I think in the future “summer projects” like Blender did in the beginning was pretty good. So have a few veteran leads make a game with some of the best talents

I think in the future “summer projects” like Blender did in the beginning was pretty good. So have a few veteran leads make a game with some of the best talents. They could pick a theme (say a minecraft clone, or a FPS) and slowly up the difficulty and technical feats required (which in turn will drive development)