Hi there!
I'm new to the TIGForums, but I hear this is a great place to find game developers with Jedi-like skillz
Allow me to introduce myself — my name is Jason, I graduated with a degree in Computer Science from Brown University, focusing on game development and electronic music. While at Brown, I was hired by Apple and moved out to Cali after graduation to work on Snow Leopard (particularly OpenCL and also some image processing in the vImage library). I left Apple to serve as CTO for a financial technologies startup which is just now coming out of stealth mode, and I've since raised money to found my own game studio in Sunnyvale, CA — the heart of Silicon Valley!
My company is making a 3D, desktop MMORPG. It's not an action-based MMO, it's not about orcs and dragons, nor farms, cows, and all that jazz. It's an MMO about running a business (say wha??)....particularly a business in the music industry. Without getting into too much of the details now, the goal is to build a music empire by signing the right artists, and hiring the right team to build innovative products. It's set in modern day, and focuses on technology and creativity. Despite being about business, it's actually a really fascinating game concept, and offers gameplay unlike any MMO currently out there (and is FUN!)
Background:
I started the game with a proof-of-concept a text-only, XHTML front-end , PHP/MySQL backend back in 2006. I made it as a hobby, but it quickly took off and generated a lot of attention, and started making money. I won the business plan competition at Brown (heck, i was the only company with a product AND revenue!), and packed up my bags to move out to Silicon Valley. After learning about how business in the Valley works, and honing up my tech skills, I've since come back to the project and have built a 3D front-end for it. We've raised money, got office space, and are releasing to the public in July 2011.
What We're Looking for:
While the majority of the MMO server is already written, but I'm looking for someone to help me out with the client which still needs a bit of work (especially w/ my role as CEO, I'm needed in many other areas and cannot do all the programming — I need a Jedi I can count on). This must be someone who has a solid understanding of C/C++, threading & synchronization, cross-platform game development (yes, we release for Macs and PCs together!), 3D math, and a good personality and sense of humor (who wants to code next to a grumpy dude all day?). If you're familiar with cross-platform gaming libraries like BlitzMax, OGRE, SFML, or SDL, you will feel comfortable in our development environment.
More importantly, I'm looking for that key other engineer to join me as my right hand (wo)man — we share a passion for games and making them, and can serve as the foundation of a growing engineering team. Ideally, this candidate will eventually assume the position of VP of Engineering, and will hire others to join our dev team.
What We're Paying:
Pretty much, whatever it takes. We don't want to burn through too much cash right now, so don't expect big company-like salaries, but we're willing to pay for quality talent, as well as offer potentially lucrative stock options. You will see that after meeting myself and my team, that we are very serious, very talented, very well connected, and very set on making this game be a hit. Life's too short to waste time — you don't waste ours, and I guarantee we won't waste yours
Next Steps:
Give a holler! Shoot me an email at jtfrench [at] gmail [dot] com if you're interested in learning more. I can follow up with more details on the company, our products, videos, etc. This is an in-office position in Sunnyvale, CA (near San Francisco, San Jose, etc). We're in the Plug and Play Tech Center at 440 N Wolfe Rd, Sunnyvale, CA 94085. Please be local.
(Note: if you're NOT local, but absolutely think you're the guy for the job, shoot me an email anyway — always good to meet new people).
Thanks, TIGSource, and I look forward to hearing from you guys!
-Jason
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