First of all, this is NOT a thread trying to assemble a team. I would like to know, in the opinion of this community, how much work should be done on an individual level, defore trying to get a team together. I see this problem soo many times, people post projects, and want to assemble a team around it, but have almost nothing done before-hand. What do you think constitutes enought effort into a project to justify a team effort?

I think you must do nothing before, just show some good work from old projekts...

well, what if it is your first project... that was really what i was getting at. sorry, I forgot to specify.

learn the basic's before making a team
i was part of a new team but none of us knew what we were doing we all got angey and some of us quit'ed at the end is was about 3 of us left then we gave up untill we all become better

in my opinion i say learn before you create a team for so many reasons

Well, i already know the basics of scripting and level design. At the moment, I am putting together a detailed design document. By detailed, I mean, I have created some of the dialogue of the characters, scripted whole cutscenes with stagedirections, created character backgrounds, made out a general storyline, and good stuff like that. However, how much of the game should I actually build before asking for help. Because, technically, I could do it all myself, but that would not be ideal... I would like to be taken seriously, and knowing that some are not taken seriously, what should I do in order to win over a little trust in the project.

When I was new to 3dgs I joined a "royalties" team. There wasn't even a story to the game yet. There was no main character, nothing at all except we were going to make a FPS.

We spent some chat secessions working on the story.

Before making a game, you should have your full story, the levels, where they end and where they begin, pretty much anything and everything you can have about the game done before one 3d model is made or one line of code is scripped.

After Tower, I plan to practice what I preach.

This also assumses that the person making the team already knows how to confidently fulfill his role. The programmers shouldn't be asking questions on the forum, they should be the ones answering. Modlers should have made several threads on showcase 1 and know how to accept critism before starting a project with them as the leader.

If a programmer is starting the project then he can get into the game. There are many many place holders avaibile for 3dgs. You don't need matching animaitons to work either. In fact a programmer could make the entire game before asking a team of artists to join to make it look pretty (This is in my guess the best set up and the way I would do it If i planned on making games this way).

A modler should have the model of the main character up and running, using the templates to see about movement. Prehaps shown a level or 2.