Hello again Fuwanovel, it's Dfbreezy (now named Kotario). This new entry is going to talk about the problems when motivating team members to work and to commune.
There are alot of problems with development. The ones that are most known, are funding, recruitment and meeting deadlines. Yes, those exist and are very well known because Devs highlight that very frequently. But one other element that is largely overlooked is team motivation or involvement. How is this a problem? Read further to find out.
Picture you have a nice concept. In fact you've completed the first draft of the said concept. You then go into recruitment based on the summary of the concept... not the concept itself. Of course the recruitee does a passover of the summary, checks whether the genres fit with him, and inquire about their all important pay.
This process is done and repeated over and over again in the EVN sector. It's basic practice to some extent. But that is where the problem begins friends. After the payment is settled, almost every team member (minus writers) never actually takes the time to assess the content of the project until it's over and done with. All the ask is for what you need and References.
That is the problem. You, in reading the content, should know what is needed based on the description of the scenes in the concept material. But most of that is waived based on "I'm working on multiple projects".
I myself have had this problem with my team, with only 50% of the team actually reading the content. Luckily my character artist falls in that category. Because of that, i feel we have a distinctive disadvantage against other studios whose members actively take part in shaping the story itself, not just the VN aspect.
It may just be my assumption and speculation at this point, but what if team immersion could affect the final product positively and make it far better than it normally is? Some good food for thought, i'd say.
Hey guys, It's dfbreezy here, your greenhorn Vn writer who's gonna use this blog to educate and enlighten readers as to the deeper workings and challenges in VN creation. The topic i'm going to choose for today would be Vn project recruitment.
VN recruitment sounds easy at first because, hey, all you have to do is post an ad and wait for the interested parties to flow, right? Unfortunately that particular thinking process was quashed in a very short while. If you have ready and available money to pay, recruitment is never a problem. In such a situation it all boils down to what you want and how much you're willing to pay. But for a newbie, unemployed university student (like myself), such feats of maturity are far beyond our grasp.
Recruiting for a free project is actually easier than recruiting for a paid project with delayed payment. That's because when recruiting for a free project, members are aware that there is no monetary gain whatsoever. For a commercial project, team members expect some form of compensation for their work (not always monetary), so in the case of money, they expect upfront payment. They may have their own complex pricing methods or they may utilize a general flat fee, but all in all, you have to pay something.
Being a penniless soul planning to gather funding from Kickstarter, i tried to recruit a team of people on the notion of delayed payment. This, was the most trying time in the production process for me. This particular duty was made much harder due to the fact that all this is transpiring over the internet. Without seeing my face and knowing my name, i attempted to gather people to help produce my idea on the promise of future money that may or may not come depending on various factors. Laughable isn't it?
But it didn't fail completely. With not a single penny exiting my pocket, i managed to gather writers, A programmer and composers. Satisfied with my recruitment, i turned to what i thought to be the easiest avenue. Artists. To sum it up, it took a whole month and 15 rejections for me to finally fill up those positions.
Hardly anyone wanted to take the risk of trusting a newbie with no money with their time and experience. There's no way you can blame them for that... after all it doesn't align with reason to take such a risk.
Nevertheless i gathered a suitable team and work begun on the project. Episicava had hit off and was going smoothly. I had quite a bit of a breather and a sudden increase in my leisure time, so i decided to work on a small scale project while Episicava's assets were being worked on.
The recruitment process for RD wasn't as difficult as that of Episicava since, i fully utilized my wealth of information and tactful wording to gather a second team. It took me about 2 weeks to gather a full team for RD as opposed to the one month+ time it took for Episicava. Experience really is the best teacher.
There are probably a few others in the same position as i am, wanting to work on an idea they have, but not being sure of it's advisable to move forward and recruit. To all those in such a situation, the truth of the matter would be to not recruit yet and to rather gather some funds, say at least $1000- $2000 if you're planning to use low quality assets. Another is to do the impossible and convince someone to work for free on a commercial project. If there's someone who can perform such a feat, i tip my hat off to you.
To round up my short essay, recruitment, whether free or commercial, whether EVN or another language, would possess and create it's own challenges that only the lead dev can solve with his own power and actions. That is... if you don't have a dime to your name.
