Great advice, especially for those looking to work out of their basements with no experience. The parts pertaining to leadership are particularly important. Even in the hobbyist field, people can have ulterior motives and you'll always come across individuals who just annoy you on a personal level that you'll have to cooperate with. In these instances, strong leadership is essential to keep the team from falling apart.

I learned this from spending almost two years with one indie group (which eventually disbanded after the leadership fell apart) as a concept/texture artist; numerous times, the extremely conservative opinions of one of the most prominent team managers caused him to have heated disputes and debates with some of his team on matters that were completely irrelevant to game design, and this definitely cut down on productivity. It's also not uncommon for co-leaders to find ways to cut off access to forum boards, IRC and FTP resources from one another, effectively firing them.

Also, if you're just breaking into game development, don't overlook the multitudes of other developers out there who can give you advice and encouragement. Participating in programming/game design communities such as GameDev.net can not only teach you a lot, they can allow you to give your project some publicity among your peers.

Very nice; the shading on its neck is especially appealing.

The rest of its body would be more satisfying than a bigger flame, IMHO.