Non-writer led projects?

[Greeny]

I be wondering what your opinion is on a VN project that's started and led by someone who's neither an artist nor the writer, and merely coordinates and provides the plot premisis and structure to the writer(s).

I ask this because I think that thinking of a good plot, structure, paths, possibilities,... and putting that into solid text that is enjoyable by the reader are two entirely different sets of skills.

[dstarsboy]

That's fairly common. Although, from what I've seen, projects where the main story provider is neither the writer or the artist are destined for the vaporware pile. I can't even think of any projects with that kind of set up from this board that have been completed.

That said, time to buck the trend, fella!

[sake-bento]

That's how The Flower Shop was done. Same goes for Card Sweethearts. jack_norton coordinated them and wrote the outline and most of the characters. He was still pretty actively involved in development, though, doing a lot of the programming (although I think PyTom did the poker engine for Card Sweethearts).

[papillon]

Being more of a 'project manager' generaly only works if the primary thing you're contributing to the project is funding.

Otherwise you're likely to be seen as the sort of person who shows up in gamedev forums with the "I have a GREAT idea for a game! Will someone make it for me and give me the credit?" sort of line, which tends not to turn out well.

[jack_norton]

Yes without paying other people (advances or royalty share) you won't get good partner/collaborators (obviously!). Or even if they are good, they won't be much motivated so the result will be poor anyway
I did that several times and plan to do that even more extensively next year since my goal is move away from my role of coder/manager and do only management (since I really have no time anymore to code!).
You have to be careful who you pick though, some writers are good writing just about anything (hanako and sake_bento for example) while others might have trouble doing romance writing or other genres.

[Mikan]

I'm more of the art bitch than writer, but since my story topic is so darn obscure I'm also writing it.
But I'm not really drawing or writing for my project atm. It is mostly planning:

I've decided not to write or draw for this project until the outline and planning is complete.

It's not unfamiliar grounds for me though, since I used to have to plan out my stories all the time for drawing comics.
Fortunately comics and VNs are both worlds where text and graphics are struggling to coexist.

I hope that one day when I see a story that makes me proud to draw it, that I'll also work with a writer.


But in any case, it's kind of hard to create a VN if you have nothing to contribute.

Story is very important, but art is what draws people in. The Music sets the mood.
If you can't work on any of these things, I don't know what use it would be trying to make a VN.


I guess someone to boss everyone around would be nice
(division of workload, handles communication between persons of interest)
but most of the projects here are so small that it isn't necessary.

[Jake]

I guess someone to boss everyone around would be nice

On a project of any non-trivial size, a good project manager/coordinator can be incredibly useful.

On the other hand, a lot of people who think they have a good idea and want to run a project wouldn't necessarily make good project managers, it's as much of a skill as writing, drawing or composing is.

[Mikan]

The wonderful (or terrible?) thing about VNs is that story, pictures, and music can all be worked on one at a time.
The only need to synchronize the work schedule of each department is to work towards a deadline.

It's not like programming where everyone works on a different function, but all the functions are dependent on each other to run the entire program.

[Jake]

The only need to synchronize the work schedule of each department is to work towards a deadline.

Firstly, it's still sometimes useful - for example, a lot of people work better when they can see some measurable progress and a good project management to keep everyone working on a schedule that lets regular iterations of the whole project or some subset of it be put together can be a help from a motivation point of view. Not to mention that some tasks can be easier if others have been done first - like writing a script which discusses the physical appearance of a character or prop, or whatever.

Having someone pulling people up by the ears when they start slacking can help; a lot of people, especially amateurs, will take random time off a project that eventually lasts so long they might as well have abandoned it, and sometimes they'll feel so silly or guilty about not having done any work on it for X days/weeks/whatever that they won't come back, and maybe if someone had nagged them (or alternatively motivated them, whatever's appropriate) it wouldn't have happened.

In any project between more than one person, there'll be creative differences and possibly arguments, and having someone who isn't directly involved to mediate and try and find a reasonable compromise, or get those people focussing on the bits which are actually important rather than wasting their time on some trivial detail can often help.



Usually all these tasks are performed by the project's 'owner', whoever has the biggest (usually emotional) stake in it, but of course they're also often so involved that they can't be objective enough to do them as well as a third party might. Not to say that all projects definitely need a dedicated project manager, but just that someone in that kind of role is often more useful than you'd think, and often projects will have one without really being aware of that.

[Topagae]

"Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit..."

[Mikan]

Once again, perhaps not surprisingly, people are totally missing my point.