Please note I’m not criticizing anyone just making an inquiry
The Job offering sections is flooded with these unpaid and royalty jobs .
Do we know of any projects that were submitted in job offering section as unpaid or royalty and made it to something more than concept art and stock engine assets?
Moreover I wonder how can you trust any of these? Its more like a game of chance isn’t it? we all know for a fact that most of these are started by people who are in middle schools (Its given away by the way they put their ideas). Its mostly ideas that are way too complex even for a AAA studio.
If you’re looking for cash, it is the best idea to avoid unpaid or royalty projects and assume they won’t pay off. Especially, if you URGENTLY need that cash. That’s because lack of funds is a big warning sign.
It is not 100% certain warning sign, though, so you should try to analyze the situation and see if the guys running the project look legit. Someone who’s still in the school is far more likely to have unrealistic expectations than 30 years old grizzled programmer/designer/whatever with experience in the field, and there are legitimate circumstances where decent teams might have trouble acquiring cash.
However, unpaid project is a good way to unwind and work on something you’d like (as opposed to working on something you get paid for).
There was a comic somewhere where a dude in office throws a fit and screams “I just wanna go home and draw bunnies!”. Unpaid project would allow you to do exactly that - to take a break from your primary job, and for a short while to work on something you find fun.
So, treating unpaid/royalty project as hobby/pet project is probably the best idea.
The vast majority don’t go anywhere. Though if you want to work on something you like then you can probably come up with something on your own that you like better. That’s one of the reasons they can’t get good people to join unpaid projects because professionals can think of better things to do with their time.
I’m sure most of them don’t get anywhere, but as surely some do. One that I’m part of seems very promising. Just avoid those that seems unrealistic and when you join one you will quite quickly get a feeling for if it has any chance to succeed.