all of these are great points, and i think the narrative introduced in the beginning is like the 80% of what happens to games. but the other 19% is when serious developers get together, and still burn out and fail because the game they are working on, even with a thorough game design doc, are just....boring or have bad controls or maybe theyre competing with an already successful title that does something super similar. there are so many variables.
the number one thing i would definitely highlight is...don't find volunteers located halfway across the world. or anywhere really. volunteers working for free WILL ghost you. game or not. get money, pay people, and then youll be considered seriously by people you'd actually want to work with.