Ok, I hope I’m not getting in over my head. This was a spur-of-the-moment decision, which I hope I don’t regret.
So here’s the deal. I am not very good at coming up with stories, or puzzles, or even concepts. However, from time to time, I do get some flashes of what could be interesting. And occasionally I flesh them out, because they seem promising. And before long I have the rough layout of an entire game, even an idea of what some of the obstacles might be.
Now, it took me a long time to realise this, but realise it I must. It’s not that I can’t write - I can. But not well enough to carry a full-length game. I have two concepts in my head, one of them has been there for years. They’re fairly epic (one moreso than the other), and mostly linear (but with a lot of space for development).
I’ve had it. I want to see these stories out there. But I can’t do it myself. I simply lack the writing skill. At best, I tend to be verbose. At worst, I simply can’t convey what I intended.
So I’m actively looking for writers who would be willing to, on a first bases, listen to these concepts - these outlines - and decide whether they would like to help me flesh them out. I would be glad to do the programming myself and write some of the more menial stuff like descriptions. I have very strong ideas on game design, but I’d like to to able to discuss them with whoever I would be working with, so as to arrive to some sort of middle ground if there are disagreements. I’m very bad at coming up with puzzles, so they’d also be mainly in the hands of my collaborator, though I’d be more than happy to brainstorm.
I do NOT want to split this equally in half, with me programming and someone else writing. I want to be a part of the creative process. However, my collaborator would be free to write as he/she pleased, and would be free to suggest anything. I’m not dumb - I know that, if I could do this by myself, I wouldn’t need anyone else, and since I do need someone else, the intelligent thing to do is to give that “someone else” all the space they need. I promise space, as long as the collaborator understands that these concepts are my babies, and I’d like to see them grow and flesh out.
One of the stories, the biggest one, is fairly epic. It’s Sci-Fi. It’s, I think, a fair amount more interesting than most "epic sci-fi"s out there, but what do I know, I’m biased.
The other one is more fantastical, and allows for episodic release, which was how I planned to release it (if I ever got anything done but the first couple of rooms and an outline, that is).
Ok, I know everyone has an outline, and everyone has a project of their own. But I also know that if you want to see a project through and you can’t do it yourself, you should be humble enough to ask for help. It seemed harmless enough to try. Anyone interested please e-mail me at peter_pears@hotmail.com, and we should be able to discuss the matter further.
Bottom line - I’m looking for partnership, not dictatorship. This goes both ways - I do not intend to be a dictator.