Becoming the commissioner of a game

[Hamlet]

I have no game-creating ability and very little artistic talent. Nevertheless, I would like to try to make certain adult games or comic-strips happen. For the former, I imagine something short, colorful and fun, with original artwork. Behind the Dune is the sort of game I would like to emulate. For the comic-strip , I had in mind a 30-60 page story with Laz-style artwork. Is there a recommended way of organizing to do this? How would you go about assembling a team? What positions would need to be filled for a game such as I mentioned? Would you use patreon for funding? What kind of a deal would I need to strike whereby everybody else was content with doing most of the actual work while I merely provide a general/overall outline and a few specifications? Personally, I don't see how I can get anybody to go along with this. But I thought I'd ask. Please throw me the proverbial kitchen-sink of advice, opinions and suggestions.

 

[Epadder]

I mean the position you want to take is as a 'producer', but to be a producer on a project you're going to have to provide funding or you have to offer some unique skill that an existing project doesn't have.

At minimum a project needs:

• A programmer - someone to actually implement the ideas of the team into an application.
• A writer - someone to take the lose concepts and actually create the dialogue and story based on them.
• An artist - someone to take the concepts and story and breathe life into them and make the imagined world into a visible world for the audience.

Other positions (Some not needed and not everyone will appreciate):

• A game designer - If the game is more than a choose your own adventure, someone to take the ideas and concepts of the world and create things for people to do in the parts of project that are more interactive.
• A sound designer - Someone to place sound effects into the game at the appropriate times to create a greater sense of immersion into the world.
• A music designer - Like the sound designer but with music.

Now typically a fair few of the projects here are where someone is taking on all the roles for the entire project, other small teams probably have specific roles or the people in the project collaborate to take on aspects of all of these possible positions.

If all you can provide is an idea, you will probably have a huge problem getting something made. There are lots of people with ideas, but few have made the effort to actually make them into more than just idle thoughts.

 

[W65]

First off, a warning: I have no idea what I'm talking about, I just like to talk.

Okay. Commissioning a comic should be relatively easy compared to an entire video game. If you know the artist you want to commission, get in touch with them, ask if they're taking commissions, and get their rates. Be prepared to spend a bunch of money. Then, all you have to do is not get screwed by them, and avoid making them think you're trying to screw them. I have no idea how that part works, so maybe buy yourself a contract lawyer.

If you don't know the artist you want, go look around on hentai-foundry, furry art sites, pixiv, the boorus, or wherever.

Your comic length seems kinda ambitious, maybe? I remember one comic some guy--not on this site--made where the same two women had sex for something like 20 pages, and it kinda dribbled out over the course of--I think it was months. Don't remember. Also nobody was paying for it, I don't think. It was just a labor of love. But, hey, talk it over with your artist.

For the game, if you have wads of money to blow, you could pick a team on Patreon or whatever that seems to be able to actually get stuff done (good luck), then throw a whole bunch of "earnest" money into one of their current projects. Once they realize that you're serious about giving them lots of money, they might listen to you for their next project. Or they might not. Be prepared to spend a ton bankrolling the project, and for it to take forever. You'll probably want to try to nail them down with some kind of formal contract (unless you really don't like the color of your own money), although I can imagine that would scare most amateur teams away. Dunno. Never done it.

Actually to the best of my knowledge almost nobody "commissions" a game as such. Mostly game people just get their own ideas, produce a few prototypes, maybe make it into the late alpha stages, and then either get complacent or vanish into the ether (depending on how much money they've made so far).

However, you could maybe nab an artist or team who's made a bunch of Ren'py VNs if you approached them with an idea that they like. That would be short and sweet and wouldn't require much in the way of game design. I know there're a few furry artists who've produced more than one or two flash "games" (animation viewers), so maybe one of them would treat it like a normal commission? Furry artists LOVE taking money from people.

Anyhow, good luck. If you're some kind of lottery winner who has no idea what to do with the money, my early retirement fund needs some help.