Hi, everybody!
I'm looking for a few good men, women and/or others to fill out a game development team. The game title is Lightfall, and it'll be a game about travelling around an assigned area of the galaxy and making things better; building, trading, guiding, and of course kicking butt where called for! The genre will be 2D sandbox, in the vein of Terraria, but -and I cannot stress this enough- with grand ambitions to expand outward in new directions from the core build-and-craft-and-fight-and-explore gameplay. This is not to say we'd be trying to "make a better Terraria than Terraria". That would be dumb, like those people who tried to make WoW clones when WoW had already had a dozen years to expand, develop and polish the mechanics and presentation of its gameplay. No.
Instead, we'd be taking our own game in some decidedly different directions! We'd be trying to do stuff Terraria hasn't, like put more focus above ground, have new environment types, a more complex weather system, more building styles, a different "vibe" to the art... and look closer at the NPC people living on each world; how will they affect you, how will you affect them, what kinds of towns and societies will emerge and how can you best guide them to develop and prosper -for their benefit and your own- rather than kill each other for various stupid reasons?
There'll be farming, crafting, diplomacy, combat against monsters, bandits, criminals, warlords, invaders from outer space and from neighboring NPC civilizations; also a bit of reflection on things like how to deal with potential fun-reducers like blind digging or tedious repeat trips across larger worlds. Maybe there's a vague scanner that tells you -something- is in a certain direction, but not what or how far down. Maybe you can survey planets from orbit, so you know if they contain what you're looking for, or a good variety of materials to make terraforming worthwhile. Maybe there's fast travel, but only between friendly settlements; an incentive to be diplomatic!
So now you know a bit of the concept. Here's some more: there will be multiple playable races, co-op play with Steam friends and multiple developmental stages ranging from Archaic to Stellar. You'll get to recruit companions for your journeys, work alongside militia and mercenaries to defend settlements, explore the possibilities of a new combat system with a few distinct playstyle-oriented specialization paths. There'll be parallel character development in civilian and/or combat skill trees; some basic boating for crossing larger bodies of water, mounts and vehicles for crossing land; a great deal of fun stuff, in other words! Though naturally we'll need to start with the foundation, the core gameplay. The rest will be added in updates, like adding layers to an increasingly impressive cake. You can tell I wasn't kidding about the "ambitious" part, eh?
The project would be strictly profit-sharing; we'd aim to sell the game in an as-complete-as-feasible state on Steam (avoiding early access if possible, applying for it if absolutely necessary) and then continue to improve and expand upon it, in the hopes of selling more copies and thus supporting salaries for the team members. In the event that income is slow at first and there isn't enough for salaries, profit will still be shared based on contribution. If there's enough difficulty finding a programmer or two, or a missing artist type, I might even be prepared to provide limited funding from my own pocket. Send me an offer and I'll consider it.
Anyway, this is what we're looking for:
*Programmer(s)
*Tile & Background Artists
*Sprite Artists
*PR people
*Project Lead/organizer
What we already have:
*Designer (me)
*Two composers/sound techs
*Two sprite artists (limited time available)
These are the qualities we value:
*Positivity, a pro-active approach, team spirit
*Openness, willingness to admit mistakes as well as point out problems
*Creativity -If a team member has an idea, I'll listen and consider it; might lead to some serious synergy!
*Talent in your area of expertise (obviously)
*Experience (not required, but appreciated)
That's it! Thanks for reading, and I look forward to hearing from you!
-Tobias, Game Designer
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