Hello,
My name is Zachary Carter -
https://twitter.com/Hahaitsfunny - and I'm looking for pixel artists to collaborate with on a top-down 2d sci-fi exploration game. The game takes place on a derelict space station which has been abandoned for an unspecified amount of time. The goal of the game is to get the space station back online and all space station subsystems functioning. As you journey through the space station you will encounter a variety of hostile alien and robotic life forms you will have to deal with.
There will be a equipment, inventory and loot system so that the player feels a sense of progression as they play through the game. The equipment will consist of various suits the player can don that will provide some sort of special ability such as stealth, bonus speed / health / armor, night vision, etc... I am relying heavily on the use of shaders to achieve visual effects. For instance - with the stealth suit we will adjust the character sprites vertices alpha values each frame to achieve a transparent effect and as the battery on his suit drains, he will become more visible. Little effects like these are already making the small prototype we have really pop.
The inventory and loot system will primarily revolve around collecting parts and keys which will be needed to access various sections of the station / repair various station systems. Bringing systems online will also have an impact on gameplay - for instance the game will start without life support being online. If you take too long to get it online, your character will die and the game will end. If you get it online fast enough, then there is no more timer - you can take as long exploring the station as you want. Another system will be the station's security system - until it is brought online your character will not have access to any type of radar / minimap showing him enemy locations. Once online he will connect to the station's security system and have that information at his disposal. There are all sorts of possibilities here. There will also of course be weapons for the character to wield. At this point only ranged weaponry is planned but melee weaponry could happen if there is a good use case for it.
The environments will be varied including some outdoor levels but will primarily be indoor and have a sci-fi feel to them. Here's a small scene I drew myself for prototyping purposes (this is an in-engine screenshot btw) -
Unfortunately my character art is extremely lacking, and this is the area I need help with -
The game is going to be drawn with a traditional 3/4 JRPG perspective, however the art style I am after is more akin to hyper light drifter (
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1661802484/hyper-light-drifter) / wayward tide (
http://blog.chucklefish.org/?p=128)
I am leveraging -
https://github.com/bkaradzic/bgfx as my rendering engine and I've been contributing to / modifying -
https://github.com/taylor001/crown - for use as a game engine.
As far as compensation - I haven't even started to think that far ahead. My immediate goal is to get a very polished and playable demo in public hands as soon as possible and then pursue either early access via steam or some type of crowd fuding campaign. If you require compensation up front, depending on the quality of your work and rate we may be able to work something out.
As I have been treating this project as a second job for the past few months and working upwards of eight hours a day on it, I completely understand how valuable time is. I'm not rich and I don't have any kind of angel investor / outside funding source, but I am willing to pay a reasonable rate for quality production art assets.
Get in touch with me whether you're just getting your feet in and pixel art and want something to cut your teeth on, or you're already an amazing artist just looking for that next paycheck.
Also feel free to contact me with any questions about the project - I'd be happy to provide more details.
Thanks!
-Zachary Carter
Jobs
