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[EasterlyArt]

I'm a little hesitant to post this thread, but I at least wanted to put it out there that I will need help making this game a reality in the future. As some of you may have seen in my previous thread post about looking for some feedback, I am working on a beat 'em up game called The Ultimate Showdown.  I am looking to eventually have this game made for commercial sale on Steam and hopefully other platforms.

Due to my current work, I am unable to put 100% of my time and effort on this project, and by no means am asking for any immediate applications. Rather, until I have at least a good 70-80% of the game's concept/level/character/enemy/story design done, I would like to just see who potentially would be interested in joining on. I detailed the game's core concept in the other thread post, so if you have any questions about that, feel free to look at that.

The reason I would rather just get a head count of interested people at the moment is that I would much rather avoid any conflict of interests when it comes to development. Idealistically, we all want to find that partner that sees eye to eye with what we have in mind. Though I have discovered from my previous experiences that it is all to common for people to butt heads on things, and at times it may halt production as appose to make a constructive step forward.

So if the idea of making a Beat 'em Up where you choose four characters out of a roster of 10, over 200 possible teams to make, to battle it out against robots, aliens, monsters and more in a unknown futuristic world that is a blend of scifi and fantasy, then The Ultimate Showdown is for you! Please let me know below if you would be interested in working on this so we can keep in touch. This will be an ambitious project but fruitful once it is complete, so keep that in mind. Yes, I am very confident in this idea.

Thank you for taking the time to read this everyone.

[bjadams]

what kind of members do you need?

i'm a programmer myself

[EasterlyArt]

what kind of members do you need?

i'm a programmer myself

Good question bjadams.

I would be looking for programmers for the most part, and maybe an additional artist for touch up work. I'm an artist, so I'm more than capable of handling a decent load of visual design work and animation. Music and sound effects will be something to be addressed at a later point once the core team is put together. I would say off bat that programming wise it would be nice if someone knew some game engines or coding languages that could work for both PC and Mac. I'm not too certain many people have tinkered with any console dev kits, but I'm not too concerned with that.

Additionally, by joining the team I would do what I could for some early compensation but the one thing I can guarantee would be percentage of sales.

This project is still a good year plus out from needing a team to join in, but hopefully by the time that comes there will be a good foundation for those who are interested to just hop right on production. This way things will be organized and not a haphazard mess of ideas. I will keep people posted on here where my progress is at and when things will kick off. So, again, just let me know for now if you might be interested. Thank you.

[EasterlyArt]

Maybe another visual would help in here. This is a pretty rough animation, but it demonstrates one of the character's grab attack.

[bjadams]

artwork looks nice.

i would be interested in this project. my own game engine supports 2d on mac, pc, android & ios.

contact me privately

[EasterlyArt]

I figure it wouldn't hurt to show the character designs for most of the characters. Two are currently undergoing redesign to better match the updated feel, but will eventually be posted for everyone to see. The roster consists of 5 male and 5 female characters. These are scanned drawings of the characters, but as seen in the rendered image and the gif above, they are more or less exact representations of the art style the game will be going for in game. I personally feel that if the technology was more advanced back in the 80s & 90s, most beat 'em ups would of looked exactly like actual hand drawn animations and not pixel based art.

[Breakdown Epiphanies]

This already looks really cool and relatively polished! I know it's a long way down the road but when you start looking for possible music for your game, feel free to have a listen to our tracks:
https://soundcloud.com/breakdownepiphanies
I would love making music for a fighting game. Till then, all the best and keep up the good work!

[lucienstark]

I know it's a bit too early for music and sound design, but if you ever need another composer for the music I am also willing to help. Thank you!

[EasterlyArt]

I know it's a bit too early for music and sound design, but if you ever need another composer for the music I am also willing to help. Thank you!

If you have any work you've done that you feel would complement the game, please share a link. This goes for everyone in general. I can appreciate any and all enthusiasm, but I would need examples of what you've done to make a decision and preferably have them linked in your post here or in a message to me directly. Thank you for being interested in this game.

[EasterlyArt]

Even though things are a ways away from kicking off, I guess I could give an idea of what kind of soundtrack the game would need. The game is pretty action packed, so tempo wise it would be at least 120-130 bpms to 180 bpms max. The kind of of music could be a blend of rock, orchestral, Hip Hop, and electronic due to the futuristic action hero-esc like theme.

While working on early concepts of the game, I had been listening to a good amount of Savant who I feel has, as an electronic artist/composer, a great ability to feed energy to the listener. Though in the same regards, Jake Kaufman, Toshihiko Horiyama, Hideki Naganuma,Danny Baranowsky, and various other composers for games have been able to give a certain level of energy that drives the player. I also draw a lot of inspiration for anime like DBZ, Gurren Lagann, Big O, Mobile Suit Gundam (0079, 8th MS Team, Z, Char's Counter Attack), Kill La Kill, Ghost in a Shell, Eureka Seven, and Cowboy Bebop.

I hope this give the composers a better idea of what kind of feel in terms of music the game would have. Most would be action packed, with rare instances of more mellow, softer pieces to break from the action momentarily.

[EasterlyArt]

As of a result of some things that have happened this past week, I'm actually quite happy to say that I will be bumping up the time table for when I'll be more actively looking for team members to help with this project. Again I'm going to try and finish up a good +80% of the characters, enemies, story, sprites and what not so there isn't any hassle with that later on. I'll be shooting to have most of this ready by the end of the year, possibly around fall, and will try to provide some monthly updates to keep everyone posted on what is happening.

As a remind everyone, until stated otherwise I can only offer equity in this project and would like to avoid any early kickstarters until the final stretch of development if needed. Everyone who joins the eventually to be named team will sign a contract to protect their interest and the interest of everyone in the project. This way no one will be screwed over and we all work towards the same goal: making a kick ass video game!

[bjadams]

love the art & anims.
keep us updated when you will have most of the art ready & start looking for more members

[lucienstark]

Sorry about the late reply, I just saw your response.
You can find my work at http://soundcloud.com/lucienstark and http://youtube.com/user/lonepianist3. My soundcloud has my game/film stuff and my youtube has original piano compositions and arrangements of popular songs.
I can compose in any style you'd like really.
At the moment I'm working on the soundtrack for a action/fantasy RPG, which has a lot of the musical elements you listed.
Thanks!

[EasterlyArt]

Sorry about the late reply, I just saw your response.
You can find my work at http://soundcloud.com/lucienstark and http://youtube.com/user/lonepianist3. My soundcloud has my game/film stuff and my youtube has original piano compositions and arrangements of popular songs.
I can compose in any style you'd like really.
At the moment I'm working on the soundtrack for a action/fantasy RPG, which has a lot of the musical elements you listed.
Thanks!

Glad to see the enthusiasm, and no worries about being late. In fact, you're still on time.

Update:
I'll try to have up the finish designs of the last two characters Nanami (Torrent) and Celestia as soon as possible. The reason it is taking a bit of time is due to some other projects I have lines up including trying to write/illustrate a manga. This is something that will help sharpen up my illustrating skills and attention to details for backgrounds, not to mention help me with writing a little dialogue. I hope to have it all wrapped up before August so that I can start flooding this thread with more content. I do apologize for the extended time frame, but this is much better than if I were to start next year around this time. I promise that I'm doing my best to make anyone's involvement with this game a worth while investment. Thank you!

[lucienstark]

You're also working on a manga? That's very time consuming, but I'd love to see more of it!
I'd love to stay in touch as the game progresses if you're still interested in my music later on. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread for more content.
Best of luck and I look forward to seeing more stuff from you.

[EasterlyArt]

You're also working on a manga? That's very time consuming, but I'd love to see more of it!
I'd love to stay in touch as the game progresses if you're still interested in my music later on. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread for more content.
Best of luck and I look forward to seeing more stuff from you.

The manga has been fairly time consuming, and at the moment I'm not sure the convention I'm aiming to sell it at will have an open table for me. Been "wait-listed" for a good while now.

Finally was able to flesh out Celestia's design recently with standing stance as well. Next up will be Nanami, and then the playable character roster will be complete. Once that is squared away, and I get more content generated, I'll probably start a Dev Log thread. Though for now I'll continue to update here as to keep this thread afloat until I have programmer(s) jump on board.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know of developer meet ups or game jams in Michigan?

[EasterlyArt]

Finally after bouncing back and forth with ideas, designs, and various other projects, I've completed the roster of playable characters for The Ultimate Showdown (for now at least). Now comes the fun part of me coming up with a gazillion enemy designs, but thankfully I already know how many bosses are going to be in the game overall (which helps a lot).

I'll try to have some more gifs posted later on to demonstrate the idea of what the action should look like, but I may put up a video along with some music I feel is a step in the right direction.

[EasterlyArt]

Here we go! This is a better visual for the overall roster. I promise to make things more juicy in time so it's not a bunch of still images. So in time, you'll see more evil robots and monsters getting the asses handed to them by this bunch of badass characters!

[bjadams]

fantastic progress.
do you have any timeline yet, when you will start production?

[EasterlyArt]

fantastic progress.
do you have any timeline yet, when you will start production?

Technically speaking, production has already started, though I understand what you're saying. I still have a good amount of content I have to create still before any programming starts, but the ideal point would be December or sooner. The reason for this is that I'm still developing the world and enemies, and I want to make sure that those elements are as fleshed out as possible. Additionally that doesn't drag any of you along in the process until everything is ready for people to join in. I hope that makes sense.