Looking to build up a dev team

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Socoder -> On Topic -> Looking to build up a dev team
Thu, 06 Jun 2013, 18:21
jasspenguin	Hello everyone, I am the game designer from Indie VG dev Jackass Penguin and working Dungeon Fall (IndieDB and Greenlight). We where a team made of two: me (graphic and game design) and coder, but, due to busy time I've recently lost the latter which results me alone. So, I am currently looking for a team partner (coder) who's willing to share the adventure in develop a VG with me. I cannot provide payment but eventually shares profits when the game is doing. So you may be not interested in reading further if you don't have free time to spent in a project mainly aimed for learning and (just hopefully) being remunerative just in case. Thanks for reading so far, anyway. Brand and what to do I have no strict bound, everything is negotiable: the team name "Jackass Penguin" (logo, +50 twitter followers and stuff) is completely disposable if we want to found something completely new (I've disposed another one called "Forto"; so there's no problem for me). As you may guess I want to be the game designer but not "the boss". With my ex-coder we pick up Dungeon Fall because it seemed the simpler one to accomplish, but actually I've got several other game desings you maybe interested into. I do constantly redesign the game, so, if things are getting too complicated I can simplify... if everything is going too pleasantly smooth I can propose more complicate/advanced and (hopefully) fun features to add. For example: Dungeon Fall originally was intended like a simple "run, jump, fall" platformer. Once I was left without a coder I though to a possible addition (a "Quest System" explained here). I can think up more addition or subtract features even during the game development (if needed) What I do: I am not a professional artist, but can provide some concepts art and any ingame art based upon my current skill level and I can also provide a background story since I've done some webcomics although I am not a great writer. I'll draw draft on game mechanics and game concept and I shall keep (re)doing during all the phases of the development. Tools of trade As said, I am no way a professional artist, but I can provide mostly of art/sprites... as for my skills level you can check what I've done so far for Dungeon Fall. Everything you see on Greenlight page is done by me. I have no development platform fixed: it can be Unity3D, Blender Game Engine an engine made by you from scratch or whatever do you prefer; as for myself I do use anything OpenSource (Gimp, Blender, Pencil) and completely available to adapt my self to any tool of trade we need to use (I just need to be able to use all my "open" format as sources: png, ora, xcf, blend etc...etc...). The only target is PC or Android tablet/smartphone (best if it can be both) in order to have us chance to actually sell our product on Desura, Google Play and whatever. Last words: Please make your questions; even if you're not a coder or you're not yet interested in joining me. Since I can't provide direct payment I know this will be a long search: reply to any doubt//ideas will help me to define better my search and, thus, increase my chance to find someone who's willing to found a new indie dev team.
Fri, 07 Jun 2013, 15:01
steve_ancell	Providing a bit of info such as exactly who you are, a bit about yourself and where you are from may help in your search for a few programmers and designers. People like to feel a bit of warmth before jumping straight into the jacuzzi if you know what I mean, excuse the pun.
Fri, 07 Jun 2013, 15:04
steve_ancell	Also been looking at the link you provided for Dungeon Fall, nice bit of animation there.
Fri, 07 Jun 2013, 15:08
steve_ancell	Not too impressed when I clicked on one of the thumbnail images further down, it caused a popup window to appear with a sex-cam in it.
Fri, 07 Jun 2013, 15:11
steve_ancell	It only did that popup window once, but I'm still surprised that Steam allows that kind of stuff.
Fri, 07 Jun 2013, 16:15
jasspenguin	Steam don't allow that stuff, there's not even external advertisement code at all on steam pages (the only tracking code is from Google Analytics). Please, be aware that may be your browser (or worse, your whole system) infected with ad-malaware. Anyway, thanks for the advices, I'll add more info about me soon if required... meanwhile, anyone feel free to ask me anything. Glad you'd liked the animations
Fri, 07 Jun 2013, 17:21
steve_ancell	I really don't think it's anything on my system, it doesn't happen when I go on other sites. The page below is the one that triggered the live cam, and I did notice a link to a traffic site at the top, I was wondering if there could have been some kind of advert rotator that started up, but what puzzles me is it only happened once. I doesn't do it if I click it now. img184.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=47878_02.screen_122_897lo.jpg Not saying that it's was you that put it up, but it could be something to do with the webspace provider or any Adsense stuff if applicable.
Fri, 07 Jun 2013, 17:26
CodersRule	ImageVenue and related sites tend to have very intrusive advertisements. You might want to switch those images over to imgur, which allows you to host fairly large images and hotlink them directly.
Fri, 07 Jun 2013, 17:28
steve_ancell	Judging by your last response to my comments, I would say that you responded in quite a professional manner, so I guess that means that you are pretty trustworthy. Don't take what I say to heart too much, I just get paranoid at times.
Fri, 07 Jun 2013, 17:31
steve_ancell	I have a very creative nephew who comes on here sometimes, perhaps I may be able to persuade him to do some pixel art for you. I will be seeing Dan tomorrow, I will bring this topic to his attention.
Fri, 07 Jun 2013, 17:54
steve_ancell	One thing I really do need to ask... How did you get those animations to look so fluid?.
Sat, 08 Jun 2013, 02:57
jasspenguin	steve_ancell you were right, problem wasn't your browser nor steam but the the image hoster I was using for the clicking thumbnail: I totally forgot about those. Now thanks to CodersRule suggestion I've switched them all on imgurl so you don't even need to click on them anymore. Sorry for the annoy advert Also thanks for proposing me to your nephew, but currently the search (quest? ) for a coder is a very critical issue since without it Dungeon Fall is just heading towards a dead end (and it would be wast of work done by other people). As for animation... I do simply use rotoscoping technique (the same of the original Prince of Persia). I just go Youtube and look for a good motion action and download the video Then strip the frames I need and load them (usually no more than 15~20 frames for 1 sec animation) in pencil: I don't care about the content and stuff, I just markdown body proportion and dispose the live action frames Then, on another bitmap layer, I draw on each frame with Rosame's features and finally. Finally in a last vectorial layer I do complete Rosame's sprite animation. Take about 3~4 hours each animation. I still fear there may be sort of license problem in using youtube's video as body proportion animation reference.. so my other option is to use some license free bvh files ( cspeed collection are free for commercial use)
Sat, 08 Jun 2013, 08:13
steve_ancell	I experimented with something very similar to that rotoscoping technique many years back, except I didn't trace the frames, I used a few paper cutouts that I scanned-in then just rotated and manipulated them over the caputured frames then saved it out. The result looks more like a robot with human-like movement, but extra drawing can be added to hide the joints.
Sat, 08 Jun 2013, 12:14
jasspenguin	I see, that seems a very nice idea, thus more stop motion if I get it correctly. The workflow would be very slow given with scanner timing, but you can get thing faster if you do use a photo camera or, even better, an HD videocamera to recorder everything and then pick up only the actual still frames where your hands are not in view above the "sprite". There are various technique to improve speed and quality with timestop animations but... generally I can't see great application for videogames. CGI quality can simulate any kind of real-life art style: from doodles to photorealistic. I am currently using rotoscoping for a cheap and quick way to produce 2D sprites... otherwise, with gaming, mocap (motion capture) it's the way to go.
Sun, 09 Jun 2013, 16:07
jasspenguin	Also, forgot to had a contact address: forto@gmx.ca <---- so long I am still looking for this email address will be the absolutely priority for me to get in contact. Those who may be interested please contact me there!