[Collaboration][Rev-Share] Xeno Zoo

[TheVikingOne]

[Edited for Xeno Zoo]

Hi All, and thanks for taking the time to see what I am offering.

Who is this “Viking Guy”?

My name is Kent. I have been a modeler/level designer for many years, prior to my formal education in 3d modeling for game designs, and many years afterwards. Mostly focusing on realistic models, but always have been drawn to stylized artwork.

I have been practicing coding with blueprints for the past number of years, though only really been focusing in the past year. I have made characters from scratch, rigged, animated, textured, created Anim BPs. I have coded simple level design blueprints up to complex systems for a zoo builder game. I have conceptualized storylines and game concepts.

So, if I can do all this, why don’t I just do it myself, right? Well, a few reasons. I am not great at blueprints. A true programmer would laugh at my abilities. Secondly, it makes things move along quicker, and thirdly and likely most important, I love working with other people, having teams, sharing in the enjoyment and hopefully, the profit. I enjoy the idea of potentially continuing a fun and partnership into an indie studio. There just isn’t anything like working with a team of people with like mind you enjoy talking to and working with to motivate and bring out ideas. I have worked in a few teams before, some for extended times.

What about my personality? I like to laugh, joke around and have fun! But I’m not a slacker… far from it. I poke fun at myself, I poke fun at people I like, I talk a lot.

I now feel that it’s time for a change of faces. I have many projects which have been partially prototyped, and in a decent state to have an idea of the final product, with varying degrees of completion.

Enough about this Viking guy, what about this game? Tell us about the game!

In short, Xeno Zoo is a Planet Zoo/Jurassic World Evolution inspired Zoo Builder. The game is being designed with a stylized artwork in mind. I am looking for a small team of ~2 programmers and one or two stylized artist(s) to work together with me to get this game up and running. There is already some development already done. A few visitor models, a Xeno in production now, and core functions started, with some need of updating. For more information, Contact me for details, if interested and we will see if our ideas/personalities align. Contact info at bottom of this post.

Here are some Images showing some of the work produced on this game:

A few visitors:

The Xenopedia:

Zoo Build Option Interface and placement

Building Options

Images above are subject to change to make a more stylized appearance.

What Am I Looking For?

Though the ideal people would have the few traits below, this does not mean you need to have it. Get in touch, and maybe you have what it takes. It NEVER hurts to get in touch.

I am looking for a programmer/blueprinter

• Should have a good knowledge of zoo or city builder games
• Must have fundamental functionality knowledge (save/load/menus/inventories)
• Knowledge of real-time terrain/spline/systems would be a GREAT asset.
• Anim BP knowledge and AI design a nice to have.

I am looking for a stylized modeler, realistic modelers will be considered as well provided they believe or would like to work in a stylized environment.

• Should be intermediately skilled at hard surface or organic modeling in low-med poly counts. Xeno’s will range from Medium to High polygon counts due to their size.
• Have a decent knowledge of texturing (stylized texturing methodology)
• Rigging and animation knowledge is nice to have
• Knowledge about setting up materials in UE.

Want to see more of what I’m capable of? Here’s a previous game I was working (currently on hold): Groenland

If you are still reading this, then maybe you are interested? Have questions? Want more info before deciding? I would love to hear from you and find out some info about you and your skills/desires.

You may add me on discord: viking.odiumstudios

[TechLord]

Hi @TheVikingOne,

Extremely Impressive Artwork! Groenland looks like a compelling Interactive Adventure Story. You obviously have all the skills needed to see your game come to fruition. A One-man Game Dev Studio.

I sincerely wish you the best on your Recruitment Campaign...

Because Rev-share is really Tuff! I’ve been running my campaign for years, with only a handful of inquiries, a majority of those seeking paid gigs lol.

I suspect the primary issues are 1) FREE work and 2) conflict-of-interest. But for me its more so the latter.

Like You and I, most developers in the community are here to develop their own ideas. I’ve joined several teams, only to walk-out because my ideas get rejected or I lose interest in theirs.

Deep deep down, I want to develop my own game ‘concepts’. I say ‘concepts’ because I actually don’t possess a fully-fleshed out game idea, but more so features I would like to incorporate in “games”.

I have yet to find another developer who truly wants to ‘collaborate’, as in share ideas and work together to achieve a game design both parties would be satisfied with.

Programming is my primary Skill-set. I don’t model, I’ve tried it and do not like it. But, I do enjoy kit-bashing with parts and procedurally generating models and other media.

I now rely on the Marketplace to acquire assets I can kitbash with and build procedural generation system to utilize them. You may find yourself doing the same.

Best Wishes.

[TheVikingOne]

Hey @TechLord,

I know what you mean. I have had the exact same issues over the years. In most cases I end up being too lenient in past projects which truly went a bit too far at times disrupting the whole game. But, I always (and I do mean always) have considered every decision carefully before I would disagree. By me disagreeing it does not mean NO, ever. It just means that I do not see how it would work or do not personally like it, but am open to hearing ways to improve or make it better, or even just show me an example and it may click in my head.

Not trying to sound like I am the perfect person to work with, but when I say collaborate, I do mean collaborate, as well as a true profit share, not something that’s laughable. But an option to join my studio and share fully in the ongoing profit and potential to join in future endeavours as partners, etc etc. I dislike the thought of making anyone lose out on profit that should rightfully belong to them.

Honestly, I do purchase a fair amount of assets as well. I avoid a lot of the coded stuff like the plague as they take 10x the time to incorporate than to make one from scratch. I do understand completely your reason behind the “lose interest” in the other’s project, which is why I like to have it always open for incorporating ideas that is both agreeable upon, and if it’s not, just put aside and work on other aspects, then come back to it when needed and maybe a choice stands out as a better option by then.

For Groenland, it’s funny that you mention an interactive adventure story , because that’s what it was intended to be. Unfortunately, it was kind of changed up a bit to a survival game from the collaboration. Which has now dissolved at least but leaves a project I was so passionate about hanging in the air…

Anyways, feel free to reach out if you want to chat more, or feel compelled to want to join.

[TechLord]

Hey there @TheVikingOne,

The offer is tempting and I extremely miss working in a Team. Your ‘Shadowrun meets Megaman Battle Network’ Artwork is very impressive and I see great potential in Groenland. I don’t see why the Survival Game Mechanics cannot compliment Adventure Story Elements and Mechanics. No one can excuse the game being a Hellblade Knockoff.

However...

I know myself better than anyone. I would not stay committed to a Team Project unless we both collaborated on the game concept together from the ground up. I need stake in that process and I have to Be In Love with the concept to muster the level dedication and motivation to power thru to completion when development challenges arise and life gets hard.

Otherwise...

My interest levels will simply fade, and ill fade away reverting back to my own concepts that I’m in Love with.

I Love First Person/True First Person, FPS and FPS Hybrids (ie First-Third Person Shooters, FPS RPG, FPS RTS, FP Horrors ). I tend to gravitate towards Fantasy/Sci-fi Themes with Magic/Ultratech (lots of pretty particles/destruction) and Monsters… especially Giant Monsters. I’ve played and enjoyed other perspectives and genres such as Third Person RPGs, Side-scrolling Fighters, Various forms of Chess, Match 3, Incremental Games.

I'm not hung up on any particular Art Style.

I’m no 3D Artist. Most of the time, what’s in my mind’s eye does not match what I have access too. So I’ve learned to work with what I do have access too. I desire to make use of more than one Art Style in my game(s). I want Photorealism, Stylized, Low Poly, Voxels. LOL. This notion is influenced by working with mixed Marketplace Assets that don’t match in Art style or what’s in my mind’s eye.

Most of the Graphical Assets I’ve acquired from the Marketplace are photorealistic or attempt to be. Graphical Hardware/Software and Techniques like 3D Scanning has cause an explosion in Photorealistic Content in the Marketplace.

As mentioned, I don’t like modeling. I’m a 3D Artist Imposter. I’ve used Decimation on High-Poly Models to fake LowPoly artstyle. I’ve used various Material/Particle Tricks, and procedural generation to fake Voxels. I’ve used PostProcessing and Material tricks to fake Stylized Art. I will not even mentioned Generative AI.

I think I can pull of something interesting mixing the Art Styles. If all fails, Plan B is to slap Toon Shaders over all of it to bring some form of artistic continuity.

I’m also no longer interested in developing single perspective games for Desktop and VR. Multi-perspective Games is the direction I’m going in to pursue new forms of 3D game play and cinematics.

This has changed my perspective on how I develop games too.

I don’t develop my subsystems for any particular genre or single game. I plan to develop several games over the course of my life, so I’m not developing my subsystems to be limited to a single game to save me time in the future.

I design my subsystems to be portable, modular, and extensible. Most games can utilize the same subsystems under the hood. After all that’s exactly why we we’re using a Game Engine in the first place. The end result is what matters.

You stated “I avoid a lot of the coded stuff like the plague as they take 10x the time to incorporate than to make one from scratch.” My experience is the opposite. In using Blueprint Assets from the Marketplace, I’ve learned to locate the subsystem entry points, identify input/outputs to develop integration code, reverse engineer to modify them to achieve objectives much faster, and find new inspirations in the process. I can learn and adopt ‘anyones’ blueprints and these skills are necessary to jump in and contribute to any existing project.

[TheVikingOne]

@TechLord

It’s all good man. Was just offering. This game actually has already had an idea that I am planning to introduce soon to have multiple cameras with different HUDs and angles and panning/security cameras which the game is viewed through. I am also planning to swap the combat to a side scroll fighter system instead of the JRPG or tile based combat.

As for collab, I understand that you would want to start from scratch in a new one. And I can definitely agree with that. My favorite genres do line up with yours as well a bit. I’m not HUGE on FPS, but FP is ok when utilized in horror. Horror is amongst my favorite genre to produce as I just LOVE being freaky. I also am big into RPG, strategy, zoo builder games, and general dungeon crawler adventures, side scrollers, just to name a few.

You are right though about groenland that the two aspects could compliment each other, in this case though it did start to subract from the story significantly. Won’t get into why much in this case though, lol. I am open to breaking down a game and building up a new one if we agree upon something. I just didn’t want to mention the 20 different games I have started solo as well as the 20 different ideas I have floating in my head which are too complex for just me.

But, anyways, thanks for the consideration. Again, feel free to contact on discord if you want to chat more, but also don’t feel pressured. Have a good one.

Oh yeah, and I do have to mention, I do love huge monsters, sci-fi fantasy as well. I had an idea to pull off of the movie “The Mist” and the huge monsters in there for a great horror game concept. I also have an idea along the Alien Isolation lines I want to do but need a full programmer for that. But, yeah, only a few game genres I don’t like which are: Racing, Sport Games, and Battle Royal.

[WildLucas20141 (WildLucas2014)]

Hey there @TheVikingOne , the work you have developped so far is very impressive. I’d be very interested to help any way I can . I am not an 3D artist or a dev however but I excell at storytelling and getting things unstuck and of course am an avid fan of games in general. If you are looking for someone to offer creative direction, story development, UX or project management, I’d be glad to help.

A bit about me :

With over 15 years of experience as a Creative Director in Experiential and Digital Marketing, I have had the privilege of leading diverse teams and spearheading global projects for renowned brands such as Cirque du Soleil and Mattel, Inc and parteners such as Ubisoft, Activision , Nintendo and Microsoft HALO to name a few.
While my background may differ from traditional roles within game dev, I believe that the skills cultivated throughout my career could offer a fresh perspective and valuable contributions to your project.

https://dominiclehoux.wixsite.com/portfolio

Let em know!

Dom