You have a week to form teams, brainstorm, and plan out what you are going to make.
What tips and tricks do you have for fellow developers to help with this process?
Here are my tips for forming your game jam teams! I've participated in dozens of game jams—I've run a dozen or two myself—and I've witnessed hundreds of game jam teams form, with many successes and just-as-many failures as teams crash-and-burn. I want you to have a fun, positive, and educational jam experience where you can make something you're proud of, and forming your team (or lack thereof) is the first step!
You may elect to ignore some of this advice if you're a more experienced jammer, especially if you have a preset team of experienced devs, however for beginners I stress my advice and warnings below.
In short:
When making games with a team, teamwork is the most important skill—not art, design, or coding! And good teamwork is often harder than it seems; if you don't think you're ready to juggle being a great team member alongside everything else that goes into a game, making a solo game or working with only 1 other person is perfectly fine, and perhaps better for your situation.
If you're looking to join up with new people (which is great!) consider how you present yourself.
I'd recommend creating a simple profile here on itch.io (if you don't have one already) even if you don't have any previously published games here. Showcase your previous work (all your previous work—even the bad/buggy/unfinished/embarrassing stuff) and communicate a bit about your personality and gamedev-interests. While I don't think it's any kind of gold standard, here's my own itch profile to get a taste of what I mean. If you've made something other than games, such as artwork, comics, videos, music, or even fanfiction hosted elsewhere, then link to that!
I'd recommend posting both here on the Greenlight Jam itch forums and within the Greenlight Discord to look for your potential teammates.
Like anywhere else, it's all about managing expectations! People can only be disappointed by a game or any product, or by a teammate or coworker, etc. if they expected something different. If expectations align with reality, then no one is ever disappointed and everyone gets along really well. You know yourself better than anyone, so tell us all why we'd love to have you on our teams!
While anyone can be a good teammate with good communication and teamwork, remember that both communication and teamwork are skills within themselves, and quite difficult to master, especially during a tight time-crunch such as a game jam or when learning new skills. If someone is already stressed out with the difficulty inherent to making a game in a jam, then remember that their communication skills will understandably be impacted!
Also remember that the more people you have in a group, the more people you have to wrangle and communicate with, which makes good communication exponentially more difficult the more of you there are. In short, more people is not always better! Oftentimes smaller teams can be more focused and actually produce better games than disorganized larger teams that tend towards confusion.
If this is your first time making a game (or even your second, third, fifth, etc. time making a game), consider having a smaller team you can communicate better between. For beginners, I recommend a team size of 1 to 3 people. I strongly recommend you keep your time size no larger than 5 people!
Similar to considering how many teammates to take on, consider who you might work best with. The best teams are balanced! It's best to supplement for your weaknesses to let you play to your strengths!
If you're a programmer, then consider partnering with an artist or sound designer! It may seem obvious, but plenty of people are understandably inclined to work with their known friends, even when their friends all have the same skillset as them! You don't want to have a team of all artists or all engineers, as that will generally result in everyone tripping over everyone else without anyone supporting the knowledge gaps.
Working with your friends can be beneficial as you already know each others' personalities and general skills and preferences, however I recommend trying to team with people of a similar skill level to you as a priority. If a beginner and an expert at different stages of their gamedev journeys try to work together, it can occasionally result in conflict, unhealthy power dynamics, uneven games, or a mismatch in possible scope. Unless you're a more experienced developer specifically trying to team up with a less experienced developer for the sole purpose of helping them grow via mentoring, in the hundreds of game jam teams I've witnessed, those with the most uniform skill level amongst its membership tend to succeed the most with the happiest team dynamics.
Ultimately, just keep in mind the overall amicability and togetherness of the group. Everyone should be on the same wavelength and ready to have fun together first-and-foremost. A small happy team that gets along and has fun always wins out over the big more competitive and "stacked" team of "powerhouse" devs with competing egos, regardless of the supposed skill levels. Be kind, honest, empathic, and have fun!