Looking for Writer(s) [Phone App]

DaltonCarl

Im planning on makeing a Text Adventure app with my friend from http://www.dino-games.de/ Im not a good writer, and I lack the skills to add detail to anything. So I'm looking for someone or a few people who would like to take a shot at making an RPG storyline which has 1-3 different choices after each scene i guess youd call it.
Going to be set in Fantasy styled work and would like to make it as old school as possible. (ie. Dragons, Dungeon and castle) Anyone who works on it will get credited in the app and a twitter link or whatever you would like to add. There are going to be some different elements to the game then the normal choose your own adventure games. But im not going to say here. So if anyone is intrested either PM me or put down a small exsample in a reply. Thanks to everyone who helps.

Also if there is any programers in here whod like to help, Also Welcome to contact me.

Platform: Windows Phone 7
may be ported to: Android, iPhone, and Zune

Baron Dirigible

This thing would seem a lot more credible and professional if you were using a font other than Comic Sans.

... Well, maybe a little.

DaltonCarl

haha, i love comic sans!

Muncie

Most collaborative creative endeavors start with a pitch. The purpose of a pitch is to convince other people that investing their time, money, or other resources will return something of value.

This is doubly important when you are asking complete strangers to work for free to help birth your artistic vision.

This may seem strange because you don't have any art to show, yet. You've got to engage your marks with marketing and showmanship. You've got to show that you respect them and their effort and there has to be some give-and-take.

For example: when you say that the writer will get their name in the credits and a link to his or her twitter account "or whatever" it tells me that you don't really value the amount of work that goes into creating a work of fiction, let alone one that will require a large amount of organization and tedium.

You are also too precious with your premise: "It's a secret, trust me, now send me some writing samples" is taking without giving. Right now your idea is a fart in the wind and you won't even offer a writer a little sniff?

Is it a choose your own adventure game? If so, the majority of the work is the writing. What is it that you do? Are you a programmer? If your creative domain is programming why seek to make something that requires so little of you while requiring so much of some stranger? Maybe I have it all wrong, though. Maybe there is just a little bit of writing that needs to be punchy and interesting to give flavor to an exciting and complex gaming experience. I don't know that, though.

I have no interest in working for free. I used to get the urge to work on free projects but I learned something about myself: money is a hell of a motivator. To reinforce this simple truth about myself I mapped every key on my keyboard to play the sound of mitochondria synthesizing ATP.

But I'll help you rewrite this pitch to be more effective.

Describe the project. You don't have to give every detail but you need to include the hook. Tell everyone what makes your project special. It is not uncommon to use the phrase "this meets that". "My project is Angry Birds meets Sim City."

Then you need to answer some basic questions to establish your credibility.
1. Who are you?
2. What work have you done previously?
3. What is your realm of expertise?

Then you need to answer some basic questions to establish the credibility of the project.
1. How many people are already involved?
2. What are their realms of expertise?
3. What is the projected time line?
4. How long have you been working on this project?

Then you need to answer some questions about authorship.
1. How much creative control will the writer have?
2. How much work is there?
3. How much work are other people doing?

Then finally you need to answer some questions about the economics of working for free.
1. If not money, what kind of compensation will the writer receive? (It helps if you aren't flippant about this. I know we live in a free-love open-source world where people code OpenOffice.org out of the goodness of their hearts and not to pad their resume so they can get a job that ultimately leads to ATP being synthesized.)
2. How much will this app cost? (If this is more than $0.00 then you need to pay the people that work on it.)
3. Will this app be released under a studio label? Whose label? At the end of the day who is getting what percentage of the credit?

So write the pitch that answers those questions. Use your spell-check to make sure you appear literate.

Then you should provide a way to contact you for any further questions. If there are no further questions you should encourage the writer to submit a sample. You'll want to make a prompt. Here's an example:
"Max is a knight of the Iron Realm. He is a prisoner locked in a room with three levers. He pulls the lever on the left. Tell me what happens in 100-300 words."

Good luck!

DaltonCarl

thanks a lot for all the tips, will diff apply to whatever it is next time im looking for some help on a project. But as of now I have found a writer. So again thank you.