Poke around some modding sites and get in touch with some modders. Game modders tend to have high technical proficiency, even if they tend to be a little temperamental and ADD-ish. But if you can get a modder or two who are good at programming and coding, and you have a decent engine to work with, you're halfway to victory.

Then get someone with artistic skill to do up some unit or map GFX demos, and run around your local park with a condenser mic to record as much royalty free nature music and sounds as you can. Slap all that together and make a Kickstarter page and ask for ridiculous amounts of money (with or without stretch goals). Get it released on gog or steam and sit back and enjoy the millions pour in. Then buy yourself an island and spend the rest of your life sitting on a beach, earning 20%.

I already own an island.

But is empty, and indigenous life is not good at coding.

Your back! That info would make a good movie.

Well, there are a lot of resources out there, depending on what level you want to aim for. Engines a plenty - UE4, Unity are big ones, but smaller ones like Godot (free) may do you better. And then there are the gamemaker types. Therein lies one area of scale to consider.
Next is graphics, 2d, 2.5d, 3D? This will have impacts on time / budget etc. You can hire artists for set bits of work - ensure it's well described what is needed. The art resources for a game could be quite large, especially RPGs which tend to be bigger anyways. You have options on graphics packages such as Krita and gimp.
Story is a huge part, it's effectively writing a novel, with many different versions. Then there is dialog, books, lore etc.
For mechanics, I saw someone point to a reference on dnd 3.5 recently:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Game_License
So you could use something like that. Normally these systems are proprietary, and there might be contractural things.
Then there is the less tangible things such as back, version control systems, collaboration system, legal aspects etc. And sure you cover yourself with NDA's, contracts with contractors.

I personally have a small pipeline and some ideas, but time really isn't with me anymore. It can take hundreds of hours to get a working demo up for others to see your vision.

Best of luck with it though.

Oh, one thing I forgot to add, what about modding first off, pick a game like NWN, and create a mod with that, using their resources. It may help you get some ideas/examples and then you could look at new graphics and such like. Start small.

In other words, you just want others do it for you. Thanks, but no thanks.

Start by writing it on paper. All the ideas. Try drawing how you want it to look. Try imagine how you want the game to play and write down as much as you can. If your idea is not in concrete form that people can take a look and consider, people will find it hard to take it seriously when you say you want them to work on it.

Never said I expect people working for free. But probably you are not someone I would consider anyway :)

So, the game system is already written down, and well playtested, being my tabletop RPG.
It is extensive in depth system, with a lot of depth and tactical decisions, but also skill based.
The system also allow for social conflicts and a lot of other things; like assessing objects values, haggling and opposed/hidden rolls.

I'm willing to invest in people working on it, but not sure that employing someone full time would be the best approach.
Perhaps I need someone capable of assembling a demo and, as someone suggested, a possible kickstarter.
But I'm not a Kickstarter believer....

Probably, since I'm not much of a coder (I'm still in process of making my first game) and more of a writer. I would advise you to make demo first and only then go to Kickstarter. Because without something interesting to see, people reaction would be a lot like mine.

Also, you can probably check Unity Store and Unreal Marketplace for stuff like this: And maybe you can even contact authors.

http://forums.indiegamer.com/

Might be of some help.

This brings back (repressed) memories of when I joined a bunch of guys in a tech forum who wanted to create a game but had zero organization about it. Ah, good times. My favorite were the guys who wanted to be paid (upfront, of course) for working in a game that was still barely in the concept stage. We had a story, nothing more. Hadn't even settled in a genre.

Anyway, lessons I got from that trainwreck: I recommend you start with a much simpler no-commercial game before going after the one you envisioned. This way you'll be able to gauge whether the guy who claims to be an "uberhacker" can actually write a dozen lines of code, or the guy who sees himself as the digital Davinci will deliver crap of MSPaint quality. You'll also train yourself for the role of Project Lead which will be a valuable skill once you have to handle a project that is several times bigger.

I suggest you pick a platformer for your starter project. "Dangerous Dave"'s level of complexity and a mere half dozen screens should be enough. Edit: But maybe not since you settled on an RPG.... Hmmm

I'll have to think this a bit more.

I'm actually an Engineering manager in an IT company, and I daily organize work for many.... really many people.

That said, I bet organizing a "bunch" of guys on your own project is wildly different and have difference challenges.
So thanks for the tips.


I don't want to go from 0 to commercial. Just trying to find the format/team composition that could help deliver the first demo.

Coding a platformer like dangerous dave, can be useful, but I don't know if will help in the challenges around team building.

I'll have a look at indieforum. Thanks!