[Overview]
NIH funded Game for Health (smoking cessation) needs a rudimentary, “Research Grade” prototype/preliminary study game “ported” (rebuilt from scratch) to UE4.
[Game Summary]
A post-failed state apocalypse recovery game. Rebuild society by rediscovering the secrets of the ancients. Mechanics similar to Kingdoms of Camelot, Evony, Clash of Clans (no PVP, PVE only). Players earn power-ups etc. integral to game mechanics in return for bio-verified smoking abstinence.
[Project History]
Current “quick and dirty” game was constructed in Flash & SQL. Game launch in research study was a buggy flop, with too many requested game mechanics having been dropped as they were unachievable in Flash (Flash, right?), in addition to the issues of programming even a very basic game engine from scratch.
Link to NIH funded Study public record:
https://projectreporter.nih.gov/project_info_description.cfm?aid=8704911&icde=35057236&ddparam=&ddvalue=&ddsub=&cr=1&csb=default&cs=ASC&MMOpt=
[Company]
Entertainment Science, Inc., est. 1997, has a history of NIH funding for Games for Health (awards ranging from $50k – $1.5M) and a track record of working with established developers both in Joint Ventures and as sub-contractors.
Founder and CEO holds a methods patent on a games for health approach.
If this research study is a success, Entertainment Science will take the next step of hiring a team and performing future development in-house. Naturally, first consideration will be given to those ESci has worked with well in the past.
[Team]
Principal Investigator Darion Rapoza (Lead Designer) will perform a TBD portion of game development in Blueprints. DR has more to learn about UE4 Blueprints Scripting, but was previously successful at building a 30 min demo in UE3. DR knows only enough C++ to follow along on a code walk-through, not enough to program in C++.
Principal Investigator Bethany Raiff (Rowan University) will lead the clinical trial, and will inform the development effort of the trial-related admin tools.
[Statement of Contract Work]
*UE4 Blueprints & C++ programming:
Scope and division of labor subject to your professional assessment of project demands upon review of existing game and additional specifications, in light of available budget. I speculate a programmer with Game Jam competition level programming skills could finish the project in 3-5 days. Timeline will allow over a month.
Likely includes custom C++ coding, e.g., video clips of study participants (the person, not their screen), secure upload and storage of clips and facility for review and scoring by investigators.
*Educational Resource:
When task accomplishment questions arise for DR, as appropriate: refer DR to relevant UE4 documentation; Reference an Answerhub answer; provide tutoring; or by agreement, perform scripting or programming of the task yourself.
[Volunteer Art]
There’s currently no budget for Art, but ESci would be happy to consider replacing our placeholder 2D art with your work if you want a credit for your Resume, or just feel like supporting our effort.
[Terms]
Negotiable, $6-$10 k available for work described above.
Royalties not available: this is a research project.
Geographical Preference: USA. Bonus if you’re in the Raleigh Durham RTP area (NC).
References Required – pref. phone contacts
[Contact]
DarionRapoza@EntertainmentScience.Com
Skype: Darion Rapoza