by these guidelines.
1. Concise. Be able to express what you want and need in as little as possible. Readers have lives beyond BYOND you know! Being good at being concise also shows intelligence on your part, and I know more than some how annoying it is to work for an idiot. A project leader should be intelligent and charismatic.
Note: I know that being concise is a fail on this post, I just like to run my mouth!
2. Grammar. You must, must, MUST have proper grammar in your post. There is no alternative! People need to understand your post! Also posts without grammar are assumed to be run by an idiot. If you cannot speak English properly (because you are foreign) make a note of it in your post! Being foreign to English is acceptable, being an idiot is not!
3. Spelling. This goes with 2. Spelling is just as important as grammar. Yes, I know about that study that went on at Harvard or something that's all over facebook. I don't care. Spell things correctly or do not post at all!
So let's revise that Mermaid Melody Ad.
Looking for Group:
Greetings. My name is Lugia319 and I would like some help on my Mermaid Melody fangame. The current staff is just myself, a programmer. Programmers welcome, iconners needed.
If you work with me, I will give you 1 month BYOND membership after the game has been released in Beta.
The game is going to be an RPG, similar in style to that of the Pokemon games. The only thing I ask is that you do your job in a timely manner. I am easily satisfied with the very best. (Winston Churchill)
If you are interested, send me an email or a BYOND page while I am online. My email is [email protected].
(Feel free to include previous projects)
Now my post includes everything in my list. It's concise, it has proper grammar and spelling, it has an overview of the plan of the game, it has my contact, it even has a payment! Thar be a respectable post. And you can feel free to expand it, make it pretty and stuff.
At the start I said that there is a difference between looking for staff and looking for people to work for you. I left this alone for a bit, but now I will address what I meant. I find quite a few posts that say that the poster is looking for staff. They want programmers, iconners, even an HTML website designer. (For a game that hasn't been made no less!) These people are expecting an instant boom, and feel that a website "makes things official." These people usually just want a game in their name. They ask for a programmer and icon artist, but have no skills themselves. (Nor are they willing to learn) These people are looking for people to make their game for them, and I would avoid working with them.
I suppose the subliminal message of the previous paragraph is; if you cannot code or icon, you probably shouldn't be making a game. But don't fret! That doesn't mean you're not allowed to! You just require a trusted friend that knows how to do the work, and is willing to follow your guidance!
When you look for staff, look for staff. Do not look for someone to do all of the work for you. Understand that this is YOUR game, YOUR vision, YOUR responsibility. You MUST do a lot of work on it. And this is not a bad thing. Working consistently on the game means that you are keeping it on the path towards completion to your standards.
