I am a writer burgeoning with story ideas. Would it be weird to hire a team when all I can contribute is the story?

[Wintermoon]

I am broke with no computer. All I have is a phone. I am a college student and a great writer. All I could contribute to my game would be the story - everything written the player would see; the names, dialogue lines, etc, along with the region name, concept, and shape, and all the other plot concepts. I have 0 artistic or coding ability and am not able to gain any at present due to financial instability. Would it still be okay to write out the dialogue and then hire a team to put images behind my Pokémon game?

 

[HollowGap]

If you're willing to spend money, it's totally fine. But be prepared for it. Making games ain't easy and it won't be cheap.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

If you don’t have money, you should probably refer to it as recruiting people, not hiring them, so people don't get confused and expect to be paid.

This is the sort of question where you really just have to try it first to find the answer. People can give guesses about whether others would be willing to join or not, but they can’t guarantee another person refusing or agreeing to join a team. Someone might not expect you to get any team members and tell you as much, but then you could put out a recruitment post and get someone interested and willing to contribute.

My personal opinion is that most people go into fangame development with a story in mind, so there’s not really a large pool of candidates. Any potential team member has to ask not just "Do I want to work on this idea?", but also "Do I want to work on this idea instead of my personal project, or this other project that's also being developed?" But you can try to influence people's responses - share what you have completed, contribute to other projects in hopes of getting people to help you out in return, etc. (Magenta and Tale of the Islands both mention they're looking for writers in the Recruitment section) You could also work on things like trainer teams and Fakemon learnsets/stats, to show you're willing to put in what you can.

Also, re: not being able to develop code/graphic skills because of money, you don’t have to pay for classes to develop these skills, there’s plenty of free tutorials online, and free software like paintdotnet. The only thing you'd need to pay for is RPG Maker XP, which often goes for sale as cheap as 5$. That's not super helpful to you now since you only have a phone, but you could work on developing your skills through university computers for when you're in a better financial situation.

 

[AenaonDogsky]

Alright, don't fret, you have to take certain things into consideration first, and then there's good solutions.

Most devs who are artists, programmers, or designers, usually fill the role of a dedicated writer (which isn't something highly sought of, due to the simplicity of the games, and the fact that any basic level of writing is more than enough for a pokemon fangame). So, getting a team together, is a bit harder, since you don't have to offer a tangible sample of your game to get people interested enough to stick with you, and pull through, when recruiting. Moreover, you will be dependent on the availability and consistency and actual output of other developers. This is quite risky, and since the fangame scene is a hobbyist scene, where people spend their free time (and usually come and go), you can't expect others to shoulder the practical fruition of your ideas. At least not consistently.

If you only have good ideas and good writing skills you still need to learn how to use the engine, which doesn't require coding. It's a sort of "visual scripting" where you put premade commands in a certain order. RPG Maker is very easy to use, and it won't take you long to get the gist of it. The rest is practice. Any hobbyist developer, should specialize in one area, and also know how to use the engine. This is crucial.

In your situation, you can get an internship, and/or a summer or part-time job, and get a very cheap laptop. RMXP is really old software, it can run almost anywhere. In fact, this will be far cheaper than paying a dedicated designer. Aside from RMXP, which usually sells for 5 bucks, any other essential program is free and/or open-source. Graphics Gale and Gimp for graphics, Notepad++ and Code for scripting, even Tracktion (now goes by a diff name?) and a couple other DAWs for music.

So, either put forward your best and try recruiting as is, or get a cheap laptop - sercond-hand works too, grab RMXP, and have some sort of game to offer, so that your chances of getting people to help, and most importantly stick around, are far greater. And developing this skill might open new horizons for you, and reward you in unexpected ways.

 

[noild789]

I also have a story idea and i am thinking about to develop a powerful plot pokemon game but i lack experience in the mechanics so if i can start learning up how to make one with your story material that would be good