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So, I'll start off by saying that this is a more intellectual question given the stage I'm at. I'm still in the drafting phase for the story, so this bridge won't be crossed for a while. That said...

I have a VN I'm working on. It's not the kind of project I'm doing to " get my feet wet", it's more of a large-scale thing. All advice about "do something simple for your first work" aside, this is the kind of project I want to do right, so it will definitely be several years before it sees the light of day. This isn't a question specifically about that stuff. I have plenty of conceptual stuff planned: An outline of the story, a strong grasp on the cast, a malleable structure plan, a lot of soundtrack arranged, some key visuals, etc. I have a solid enough idea that I know I will need help to meet my vision of what this project can become; I can't do it myself.

So then the obvious next step, after I get to that point, of course, is to look into hiring people for the rest of the stuff. However, I don't know much about this, and don't know how the workflow goes, I guess. Commissioning work is pretty straightforward, but I'm curious about the creative process of collaboration. In the interest of not making this question too complicated, I'll try to be as clear as I can, despite the vagueness.

For example, I have a lot of soundtrack planned out and arranged, but I know I'm not capable of producing it myself to my satisfaction, and I'll need help with other tracks, so my ideal process would be to work in a closer collaborative capacity with whoever is helping produce the music. I don't know how satisfied I would be with simply commissioning stuff and refining it via back and forth. Similarly with art; I don't have as good a grasp on that aspect, as I'm not a very Visual arts kind of person, but I know that it will require (or at least I'd prefer) a fair amount of CGs, and I'd like the art to reflect the same kind of intimacy with the concept and story that I feel with the music I've arranged thus far.

I don't know if the above really makes sense, but I'm sort of asking about how it would work to produce a VAN in this manner. Is this something that you have to accept compromises on if you simply commission assets? Do you need a close-knit team of collaborators who share the same general passion for the project? Do you need a payroll of people under your direction? Is this something that's possible with minimal compromises on a non-professional level?

Please feel free to ask any clarifying questions. As I mentioned earlier, this is a more intellectual question at this stage, I won't be seriously thinking about the rest of the pieces until I'm much further along with the writing and planning. I'm mostly curious about how possible it would be to form a team that would be able to assemble something I can be really proud of. I know that forming teams of people who all have their own vision leads to creative conflict and compromise, but I do still want every aspect of the project to have the amount of passion and motivation I'd put into it if I were capable myself.

I know I sound like in getting ahead of myself, but like I said, it's hypothetical at this stage. I hope I've made myself clear enough. Again, ask anything you need to. As always, feel free to move this thread if there's a more appropriate location.

Thanks in advance!

To get someone to collaborate with you more than just being a commissioned help is dependent on you getting them interested in the project. Offering money helps too, of course, but the more invested someone is in the project, the far less likely they are to disappear on you, especially if it's a long-term time investment.

Of course, to achieve this, you may have to compromise some on your vision as you've said, but it's just as likely that someone will shock you by suggesting something that really adds to it rather than detracts or changes.

So as a follow-up to that point, at what point does one think about looking to get people interested? At present, I'm thinking about holding off on thinking about that until I have the full story drafted. Chances are, by then I'll have done enough piddling around with sound and music production to put together a few soundtrack demos as well. I feel that would be a pretty good point to start searching for the rest of the artistic talent I need, particularly if I want to avoid the issue of "no no, the story should go this way".

I do get a bit perfectionistic with my artistic pursuits, but I'm starting to get to the point where getting something remotely close to completion is starting to overtake the compulsion to make it perfect. I'm not at that point with music, so I'll definitely need a collaborator there.

I feel I have enough that I'm not 100% on that some compromise is welcome. The main story is set, but the further it goes on, the more it's just key points I want to hit on.

I'm currently about 20,000 words into the writing, and I'm kind of in that exciting stage where this 3-4 year old idea is becoming sort of tangible, so I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.

Thanks for the thoughts!

I think it depends somewhat on what kind of style you have as a leader. If you're more centralized, wanting to make most of the decisions yourself, you'll want more of it to be done before you try to recruit people.

But if you're more hands-off, letting people interpret things like art their own way as long as it doesn't go off the rails, then I'd say you definitely have enough to go on to get people interested already.

What we're doing for IEWG, one of my current projects, which has three writers, is that we have created a writer's guide that is a centralized repository for knowledge on the story, background, characters, and the tone we're going for in the writing. We also have created documents like the story arcs. Finally, to keep things consistent, we periodically check in with each other with our writing to get feedback and make sure everything meshes well.

Having something like that available, even if you don't make it all yourself, can help avoid issues of someone getting confused about what direction to go in, while still allowing them some autonomy to be creative.

I would recommend fully writing your story first. Once the writing is all done, work out the list of other assets you require (art, music etc). That way you've a better chance to get consistency in things like your sprites, cgs and backgrounds. Change can creep into an artists work if they work on something over a long period of time (i.e. sprites made at the start of a project may be not quite as nice looking as sprites done towards the end of the project because the artist has improved through practicing). Also if the art commissioning is spaced out through the project's life you may not be able to get the same artist to make 3 more sprites because that artist is now engaged on some other project.

to attract people to your project there are several ways,

If you are a writer you should make a good synopsis of your writing with that is more than enough.

In your case, you are more involved with the music, strive to show what is best about your work and what you want your project to represent, (who does not remember the clanad soundtrack for example),

If you are an illustrator, show some of the characters that you would like to use in your project with a file that talks about its history and characteristics.
Even just being a programmer or creative in regards to game modes can attract people to your project, (recently I'm looking at a guy who wanted to make a game with the star wars characters but for R-18, the truth I was not very attracted to his writing but the ideas of its gameplay I loved) in if there are several ways to attract people to your project regardless of your area of ​​expertise you just have to be creative and show the best of your work.


Obviously having money ahead would be much easier everything but as not everyone has the possibility of being able to pay at first for the services provided by third parties we have to resort to ask for help, at least there is already kickstarter or patreon with what only the demos or samples of the project can finance many projects, (at least from what I've seen about 75 to 80% if not more get funded) as I think the fact recruit people like that helps you see how attractive it is the idea of your project and if in principle you do not get help at least there will be people who will give you ideas for your project or to recruit people and based on that, improve things.

Now in terms of teamwork, the first thing you should consider and should be your highest priority and you should write it down so that you do not forget is DELEGATE RESPONSIBILITIES
not only for the mental health of all but for the respect of the people who will help you, this is for example in your case you do not know much about illustration take into account the recommendations that the illustrator gives you as the expert on that subject , which does not mean that you let him do with your characters something that in the end you do not like but they agree on the ideas of each one.
In my case, it has happened to me that I have worked with other people and I designed them well and at first they accepted me, but then they wanted to change a lot of things and in the end it did not look like the original and was not congruent with the story and it was more made to the tastes of the person who directed the project rather than as an integral character of the story, at least I was angry and told him he did not understand so he asked me to do the designs, although he and I could do it I would only have dedicated myself to adapt them, maybe for 1 character it would not have been a problem but it was with everything I drew, it is bad luck that I have or I am too intolerant in that aspect but I think you should take it into account when dealing with illustrator.

In your case, your area is that of music there if you can talk and agree with other people since it is your area of ​​expertise and how everything should try to mediate things but there is more than obvious you have knowledge and you will know how to deal with those issues

Now, last but not least, although it is impossible to make people from your own country, it is that you do it with people from your same time zone, this is mostly for when they have to hold work meetings to discuss project issues.

There goes another of my experiences, I am from Mexico but to my bad luck I only made a team with people from Spain or Australia, places where the difference was 10 and 18 hours. Obviously, when they had their meetings to discuss things about the projects they did it. like at 10 p.m. when it was 12 a.m. and I was at work and I only had to listen to the agreements that had been made and I could not say anything so I had to keep quiet because I could not be in the chat, the least thing is the feeling of frustration, the problem itself was that since I was not in these meetings I never gave my point of view and this only told him or the project manager or one of the programmers and in the end rumors were made that generated friction inside the team

I hope it was clear that you are not afraid to make a team due to what I have from my experiences, because even if I did not finish the VN with them I made good friends (even the guy I made his character like 50 times we are friends and I'm I'm going to make you some illustrations for a light novel )
more than anything try to mediate with all the members of your team and respect their opioniones as they are experts in their areas but if something does not convince you say it clearly but respectfully