Team Wanted - MoPho' Games Thread

I'm looking to hire a small team of talented individuals to help produce a quality first person shooter (working title is Orbital Assault)

Who Am I
My name is Alan Stagner. I'm the author of Unity Multiplayer Games by Packt Publishing. I also collaborate with DaikonForge on a number of previous and upcoming Unity middleware offerings. Now, I want to make a good, fun, and solid shooter experience for PC & Mac.

Summary
Orbital Assault will be a free-to-play first person shooter aiming to provide a quality shooter experience. The game is set in the semi-distant future and takes some inspiration from shooter classics like Quake (mostly in the physics department, with some weapons inspiration) as well as more recent offerings like Battlefield and Halo. There will be a mix of modern weaponry and exotic fantasy weapons.I'm aiming to provide two things: good, fun, and fair gameplay, and a high quality graphical experience.

Roadmap
We'll be following a similar route that several indie games such as Interstellar Marines, Folklore, and more have taken.The idea is to release a series of small demos. Each demo is designed to give the public a taste of what's to come in the final version, and most importantly to help us actually develop the components of our game and to develop a workflow.It will be important to gather an audience throughout the early development releases, as the success of a F2P game - especially a multiplayer one - really depends on having an audience of fans (other factors aside).

1. The first demo will be a graphics demo. It will showcase environments, characters, weapons, effects, animations, and more. The purpose of the demo is twofold: to help us develop a workflow between concept artist, 3D artist, and level designer, and additionally to show off the graphics and art we expect to employ in the final game.
2. The second demo will be a shooting demo. The goal of the demo is to develop our weaponry system, fine-tune the "feel" of the shooting, and to show the public the meat of any FPS: guns and bullets. This demo will take place in a small shooting range, allowing the player to take aim at a number of stationary and moving targets with an Assault Rifle.
3. The third demo will be a gameplay demo. The goal of this demo is to expand upon the movement and weaponry developed in earlier demos into a small playable game. In this demo the player is given a full loadout (Assault Rifle, Pistol, Frag Grenade, and Sentry Turret) and is tasked with surviving against increasing waves of enemy robots.
4. The fourth demo will be a multiplayer demo. The goal of this demo is to help us integrate earlier prototypes into an authoritative multiplayer context with a simple player versus player demo game. Players are given the same loadout as the prior Gameplay Demo and tasked with killing members of the opposing team (essentially, Team Deathmatch)
5. Finally, these concepts will all be combined and applied towards creating the finished product as a fully playable, well polished game.

Who I'm Looking For
3D ARTIST
Would be responsible for modeling, unwrapping, rigging, texturing, and animating models for a variety of purposes in-game. Must be able to coordinate with the concept artist on general appearance/design.An understanding of HDR lighting, Linear vs Gamma color space, and Physically Based Shading are all required.It is helpful, but not required, to be comfortable working with SVN repositories.

LEVEL CREATOR
Would block in levels using a prototyping tool, and then coordinate with the 3D artist to provide content for finalizing the level. Must additionally be able to coordinate with the concept artist on level appearance/design.It is required to be comfortable working with SVN repositories.

CONCEPT ARTIST
Would provide concept art for character outfit designs, weaponry, and level appearance/design. Should be able to coordinate with 3D Artist for identifying individual materials and overall mood of the level, as well as the level creator for lighting setup and layout.

UI ARTIST/DEVELOPER
Would design user interfaces for use in game, identify individual elements and create 2D assets of those, and finally reassemble the design in HTML5/CSS3, ready for a programmer to add functionality to for final in-game implementation.It is helpful, but not required, to be comfortable working with SVN repositories.

SOUND DESIGNER
Would plan and design sound effects for use in game, from weapon effects to environment sounds as well as menu and UI sound cues, and work with our in-house audio tools to make these sound effects game-ready for use in game code as well as by the level creator (for ambient sounds). Would also be responsible for tuning reverb settings in finished game levels in order to achieve a better sense of presence, and placing ambient sound sources within the game level to achieve an immersive soundscape.It is required to be comfortable working with SVN repositories.

VFX ARTIST
Would develop particle effects for the game as needed using the built-in Shuriken particle editor, as well as add particle effects to levels where needed.
It is required to be comfortable working with SVN repositories.

Compensation
Before you apply, know that this is a startup venture. Startups are always risky, particularly in this industry.I cannot guarantee steady payment, and therefore payment will be loosely based on the Grunt Fund technique, as outlined in the book Slicing Pie by Mike Moyer. Feel free to request more details (I've written up a document describing exactly how it will work, and even a handy little calculator spreadsheet), but the basics of it are this:

• Employees provide "theoretical monetary value" to the grunt fund (the two main ways of doing this are with time based on a theoretical wage, and with actual money/assets)
• The employee's cut of the gross income is based on the employee's percent contribution to the total theoretical grunt fund.
• In the end, the employee receives a cut of the gross income of the game based on what that employee has contributed.

I can't really stress enough at this point: payment is a cut of gross income and therefore entirely based on the success of the game. It's possible you could get paid a lot. It's also possible you could make nothing. I don't have a crystal ball handy, unfortunately, so I just can't make any guarantees. This is especially important to keep in mind given the reality of F2P games - we can't expect more than 5% conversion rate (1% is considered good - 10% is considered amazing), so it will depend on our ability to gather a large audience during development.

Remote Work
We'll be collaborating remotely. We'll be using Google Hangouts to communicate, so applicants will need a Google account.There's also a Google Drive folder containing relevant materials to the game - tech documents, GDD, and more. The folder will be shared with you upon being hired.

If you would like to apply, please send an email to jobs@mophogames.com with:

• Your name
• Which roles you want to fill
• A link to your portfolio demonstrating proficiency in your chosen role(s)
• Why you want to work for us

Please, don't just send me your Skype handle over PM. Your application will not be considered unless you directly send an email to the aforementioned address with at least a link to your portfolio.

All applicants must live within the United States of America, and must be able to provide a Form W-9 if hired.

Edited by: KillaMaaki

While I dont fit any of the jobs you want, I ask that in this game you make creative weapons and don't just stick with the whole future looking shotgun, sniper, machine gun etc. Come up with something like a laser cutter or something.

More details on the weapons:

Many of the weapons are modern-inspired. That said, for all weapons that fire bullets there are ammo variations you can purchase in the store which each have their own strengths and weaknesses. These come in the form of boxes you can deploy to the ground which both you and your teammates can use (similar to L4D, how you can deploy an Incendiary ammo box).
So in addition to a regular old Ammo Box, there's also Plasma Rounds and Shock Rounds. Plasma Rounds are a specially made shell which contains superheated globs of plasma that are ejected upon fire. Shock Rounds have an electrified jacket which shocks the target on impact.
Normal bullets are good at taking down health, but less efficient at taking down enemy shields. Plasma rounds are good at taking down enemy shields, but less efficient at taking down enemy health. Shock rounds aren't as good at either of those, but are very efficient at taking down enemy deployed items (ammo stations, sentry turrets, etc).

There are also some more exotic weapons planned. For instance a "directed beam weapon" which is a sort of support sniper rifle that is completely non-lethal but instantly depletes enemy shields leaving them vulnerable for teammates, a plasma rifle which fires globs of plasma in rapid succession which deal a small radius of splash damage unlike regular Plasma Rounds, a laser cannon, and a fuel cell launcher. Most of the more exotic weapons don't support the special ammunition types, however (wouldn't make sense to load your Laser Cannon with Shock Rounds, for instance)

Edited by: KillaMaaki

I sent an email a bit ago I still haven't gotten a response....

What's your email address? I don't think I received it...

EDIT
Updated thread - we're also looking for a VFX artist.

Edited by: KillaMaaki

Bump.
Still looking for 3D artist, UI artist, and VFX artist.

Bump.