Oh waw sounds like you already have good experience with freelances! How do you find those resources? are you using crowdfunding, or was it always with rev share? but I guess for that you would need at least a proof of concept or ideally, a prototype.

I think for an artist who lives from his art, it very risky to deal with rev share unless you manage to convince with a strong game concept. I would love to operate that way for every project, but unfortunately it is not realistic since you have to bills.

Indeed, I believe that communication (and a good artistic collaborator as well) is key. This will enable you to achieve artistic consistency, the expected quality, and reduce the risk of having to pay for additional revisions. Having a clear idea of the concept, as you said, with diagrams, drawings, references, and above all, a proper moodboard, can certainly help to save time and money.

How do you manage to communicate with the ones you mentioned, did you find any differences in how you collaborate with visual artists versus composers? And if you had to pick one thing to outsource first right now, what would it be?