Indie Game (Cyberpunk Strat. RPG): Looking for aspiring 3D Artist/Animator
About two years ago, I conceived of a strategy RPG set in a cyberpunk setting, but being a full time college student with a part-time job, I set what little work I had done aside and finished school. Flash forward a year and a half to my recently graduated and part-time working self, and I began to realize that not only did I have time to work on the game but if the game became what I envisioned it to be, it would be fucking awesome. With those thoughts in mind, I began to start programming with all the spare time I had and a couple days ago, I finally finished work on an alpha which demonstrates the bare basics of the combat engine.
At this point, I've realized that if I want this game to look half-decent and get it done before Duke Nukem Forever comes out, I'm going to need someone to work on graphics at the same time that I'm writing all the code. So, if you're still interested, here are the basics:
The game takes place several hundred years into the future, a century after an interstellar federation of planets led by humans fell to a mysterious menace, and an alien race has taken over Earth and essentially forced humans to be wage slaves for their corporate interests. The story of the game follows the adventures of (get ready for this) a drug-addicted time traveler, a technological fetishist gang leader, his half-insane right-hand man, a psychic tribal chick, her brutish and stupid alien savior, and a free-spirited starship captain.
The game is a mission-based strategy RPG - think Final Fantasy Tactics only more guns, drugs, and psychic powers. At this point, we've been using the open source 3D engine OGRE as a graphics engine. We will be wanting to go for a futuristic but dirty look, though at this point, the graphical style of the game is still in the air.
If you're still with me, here's what I'll need from you if you want to help me realize this project:
- at least modest 3D design and animating capabilities, preferably with knowledge of 3DS. Knowledge of OGRE/3D API's is a plus.
- an interest if not complete love of cyberpunk or sci-fi settings.
- a fine sense of style.
- plenty of free time to put in good work on this.
- a love of games.
- no urgent need of money. Being a nearly broke recent college grad myself, I will not be able to pay you any time soon. Of course, if we should ever sell the game, there would certainly be plenty of spoils of war to go around and I am nothing if not a fair person. Keep in mind, if we finish this project and it turns out as we have been envisioning it but somehow do not reap any financial benefits from it, it would still be a great addition to your resume.
If you want more information before feeling like you want to seriously commit to the project, I can supply you with some watered down design docs and our alpha build. If you are still interested at that point, I will want from you some samples of shit you've created so I know you're not bullshitting me. My e-mail address is jnoormand at gmail dot com and I will be checking my PM box daily.
Almost forgot to say, while it is not necessary, we would prefer someone who lives in Southern California so that if we need to meet face to face at some point, it wouldn't be too much of a pain in the ass. However, as I said, it is not necessary and if it looks like you would make a great partner, geography wouldn't get in the way.
Lastly, comments/questions are definitely welcome.
At this point, I've realized that if I want this game to look half-decent and get it done before Duke Nukem Forever comes out, I'm going to need someone to work on graphics at the same time that I'm writing all the code. So, if you're still interested, here are the basics:
The game takes place several hundred years into the future, a century after an interstellar federation of planets led by humans fell to a mysterious menace, and an alien race has taken over Earth and essentially forced humans to be wage slaves for their corporate interests. The story of the game follows the adventures of (get ready for this) a drug-addicted time traveler, a technological fetishist gang leader, his half-insane right-hand man, a psychic tribal chick, her brutish and stupid alien savior, and a free-spirited starship captain.
The game is a mission-based strategy RPG - think Final Fantasy Tactics only more guns, drugs, and psychic powers. At this point, we've been using the open source 3D engine OGRE as a graphics engine. We will be wanting to go for a futuristic but dirty look, though at this point, the graphical style of the game is still in the air.
If you're still with me, here's what I'll need from you if you want to help me realize this project:
- at least modest 3D design and animating capabilities, preferably with knowledge of 3DS. Knowledge of OGRE/3D API's is a plus.
- an interest if not complete love of cyberpunk or sci-fi settings.
- a fine sense of style.
- plenty of free time to put in good work on this.
- a love of games.
- no urgent need of money. Being a nearly broke recent college grad myself, I will not be able to pay you any time soon. Of course, if we should ever sell the game, there would certainly be plenty of spoils of war to go around and I am nothing if not a fair person. Keep in mind, if we finish this project and it turns out as we have been envisioning it but somehow do not reap any financial benefits from it, it would still be a great addition to your resume.
If you want more information before feeling like you want to seriously commit to the project, I can supply you with some watered down design docs and our alpha build. If you are still interested at that point, I will want from you some samples of shit you've created so I know you're not bullshitting me. My e-mail address is jnoormand at gmail dot com and I will be checking my PM box daily.
Almost forgot to say, while it is not necessary, we would prefer someone who lives in Southern California so that if we need to meet face to face at some point, it wouldn't be too much of a pain in the ass. However, as I said, it is not necessary and if it looks like you would make a great partner, geography wouldn't get in the way.
Lastly, comments/questions are definitely welcome.
Replies
For the characters, I imagine soldiers and rogues to be covered in futuristic robotic power armor full of little lights and energy lines, psychics radiating bright auras, and hackers covered in high tech devices.
Right now, I have 27 branching classes with over 250 skills total planned for the game. Here are some examples of classes:
Hacker: A high tech criminal capable of infiltrating enemy electronics and implants, the hacker has skills that allow him to take over enemy gun emplacements, hack enemy's implants to cause them to have the opposite of their intended effects, and even hack enemy nervous systems to take free attack actions with them.
Phantom: A rogue/psychic hybrid who uses his psychic powers to push his body to the limit, thus using his own life force to cause overwhelming damage to enemies.
Neuromancer: A powerful psychic capable of reading and influencing enemy thoughts, able to cause overwhelming fear and even suicidal tendencies in enemies.
Guru: An incredibly knowledgeable chemist, the Guru has become obsessed with bringing the effects of psychogenic drugs to the masses and has effectively weaponized hallucinogens and other drugs to cause all kinds of horrible (and hilarious) effects to enemies on the battlefield.
I looked around the web and here are a few inspiring pieces of art I've found that resemble the visuals I want in this game:
An awesome cyberpunk cityscape.
Another.
A "wired" warrior.
A "wired" rogue.
The media portion of the site is now "up", which is to say, I threw a couple images up there. I'll post pictures of the models we have done once they're finished.
Site's here.
3D Modeler/Artist: We need someone skilled who accels at creating weapons and futuristic objects.
3D Scene Creation: If you're good at creating 3D scenes/levels, we could use you.
3D Effects Artist: There are over 250 skills, 50 status effects, and 20 weapon-types in-game and they're all going to need the appopriate 3D effects to go with them!
2D Concept Artist: We are in DIRE need of someone who loves drawing cyberpunk/futuristic characters, weapons, objects, and scenes.
Programming Asst: I may be good at my job, but I can always use a little help. If you're interested in helping to program this bad boy, let me know.
Audio Engineer: We need a dedicated member who knows how to create the kind of futuristic sound effects and music a game like this needs.
I am a (fairly good) 3D/2D artist, with some skills to spare ;-)
If you want examples of my current work I will be emailing you immediately with
my own personal terms, etc.
What can I do?
2D and 3D characters, 2D and 3D settings, animations, texturing, and story work.
I can also do alpha mapping, texture/uv mapping, normal mapping, bump mapping, etc., and I have a huge bank of commercially licensed motion capture that I am also willing to bring to the table.
Glad I found you- and I hope you reply to my email today.
Me (programmer, designer, writer)
Jeremy (character modeler)
Possum (music, artist)
Curtis (music)
Ari (concept artist)
Martin (concept artist)
Codewise, the game is inching forward everyday but we still are still very much lacking in asset creation.