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[spiderninja]

Team name:
Impetus

Project name:
Vehement Thrones

Brief description:
Was started by me nearly a year ago by myself, and in the last 3 months has gone into gear with the addition of various members, all helping out as they can. There is much communication within the team so everyone knows what is going on. The game is an Action/Adventure/RPG based with the theme of emotions woven within its storyline. Interesting, original characters and out-of-this-world enemies bring the game to life along with amazing combat with 11 different styles to control and master! This is a high quality project with dedicated members who are eager to continue this project to completion.

Target aim:
Freeware

Compensation:
No upfront payments will be made but when we get some funding,  some of it will be used as payment.

Technology:
Being developed for PC using the free Unreal Engine 3. Maya and Blender for the 3D models, exported in .md5 format, Photoshop for 2D Art. No sound tools used yet.

Talent needed:

Programmer
Write the code and scripts that bring our game media and the engine together. Preferably someone who has had some experience in using this engine.

Team structure:
Team leader/writer = Me (James)
Writer = Jonathan
2 concept artists = Wilson and Javier
3D character/object artist and animator = Michael


Website:
http://vehementthrones.site11.com

Contacts:
[email protected] = My email address

Previous Work by Team:
None together, various projects individually including 3D models used in Tremulous and 2D concept art for other projects.

Additional Info:
Control your emotions - or they will control you!
When a young rogue named Reiker earns the chance of a lifetime, he thinks his problems could finally be over. Of course, nothing is ever that simple. A horde of evil creatures born of pure emotion threaten to overrun the land, and he must utilize the mysterious Nahka Panema to absorb them and discover the truth. Will he be able to succeed where others have failed, or will he be consumed by his own power? In this battle, friendship may not be enough...

Some of the art so far:
Reiker
http://i856.photobucket.com/albums/ab130/spiderninjaj/Characters/Reiker/Reiker3Wilson.jpg
Reiker 3D
http://recursiveloop.oi-share.com/files/vt/reiker/reikerV3.jpg
Joy Riven
http://i856.photobucket.com/albums/ab130/spiderninjaj/Riven/The-Joy-Riven.jpg
Rage Nahka Panema
http://vehementthrones.50.forumer.com/download/file.php?id=16

Interested? Just email me or send me a private message and I'll get back to you.

Also if this is in the wrong place, feel free to move it

[Christian Knudsen]

Hope you find what you're looking for and good luck with your game. I'm just curious about this:

Target aim:
Freeware

Compensation:
No upfront payments will be made but when we get some funding,  some of it will be used as payment.

How are you going to find funding for a freeware game?

[Eraser]

Hope you find what you're looking for and good luck with your game. I'm just curious about this:

Target aim:
Freeware

Compensation:
No upfront payments will be made but when we get some funding,  some of it will be used as payment.

How are you going to find funding for a freeware game?

Donations.

[Christian Knudsen]

I'd go with a shareware model instead, then. I can't think of a freeware game other than Dwarf Fortress that brings in steady donations.

[Snakey]

Technology:
Being developed for PC using the free Unreal Engine 3.

I simply don't see why you would need a C++ programmer for this project. UDK mainly supports Unrealscript, thus C++ knowledge will not help you guys at all [Yes, you could use DLLBind, but it wasn't designed to replace Unrealscript]. 

Maya and Blender for the 3D models, exported in .md5 format

Why are you exporting to formats that Unreal Engine 3 can't understand?

I also don't see how you will receive funding. I mean, you might through donations, but how much were you expecting to 'make' from donations?

[Alex Vostrov]

If you're indeed planning on funding the game through donations, I would advise you to re-think your plan.  I have below 0.5% conversion rate for comments about my games.  If you can reach that for donations, you're damn good.  If you get to Dwarf Fortress level, you're a god among men.

[Alex Vostrov]

Also, I'm going to throw in a piece of advice while I'm in here.  I know that you're not looking for it, but I've seen too many ambitious projects fall apart to stay silent.  I could be wrong, and you could be an awesome game producer with decades of industry experience, but my hunch is that you've never completed a game of this size.  If you really want this thing to be finished, keep in mind that the mortality rate of these hobby projects is awfully high.  I've been in some that have fallen apart, so I know what I'm talking about.

The more you can slim down the game, the higher are the chances that it will be complete.  If it drags on for too long, then there are more chances of people leaving the team to do other things.  Working on a side-project is unpredictable and people get jobs, move or get married.  Ask yourself the question "What is absolutely essential to my vision of the game?"  Do you really need to make it 3d?  That adds a lot of pain to programming.

At the very least, you should build a development timeline for the project.  As a non-programmer, it will be hard for you to control the flow of the project.  At least if you have a clear plan, you can get buy-in from whomever you find.  Try to find someone who you can easily communicate with - there's nothing worse than your programmer disappearing for weeks at a time.  If you can find someone who's in the same city as you are, it will make things a lot easier (or failing that, same timezone.  I once worked with someone in Germany, ack!).  The best thing, of course, is to learn some programming yourself.  Look at Derek Yu, for example - he's an artist who's made an awesome game in Game Maker.  Yes, it's not as sexy as Unreal, but finished games are better than abandoned games.

I know that this is not what you want to hear, but it's better to get it from some grumpy guy on a forum than to waste a year of your life.  Maybe I'm wrong, an you can power through on pure enthusiasm and determination, but you should at least think about what I've said.

Good luck, whatever you decide.

[starsrift]

I wouldn't mind joining someone else's project and taking the creative brain out of programming for a day a week. I keep flirting with the idea and thinking, "I'll do it after <a certain upcoming release of mine next year>." But your post doesn't make me think that you know exactly what you're proposing.

If you want me to codemonkey, I'd be more interested if you were to show a design and ask "can you do this with this kind of art(models)?" and let me choose what engine and whatnot I'd use to implement your design.

/ I'd probably not be into this particular design anyway. FPS's, even RPG/FPS hybrids, just aren't my thing.

[nikki]

are there any screenshots / demo's  or images , your website is very under construction, [about] [media] [links] ??

since you've been investing time and energy for a year, and your communicating very good, i suspect there a shitloadds of concept stuff , demo's and nice things right ?

[Christian Knudsen]

When I click on "About", I get this:

This site is not designed to support non-standard compliant browsers such as Internet Explorer 7 or lower. Attempting to do so is a waste of time. Instead, you should get a browser that actually works, like Mozilla Firefox.

And I'm already using Firefox...

[Poor Lazlo]

Control your emotions - or they will control you!

I read "Control your emoticons".

Maybe that should be the idea behind your game instead.

I kid, I kid.

[spiderninja]

Hey sorry for the late reply, been pretty busy lately.

Thanks for all the advice and I will get on with changing the details to work with what I've got. Here are some comments I have on what you said to me, and please, don't take them in a negative way. I'm here to learn, not condemn.

We are planning on getting donations just to pay our team members for their work. We were not planning on selling as you have to pay a pretty hefty sum of money to use the Unreal Engine commercially, but seeing as we might change this, we could possibly sell it as shareware.

I wouldn't mind joining someone else's project and taking the creative brain out of programming for a day a week. I keep flirting with the idea and thinking, "I'll do it after <a certain upcoming release of mine next year>." But your post doesn't make me think that you know exactly what you're proposing.

If you want me to codemonkey, I'd be more interested if you were to show a design and ask "can you do this with this kind of art(models)?" and let me choose what engine and whatnot I'd use to implement your design.

/ I'd probably not be into this particular design anyway. FPS's, even RPG/FPS hybrids, just aren't my thing.

So your suggesting that I don't choose the engine, I just find a programmer who can fulfill my design however he can? And also it's not a FPS, it's an Action/RPG, sort of like Kingdom Hearts mix God of War.

are there any screenshots / demo's  or images , your website is very under construction, [about] [media] [links] ??

since you've been investing time and energy for a year, and your communicating very good, i suspect there a shitloadds of concept stuff , demo's and nice things right ?

We have quite a few concepts for characters but we are waiting on one more before we post them all up. This will have a bio next to each character as well. Also will do one for the enemies and NPC's. We don;t have any demos because we only have one 3d model and I'm waiting to receive that model before I start animation a mock up of the gameplay, though I have a small version ready, its far from complete.

When I click on "About", I get this:

This site is not designed to support non-standard compliant browsers such as Internet Explorer 7 or lower. Attempting to do so is a waste of time. Instead, you should get a browser that actually works, like Mozilla Firefox.

And I'm already using Firefox...

That text is meant to be there to tell IE users to get Mozilla, so you aren't having trouble with the site, it's meant to say that there.

Control your emotions - or they will control you!

I read "Control your emoticons".

Maybe that should be the idea behind your game instead.

I kid, I kid.

It is the main thing about this game, so maybe pushing that selling point would be more appropriate.

[dbb]

We are planning on getting donations just to pay our team members for their work. We were not planning on selling as you have to pay a pretty hefty sum of money to use the Unreal Engine commercially, but seeing as we might change this, we could possibly sell it as shareware.

The thing is, you'll be liable to pay the Unreal people royalties on any revenue you generate from a game using their engine, whether you ask for an upfront fee, go the shareware route, or ask for donations. However, they only want 25% of everything after the first $5k, so it's a pretty good deal.

When I click on "About", I get this:

This site is not designed to support non-standard compliant browsers such as Internet Explorer 7 or lower. Attempting to do so is a waste of time. Instead, you should get a browser that actually works, like Mozilla Firefox.

And I'm already using Firefox...

That text is meant to be there to tell IE users to get Mozilla, so you aren't having trouble with the site, it's meant to say that there.
 

I'd strongly suggest you rethink this. I know IE is a load of crap, and I also know what a pain in the arse it is designing sites that work with IE, and yes the world would be a better place if everyone used Mozilla. But given that the purpose of your site is to sell a game rather than campaign for standards-compliance in browsers, I'd recommend sucking it down and just building a site that works in IE.
Otherwise you're just pissing off potential customers (my site, which is mostly visited by nerds and graphics people, still has 20% of its visitors using IE). Sometimes you've just got to give people what they want rather than what they ought to want.

Anyway, good luck wwith this. It'ss aa very ambitious project, but there's nothing wrong with ambition.

[Mipe]

I'd go with a shareware model instead, then. I can't think of a freeware game other than Dwarf Fortress that brings in steady donations.

It took Dwarf Fortress YEARS to get to the current donation level. You should have seen earlier iterations.

Don't expect to live on kindness of strangers... at least don't expect a BMW and Alienware rig from it.

[Christian Knudsen]

I'd strongly suggest you rethink this. I know IE is a load of crap, and I also know what a pain in the arse it is designing sites that work with IE, and yes the world would be a better place if everyone used Mozilla. But given that the purpose of your site is to sell a game rather than campaign for standards-compliance in browsers, I'd recommend sucking it down and just building a site that works in IE.
Otherwise you're just pissing off potential customers (my site, which is mostly visited by nerds and graphics people, still has 20% of its visitors using IE). Sometimes you've just got to give people what they want rather than what they ought to want.

And furthermore, most websites that carry such a message actually check which browser the user is using before displaying such a message. It makes it seem like there's a bug on you site. Like if I want to play a flash movie and the website pops up "You have to install flash to view this page" and I know I have flash installed. But, really, there's no point to having such a message -- especially under the "About" section (!).

It took Dwarf Fortress YEARS to get to the current donation level. You should have seen earlier iterations.

I know. That was my point. Don't bet on donations.

[Poor Lazlo]

But, really, there's no point to having such a message -- especially under the "About" section (!).

I'd say this is the main problem. For me, at least, the About section is where I go to learn more about the team working on the game, not where I go to find out why the site's all messed up in my sub-par browser.

This may seem nit-picky, but first impressions are important however you try to make money from your game, and it's so easily fixed there's no point not doing so.

Unless of course you think we're full of crap and your way is better. I'd like to remind everyone that that is totally valid.

[Alex Vostrov]

It took Dwarf Fortress YEARS to get to the current donation level. You should have seen earlier iterations.

I know. That was my point. Don't bet on donations.

Actually, my theory is that Tarn Adams runs an underground dwarf slavery ring to fund the game.  There's just no other rational explanation for that level of donation consistency.

[spiderninja]

Well about the Mozilla thing, I'm not the original creator of the website, and I see your point in letting Internet Explorer uses see it. Problem is I don't actually know how with this web host we are using, and I don't know if it is possible. If you know another free or cheap host site that allows you to fully customize what you have on the page (I mean you aren't forced to use the basic templates and looks) but simple enough for a non-coder like myself to use.

[starsrift]

So your suggesting that I don't choose the engine, I just find a programmer who can fulfill my design however he can? And also it's not a FPS, it's an Action/RPG, sort of like Kingdom Hearts mix God of War.

Yes.

I mean, if you're not doing the coding, why do you care what engine is under the hood? All you want is the end result. If you don't mind the fees from Unreal (which ARE pretty good), you could suggest that.