Artist needed to collaborate on local coop space game

paco

Always wished you could work on an indie sci-fi coop game for PC? Have lots of great ideas on how to make games fun? Lonely in the evenings with more spare time than you know what to do with? Then have I got a deal for you!


I'm a programmer looking for an artist that is passionate about game dev, who can commit 3-4 months to be part of an unpaid small (2-3 person) team to create something cool. The goal is to produce a simple space exploration game with a strong local-coop focus in Unreal Engine.

The core gameplay takes place on a ship hurtling through space, with players assigning themselves to various positions such as gunner, pilot, scavenger. NPCs will be used to fill unused spots allowing 1-4 local players. Initially it will be developed for PC with a possible port to Android. For inspiration think games like Faster-Than-Light and Dungeon Defenders.

It's hugely important to me that you have a sense of involvement in the project, rather than being hired help. As such I'm looking for not just someone to make the art, but someone that can give lots of input into gameplay and overall design. This is a hobby for me, and I find there is nothing worse than working on someone else's project. That's what my day job is for. This needs to be FUN.

If it does well, that's great, but it's not the prime motivator. Any profit will be equally split. I can do all of the programming (see below for my previous projects), and you'll be responsible for all the art including game assets, environments and title screens.

I've been part of multiple projects in the past, and there are lots of horror stories. This game is SMALL, with a tight dealine for a reason. It won't be an AAA FPS or MMORPG. Small, do-able, fun.

The initial phase will be talking to people that respond to this ad, to find out if we get along and how much you can contribute to the project. As I said this needs to be fun, not just a business transaction. If it doesn't work out, it's not a big deal, so you've got nothing to lose. I imagine this will take about 1-2 weeks.

I have some brief design documents that we will need to collaborate on to fully flesh out before starting work. While the project may evolve on it's own, I'd like to avoid the temptation to get lost in an endless cycle of development and tweaking.

After we have the design ready to go, the aim is to complete a working demo in 3 months with all core features and most of the art done. At this point we'll get some testers and see what people think of it. The crucial decision is to decide if it's worthwhile spending another 3 months polishing/marketing or call it quits at this stage. Either way it's a completed game, and something you can brag about to your friends or put in a portfolio.


PM me if you're interesting in talking more about the project.


Key points:

What I want:

• Passion and enthusiasm.

• Ability to work in a team, especially to give and accept constructive feedback.

• High artistic standards. The game is a space sci-fi game, however i'm open to any art style as long as we can make it fit the game (sci-fi, steampunk, hand-painted, abstract etc).

• Proven ability to see things through to completion (must have some project / level/ folio to demonstrate). It's only 3-4 months.

• 18 or over.

• Good English skills, and access to Skype for regular discussions (text or voice).

• Background in game dev is a huge plus but not essential. I'd rather someone inexperienced but keen and willing to work hard than someone that knows what they are doing but is jaded or burnt out.

What I don't want:

• Someone just doing it for the chance to make a squillion dollars. A fun team and good working relationship is what this is about. If it does well, it's a bonus.

• Someone half-hearted. It's a big commitment to get this finished, and it won't be all rainbows and unicorns. Be prepared.

• NO Ingame ads or purchases.

My background:

I live in Sydney Australia, and have decades of programming experience in multiple fields, although I am not a commercial programmer.

Previous game/graphics related projects:

ScreenFTP: SymbianOs / Java software to transmit information between a monitor and a phone visually. Freeware.

Luxrender (http://www.luxrender.net/en_GB/index) - developed the GlossyTranslucent material and a physically accurate Layered material that accounts for interaction between layers (C++, open source).

Rendering - Wrote a working prototype of a physically-based render engine (PBR) using mutliple algorithms such as bi-directional path tracing and SPPM (C++).

SeaCrit /FlapJack (http://www.indiedb.com/games/seacrit) - Unity game I started working on after the initial team was established. Our agreement was to get a playable demo out and re-evaluate. The team and I took the game from an uncompilable state through to the first full demo over the course of 5 months. At this point I left the team.

3DTextAdventure (http://www.indiedb.com/games/3dtextadventure) - A finished (small) first-person game allowing the normal FPS controls (mouse, WASD) with an additional command prompt for various interactions. The game was created in the spirit of the old Sierra games but brought into the modern age. Coded in UnrealEngine (3) from scratch by me. The level was created by Tor Frick for one of his own private projects, which I found online. He kindly gave me permission to use his blank environment and turn it into a game. I wrote the full game within the constraint of a pre-existing level and assets.

FartyRabbit (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farty.rabbit&hl=en) - this was a reskinning project that was based in Cocos2D, written for Android. The art was done by Hristo Dinev( https://www.behance.net/hristo_dinev ), while I customised the code to meet our needs. The game didn't do well ("dismal failure" springs to mind), but it was fun to work on.

Trixx

PM'ed.