<< Part 1: Your skills
You keep telling us to join a team but where? (you might ask)
Finding a team depends on your skills, the style and genre of the game you want to make and consequently the engine you choose to start with. so let's weight the different options and try to choose the one that suits you.
image source: Wikimedia
I'm not going to List all of the game engines for you while you can find an extensive game engine list on Wikipedia.
Instead I will suggest the engines I tried that some are free so you can dip a finger into the water before spending any money on an expensive engine. Who knows? you might find the perfect game engine for your needs in the free ones like I did.
Ren'py
Ren'py is a Visual Novel engine based on pygame/python, it's free and easy to learn, can export to Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iPhone, very suitable for story based 2D games and games with simple game-play.
Where to get it?
you can download Ren'py from https://www.renpy.org/ Installation should be as easy as double click next next next... or unzip the folder if you've downloaded the zip version.
What's the minimum I need for a team?
Due to simplicity, Ren'py is the gateway engine for many enthusiasts, you can get by with less experienced members and everybody can learn as they work on the game.
Though you can make a game with text only, the minimum requirement for a game that people would happily play is:
Writer / Script writer
Character artist (2D)
Background artist (2D)
GUI artist (optional, Ren'py comes with a basic GUI)
Musician
Often A team member is able to perform multiple roles on the team, frankly if you can draw and have the time to type your story, using some free/royalty free music you can make the whole game by yourself. Since Ren'py is my favorite engine we will dive deep into making a game with Ren'py in the future tutorials.
Where can I find a team/team members?
Ren'py has an active community on https://lemmasoft.renai.us/ join the forum and hang out for a while, there is a section for job offers and recruitment.
Unity
The unity engine is aimed toward 3D games but with some addons you can make 2D games with it as well. Unity can export to Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, iPhone, console and web format. Unity engine is free (up to $100,000 of income) with their logo at the start of the game or you can remove the logo (and get some other features) buying their subscription for $35 or $125 per month.
Where to get it?
You'll have to register an account at https://unity3d.com/ by following get unity button it will give you an installer to download that will download and install unity for you.
What's the minimum I need for a team?
Unlike 2D games, 3D games need a bit more of effort to make, therefore, you might need a bigger team with more experienced members. you'll need at least:
a 3D artist (or several due to the workload)
Programmer
Interface designer
Level designer
Musician
Where can I find a team/team members?
Unity has a forum but I haven't been there much to say how useful it is and if there's a section for offering services and finding team members.
Note: Even though unity is a very powerful engine, due to release of many bad games bearing unity's logo, it's reputation have suffered in the game community. I suggest buying a license if your game turned out being good and remove the logo.
Game Maker
Game maker is not free but If you're a fan of 2D RPG and platformer games, you might want to give this game maker engine a try, it's tailored for console style 2D games, it can export to Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, iPhone, console and web format if you're ready to pay their specific prices.
I've tried game maker before I knew anything about making a game, the tools looked very helpful and simple but I lacked the skills necessary to use them, I'm pretty sure it makes me look like a pro if I try it now.
Where to get it?
you can download their demo version from their website but keep in mind you can't export any kind of game with that version and that's too big of a obstacle for an entry level game developer.
What's the minimum I need for a team?
you're going to need pixel artists but don't panic, pixel artist are the same as character and background artists, they just need to mimic that old game style. well they might need to know a bit about tiling (more on that later) as well. you will need:
Pixel artist(s)
Music and sound (important in this case)
Level designer
Programmer
Where can I find a team/team members?
As usual there is the game maker forum and it has a collaboration section. The nice thing about it is: the posts types are color coded and easy to explore.
Note: you can also buy it on steam and I also saw it on humble bundle.
Unreal
I had the opportunity to work with unreal for a short period of time, even though I was only GUI artist, I checked out the engine and it's capabilities, it's leaning towards first person shooters but it can be bent in other directions as well. Unreal engine is capable of creating very nice looking games, However you'll need a very experienced 3d team for it. Unreal can export to Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, iPhone, console, VR and web format.
Where to get it?
You can download it after registering at their website , if I remember correctly it's free to use and all they ask for it is 5% of your sale. Sounds like a very good deal to me.
What's the minimum I need for a team?
You need real experience for unreal, it is an easy engine to start with but it will get very technical in a blink of eye. You'll need:
3D artists
Programmers
Level designer
Music
And that's it, an unreal game can rely on the visuals and cover for lack of story telling an good sound.
Where can I find a team/team members?
Well their forum has a job and skill offering section near the bottom you can check out. if someday I want to go towards 3D game development unreal is my preferred choice.
Conclusion
I think those engines cover most of game genres, there are mobile game engines optimized for mobile games but I have no experience with most of them and some of them I tried long time ago and they where too complicated due to the young nature of their platform. I might find the time and explore to see what's out there nowadays but for now I have nothing to offer in that regard.
Hey you didn't mentioned the skills: Voice actors, General computer knowledge, Web developer, Social media and Team Leader. are they useless? (you might ask)
well voice actors, web developers and social media are optional in any game and general computer knowledge/team leader (often the same person) do not have much effect on choice of the game engine.
We will continue these tutorials with Ren'py because Ren'py is free, simple and awesome. But feel free to install and experiment with any engine you like, after all that's where all of my skills came from, Experimenting.
If you're still not sure which engine suits your needs, just describe your game you want to make and or your skills in the comments and I'll try to help.
(part 3: Ren'py Game Engine)
(part 4: Ren'py Scripting)
(part 5: Ren'py More Scripting )
(part 6: Ren'py Scripting, Visuals)
(part 7: Ren'py Scripting, Dialogue)
(Part 8: Ren'py Scripting, Conclusion)
(Part 9: Images) (Part 10: Animation )
(Part 11: sound editing and voice acting)