[INDIE] Indie Game (Cyberpunk Strat. RPG): Looking for aspiring 3D Artist/Animator

[bloodychill]

About two years ago, I conceived of a strategy RPG set in a cyberpunk setting, but being a full time college student with a part-time job, I set what little work I had done aside and finished school. Flash forward a year and a half to my recently graduated and part-time working self, and I began to realize that not only did I have time to work on the game but if the game became what I envisioned it to be, it would be fucking awesome. With those thoughts in mind, I began to start programming with all the spare time I had and a couple days ago, I finally finished work on an alpha which demonstrates the bare basics of the combat engine.

Here is our website. At this point, it's only got some basic character information but I'll add more in time.

At this point, I've realized that if I want this game to look half-decent and get it done before Duke Nukem Forever comes out, I'm going to need someone to work on graphics at the same time that I'm writing all the code. So, if you're still interested, here are the basics:

The game takes place several hundred years into the future, a century after an interstellar federation of planets led by humans fell to a mysterious menace, and an alien race has taken over Earth and essentially forced humans to be wage slaves for their corporate interests. The story of the game follows the adventures of (get ready for this) a drug-addicted time traveler, a technological fetishist gang leader, his half-insane right-hand man, a psychic tribal chick, her brutish and stupid alien savior, and a free-spirited starship captain.

The game is a mission-based strategy RPG - think Final Fantasy Tactics only more guns, drugs, and psychic powers. At this point, we've been using the open source 3D engine OGRE as a graphics engine. We will be wanting to go for a futuristic but dirty look, though at this point, the graphical style of the game is still in the air.

If you're still with me, here's what I'll need from you if you want to help me realize this project:
- at least modest 3D design OR animating capabilities, preferably with experience with 3DS.
- an interest if not complete love of cyberpunk or sci-fi settings.
- a fine sense of style.
- plenty of free time to put in good work on this.
- a love of games.
- no urgent need of money. Being a nearly broke recent college grad myself, I will not be able to pay you any time soon. Of course, if we should ever sell the game, there would certainly be plenty of spoils of war to go around and I am nothing if not a fair person. Keep in mind, if we finish this project and it turns out as we have been envisioning it but somehow do not reap any financial benefits from it, it would still be a great addition to your resume.

If you want more information before feeling like you want to seriously commit to the project, I can supply you with some watered down design docs and our alpha build. If you are still interested at that point, I will want from you some samples of shit you've created so I know you're not bullshitting me. My e-mail address is jnoormand at gmail dot com and I will be checking my PM box daily.

Almost forgot to say, while it is not necessary, we would prefer someone who lives in Southern California so that if we need to meet face to face at some point, it wouldn't be too much of a pain in the ass. However, as I said, it is not necessary and if it looks like you would make a great partner, geography wouldn't get in the way.

Lastly, if you have any questions or comments or want screen shots, feel free to post. I am pretty hesitant to post screen shots though as everything at this point is extremely bare.

[Genia]

Hey, Unfortunately I cannot offer to work for you since 1) I dont have the time and 2) Im nowhere near good enough, but id like to say GOOD LUCK. The idea sounds great and I love the cyberpunk genre.
I hope you post some WIP's soon coz id love to follow how this goes. Maybe when I improve a bit and this gets going I can help out in some way!

Just out of interest are there any particular influences you have in mind for the cyberpunk visuals?

Genia

[bloodychill]

For the visuals, I'm very much imagining a world somewhat like the one Gibson describes in Neuromancer - a mixture of bleak futuristic city scapes full of shadows and high-tech lowlifes (similar to Bladerunner), bustling city centers filled with holographic advertising (think Akira or Transmetropolitan), clearcut wastelands immediately outside the cities, and lush forests in the wilds far outside the cities.

For the characters, I imagine soldiers and rogues to be covered in futuristic robotic power armor full of little lights and energy lines, psychics radiating bright auras, and hackers covered in high tech devices.

Right now, I have 27 branching classes with over 250 skills total planned for the game. Here are some examples of classes:

Hacker: A high tech criminal capable of infiltrating enemy electronics and implants, the hacker has skills that allow him to take over enemy gun emplacements, hack enemy's implants to cause them to have the opposite of their intended effects, and even hack enemy nervous systems to take free attack actions with them.

Phantom: A rogue/psychic hybrid who uses his psychic powers to push his body to the limit, thus using his own life force to cause overwhelming damage to enemies.

Neuromancer: A powerful psychic capable of reading and influencing enemy thoughts, able to cause overwhelming fear and even suicidal tendencies in enemies.

Guru: An incredibly knowledgeable chemist, the Guru has become obsessed with bringing the effects of psychogenic drugs to the masses and has effectively weaponized hallucinogens and other drugs to cause all kinds of horrible (and hilarious) effects to enemies on the battlefield.


I looked around the web and here are a few inspiring pieces of art I've found that resemble the visuals I want in this game:

An awesome cyberpunk cityscape.

Another.

A "wired" warrior.

A "wired" rogue.

[fabiodan]

Looks like a promising project! I'd be able to help ya out, but my current projects need 120% of my time. Here's a good luck from portugal!

Cheers!

[bloodychill]

Originally Posted by fabiodan

Looks like a promising project! I'd be able to help ya out, but my current projects need 120% of my time. Here's a good luck from portugal!

Cheers!

Thanks for the encouragement, Fabiodan. I was able to get a very basic website up here and I'll edit the OP with it.

[bloodychill]

Update: I finished grenades entirely and I've found a modeler! I still need people for sure (especially a concept artist) though, so if you're interested and have time, shoot me an e-mail.

The media portion of the site is now "up", which is to say, I threw a couple images up there. I'll post pictures of the models we have done once they're finished.

Site's here.

[bloodychill]

We have some new positions open! They are as following:

3D Modeler/Artist: We need someone skilled who accels at creating weapons and futuristic objects.
3D Scene Creation: If you're good at creating 3D scenes/levels, we could use you.
3D Effects Artist: There are over 250 skills, 50 status effects, and 20 weapon-types in-game and they're all going to need the appopriate 3D effects to go with them!
2D Concept Artist: We are in DIRE need of someone who loves drawing cyberpunk/futuristic characters, weapons, objects, and scenes.
Programming Asst: I may be good at my job, but I can always use a little help. If you're interested in helping to program this bad boy, let me know.
Audio Engineer: We need a dedicated member who knows how to create the kind of futuristic sound effects and music a game like this needs.

[Wim]

Hey take a look maybe we can see what we can do. wim on Virb.com
btw I like the concept.

[bloodychill]

edit:nvm

[bloodychill]

Well, we've found a character artist, so what I am now in dire need of is an environment artist. We have plenty of image references and all skill levels are welcome!