"Moons Of Balius" MMORPG. Looking for 3D Artists and Programmers.

[SuperSwide]

**We are only looking for people that currently work or live in the United States. If you are not willing to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement then don’t bother contacting us. We have had work stolen on two different occasions from people outside the US falsely representing themselves. **

Project Title:
Moons Of Balius

Overview:
Moons Of Balius is an adult themed, sci-fantasy, action MMORPG set in a binary star system with a Class II gas giant and it’s 13 known moons.

The story will initially be focused on three of the moons and the floating cities in the atmosphere of the gas giant.

Features:
Adult story line.
Action Style Combat.
Multiple open worlds.
Multiple Mini-Games.
A Sci-Fantasy styled Art Direction.
Original Heavy Metal Soundtrack.
Full Character Customization.
There are other game features that will be disclosed in private.
We feel we have game design elements new to the genre that will only be revealed to perspective members of the team.

Development Studio:
Seven Exits.

**Team: **
Tracy
Product Manager, Lead Designer, 3D Artist, Sound Designer, Music Composer.
20 years in engineering, producing, composing, and sound design for the music and film industry.
6 years 3D and Texture Artist.
1 year Unreal Engine.

Nancy
Business and Marketing Manager, 3D Artist.
Bachelor Of Science in Business.
3 years 3D and Texture Artist.
6 years research analyst and consultant.

Cris
Head Writer, Story, Lore and Dialog.
3 books published as a novelist.
2 years writer for online newsletters.
1 year 3D Art Blogger.

Anastasia
Lead Artist, Conceptual Artist, Illustrator.
Bachelor Of Fine Arts.
Professional Freelance Artist.

Team Members Needed:
3D Artists
Experience in any or all of the following.
Maya, 3DS Max, Blender or Zbrush for modeling.
Allegorithmic, Quixel, Zbrush and Photoshop for texturing.
Being familiar with Unreal Engine is a must.

Programmers
C++ is a must.
Familiar with Unreal Engine and Blueprints.
Problem solving and working with others.
Team leader.

Current Goal:
To put together a core team of like minded individuals to develop Moons Of Balius with partners having ownership within the venture based on contribution.

Stretch Goals:
Hire freelancers and independent companies to complete specific aspects of the project after funding.

Website:
www.sevenexits.com

Contact:
E-mail: tswidey@sevenexits.com
Skype: tlswide

[SuperSwide]

**The Beginning ** (An excerpt)

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” - Albert Einstein

 Looking out among everyone gathered for Diuturus, it was distrust mixed with excitement written across their faces. A dull din reverberated throughout the crowd.  It was only during these days once every six solar cycles that each species was allowed to pick a select few to send to Dultaan, the capital city of the Durrion, high above the wastelands of Sondassa. It was there that Diuturus was held in the great coliseum.

 The Ambassadors from each race standing up, their voices ringing out calling all’s attention to their podium.  A voice deep, but melodic carried over the others.

“Welcome to Diuturus!” Said the Eurielan King as he looked down among the crowds. His ethereal presence shining brighter with the suns reflecting on all sides. There were no trees here for him to hide his pale skin, his face flush from the heat and eagerness to show his power over the others present. “As we have always done, it is time for the games. We wish each participant luck and,” he chuckles amused with his own words, “Wait to see what today’s winner demands of us.”

     Only the best competed in the ancient arena, each race randomly selected to fight another.  The Coliseum was immaculate even if time should have seen it decayed and broken, the holy place would be kept new for eternities. One had to set foot on the hot sand to understand the immensity of so many eyes, the rush that every warrior past had felt, but none could predict the enormous footprint today’s games would leave in all our histories.

This is an excerpt from the story. It’s where the game begins.

[SuperSwide]

Back Story

An eon ago a benevolent, elder race of space traveling beings came upon a binary star system. The system must have intrigued the race because of it's odd pairing of stars, a class-o super giant in binary orbit with a white dwarf. There was also a gas giant orbiting in the habitable zone with many moons capable of sustaining life.

The “Elder” race known as Ilici built magnificent hovering cities in the atmosphere of Balius and seeded the moons with life. It is unknown as of yet if the Ilici planted intelligent life or simply placed the necessary building blocks and let life evolve naturally.

The Ilici watched over the development of life, nurturing and helping it when needed, guiding it through the stages of it’s infancy in the cosmos.

The Ilici came to be seen in many different lights in the eyes of their children. The Durrion saw them as elders helping to guide them through the harshness of the unforgiving deserts. The Euriel saw them as teachers as they learned the philosophies of Iliciel, the mother of the Ilici. The Momosk saw them as the gods, revered and worshiped as the bringers of life.

Jump to the present, the Ilici have been strangely absent for three generations. There have been unusual sicknesses that can’t be cured, mutations of flora and fauna, animals becoming more aggressive in nature, erratic weather patterns and devastating storms. There is growing mistrust and anger between the races, blaming each other for the disappearance of the Ilici.

It all comes to a boiling point at Diuturus, the Tournament of Moons held on Sondassa, the barren desert moon.

Every race of note is present at Diuturus, the sexennial tournament held as tribute for the Ilici. Each race sending their fiercest warriors, their champions of virtue to prove to the Ilici that they are the favored, they are the chosen ones.

Enter the player.

[SuperSwide]

Screenshots of Sondassa, the desert moon.

[SuperSwide]

More Screenshots.

In the last pic you can see a small desert jeep sitting on a rock under the arch. Gives an idea of scale.

[SuperSwide]

Feel free to offer opinions or feedback. Do we need more info posted? More screenshots? I’m not sure why we haven’t had any replies and I would like to understand why

[anonymous_user_60bbf575]

You’re most likely not getting replies because it’s an unpaid position and you’re planning an MMORPG. Have you or anyone on your team worked on a MMORPG before?

[SuperSwide]

None of us have worked on an MMORPG before, but to be honest I had never produced a country artist before the first time I went into the studio with one. I had never produced a heavy metal album before the first one I had produced. I had never written a a concerto before the first one I wrote. I had never created a landscape in World Machine before the ones I created for the game, nor had I modeled any plants or trees etc before what you see in the pictures. I understand what you are getting at, but I have worked in the entertainment industry for a lot of years composing, producing and engineering. I understand what it takes to manage a project and a budget. I also understand that an MMORPG is a huge undertaking, but I also believe go big (dream big) or go home.

I have read through a lot of the posts in the jobs section and have seen a lot of replies to other projects not much smaller than the scope of what we plan, which are unpaid as well I might add, so I was wondering if I had taken the wrong approach.

I do appreciate your feedback though, it was what I asked for. Thanks

[anonymous_user_60bbf575]

I think you are going about it the right way, but there are just so many unpaid projects that 3D Artists and Programmers are in short supply for rev share projects. Maybe create a small playable area or something like that!

[SuperSwide]

Cool, I understand. There are an abundance of those projects here on the forums. There will be paid positions in the future and my guess is devs looking for jobs will come out of the woodwork. But for now I am looking for core team members, ones that will have a stake in the business.

I guess I am in the minority, but I like to have ownership in the work I do. How many horror stories have we heard about in the past of development studios losing all rights and ownership in the work and art they worked their a**es off to create and big brother licencing deal took all their work and made a lot of money off of it leaving the devs with nothing more than a wink and a smile. shrugs I could have had this project funded, but I chose to keep it in house and try to build from the ground up with the people doing the work making the profit.

I knew it was going to be a difficult sale, but we don’t succeed by giving up.

The playable areas are being worked on

Thanks again for your feedback.

[anonymous_user_43584556]

I think that produce a MMORPG as a first project is a totally failure before even start.

Your graphics for example are just too old for new consoles and videogame world… and you did not even started yet on the main producing game.

I know it´s tempting to create a whole huge world… but without more than 40 millions of dolars is practically just a dream.

I hopw you can wake up soon from that dream and create tiny but amazing stories in little places.

Good luck

[Luftbauch]

So many negative comments about MMORPG here.
You can only get more negative comments when promoting a flying carpet simulator.
I like MMORPG and wish you good luck for your project, have you some sort of Tetrisplanet planned?

[SuperSwide]

, I do appreciate your comments and feedback, but you are completely wrong in your statement about 40 millions of dollars. AAA studios might spend that much money on developing a game, but an economical indie studio can produce games for much less.

Did you know that in the 80’s it was costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, and sometimes millions to make a simple record for an artist, while today because of technology, a recording can be made for a fraction of the cost and some multi-platinum records are done for less than 20 thousand dollars with the producer taking a larger check than it costs to make the record.

You fail to understand that with the tools readily available today, games can be made at a fraction of the cost. The games that spend that much money are developing their own engines and tech, and in my opinion useless CGI movie trailers and such that cost a lot but show nothing of the true game. Now I do agree that large marketing campaigns can up the costs dramatically, but there are other avenues of marketing that can be done at a fraction of the cost.

Are you a business or marketing major, or professional game developer? If not, then you really have no conception of these things.

Do your research before you mouth off. Tell me please, how many games have you worked on or developed to have this wealth of knowledge you like to throw around?

[SuperSwide]

Thank you Luftbauch. There is no Tetrisplanet planned.

[Neoptolemus]

Just to add my thoughts. I disagree that MMORPG without extensive experience and backing = instant failure. What you do have to do however is ensure that you have a realistic scope for your initial release. Large MMOs are expensive to run given that you need to maintain servers, a support team and the like. If however you are clever with the way that you scale up the project over time and ensure that your tech, size of your team and the size of the game itself can scale easily with your player base, it can be pulled off with relatively few people.

It looks like you’ve put a lot of time and thought into this. Where abouts are you guys based?

[anonymous_user_f733e808]

You have to produce all the content for that sci-fi project.
The game you describe is a workload for more than 50 professionals working fulltime at least 1 year.
There is no other way than to produce it, if such a way would exist, then also the professtional studios would use it.

You can’t compare the developments in the sound recording technology to game development. it is completely the other way round: in the 80ties you could produce a hit game on a commodore64 alone, now this is no longer possible. In sound recording you can do with a firewire interface and software on a PC now, what would have taken a whole studio equipment in the 80ties.

If you dont belive me, just do the maths for youre game, here is a example:

The Infinity blade assets (target just mobile, not AAA Quality for PC Platform)
cost $3 million to make:

Free Infinity Blade Collection Now Available in the Unreal Engine Marketplace

Give a generous 100.000$ salary p.a. per artist this equals to 3.000.000$ / 100.000$ = 30 manyears.
So their 30 professional artists can get it done in one year, or 15 in 2 years, or 10 in 3 years.

1. They have professional people which you do NOT have in a indie team.
   In a indie team, members have to learn the usage of programes, need a learning curve and usually
   dont get such good results as the professionals. Also in indie teams people leave an join
   permanently, resulting in re-work and slower work and extra coordination work.
   Therefore you have to calculate a factor for this, minimum factor 2.

2. They have** fulltime **working professionals which you do not have in a indie team.
   You can be really happy if each memeber works 1 hour per day in average.
   So this has to go in the calculation also: 8 / 1 = factor 8

If you do the math now, then out of the 30 manyears with professionals become *2 = 60 (for non-
professionals) *8 (for part-time) = 480 manyears with indi teammembers.

Do you have 480 people for one year, or 240 for 2 years…no?
Then you simply just wont get it done.
The question is just how long it will take for you to realise that.

If you want more proof, then go thru the forums here and check out the indie MMORPGs that started several months ago and are all dead or dying.

So better follow the good advice of the experienced people here and start with something small, one world/level, some gamefeatures…and so on.
If you archive this, then you can always expand.

[BrUnO_XaVIeR]

You are some experienced people, so here’s some though that may help:

• Although experienced, seem you have no **game development **experience. Start small and simple games first.

• I’d suggest you learn some basics about backend dev and the costs to keep a mmo server running.

• For an Mmo just having ‘any programmer’ won’t be of any help.

• If you really want todo this, at least 1 person in your group must have experience on the field, and this one is the backend developer; and this guy you will never have for free unless you have proof that this project is solid and has an already potential playerbase. Usually you’ll need at least $100.000 to pay this guy or give him 40% of the royalties.

• Successful funding helps to attract that backend guy.

• 50% complete project helps to attract that one guy.

• If you don’t have that guy abord, you’ll 100% fail.

• Just one client programmer won’t do it, you need at least 3 plus a Blueprint designer.

• Your game is about interplanetary travel, you’ll have to be better than No Man’s Sky and relative upcoming titles if you want to stand a chance. Take a look at 2016~2018 release lists.

• Korean companies have mastered small budget Mmo development, learn about them and how they do it.

[SuperSwide]

Thank you GameDev for all the useful information. I think you misunderstood what I was saying, you can totally compare developments in the music industry and game industry. It’s about the advancement in technology, and for that matter cost. For example, 3 years ago alone there wasn’t Unreal Engine for free to develop on. You had to either A). Develop your own game engine or B). Licence a game engine at a very high cost.

I understand what you are saying, but technology has made it easier for indie companies, both music and game to operate at a much lower cost. 10 years ago it would have cost substantially more just to do the music for a game, one more place that costs have been cut. There are plenty of game developers that worked at AAA studios that now run indie studios at much lower budgets that tell stories of AAA studios over spending and taking much longer to develop ideas because of the bureaucratic red tape.

I have a great idea!!! Instead of telling me how I can’t do something, how about helping me with ideas on how I can do something, I guess that would be too much to ask for all the experienced people around here?

Thank you Bruno for your comments and information. I do understand about back end dev costs and already have plans in place on that end. The sentence that caught my eye was,
“Korean companies have mastered small budget Mmo development, learn about them and how they do it.”
That kind of goes against everything everyone is saying. You are saying that MMO’s CAN be developed on a small budget, since the Koreans have mastered it. Food for thought.
And yes, I have been studying those business models, that is my whole stance on saying that MMO’s can be done for way less money.

[SuperSwide]

I agree , and thank you for the positive words. We were based in North Hollywood, California but relocated to Charleston, South Carolina. I love California, I was born and bred there, but it’s over crowded and over priced nowadays and I needed a change of scenery.

[BrUnO_XaVIeR]

@Synny;397921

That kind of goes against everything everyone is saying. You are saying that MMO’s CAN be developed on a small budget, since the Koreans have mastered it. Food for thought.

Well, by “small budget” I was actually talking about less than $10 million dollars… But not much far from that still