Tips on leading a VN project?

[Epschy]

aaa

[Fuseblower]

I think the single most important thing is the following :

Make sure that you exactly know what you need for your project before handing out jobs and communicate these things clearly.

There's nothing worse than working on a project which constantly changes its direction and requirements because the project leader is just "winging it". Sure, you can "wing it" (I always do) but only on projects you work on solo.

At the very least the story should have been finished before involving artists.

If the story is finished then you know the characters and the different settings. Only then can the artists make sprites for the characters and backgrounds. Some preliminary work can be done (some rough sketches how the sprites and the backgrounds should look, how big they should be, etc.). The same goes for dialog, if voice actors are involved then they can only start doing their thing if the dialog is actually finished. And for music, sound effects, etc. For movies they often make storyboards which clearly show what the finished movie should look like (scenes, cuts, camera movements and angles, etc.).

Never overburden the people by coming up with different ideas half way through a project.

Also take into account that some jobs will have to wait till other jobs are finished. For example : the programming of the game. Without the game assets (sprites, backgrounds, story, etc.) nothing can be done although the programmer could use stand-ins for sprites while the sprites are still being made (same goes for backgrounds, sounds, voices, etc.). But the point is that some jobs rely on other jobs. You typically don't want the artist to hand in his/her sprites on the very last day because the programmer still has to put them in the program.

Managing a project is difficult. But in my experience working on projects (as an application programmer, not a VN maker - I solo my VNs) the single most important thing is that a project is completely planned before it's implemented. There's nothing as disheartening as a project where the goals are constantly shifting (except of course for the date when it should be finished, that one never changes...).

In my -not so humble- opinion, that is the single most important thing. A well-planned project where everybody knows what's expected of them and which doesn't change in the middle of the project. All other things like team building, having a nice work atmosphere, friendly colleagues, or some hippie-holistic-whatevah are secondary to that.

One more thing from experience : it always takes twice the amount of time you think it will take. Even if you plan that it will take twice the time. That's an eternal truth