Hi Everyone.
I’m looking for 2 roles:
Level Designer/Builder
3D character animator using the mannequin.
All are paid.
Level Designer: Negotiable
Animator: $15 per contract for simple anims and $20-25 for stealth kill animations
The level design role is to build a dense populated forest. I have most of the assets and am working on the animals for the forest. Any models that may be required will be commissioned or bought from the marketplace. The forest is to also include small villages and campsites or whatever else you might want to add to make it better.
I have no idea how much this will cost so I would like to negotiate a fair price. Also those who are more experienced in contracting level designers, can you send me a message or reply here what you’d expect to pay.
As for experience im looking for someone whos a beginner to intermediate(or someone just learning) as no matter how much we negotiate I cant afford someone with a lot of experience and no one ever really wants a royalty deal lol.
The character animator is to animate the same simple animations I requested last time and afterwards a few kill animations. For some reason my previous contractor has dissappeared. Thankfully no money was exchanged.
For level designer i would say payment per hour, and at least 2 times of flipping burgers salary. Else you will barely cover costs of bandwith needed to download and upload whole thing.
You should also think about level optimization, a lot depends on art style (lighting and shaders) and scale of level. This directly translates to technical skills of your level designer.
For small levels, where you finalize lighting yourself only good artist skills are required from level designer. But if you want huge open world map, your level designer needs to be also at lest blueprints coder.
Everything Nawrot says above is true and correct - apart from perhaps one thing - the suggestion of paying “2 times flipping burgers salary.”
Assuming flipping burgers salary is 10$ an hour (It’s more than that in the EU and UK), then thats 20$ an hour. While 20$ an hour is a perfectly reasonable salary (although way on the low side by industry standards), for a Level Designer - the expectation that an Indie Developer can afford to pay such a salary, is not entirely reasonable - in a lot of situations. I’ll explain why.
I’m currently employed in a Level Design position - and have been tasked with creating an open world map. Over the last month I have sunk approximately 200 hours into the Level - that’s from start to completion - the level is now mostly finished to a good level of quality. Going by the 2x flipping burgers salary, that would mean my employer should pay me $4000. The fact is, that price tag of $4000 dollars is way beyond the reach of most indie developers.
The fact is - Game Development - Level Design and other roles are all highly skilled and creative labor - that certainly deserves $20 an hour or even more. And creating a game level from scratch, with good quality and optimisation is neither quick, nor easy. But most indie devs just don’t have that much money to throw around in my experience.
To the OP - in terms of employing a freelance Level Designer - I would recommend negotiating a fixed price for a fixed product - and fixing that price within your budget. Depending of course on the size and complexity of the Level you want made. Assuming the level is small (500mx500m) and of average complexity - as an Indie Dev, offering Indie Wages - I recommend something in the region of $400-$800 - depending on the Experience / Expertise of the Level Designer in question. But I would highly encourage you to only hire Level Designers with a portfolio and proven experience of being able to make good quality work.
Best of luck - hope you find the right guy / gal for the roles you need!
By doing such time consuming tasks for less than hourly minimal wage, you folks end up in situation that most “digital artists” are currently in. Soon You will be offered work for “exposure on steam”. as compensation. If you are indie and cannot afford at least compensation around minimum hourly wage, go get loan or investor, or find partner that has skills you are lacking. Do not post [contract\paid] tag in your recruitment topic, change it to unpaid or royalty.
200 hours is bit more than monthly hours for full time job and should be paid like for month of work.
I don’t like the tone of this post. You do understand that the post above is not mine, and no I wont change it to unpaid or royalty even if I do agree that $4000 for 200hrs of work is way beyond an indie’s capablility.
As for go get a loan or investor, yeah not at this stage.
