Concept

Are they an anthro species or more "feral"?

What do they look like?

What different traits can they have?

Are there any traits that are special or restricted?

Species basic design

Trait sheet(s)

Anatomy/Biology

Abilities/Powers

Lore

World - Do they come from Earth or another planet?

Environment - What type of region/climate do they live in?

Government/Hierarchy - Who is in charge and how are rules enforced?

Culture - What do they tend to believe in? Do they have their own theology? Any special holidays?

Lore hub (where will you keep it?)

World info

Government info

Culture

Group

Masterlist

Group name

Type of community

Folder structure

Submission rules

Masterlist plan

Rules

Don't claim the species as yours

Don't change the design or make it not the species anymore

Don't make your own without permission

Tell the species owner if a design is sold or traded

ToS

A plan to enforce ToS

Mods (optional)

Events

Flatsales

Raffles

Make-Your-Own events

Draw-to-Adopt contests

Monthly prompts

Contests (Art, icon, ???)

Interactive plots

Advertising

These groups get 100s of entries every day so people mute the group and don't even see new submissions. They just get the "3561 new submissions to [group]" notification and just X out of it without looking.

This list was compiled to the best of my ability. If you have anything you think should be added, leave it in the comments!

This is a common question I see people asking so it's about time to make a general reference for it!Specifically tho this was asked byMaking your very own closed species is quite an undertaking! There are many things to think about when you're designing and organizing your group! Having your own species can be super rewarding, or super disappointing, and the most difficult part is that the outcome isn't 100% within your control.The first step most people take when designing a species is, of course, the species itself!It is very important that your species be unique and not easily confused with any other species. If someone puts a silhouette of your species next to silhouettes of others, would the general public be able to tell they are different? Do they have any defining powers that set them apart?Lore, for me anyway, is the most challenging aspect of any species, but it's also crucial. If your creature is really cool but has no lore, there's not a whole lot for character developers to go off of. You can create as detailed or as vague a lore as you'd like, but keep in mind that more detailed lore will help get more people excited to participate in your community.Things to consider when developing lore:Here is another of my guides to help you along!It is specifically designed for thorough character creation, however, it can be applied to a species as well! (It's the same format I use to develop my own species' lore)Make a world that you're proud of. This is definitely the biggest and hardest part of designing your species because you have to think of everything in their world and how they interact with it.You can put all your information into Sta.sh or post it in the journals of your group, whatever you'd like. I do recommend Wix, though! It's free to use and very easy to design some beautiful websites.Make sure to keep your lore updated regularly!Alright, now that you have a species and some lore, maybe you've made a few adopts. It's time to set up your species group! That way people have a central hub to join and get notifications for new adopts and events.The first question you should ask yourself is: What type of community do I want to build? There are a few different ways to go about it.Create pre-made designs and distribute them to the community This is the most common method that I've seen.Examples of this type of closed species:Create the species reference and let users freely make OCs with them! This type of group provides its own unique challenges. Some species are also calledwhich is similar, but there are a few restrictions. Even the owner of an open species may still want to keep track of everyone's designs!Examples of open species:Distribute 'genos' that users can use as a guide to designing characters on a pre-made base. This is an intense workload and you will 100% need a team of admins to set up this type of group. There is a lot of complicated setups and hard work that goes into this type of group.Examples of this type of group:Some groups even decide to do a mix of adopts and ARPG worlds! Most of the species I've seen do this have started out as an Adoptable species and then implemented ARPG features later on.Examples of species with both adoptable and ARPG aspects (in the works/not fully released):It is a very good idea to have some sort of masterlist for your community. This is a record of all your adopts and the users that own them. It is a key tool to have because it helps prevent fraud and gives an easy way to keep track of your species! Many species owners find that the best way to do this is to create a separateto upload every design.Examples of this:What rules do you want to put in place for your species and how do you plan to enforce them? Look around at other species' rules or ToS pages to get an idea of the types of issues and situations that can arise and how best to address them. Don't think of rules as restricting your users, but protecting them. You don't want scammers taking advantage of you or your community because you don't have the right rules or means to enforce them.Most species owners at some point decide that they need help! This is a big job to do by yourself and it's good to have someone else around that can keep an eye out for you. Be careful when choosing your moderators. It is critical that this person be trustworthy, know their job, and be able to reliably contribute to the group. This means they need to have the free time necessary to perform their duties. Make sure to stay in contact with your admins as well! Always let them know if you're going to be absent for any reason, and have them do the same.This is the other major contributor to the fun of a species. Host events! Post updates! Provide prompts! Engage your community and give them fun things to do. Make sure that when you start an event you have enough time to wrap it up at the end, and you give a clear ending time to your participants. If you miss your deadline and keep people waiting, they may get irritated!*It is not required to have all of these, but definitely get creative and see what's fun for you!Adding your adopts to a lot of species groups is what I was told to do, but it's super tedious to pull off and doesn't seem to really help a huge amount, and here's what I think:It's just like making friends... you don't just flail your arms in someone's face to get them to pay attention to you. It takes time to build friendships, and it takes time to build a community. Host events where people are rewarded for recruiting friends. Participate in other group's events. Talk to people, roleplay, and have fun.This is the part that I was referring to when I say the outcome is not 100% in your control. Your success is partially dependant on literally everyone else.If anyone has any good strategies in this regard, please share them!