Working in Teams?

[Anarcho]

I've only ever made AGS games on my own.  Its a lot more time consuming, and frustrating, but to me its always seemed like the only way.  As of late though, I'm considering looking for someone to help with animations and possibly character art.  

I wanted to ask those of you who've worked in teams, or found folks to partner with on certain aspects of your games, if its worth it.  Do you find it saves time, or just adds more headaches?  How do you go about finding the right person?  In other words, how do you make sure you've found the right person who will match up well with your work/art?  

I'd love to hear about people's experiences!

Thanks,

Logan

[Radiant]

It's definitely worth finding someone who excels in the skills that you lack.

While having a good teammate is great, the only real way you can find out if you match is by attempting to work together for awhile.

[Anian]

How do you know? Well talk it out, describe in more detail, be prepared to have a plan or, if not, be prepared to change things. Some people just like programing are not interested in the art part, just want the practice and the challenge, others like to throw in thier ideas, same goes for others.
Ideally you have the same ideas or at least are equally interested in the subject of the project, also you'd find somebody that compliments your skills. And by skills, art, music and programing are not alone, there's also puzzle design, overall design and general writing and organization. This is not only so everybody does what they do best, but it's also so you have makers and critcs and not so much of "I can do that better than you," it brings tension.

Of course there are people with "an idea" but basically they want somebody else to make the game for them...while the idea might be good, I find that does people are a bit hard to work with further down the development.

In short, what Rad said:

While having a good teammate is great, the only real way you can find out if you match is by attempting to work together for awhile.

Usually if you can talk with people about subjects connected with the project that's a good sign, but not always 100% reliable.

[Dualnames]

I've been in your place Anarcho, but all you need is your indie developer soulmate. Once you find that, everything is great! Trust me on that.

[Baron]

I'm just finishing my second team effort, but before that I did everything alone. 
    Communicating with teams definitely sucks up a lot of time that could otherwise be spent at more productive activities -that's by far the biggest draw-back in my experience (although I've never experienced a lamer team-mate that doesn't follow through -that'd be the uber-biggest draw-back).  I'm a bit hampered in that I have a very finite amount of computer time every evening, so I found this more of a nuisance than other people might -answering three or four lengthy PMs/e-mails could easily eat up half my evening work-period.  If you have unlimited computer time you could always do the communication thing during what would otherwise be down-time, so it may not be such an issue.  The main thing is it takes a surprising amount of words back and forth to achieve consensus/understanding between teammates.
     Other problems are unity of vision and unity of purpose, which don't really crop up when everything is happening in one skull.
     The benefit of team work is that, despite the added load of communication, a team can get a lot more done than an individual.  Provided each team-member is more skilled than the others at his/her particular job (art, coding, writing....), then the final product will benefit immensely.  Things definitely get done quicker with many hands, and teams are usually also good for motivation and just plain old camaraderie.  Bad ideas usually get nipped in the bud when submitted to the group, but there may also be a danger of groupthink shooting down good ideas.
     So to say clearly how I stand: I would say the right team, organized properly, would definitely beat working alone, in most scenarios most of the time.

[Wyz]

I like to add one thing: Instead of text chat, you could save a lot of time by using voice chat, or when your team member(s) lives near you: in person.

One thing I like to do for team with more then 3 members: meetings. That's for the project you are really serious about and you want progression to happen every week. If it's a project on the side, well, just try to get in contact every now and then. I helps to get everyone (including your self) motivated, divide your project in parts that you can celebrate when they're completed.

[Anarcho]

Thanks everyone.  Baron, I think you've zeroed in on some of misgivings about the team process.  In my case, I was thinking of finding someone just to do animations, I have the game designed and all the static artwork done.  But I kinda figured that in the time it would take to find someone, show them and explain to them the design, and see if it would all work out...i could just do it myself. 

But I often wonder how it works when people do the team thing, or for people who farm out the artwork to friends or collaborators.  Thanks for shedding some light on the process!

[Nikolas]

While there are exceptions, I've found that nobody is actually 'good' in every position. I can probably write a story, perhaps a dialogue, and definately music. But ask me to code or make any graphics and it's like killing me! Same goes for anyone else.

It's only sane to ask for help from others!

The lengthy PMs/e-mails mentioned byBaron are one of the good things I say. I always try to communicate as much as possible with my "clients" in order to understand what they want but even more offer a few more ideas, get into the whole project, etc... It's usually worth the effort I think.

[CaptainD]

I can't compare to working on my own as I've never actually finished making an AGS game... but working in the Journey of Iesir team now is a stimulating experience, albeit occasionally frustrating - we seem to be good at finding puzzles none of us can quite agree on every now and then!

Otherwise, it's a very positive thing and mostly done on a forum and via email - I don't really know if any of the team members are even in the same country.