Forming a team to take a game to completion

Community Got Skills? Looking for Talent? Job Offerings
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Update 30/11/2017 NZST

Hi all just a quick update - have had a really good response so far but still very keen to here from anyone with design experience.

Project Title**: **Darkblade (working title until we come up with something better)

**Description: **A 3rd person action adventure game inspired by titles such as Maximo Ghosts to Glory but with a few RPG-lite elements.

Features:

  • Exciting melee combat - double jumps, smash attacks and a basic combat system
  • Multiple objectives per level - which can be tackled in any order
  • Grimdark setting - I have developed a very cool (in my humble opinion) backstory that I’ll share with anyone interested

Am targeting PC and looking at also maybe Switch, as I have bought one and they are amazing.

I have been developing Darkblade in my spare time (have a full time job) for about a year now but have spent 2 years prior to that prototyping and learning UE4. My UE4 launcher is a graveyard of half finished prototypes but this one I really liked.

PostApocVikings.jpg
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The game is currently in pre-alpha state and a small video can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYCI1D6KZCg

Its all temp assets from the UE4 marketplace at the moment and the quest system is a stripped down version of a Youtube tutorial but hopefully gives you an idea of what the game is about. The game is not open world (lone wolf dev to date!) but I am quite ambitious in terms of building decent sized levels with good content.

I should also mention I’ve built a lot of the core systems already - but would be keen for someone with more experience to refine/improve them. Naturally I have not documented how I did anything, but the blueprints are well commented and I have worked within the framework UE4 is designed for.

**Team Name:

Wereguild_Logo_New.png**

RJD Games Limited trading as Weregild Games. Registered small company based in NZ of which I am the only Director. Because of this people joining the crew would participate under a joint venture agreement with a profit share. If you were local (anywhere in NZ) and we got on amazingly well shares in the company may also be an option and we can work on future projects together. Due to these requirements only people of working age need apply please and there will be some documentation that needs signing etc.

RJD Games is part of the Microsoft Bizspark programme, so I have much of the “infrastructure” required to support this venture already in place. I was using Perforce in Azure for the version control but open to ideas around this.

Team Structure**:**

Rich Evans (Project Creator)
Project Manager, Scripting (blueprint but can code in C++ when required) & Design - 3 years experience with UE4, a mixture of self taught and Udemy. I work in corporate IT but many moons ago worked for a small game development studio in the UK (Gameplay Studios, creators of Pocket Soccer for the Gameboy Advance - wow I feel old). My day job means I’m comfortable working with and leading small, medium and large teams.

I usually put in a minimum of ten hours a week but am looking to ramp this up in the new year to somewhere around 20. ​​​​​​​

**Previous Work: **This will be my first project in UE4 but I did work many moons ago on a Gameboy Advance soccer game and a few Java applet sports games.

**Talent Required: **I don’t want to list job titles, instead here is a list of things we would need to do to bring this game properly to life! Maybe you can only do one of these, maybe more!

  • Characters and level art (3D)
  • UI art and/or design (I will provide stock assets if required)
  • Combat design/improvement
  • General help with coding/scripting - I have built a lot of the core functionality already
  • Designers
  • Tech support, setting up version control and that kind of thing
  • Social media/marketing

If you have any other skills you can bring to the party drop me a line, cant hurt.

Contact:
E-mail: [EMAIL=“rich.evans@rjdgames.com”]rich.evans@rjdgames.com
​​​​​​​
Initial contact via email please, we can Skype or meet up if local to Wellington NZ (will cost you a coffee, or probably not actually, I’ll buy the coffee).

Look forward to hearing from anyone interested in this and please do not hesitate to email me with any questions.

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Hello Rich_RJDGames,

We share a similar journey in UnrealEngine and real world. I’m also full-time IT and for the past 2+ years part-time, I’ve been prototyping concept subsystems with Blueprints towards my Coop First Person Acton Dungeon Crawl.

Your current Gameplay Progress video looks very promising. I do have more questions about the game itself…

  1. For Grimdark setting are you going for Darksoul’s inspired Art Style? Or Cartoonic like classic Maximo:G&G.
  2. Multiplayer- Co-op, PvP, 1 vs N, etc
  3. Player Customization? Character, Weapon, etc
  4. In-App purchases or other Monetization?

If interested, we can Chat Live here. Thanks for reading. Look forward to your response.

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Hi TechLord

Thanks for your interest in the project. Glad to hear from someone else who traverses the wonderful world of IT in between bouts of UE4. Your Golem system looks very cool :slight_smile:

I will hit you up via discord but I thought I’d answer your questions here too so that others can see:

  1. For Grimdark setting are you going for Darksoul’s inspired Art Style? Or Cartoonic like classic Maximo:G&G. - I see the characters being slightly stylised with realistic environment, so I guess maybe Dishonored is the closest style graphically.
  2. Multiplayer- Co-op, PvP, 1 vs N, etc - Its a one player game
  3. Player Customization? Character, Weapon, etc - the character is a pre defined character, but minor customisation, like hair style, tattoos I’d love to have in there - think the Witcher 3 in that you can customise Geralts appearance (hair, armour style and beard) but regardless of what you do, he is still the Geralt we know and love.
  4. In-App purchases or other Monetization? - this will be purely a one time purchase game

Thanks again for your interest and any other questions please don’t hesitate to send them via email or via this thread.

Kind Regards

Rich

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@Rich_RJDGames,

I truly appreciate you taking time out to answer my questions. It gives me better mental picture.

I see the characters being slightly stylised with realistic environment, so I guess maybe Dishonored is the closest style graphically.

Dishonored’s Brigmore Witch is mentioned on Mong’s Art Style Guide:

https://forums.unrealengine.com/core/image/gif;base64
​

I asked those specifics questions to ascertain how I could fit my current skills and subsystems into your project. I’m a code-centric Gamer Dev who has worked solo for many years. There is always a deficit for me with Content Creation, thus I firstly develop systems to efficiently reuse modular content, procedurally generate content, and provide the player with creation tools mediate content in-game. Once these systems are in place, I build Game Mechanics that make use of the systems to prefab and dynamically construct/customize/destruct content.

GolemCraft is such a Content Creation system. The Prototype in the video helped me to formulate a plan to execute development for PROTOS, the ultimate multi-user customization system for…everything: Characters, Creatures, Armor, Projectile & Melee Weapons, Vehicles, Crafts, Machines, Architecture, Structures, Furniture Props, Ornamental Props, Landscapes, and Trees.

Its a one player game

PROTOS can multiplayer to handle the demands of Single Player game by leveraging UnrealEngine’s Networking power to support multiple devs collaborating in the Level Map building Architecture, Landscape, Foliage in real-time. The same multi-user collaboration is applicable to Entity assembly, in which a myriad of Entity pre-fabs variations can be assembled from smaller parts for static use in the game. So yes only one player can play at at time, but, more than one developer will be developing at a time.

the character is a pre defined character, but minor customisation, like hair style, tattoos …

PROTOS can handle this. Leveling up Gear aesthetically is a form of customization and that can be handled too.

this will be purely a one time purchase game.

I favor Royalty projects with plans to diversify revenue generation in the short, mid, or long term. I devise and develop monetization systems. My quote:* I’m not going into business to make games, I’m going into the game to make businesses*. There is simply too much competition in games and how they’re monetized. A single per unit sales model could be successful if the price is right. I’m considering a pricepoint of $119.99 for a Dragon’$ Gold MMO.

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Thanks for your input TechLord - the Art Style guide is a very useful resource. PROTOS sounds very interesting - I’ll contact you via your Discord.

For anyone else interested please don’t hesitate to get in touch either here or via email. I’ve had a few emails already but still keen to hear from anyone interested in discussing this project further.

Cheers Rich

6

Hello everyone - have had some great responses to this so far. I’m still very keen to hear from anyone who has design experience who can help us out with refining things, especially the combat system. If you have experiencing in designing boss battles as well you’d be an amazing addition to the team!

Contact:
E-mail: [EMAIL=“rich.evans@rjdgames.com”]rich.evans@rjdgames.com

Thanks in advance

Rich

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Hi all me again - the core team is starting to come together a little bit now. One thing we are still lacking is someone with Technical Artistry experience. If you have this and have some time to spare working on a very cool project (if I do say so myself) then I’d love to hear from you!

Contact:
E-mail: [EMAIL=“rich.evans@rjdgames.com”]rich.evans@rjdgames.com

Thanks in advance

Rich

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Hello everyone - me again! Very keen to hear from anyone who is skilled in level design and/or the technical art side of things. We now have a lead programmer and community manager locked in. At this stage music and sound FX are also taken care of.

Also anyone with experience rigging non UE4 characters (not Mixamo) to the UE4 skeleton I’d love to hear from you too.

Thanks to everyone who has shown an interest so far.

Contact:
E-mail: [EMAIL=“rich.evans@rjdgames.com”]rich.evans@rjdgames.com

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Rich

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Hi Rich, are you looking for composers/producers?

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Do you need a sound designer?