Work with friends or strangers?

Discussion in 'Indie Related Chat' started by noahbwilson, Jul 26, 2016.

?
  1. Unmotivated Friends (local and remote).

    1 vote(s)
    14.3%
  2. Mysterious Strangers from the Internet.

    1 vote(s)
    14.3%
  3. No one. Can't depend on anyone else to get it done.

    5 vote(s)
    71.4%
  1. noahbwilson

    Indie Author

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    So I have a lot creative, smart, highly unmotivated friends who I want to make games/Apps with, but as I said, they are unmotivated and its hard to even get them to realize their potential. Now I could just make my games/Apps myself, as I have done, but I'd really like to be able to divide the labor and move faster. I'm not exactly sure how to deal with working with internet strangers because they are strangers. Who knows if they are motivated or not, or even talented and able to do the work.

    So, who would you rather work with?
     
  2. kaufenpreis

    kaufenpreis New Member

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    No one. Can't depend on anyone else to get it done.
     
    metateen likes this.
  3. metateen

    Moderator Indie Author

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    Working with both is a barrier, friends and strangers will ask for a due payment policy. Your friends will more or less be kinder than the strangers. Although the strangers may have abilities that far exceed your friends' natural talent.

    Though I've always worked alone and even then I'm 100% confident in my abilities but recently I've been craving to work in a group.
     
  4. noahbwilson

    Indie Author

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    Yeah... I'm in the same boat. I started this new game "with 2 friends", but so far its been all me. One guy proofread my outline and offered questions, but that was about it. Granted... they are doing the art and I said they could take their time. The problem with working with friends is you want to be nice and not hurt their feelings.
     
  5. metateen

    Moderator Indie Author

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    Yeah, that's the biggest issue with working with friends anyway. They're cool and all but really when it comes down to it. You really wanna get a project going.
     
  6. rf-harris

    rf-harris New Member

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    It is really hard to find the right person to do a job for you but it could be a friend or a stranger which can be the perfect partner for your work.
     
  7. Osmosis D. Jones

    Osmosis D. Jones New Member

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    hi :)
    i have just tried to work with friends till now and i was facing the mentioned problems. I dont know why there is this motivational problem. Maybe because, its not "their" project and so the have different relation to it.
    I m using kind of a work around which some how works fine for me. In particular it doesnt increase the teamwork much but makes me feel less like i m left alone by the former team members.
    When i need work at a project i split it in little parts, which shouldnt take longer than a day. If somebody wants to join i give him a task and a clear time line ( and that its not a great deal if they dont get it done)( if this is well communicated you avoid some of the problems with friends, because it feels less like a personal issue when you take the task of them at the date). If he gets it done its cool and you can increase your teamwork. If not i do it myself^^ and always just expect that i have to do it my self. So at the start i dont see it as team work, more like a little chance that a task is already done by magic until i need it :) I think this a good attitude to get to know the motivation, working behavior and so on off someone.
    Since i know this forum i think there are strangers out their willing to join projects just for fun and experience. Its just hard to find them :)
    greetings OS
     
  8. kaufenpreis

    kaufenpreis New Member

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    I've always worked alone too.
     
  9. Scoper

    Indie Author

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    Having a strong team can be a huge boost. In general, you can find people who have up to two of the following qualities:
    - Talented
    - Motivated
    - Willing to work for free
    Finding someone on the internet who has all three qualities is almost impossible. Among your friends it is still unlikely. In other words, if you want talented and motivated people, you have to pay them. For this reason I often work alone.
     
  10. sudo.radish

    sudo.radish New Member

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    Having worked with friends in the past on other projects I would say I could never depend on them. Yes working with friends sounds good and all. However, a project that doesn't go smoothly will strain a relationship. Working with strangers does negate this because you have no relationship other than a working professional relationship. But unless you have some way of compensating someone for their time you will soon stall on a project.

    If this mythical internet free talent guru ever turns up let me know!
     
  11. two_larsens

    two_larsens New Member

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    It really depends on the friends you have - if that's the route you want to take. For me, I would expect equal shares of contribution - meaning something useful has to be brought to the fore - be it skill, marketing/networking and or money. Anything else would be tough to deal with.
     
  12. Totestold

    Totestold New Member

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    Success is possible only with professionals
     
  13. RobyRothèn

    RobyRothèn New Member

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    I believe, after a small experience, that it's better to not work with friends.

    The possibility to ruin the friendship are high and also friends, due to their role, miss of professionals just because "we are friends".


    The cons with working with stranger, from my point of view, are mainly 2:

    1. You have to trust someone unkown;
    2. You don't know if you are able to work with unknown personality.


    So in general I thinkg it's better, at the end, to work with motivated (like me) stranger than friends.
     
    Scoper likes this.
  14. noahbwilson

    Indie Author

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    Yeah I think we're all on the same page.

    With that, I'm still going 75% solo on my game Robot Gardens, but I am trying to get this amazing artist/buddy/App noob to do the artwork. Thankfully I can use placeholder art until he is motivated enough to do something.

    I'd rather work with friends than strangers, but I'd also rather work alone in the end I guess.
     

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