Why don't the packages get built for the runtime dependencies of the package I am building ?

I have been messing around with making releases and packages.

I've been making packages with an alias which expands to the below:

(sudo make clean; sudo make BATCH=YES PACKAGES=/home/me/Packages
package clean && make describe >> ~/Packages/INDEX)

The problem is that packages for the runtime dependencies of what I am
building do not get made.

Surely there is a simple way to have the runtime dependency packages
built as well.

Is this possible, or do I have to write my own script to recursively
determine the runtime dependencies and build those packages first ?