number of participants building your own visual novel studio

[Lumhiere]

uhmmm i just want to ask about the common number of participants on building your own visual novel studio

for me do you think this list would be enough or too much ?


Head Writer - 1
Scenario Writer - 4
Character Designer - 1
Character Artists' - 5
Background Designer - 1
Background Artists' - 2
Game Programmers - 3
GUI Designer - 1
Musical Composers - 3

total of 21 but in this case is 20 because i 'm already the head writer

so what do you think guys ?? is this enough or too much ??
also if you have a group mind posting your number of group members here and their positions ?? this for my personal survey if i would make a reconsideration's about my group



thnx very much for the help


btw sorry for my bad grammar

[Samu-kun]

1 person, myself, and I expect most of the people here to give you the same answer. Generally, most of the projects that have been released here have been made by either one person or by a partnership of two people.

Why do you think you need so many people...? In terms of gathering people for free on the Internet, it's a thousand times better finding one reliable and skilled partner than 20 unreliable and unskilled workers.

[Vatina]

I am also just me, maybe plus someone who can temporarily help me out with a difficult task like how I had Alessio help me with music for Angelic Orbs.
But yeah, mostly just me.

[LVUER]

21? Wow! That's too much, even for professional team (unless you're planning to make something REALLY BIG... and pro, since it will cost tons of money).

Usually, for free VN, 1 (which is you, you, and yourself) is more than enough. Perhaps 2 (if you are writer, then you work with artist, or vice verse). The reason why 1 is the best is since it's very hard to motivate others, especially if they work for free.

[Aleema]

So far, VNs have been a one-man-show, though there have often been contributions from other artists like BGs, music, and character art (even some outsourced writing). Even though there are multiple people in one production, I don't think the rag-tag group calls themselves a studio, though.

If you do want to start a studio, and I don't see why not (outside of the moral "everyone-does-my-thing-for-free"), then I would suggest one writer, one artist, and one composer. Can't go wrong with that. Plus, you don't want to mix art styles if you can help it.

[Wintermoon]

There are a number of reasons why big teams are a really bad idea:

• Responsibility. The more participants there are, the more likely these participants are to pass off responsibility to someone else. In the end, nothing gets done because everything is always someone else's problem.
• Interpersonal problems. With two participants, there's one relationship that needs to be managed. With 21 participants, there are 420(!) relationships that can ruin the project. Even the most anti-social loner can create a visual novel if he works alone.
• The more people there are, the harder it is to coordinate the project. A team of 21 would need at least one full-time manager/producer/director.

Even for a commercial multi-million-dollar triple-A game project, I'd try to keep the team as small as possible for these reasons.

[Sin]

I used to work for a game studio and we were making a game for PC, PS3 and 360 and we were around 15 people, including administration. 21 for a visual novel is a gross overestimation.

Visual novels are relatively simple to produce. I'd say 2-5 people would be enough.
One writer and one artist. More depending on the burden and ambition of the game.

[Lumhiere]

whew sorry for this, i mean i 'm such a newbie, but thnx for your advices

[Deji]

In MP we have....

- one Writer, also the author. I think he also does part of the programming.
- one Project Manager, in charge of making sure everything and everybody works. I think he does some programming too.
- one Lead Artist, who designed all the characters. She works on sketching characters and event CGs and coloring BGs.
- one Assistant Artist, in charge of digitally inking whatever the lead artist does and also most of the BGs. She colors some BGs too and helps with sketching events.
- one Colorist (me!), in charge of coloring sprites and characters inside event CGs, also helping with event CG sketching, like everybody else. Oh, I'm also the Ero CG artist, and probably will help with UI design later on.

[jack_norton]

Even for a commercial multi-million-dollar triple-A game project, I'd try to keep the team as small as possible for these reasons.

You're 100% correct. I know some big casual studios that are actually less productive because the process became too much like the AAA commercial games. For indie/casual games 2 people (coder, artist) are the perfect solution IMHO.

[Taroku]

I would do everything myself, but i can't write or draw for crap. T^T

[Melkoshi]

In mine. we have 4 people.

Me, which i am the corder/artist(both big jobs lol) I also help the writer come up with ideas. The project was a joint idea formed by me and the writer.
Writer does all the dialog ingame
and two music composers. One for mello, soft music the other for upbeat music.

so in our project group we have 4 people. we'd might even be able to do jsut 3, cause the 2nd composer is in it for only a few songs.

i dont understand how 21 people...would even be needed for a VN. e_e;

[blankd]

Current "staff" on the Advocate project
-one artist/writer (me)
-two editors (one doubles as a flat-colorist)
-one programmer 83

total: 4

I guess you could say there's a composer too but that music was CC-related so I don't think it quite counts as the same thing. c_c

[modesty]

I have 3 people. Me, Myself and I. And yes those are 3 people.
Me is a writer and a pretty darn good one. I trust her. I obviously is me but the project lead.
Myself is the artist and she's pretty fast. I might do better though.
(And that was fun to write.)

This question I feel has been answered in its fullness. I have nothing more to really add.

[delta]

Well, since there is already a lot of "1 person is all you'll ever need lol" posts, I think as a member of a particularly large team I'll chip in at this point. Let me just say that I don't even exactly know how many people we have on staff (yeah...), but we don't have a dedicated UI designer or three programmers or three musicians, so your top numbers are pretty otherworldly in any case.

But, this doesn't even matter. If you're doing it for the fun, all bets are off. If you're doing a commercial project, you will never be able to pay this large a team, and it would be prudent to stick to a number of qualified individuals that is as small as possible. And in any case, you have to start small (probably alone) and pull in as many additional staff as you need. If you're commercial, it depends on your budget, if not, it mostly depends on how good your project gravity is (i.e., how appealing it is to work on it, which again may depend on the abilities of your CURRENT staff, etc...), the amount of work your staff can can do, and sheer luck. Sometimes, you just need additional people, sometimes you can cut a few corners, it all depends on what level of quality you insist on, how long you want it to take, and the scope of your project. It's true that a larger team will always cause additional overhead, but that is not a constant either, it really depends on the team.

In short, start with a small team and preferably a small project. This will give you the knowledge you need to make these decisions yourself.