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.