[Trailer]

Please read this ad in full before applying, in order to ensure that you are able to do the work.
Hi.  My name is Kevin Giguère and I'm the founder of Dragon Slumber, an indie game development company.  I have 10 years programming experience, 3 of those years being spent in a small game development company as a programmer which I had to leave due to downsizing.

For the past 2 years, I have been working on Arelite Core, a commercial JRPG styled game for Windows, which mixes traditional design with a modern presentation.  The game was developped from the ground up and aims to take the best of old games, like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, and mix it with modern day design sensibilities.  You can discover more about the game at www.arelitecore.com.

Trailer
You can see a trailer for the game on the Arelite Core website as well as on the Steam Greenlight page at http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=368932561

Who I'm looking for
I am looking for an artist to create 2d animation frames for the battle effects of the game. This includes conception according to guidelines and up to the final execution of every frame of the animation. Battle effect frames vary from effect to effect, but this is an example of the effects: http://www.arelitecore.com/images/LightningStrip1.png, http://www.arelitecore.com/images/PoisonStrip.png.

Relevant examples of your work will be required.  Before I hire anyone, I will need to ensure they can do the job.

More about the game
For this JRPG, I am aiming for about 10-12 hours of gameplay.  There are 6 playable characters, with an animation range around similar to Final Fantasy VI (ie, 3rd person fights with sprites and emotion animations during story).  We have well over 100 unique monsters planned, as well as visual variations on already established monsters (a goblin with a mask for example).  Stylistically, we're aiming towards Final Fantasy VI, a slightly gritty style, mature themes and all that.  It's also our baseline for the visuals, battle presentation and so forth.

And finally
Payment is to be negociated and is made upon approved frames.  This job offer will be open until January 24th, please don't apply after that date.  You may contact me at any time by e-mail at [email protected], or by Skype at ds_kevingiguere.  Those two methods will be the only methods of communcation accepted for the job.

I look forward to hearing from you.

[Trailer]

Please read this ad in full before applying, in order to ensure that you are able to do the work.
Hi.  My name is Kevin Giguère and I'm the founder of Dragon Slumber, an indie game development company.  I have 10 years programming experience, 3 of those years being spent in a small game development company as a programmer which I had to leave due to downsizing.

For the past 2 years, I have been working on Arelite Core, a commercial JRPG styled game for Windows, which mixes traditional design with a modern presentation.  The game was developped from the ground up and aims to take the best of old games, like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, and mix it with modern day design sensibilities.  You can discover more about the game at www.arelitecore.com.

Trailer
You can see a trailer for the game on the Arelite Core website as well as



Who I'm looking for
I am looking for an artist to create 64x64px animated location tiles for the various locations of the game. This includes effects like waterfalls, rotating elements (30 degrees per rotation), and other similar elements. The artist will be required to create work in the style already established for the game.
Relevant examples of your work will be required.  Before I hire anyone, I will need to ensure they can do the job.

More about the game
For this JRPG, I am aiming for about 10-12 hours of gameplay.  There are 6 playable characters, with an animation range around similar to Final Fantasy VI (ie, 3rd person fights with sprites and emotion animations during story).  We have well over 100 unique monsters planned, as well as visual variations on already established monsters (a goblin with a mask for example).  Stylistically, we're aiming towards Final Fantasy VI, a slightly gritty style, mature themes and all that.  It's also our baseline for the visuals, battle presentation and so forth.

And finally
Payment is to be negociated and is made upon approved frames.  This job offer will be open until December 17th, please don't apply after that date.  You may contact me at any time by e-mail at [email protected], or by Skype at ds_kevingiguere.  Those two methods will be the only methods of communcation accepted for the job.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Greetings to all,

My name is Kevin Giguère, I am a 32 year old developper working as designer, producer and programmer on Arelite Core, a self funded JRPG for windows scheduled for release in 2015. This isn't an RPG Maker game however, this is an entirely new design, new engine, new visuals and new SNES inspired music. In fact, I've posted here several times for artists in all fields, backgrounds, characters, monsters, tiles... This place has been a great help to me.

The game follows the adventures of Karden, a blacksmith on the path to mastering his craft, forced to take a stand against Talameq, an ageless entity bent on devouring the world. It takes heavy inspiration from SNES era aesthetics but also brings forth a few new mechanics such as forging weapons and a turn based battle system with fighting game concepts such as building a super meter, a stun meter and customizable stances.

Official website: http://arelitecore.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DragonSlumberGames

This is the first trailer for the game, released just a few days ago: www.youtube.com/embed/B6DPkuArmno

Let me know what you guys think!

Thanks for the note, though I don't think gettext is applicable to me. All of my text (script, menu names, etc) is external and I'll just load the right language from the proper file. I designed the engine was designed to be localised from day 1.

I'm currently working on a JRPG, and since I'm a native french speaker, I decided to include localization tools in my game and do the translation once the time comes.

So obviously I can make a bilingual game, but I'm wondering if anyone here has made a game and exported it to other markets and their experience with that. I'm wondering if the cost of translating the game to japanese would be worth the effort, if I can make that money back.

Any insight is appreciated, thanks.

I didn't quit. I have a day job which pays living expenses, with the overflow going directly in the game. Because my living expenses are so low, it enables me to invest 5 digits per year into this project. And of course I work on the game evenings and weekends, directly as well as managing contractual artists.

Hey all,

I'm going to apply to be in the Indie Megabooth for PAX East 2015, just finalizing a few details on the demo I need to sent, but in the meantime I'm thinking about how to structure my booth and how to present myself the best. I was wondering if anyone had any experience in the matter, stuff like setting up a booth to be interesting and appealing, how to stand out, banners you printed and other devices, how the audience and the reviewers reacted. I'm also interested about the SWAG, since I heard it ends up giving little impact on most people (shirts are definitely off the table), and also stuff to sell. Shirts might be too common, posters are lame, but what about other things like maybe a wall scroll?

I'm trying to think outside the box and I'm sure others have tried stuff and succeeded or failed. I already read some post-mortems on the subject, but I wanted to further probe the matter.

Any help is appreciated.

[Who I'm looking for]

Please read this ad in full before applying, in order to ensure that you are able to do the work.

Hi.  My name is Kevin Giguère and I'm the founder of Dragon Slumber, an indie game development company.  I have 10 years programming experience, 3 of those years being spent in a small game development company as a programmer which I had to leave due to downsizing.

For the past 2 years, I have been working on Arelite Core, a commercial JRPG styled game for Windows, which mixes traditional design with a modern presentation.  The game was developped from the ground up and aims to take the best of old games, like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, and mix it with modern day design sensibilities.  You can discover more about the game at www.arelitecore.com.

Who I'm looking for
I am looking for an artist to create 2d animation frames for the battle effects of the game. This includes conception according to guidelines and up to the final execution of every frame of the animation. Battle effect frames vary from effect to effect, but this is an example of the effects: http://www.arelitecore.com/images/LightningStrip1.png, http://www.arelitecore.com/images/PoisonStrip.png.

Relevant examples of your work will be required.  Before I hire anyone, I will need to ensure they can do the job.

More about the game
For this JRPG, I am aiming for about 10-12 hours of gameplay.  There are 6 playable characters, with an animation range around similar to Final Fantasy VI (ie, 3rd person fights with sprites and emotion animations during story).  We have well over 100 unique monsters planned, as well as visual variations on already established monsters (a goblin with a mask for example).  Stylistically, we're aiming towards Final Fantasy VI, a slightly gritty style, mature themes and all that.  It's also our baseline for the visuals, battle presentation and so forth.

And finally
Payment is to be negociated and is made upon approved frames.  This job offer will be open until November 7th, please don't apply after that date.  You may contact me at any time by e-mail at [email protected], or by Skype at ds_kevingiguere.  Those two methods will be the only methods of communcation accepted for the job.

I look forward to hearing from you.

[Who I'm looking for]

Please read this ad in full before applying, in order to ensure that you are able to do the work.
Hi.  My name is Kevin Giguère and I'm the founder of Dragon Slumber, an indie game development company.  I have 10 years programming experience, 3 of those years being spent in a small game development company as a programmer which I had to leave due to downsizing.

For the past 2 years, I have been working on Arelite Core, a commercial JRPG styled game for Windows, which mixes traditional design with a modern presentation.  The game was developped from the ground up and aims to take the best of old games, like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, and mix it with modern day design sensibilities.  You can discover more about the game at www.arelitecore.com.

Who I'm looking for
I am looking for a musician to create SNES styled music for the game. That means that style of instruments, but also that style of composition. I like themes in particular, music which is hummable and memorable rather than ambient. Relevant examples of your work will be required.  Before I hire anyone, I will need to ensure they can do the job.

This position will cover a portion of the soundtrack for the game, with specific tracks to be determine. The game is estimated to have between 25 and 30 tracks in all.

More about the game
For this JRPG, I am aiming for about 10-12 hours of gameplay.  There are 6 playable characters, with an animation range around similar to Final Fantasy VI (ie, 3rd person fights with sprites and emotion animations during story).  We have well over 100 unique monsters planned, as well as visual variations on already established monsters (a goblin with a mask for example).  Stylistically, we're aiming towards Final Fantasy VI, a slightly gritty style, mature themes and all that.  It's also our baseline for the visuals, battle presentation and so forth.

And finally
Payment is to be negociated and is made upon approved tracks.  This job offer will be open until November 7th, please don't apply after that date.  You may contact me at any time by e-mail at [email protected], or by Skype at ds_kevingiguere.  Those two methods will be the only methods of communcation accepted for the job.

I look forward to hearing from you.

[Who I'm looking for]

Please read this ad in full before applying, in order to ensure that you are able to do the work.

Hi.  My name is Kevin Giguère and I'm the founder of Dragon Slumber, an indie game development company.  I have 10 years programming experience, 3 of those years being spent in a small game development company as a programmer which I had to leave due to downsizing.

For the past 2 years, I have been working on Arelite Core, a commercial JRPG styled game for Windows, which mixes traditional design with a modern presentation.  The game was developped from the ground up and aims to take the best of old games, like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, and mix it with modern day design sensibilities.  You can discover more about the game at www.arelitecore.com.

Who I'm looking for
I am looking for an artist to create 2d animation frames for the monsters of the game. This only includes the lineart, not the full colors, and will need to follow frame by frame schematics of the animation as well as the original reference frame.  Monster frames vary in size from 200x200 to 500x500, and a few exceptions going beyond that scope. Examples of what would need to be worked with can be found at http://www.arelitecore.com/images/041b_Krakataur_HIT.gif.

Relevant examples of your work will be required.  Before I hire anyone, I will need to ensure they can do the job.

More about the game
For this JRPG, I am aiming for about 10-12 hours of gameplay.  There are 6 playable characters, with an animation range around similar to Final Fantasy VI (ie, 3rd person fights with sprites and emotion animations during story).  We have well over 100 unique monsters planned, as well as visual variations on already established monsters (a goblin with a mask for example).  Stylistically, we're aiming towards Final Fantasy VI, a slightly gritty style, mature themes and all that.  It's also our baseline for the visuals, battle presentation and so forth.

And finally
Payment is to be negociated and is made upon approved frames.  This job offer will be open until October 31st, please don't apply after that date.  You may contact me at any time by e-mail at [email protected], or by Skype at ds_kevingiguere.  Those two methods will be the only methods of communcation accepted for the job.

I look forward to hearing from you.

[Who I'm looking for]

Please read this ad in full before applying, in order to ensure that you are able to do the work.
Hi.  My name is Kevin Giguère and I'm the founder of Dragon Slumber, an indie game development company.  I have 10 years programming experience, 3 of those years being spent in a small game development company as a programmer which I had to leave due to downsizing.

For the past 2 years, I have been working on Arelite Core, a commercial JRPG styled game for Windows, which mixes traditional design with a modern presentation.  The game was developped from the ground up and aims to take the best of old games, like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, and mix it with modern day design sensibilities.  You can discover more about the game at www.arelitecore.com.

Who I'm looking for
I am looking for an artist to create pixel art furniture and items for various sections of the game. The elements include chairs, weapons, a forge, weapons on a wall and so forth, elements to fill in a scene. Note that the game uses 64x64 tiles and characters are 64x128, for elements created would need to be a relative to that size (a bed could be 128x192 for instance). The artist will have concept art and guidelines for some elements, but will generally be required to bring his own creativity to the table. Additionally, since some tiles have already been produced, the artist will be required to match the style of them. Examples of what has been produced can be found at http://arelitecore.com/gallery.php.

Relevant examples of your work will be required.  Before I hire anyone, I will need to ensure they can do the job.

More about the game
For this JRPG, I am aiming for about 10-12 hours of gameplay.  There are 6 playable characters, with an animation range around similar to Final Fantasy VI (ie, 3rd person fights with sprites and emotion animations during story).  We have well over 100 unique monsters planned, as well as visual variations on already established monsters (a goblin with a mask for example).  Stylistically, we're aiming towards Final Fantasy VI, a slightly gritty style, mature themes and all that.  It's also our baseline for the visuals, battle presentation and so forth.

And finally
Payment is to be negociated, and will be partially paid on signing the contract, followed by regular payments according to the work provided.  This job offer will be open until October 31th, please don't apply after that date.  You may contact me at any time by e-mail at [email protected], or by Skype at ds_kevingiguere.  Those two methods will be the only methods of communcation accepted for the job.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Probably Metal Gear Solid. It's such a cliché, but I felt that game did a lot of amazing things, like Psycho Mantis analysing your memory card and controller port, the character development was really well done, the gameplay mechanics were well executed... I think it's a brilliant game.

It's so difficult to come up with a good, strong and interesting title for a game which has not been used too much, not only in 40 years of games but also a century of cinema. I ended up going with Arelite Core as my game's name since Arelite isn't a real thing so I was sure it wouldn't be used by anyone else (arelite is a thing in the game). I also wanted to avoid the cliches of Final/Endless/Infinite/Quest something that a lot of RPGs do.

That being said, I'm still not sure if it was a good move, it may backfire since people may not be able to remember the title.

It's hard to do a good, unique and memorable title.

I agree with Guacamelee. Evoland wasn't a great game, but it did exactly that, pointing out RPG tropes and such from NES/GB titles, through the Playstation era into modern 3d games. I think the tropes were more interesting than the game on that one.

I always feel like the gameplay and the story should work together to some extent. If you have a circus owner, maybe he can use animals in some capacity within levels? What is the motivation of the pirates, why go to this guy and bring him to London of all places? What can your character do which others can't? Speak to animals perhaps, so maybe London has been overtaken by beasts and it just so happens that there's treasure buried somewhere in the city which explains why the pirates are involved in it.

It's easy to write a story with any elements, but ultimately you have to ask yourself how it will work with the game you're making. Also, setting is good, but I think people really relate to strong characters so you could write that 1 pirate character which reflects what the pirate organisation represents as a whole. Same for your London characters. You could even look up british figures from that era and integrate them in your game.

Full disclosure: I am a white male who has never really faced discrimination, and I am sure my opinions are colored accordingly. I'm actually looking for an minority developers to offer their points of view on the issue.

I feel like I hear a lot about the issues of diversity in the game development community, how characters are mostly males white, how there are so few women developers involved. And for the most part, it really does ring true, women and minorities seem vastly outnumbered by the white male demographic.

Now, there are two sides to this. First, we have big business, the Activisions and Ubisofts of the world, which have an idea of the image they want to project and right or wrong, move in that direction. But then there's the indie field, which is essencially a free for all for any willing to put the blood, sweat and tears into making a game. And even when it comes to that field, I feel like we don't really see many woman, or at least the games which are shown tend to be presented by the men. In fact, the only game where I know a woman was involved at a higher position is Gone Home, and even then there was also a man involved.

Now, I've talked about women, but minorities seem to be the same, there are few black people involved in design/management of indie companies or so it seems. Maybe it's because they don't get much press, maybe I'm just terribly misinformed, but that's really what I want to hear about. What games, bigger development games mind you (like a man/year or more of dev time), were created by women and minorities, and did being in those groups impact the development as far as external opportunities were concerned. And if there aren't many people, do you think it's an issue to be resolved?

I think people have a tough time separating a subjective stance and an objective one, and have a tough time understanding that their opinion doesn't necessarily reflect an industry. I also think that people want to feel useful through the path of lease resistance, which makes offering "expert advise" easy since it doesn't require more than just talking at that moment. It doesn't even require that much thinking.

What bothers me is that a lot of people get frustrated when they're called out on it, when asked about facts, why they think that. I try to break down a situation like that by making them realize that perhaps they don't quite know as much as they think, or don't understand the current situation as well as they think.

I don't believe that concepts and idea have much value in general. I'm working on a JRPG, and there are a ton of those out there, it's not an original idea. What's original is the actual execution of the game, the mechanics, the way information is presented to the player, the pacing of the story.  If I say "Horror avoidance FPS", Amnesia: Dark Descent and Outlast are both examples of that game, they have similar mechanics, but the result is different enough to make them interesting and distinctive in their own rights.

I wouldn't worry too much about other people coming to some of the same answers as you, a few elements doesn't make a game. It's the ensemble that matters, the quality and originality of the entire execution.

I am currently working on a JRPG which tries to do exactly that, cut out the filler and instead concentrate on the actual plot. To that end, almost all of my dungeons are set to progress further within the story, and those which only mean to get you from A to B at least have interesting elements, like plot development with reoccuring antagonists and interactive level design. Additionally, although I've not worked on it properly yet, I want to cut most of the grinding which happens in those games to emphasize on the actual story.

It's called Arelite Core, you can see what I've released of it at www.arelitecore.com

Incidentally, I think that's what old JRPGs like FF4, FF6 and Chrono Trigger did right, provide character driven stories with a good pace. Still among the my favorite games because they don't have the dead moments which more recent titles tend to have.

I deal with work stress by not having any. My paid job is in a small firm as a programmer, but I'm not high in the hierarchy and so I don't have to deal with the more stressful aspects of that job. I just do a 37.5 work week, and that pays for living expenses as well as the investment in my contractors for the game.

Now the game, that's stressful, that's what keeps me up at night, figuring out how to make it work properly, and some weeks just wanting to quit everything after contractors choose to move on to other projects. It's tough not to know what tomorrow will bring and whether I'll still have people working on the game. Not to mention other aspects like business management (taxes) and all of that, for which I have little to no training.

And how do I deal with that? Well, I keep my eye on the ball: making a great game which people will enjoy thoroughly. That means I need to have the discipline not to collapse and release a half completed project, nor accept sub-par work from my contractors.

Pain is temporary, games are forever.