I'm looking for a User Interface artist for my greenlit 4X strategy game Remnant (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=446183014).  You'll be tasked with creating the overall look and feel of the game's user experience.

For starters, I'm looking for someone to create the interface for the following major game screens (more will follow if everything goes smoothly):
 - Main Map
 - Planet / Colony Management
 - Combat / Battle
 - Espionage
 - Research

For a general idea of what those screens entail and the style I'm looking for, please check out my collection of reference images: http://www.playremnant.com/references/UI.zip

Clean, seamless integration and operation between all menus is paramount as game flow cannot be bogged down navigating menus inside menus inside menus... you get the picture.  Note that while you're responsible for all the UI related elements (layout, fonts, icons, etc.) you are not responsible for any accent pieces (portraits, planets, backgrounds, etc.).

If you're interested, please contact me with a portfolio, a rough cost estimate for the five screens described above, and a bit about yourself: [email protected]

4X games are almost entirely UI driven so familiarity with the genre is a huge plus.  Including details on any games in the genre and what you enjoyed about their UI/UX will go a long way in helping your application.

Interesting applicants will be contacted with more in-depth information about the game to hammer out an accurate quote and move forward.

Thanks!

[Modular Concept]

I'm looking for a 3D modeller / texture artist to create the ships for my greenlit 4X strategy game Remnant.

You'll be tasked with creating one ship to start, and if everything works out, hired on to create all of the ships for the game.

Modular Concept

Each ship in Remnant is constructed from swappable modules of the following base types: Primary Weapon System, Secondary Weapon System, Tactical System, Utility System and the Engine.  Here's an animated gif to help illustrate:



You'll be responsible for designing a ship that allows for each module to be swapped with another module of the same type to create key visual differences that allows the player to identify the strategic threat of each vessel they're engaging in combat.

Here's the list of modules you'll be tasked with creating:

Primary Weapon System
 - Particle Cannon or Railgun, whichever you find will be more visually striking (long range)
 - Missile Launcher System (medium range)
 - Beam Weapon System (short range)

Secondary Weapon System
 - Kinetic Turret Array, classic projectile based turrets arranged around the module
 - Rocket Launcher System, something like submarine torpoedo tubes maybe?
 - Repair "Turrets", will fire beams that repair friendly ships

Tactical Systems
 - "Bubble Shield" module, projects a spherical shield that intercepts incoming projectiles
 - "Flares" module, launches countermeasures to distract enemy projectiles and targeting systems
 - "Jamming" module, prevents enemy ships from using their abilities

Utility Systems
 - Engine module, increases the movement speed of the craft
 - Reactor module, increases the recharge rate of ship abilities
 - Cargo module, expands ships carrying capacity

Engine (always the same)

It's entirely up to you how these modules are arranged around the ship.  The example gif above placed them front-to-back but you have only your creativity as a limitation.  I'm interested primarily in the ships being visually striking, not necessarily streamlined or "realistic".

You'll also be responsible for creating the "secondary" models required: turrets, rockets, missiles, any sort of bay doors that open / close depending on the hull design.

Texturing

Photorealism is desired with PBR experience a plus.  The colour scheme of each ship will make use of whites / greys / blacks as a base colour with a customizable paint scheme unique to each player (something like how RTS units colourize for each player).  I'd also like a few locations for faction specific emblems to be placed (you're not responsible for creating those).

Contact

Here's a zip containing ship designs that I find visually interesting, along with colour scheme ideas and the modular example.

Please contact me with your portfolio, how much you'd charge for a complete ship as discussed above and a bit about yourself: [email protected]

Experience with Unity is a big plus.

Thanks!

Huge milestone.  Congratulations!

What's the plan for the future after release?  What features are still missing?  Are you going to be swapping out the Asset Store placeholders?

Woke up to some wonderful news yesterday:



Only took 6 days.  Feels pretty friggin' good.

Now I need to focus on building a small demo to get the game out to some folks to try to promote the Kickstarter.  Should have had that out from the start -- big mistake on my part.

* * *

- You think the Twitter makes that big of a difference?  I definitely want to start using the "official" Twitter account.

Not important in terms of getting new views but it's negative. When you see a Twitter with 4 followers you get a *strong* impression that some kid got assets from unity store, tossed together something in half an hour and now want to run with your money. You would better remove the Twitter link altogether (you can start working on your official twitter *after* kickstarter, now you need credibility and your personal account provides it while the official is terrible for this purpose).

That's a great point -- consider it changed!

Did it!  Going to have a big drink tonight to celebrate the stress of this part being over.  I'm not entirely sure if games are still approved in huge waves, but Remnant definitely seems on deck to be approved soon.



Kickstarter has picked up a little, up to 15% funded.  Still not having much luck being covered by the bigger sites.  Hopefully someone gets back to me soon.  Silence is way more haunting than "your game sucks go away".

* * *

Random tips:
- on the homepage link to your personal Twitter not the game twitter (it has 4 followers while yours has like 300)
- in posts make a link to GL that opens the Steam client (not sure how it's done but I have seen it) this way one don't need to login via website (most people don't)
- have you contacted explorminate and space sector?
- there is no YouTube channel link on your homepage


BTW, make sure to make a "postmortem" after you finish GL and KS In next in line to do these

Appreciate the tips Archibald:
- You think the Twitter makes that big of a difference?  I definitely want to start using the "official" Twitter account.
- I have no clue how to make a link that opens Steam but it doesn't seem to have been a problem.
- I'm featured on eXplorminate and Space Sector already, reached out to them very early.
- I was planning on replacing the Greenlight link to YouTube once it's greenlit.  No clue if that's a bad idea.

My advice on KS/GL so far: have a lot of alcohol on hand to cope with all the stress.

If you're after number of copies sold, check out SteamSpy instead.  It's not perfect, and you have no idea where the copy of the game came from, but it's better than trying to extrapolate review information.

Thanks for your responses guys -- it's reassuring to know that at least the campaign doesn't look like utter shit.  I'm definitely not giving up, not by any stretch of the imagination, just want to steer the ship to better waters on day 4 rather than day 28.

I'll keep hustling and contacting more editors directly.

Appreciate all the advice.

* * *

@bakkusa

I did reach out to some of the strategy game websites before launch and got some quick coverage there.  I'm struggling to get in touch with the bigger sites that are a little more difficult to reach out to.  The genre is definitely niche, which I thought might help make it easier to be noticed, but also seems to be harder to make people care about it.  Double edged sword.

@AleHitti

Great advice -- I've reached out to quite a few editors on Twitter and they seemed very responsive and gave out their e-mails.  Hopefully I can parlay that into coverage.  I'll clarify the budget section the best I can, since I've already put up some money, I didn't want to complicate the breakdown with processing fees.

@joe_eyemobi

I enjoyed the postmortem on Phantasmal's kickstarter that you wrote.  I even reached out to some of the New Zealand contacts you listed in that media coverage Google Doc, not that I'm from New Zealand, but it doesn't hurt to try.  If you still have the list of all the sites you contacted, and are willing to share, I'd love to take a look and absorb it into my own.

@Peltast

A few sites do explicitly say no Kickstarter / Greenlight, you're absolutely correct.  I'll keep on hustling.

@JohansenIndustries

It definitely has some unique features, like the espionage system, but that doesn't translate well to pretty pictures that can grab attention.  I'll definitely focus more on specific editors, as that seems to be the theme of the thread.

@xier

Unfortunately without a nice UI, I'm hesitant to ship out a preview build for a genre that's entirely driven by UI.  It's a bit of a catch-22 in that regards and I would definitely budget differently if I could do it over.

@darkhog

I'm definitely not quitting - no way, no how.  If the funding isn't successful, I'll just have to slow development, not stop it.  Appreciate your support and helping spread the word.

Top 100!  Looking forward to waking up to some really good news sometime this week.  Thanks for all your support everyone!

75% of the way there!  This is exciting.

* * *

This is looking brilliantly polished and very appealing.

Good luck with Greenlight and Kickstarter.

Thanks for the kind words Faerdan.  I appreciate it.  Just checked out your game on IndieDB and it looks right up my alley - followed you.

Hey everyone,

I launched the kickstarter and greenlight campaigns for my game, Remnant, on Wednesday and I just can't seem to get any news sites to talk about it.

The kickstarter is going less than stellar, about 7.5% funded so far.  I thought I set a pretty realistic goal and have a pretty decent looking campaign.  The greenlight is going really well, already 60% of the way way to the top 100 and our stats crush the top 50 average (58% yes vs 30% yes).

I just can't get any coverage at all -- blasted 150+ emails to the generic [email protected] or [email protected] and contacted a dozen or so editors directly but not a single response or write up.  One site offered if I paid them $10, which was pretty appalling.

Anyone have advice here?  Know someone who knows someone who could put in a good word?

Appreciate all the help.

Absolute rollercoaster of emotions in the last 24 hours.

After one day, Remnant is 31% of the way up the ladder to top 100 on Greenlight:


I have absolutely no clue how good that is as there's little baseline to compare it to.  It feels good though, so who cares!  If any Greenlight experienced devs want to chime in, please do.

The Kickstarter is slowly trickling in backers.  I haven't had much luck with getting coverage on any sites, sent about 100+ e-mails last night and this morning, but fingers are still crossed.  If anyone knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy, that would be very welcome right now.

[Kickstarter]

After an absolutely exhausting few weeks, I'm pleased to announce that Remnant is now available on Kickstarter and Greenlight!  It's a fantastic feeling finally being able to put it out there for public consumption and to get some much needed feedback.  Marketing is mentally draining, constantly playing with things and adjusting them until they're just right only to wake up the next day and hate it.  

was easily the most tiring.  I hope it turned out alright.

In more development related news, I've joined forces with a character artist to help flesh out the character and agent portraits:


Fingers crossed everything goes well!

(click for 1080p)

From the, still unfortunately untitled, 4X game I'm working on.  Devlog here.

Here's my Screenshot Saturday entry:

* * *

The game looks really great so far! I'll be watching closely-- looking forward to hearing more about the gameplay!

Thanks mate, appreciate the kind words.  I've got most of the design "locked in" at this point and will be updating the first post very soon.  I've come up with, what I think are, some pretty fun twists on the genre.

[very]

Here's a mockup for the planet UI.  Feedback very much appreciated here:


Structure portraits courtesy of David Revoy from the Wikimedia Commons.

I've spent the last few weeks writing behind the scenes, boilerplate code: message systems, event systems, component managers, camera controllers, object pools, etc. etc.  Absolutely nothing exciting visually and I definitely didn't want to bore you to death with the details.  I do have a solid foundation going forward, at least, and will be able to share more interesting things going forward.

Here's a mockup of the UI that I had in my head.  It looks absolutely dreadful.  I'll need to consult with a professional in the future:

Just seeing this now -- I'm a sucker for anything in space, so consider your project followed.  We're actually using the same artist's work as placeholders, heh.  Everything's looking great so far!  I absolutely adore the warp in effect but I think the laser beams in the latest gif should hold for a little big longer.

How did you draw the grid for your tactical view (around the 45 second mark in your video)?  I'm also using Unity and can't figure it out for the life of me -- line renderer rotates the lines and a giant texture loses its crispness.  Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

Here's a shot from the unnamed 4X game I'm working on:

(click for 1080p)

Check out the devlog if you've got the time.  Just getting started.

Beams are in.  Can you spot them?  8D


(click for 1080p)

Next up is actually being able to play a battle.  I'm not really sure how I want the ships to stand off.  Here's the general setups I've noticed after watching hours of sci-fi footage on YouTube:



My gut says congested would be the most visually pleasing but might be a real nightmare for gameplay.  I'm also not entirely sure how the battle would start in that state -- though it could be pretty cool to have to find your bearings after your fleet warps in.  My second favourite would be pursuit.

What do you guys think?

* * *

Looking good!
As for you battle system, have a look at flotilla. I handles movement in a similar way, teams get to give orders during pause and then carry out in realtime.

You know, I got Flotilla in a bundle a long time ago and still haven't given it a whirl.  Thanks for the reminder!

I like it, but I loathe micromanagement in general, not all players would agree
Althrough every X seconds maybe is too much? Maybe instead make per battle limit (like 5 orders per battle)? Or some mixed system (one order per 10 seconds but no more than 5 per battle)?

I totally understand what you mean with micromanagement.  Nothing more tedious than having to go through the motions of a battle that feels over from the start.  I want it to feel like a hands off light show when you're crushing your opponent and very "any wrong move could tip it" when you're evenly matched.  It's definitely not going to be easy.

As a big, bearded man, I approve.  Dig the overall aesthetic so far, looking forward to seeing some screenshots / mockups.  Followed!