That's correct. It's actually the 4th app I'll have produced for the iOS App Store, but the second for Tin Truck.

All,

Got a question from one of the folks who responded and want to clarify: this is a paid project -- the mention of bonus does not mean to imply any of us would be working "on spec" or for a revenue share. Your time is valuable, and to be candid, I'm looking to work with someone who will be committed to the project more so than just a "volunteer" might.

I think this is a great opportunity -- the game is 85% done: with your help we can get it across the finish line and add a nice bit of experience to your resume.

Look forward to more responses,

 - Scott

Tin Truck is a small indie studio working on its second title, Grem Legends 2.

We're well along in the development schedule, but the game needs play balancing and final testing. We're looking for a solid game designer to lead our play testing efforts and manage the project to completion.

This is hybrid role -- we need solid QA, but the work definitely includes significant design components. Grem Legends 2 is an arcade/action game and we need to better tune how enemy waves come at the player.

You'll be responsible for:

 - making design decisions on how enemy waves will work
 - recommending minor improvements as we can afford
 - fine-tuning boss fights
 - communicating with the dev team and logging issues/bugs
 - pulling together volunteer testers
 - testing both game play and interface
 - regular communication with the producer, manage schedule and progress to completion
 - submission to the iOS App Store

We anticipate that this is a part-time (nights/weekends/odd hours) sort of thing and are happy to work remotely if you prefer. That said, if you live in the California Bay Area, that would be a big plus. We have plans for future games and would welcome the chance to get to know someone in the area.

Rate is negotiable and may include performance bonuses depending on your experience and contributions. Contract position. If you're looking to break into games, we're open to working with you, but you'll need to show that you can really stay on top of the work. You'll get credit in the game as a "designer / lead QA".

You will need to have an iPhone 5/iPod Touch and an iPad 2 or greater, and be well familiar with iOS games, Facebook and Twitter.

To apply, please send an email and resume directly to [email protected].

Thanks!

 - Tin Truck

• Make games - iOS, Android, MacOS and beyond.
• Get in on the ground floor of a start-up.
• Sit at the exec table and lead a company.
• Drive the marketing for Tin Truck's games.
• Be Indie.

==============

Tin Truck Games is a studio based in San Mateo, California, and we have team members from all over. We're a small start-up, have published one modest game on the iOS AppStore, and are working on our next three titles.

We're looking for an experienced leader with an established marketing background to drive our marketing team and help launch Tin Truck's games. Here's the rub: there's no salary (yet). We're looking for an entrepreneur who wants to build a business... and for that, we'll be offering a significant equity stake in the company.

We're established: we launched in 2011, we have around 10 or so people all contributing, some of whom are paid on a work-for-hire basis, some based on revenue-share. Our plans are to grow and build a viable business. We're also gamers -- we want the company to be about the games; maintaining creative freedom, while, yes, making a healthy profit is what we're all about.

We'll need to see that you have launched at least one successful title on the iOS App Store, know the ins-and-outs of working with Ad networks, incentive-based and non-incentive-based user acquisition, press outreach, social media, and more. You'll need to understand how to manage a budget and track ROI for campaigns and activities. If you've run a Kickstarter campaign, let's talk about that. You'll help drive Tin Truck's brand as well as position each game for the market. Lastly, if you've managed people before, that will make a difference as well.

You don't need to be local to the California Bay Area, but it's a very strong preference; for the right candidate may consider other ideas as well. And clearly, given that we're in start-up mode, we will accommodate a range of circumstances... maybe you have a day job and this will work will be on nights and weekends for now.

We'd be lying if we said we knew exactly how the business and games will evolve, so be prepared, as you should with all start-ups, for the risks and unknowns we all face here. That said, you'll know the plans, you'll help craft them, and you've got a great opportunity for your work to really, really matter.

If you're interested, send an email to [email protected] with a resume and cover letter.

Update: thanks all! Got some great submissions and the project is underway.

2D Art/Illustrations & User Interface Work -- fun team, and if you live around San Mateo, California, we'll feed you cookies too.

We're looking for an artist who can create some 2D paper-doll illustrations (where the user chooses among various layered images to create their own avatar) and a user interface for an achievements-type system. We're thinking a tabbed interface that has three or four primary "screens" or information blocks to work with.

We're open to various styles and want to see if you can create a unique look for characters and a polished user interface.

We have rough storyboards to work from, are an experienced team, and crack ourselves up all the time.

This is a relatively small project and you should be done within a matter of perhaps weeks, though it could just be days depending on how fast you are... once we give you all the requirements, we'll want you to estimate what it will take.

It's a contract position, work-for-hire, and we'll be happy to pay a fair hourly rate or go with a project total. Let's work out together what's fair.

Please send a link to your portfolio to [email protected].

We've recruited from the TIGForums before and (hopefully) haven't managed to get a bad rep just yet.

We look forward to hearing from you.

 - Scott -- www.tintruck.com

I went down the same road... Unity must work because it's popular, right?... in hindsight, we found it hard to work with. It seemed more like a 3D mod/level-building tool and not all that well suited to 2D work at all.

Grem Legends, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grem-legends/id512284853?mt=8 is built in Unity using Orthello 2D. I do NOT recommend Orthello... bugs galore, especially when working with sprite sheets.

Instead I'd recommend you look at GameMaker Studio. It's a professional grade tool, but not nearly as pricy as Unity, and it was born in the 2D world (though it can handle 3D as well). It also works with Box 2D, an extremely robust and well-established 2D physics engine.

http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/studio

You may grow out of it at some point, but I think it's a solid starting point.

 - Marz

Simply cuing off your comment about being an intermediate programmer (I wouldn't say anyone is mediocre... just inexperienced, perhaps), you might look into GameMaker Studio. While, yes, it follows a room-based tile approach, it also supports some 3D elements and has a fairly robust programming capability in addition to a drag-and-drop editor when programming seems daunting (or time consuming). It's a solid mid-grade tool and great for learning how to develop.

http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/studio

Also supported by a large and helpful community. It might be a good place to start before wading into more difficult native toolsets.

Update - position filled. Thanks TIG community for some great responses!

----- original post ----------------

Tin Truck is a start-up in San Mateo, California. We have a small team and published our first iPhone game last summer. We're working on the iPad version of the game, have a second title significantly under way, and have some other projects early in development as well.

We're looking for a contract graphic designer who can create some website and banner ad art to support our marketing efforts. Initially this won't be much work -- really, this project is just a test to get to know some folks -- and we'd like to find someone within the community who shares our love for games and brings smarts and a pragmatic, get-it-done attitude to the table.

Please visit http://www.tintruck.com/grem-legends-2/ and check out the game. If you have an iPhone, you can buy it for an easy 99 cents on the iTunes App Store:
https://itunes.apple.com/app/grem-legends/id512284853?mt=8

We need an artist to create the following banner ads to support Grem Legends. They can all be variations on a theme and we don't expect them to be crazy difficult. If you want to animate them a bit, great. If you want to stick with a static image, we're open to that too.

320 x 50 Mobile leaderboard
468 x 60 Banner
728 x 90 Leaderboard
250 x 250 Square
200 x 200 Small square
336 x 280 Large rectangle
300 x 250 Inline rectangle
120 x 600 Skyscraper
160 x 600 Wide skyscraper
300 x 600 Half-page ad (200kb max)

All the ads, with the exception of the last, need to come in at 50k max and be in PNG, JPG or GIF format.

If you're interested, please send us a private message here in the forum or an email with links to your portfolio or a sample of one of the banners. We're open to working with new artists or established folks... you'll need to have pretty good English communication skills, but we're happy to work with folks from overseas. We can pay via PayPal if that works for you and would appreciate a single fixed fee for the work.

Please let us know, and happy gaming!

- Marz @ TinTruck  

Thanks Moritz!

Just a bump for more resumes. We're talking to some folks but haven't made any final decisions. We'd be open to this being your first Unity project for the right person (and right price). We're looking to build a team over time, rather than just focusing on Unity chops. If you're smart, love games, and can really deliver, we'd welcome getting to know you.

 - Scott

We're looking for a Unity programmer to help complete our universal iOS version of Grem Legends. The iPhone version is out... http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grem-legends/id512284853?mt=8

We have all the art assets for a hi-res iPad version, much of the programming done, and in Unity many of the levels built. We're looking for someone (or a small team) to finish up the project and to do final rounds of QA.

We will expect you to sign a non-disclosure agreement, then review our files and give us an estimate for both time and budget to finish the work.

We also have another larger game in progress and are looking for a team... if it turns out you do well with this small project, we may have more opportunity to work together.

If you're interested, please send information and a resume to us via email.

We've worked with some TIG forum members in the past... we'd be happy to introduce you if you'd like some references on working with us.

We look forward to hearing from you.

 - Scott & the Tin Truck team

I have a problem recommending Moritz... he does really excellent work and I'm worried that one of you will hire him full-time and pull him away from our projects.

I cannot more strongly recommend Moritz. His sound work is excellent, but even more so is his professionalism. He communicates regularly, he is thorough, he pays attention to detail, and he's happy to rework things that need tweaking.

Creatively he is right on the mark. He understood the tone of our game immediately and really enhanced it with his sound - our beta testers have all complimented us on the music.

Thanks for your great work, Moritz. I look forward to working with you again in the future, hopefully on many projects to come.

 -- Scott Love, CEO, Tin Truck

All,

I really appreciate your responses -- I've chosen someone to work with, but am really impressed with the community here. I will definitely turn to TIG again in the future.

All my best,

 -- Scott

I just sent you a mail.

Thanks! I'll follow-up in email.

Anyone else, just in case Moritz here gets attacked by more sandwiches?

All,

Tin Truck is an independent studio working on its first game. It's a casual take on missile command with its own quirky art style. Our website, www.tintruck.com, is just coming together... you'll find a bunch of placeholder stuff there at present, so please don't be put off by the "this isn't a real company" vibe: we're a real company and will be happy to pay a fair price for the work.

As it turns out, in the 11th hour our sound guy basically flaked. We're pushing hard to wrap up development this week (yes, it really is the 11th hour) and would like to see if any of you could help us out.

We need just 20 or 30 sound effects for the game. If you have time and the ambition, we're not in love with the music we have either. We'd be open to replacing it with your work if you can come up with better stuff.

If you have an iOS device, we'll share the latest build of the game along with a list of the game actions that need soundFX. We'll plan on talking to you about the vision of the game, but are open to collaboration. Our requirements should be quite clear at this point.

Please keep in mind we're a start-up. We can't afford an orchestra, nor is there time for that approach any way. For this first game, we're trying to get it done on a shoestring budget. Of course you'll get credit in the game.

If you're interested in the job, please email [email protected] with a summary of your experience, some links to your work, and a very rough idea of what a few days of your time would cost. We're happy to discuss a fair price and will give you more information about what we need, but getting a crude sense of what ballpark we're in would be a big help.

Thanks in advance,

 -- Scott Love, Tin Truck