I am part of and manage a 5 person creative team, and have been doing so for 6 years (there were only two of us at the start though), so everything I'm saying here stems from that experience.
In my opinion, these are the things you need to have a successful collaboration (formatted into easily digestible bullet points for your convenience):
- A shared vision for the project (scope, style, genre, etc.)
- Concrete goals
- Upfront and honest communication
- Trust in your team's individual abilities
- Openness to feedback / Taking criticism
- Making the well being of the project your priority (throw your ego out the window)
- Personal responsibility
- Flexibility and compassion
- Willingness to pick up slack when needed, even outside of your department
- Some semblance of hierarchy (there needs to be a decision maker at the end of the day)
These things go for ALL team members, whether you're the creator or the lowest ranking member. When I see problems in collaboration it usually boils down to these problems:
- Someone has an ego trip and needs all the control/thinks they're hot shit
- The creator devalues the skill of the person they're working with and smothers them / has unreasonable expectations (related to the above ^)
- No cohesion in goals or a plan of action
- Someone's trying to ride coattails and isn't actually invested in the project
- A person is all talk and ultimately only makes empty promises
- Too many cooks in the kitchen
All of those can be fixed by working on one of the things above, whether you're the writer, artist, editor, director, whatever. And it's worth noting that not all collaborations will have the same dynamics; they're as different as the people in them, and they all have different needs.
If there's anything that other thread has shone a light on, it's how divisive the different skill trades can be with each other. This is very dangerous and needs to be avoided. For example: I worked at a mobile game company for awhile as a 2D artist. The artists complained about the programmers a lot, and I'm SURE the programmers complained about us a lot (our only solidarity was our complaining about the CEO and the producer but that's a different story).
It's easy to throw a fit when someone shows ignorance. "I can't believe Becky thinks I can finish this texture in two hours," "Tom is a real dick, complaining about how the asset wasn't placed exactly how he wanted it. Coding has limitations you know!" The reality is, neither side truly understands each other, because we're specialized in our field. That's why asking questions about what's possible, working in areas outside your expertise, and baseline communication is so important.
Now, in general, big companies are going to have that problem a lot more because you're dealing with more people and stricter roles. Indie development gives us a unique opportunity to experience and appreciate all kinds of other roles because the project's success often hinges on the team members being able to wear different hats. (And be "co-creators", as someone said above)
I'll use my own team as an example. At our basic level, this is what our roles/departments are on paper:
Kayla (me): Artist
Joanna: Writer
Mark: Editor
Pai: Background Artist
Peta: Art Assistant
This is the reality:
Kayla:
- Original Creator
- Character artist
- Concept artist
- Layout artist
- Art director
- Writer
- Editor
- Team manager
- Social media/brand manager
- Promotional aritst (posters, merchandise)
- Graphic artist (business cards, banners)
- Online order fulfillment
- Convention vendor
- Inventory management
Joanna:
- Original Creator
- Writer
- Editor
- File setup
- Toning
- Shading
- Lettering
- Sound Effects
- Taxes
- Business registration/payments
- Accounting
- Concept artist
- Layout artist
Mark:
- Editor
- Research
- World building (I feel like this needs to be like 3 bullet points worth)
- Writer
- Art director
- Convention vendor
Pai:
- Background artist
- Concept artist
- 3D modeler
- Line cleanup
Peta:
- Line cleanup
- Concept artist
- Shading
As you can see, there's a lot of overlap. Sometimes this is because "someone is sick and we need this done", but moreso, it's a form of checks and balances. Having the three of our core members (Joanna, Mark, and I) all dabble in Writing, Editorial, and Art allows us to give feedback to each other and make the product better overall. But, we each make the final call in our respective department. So I can't override Joanna and make the final decision on writing, just as she can't override my final decision with art (Though even then, technically Editorial has power over the Art and Writing departments). With business decisions we tend to go with whichever choice has the majority vote, but in the event of a standstill, I hold an extra percentage of the company and am tasked with making the final call.
That being said, I'd imagine a lot of people's collabs--especially fledgling ones here on Tapas--won't be that detailed or organized. And that's okay! But I thought it was important to show the inner workings of one that is. Of course, we're still small fry, and there are a lot of things we can't focus on because we're stretched too thin in some areas. If anything, it's actually made me realize a few places we could improve and distribute things better.
We have a lot of imperfections but I'm the most proud of my team's ability to work together, produce pretty good content, and actually get shit done.
I know it was a lot to read, but if you made it to the end, I salute you. <3 I hope the insights helped someone!