   Professional, AAA Narrative Designer Seeks Ambitious Project or Collaborators
Name: Tom JubertWebsite: www.tomjubert.comExpected Compensation: Not for profit, royalties or up frontContact Information: contact@tomjubert.comPrevious Projects: Penumbra Series, Lost Horizon, ir/rational and more unannouncedAbout me:I've been writing games professionally for four years - my break was on the award-winning indie series, Penumbra. Since then I've worked on ever bigger projects, most recently as a dialogue writer on a major Ubisoft IP and as the narrative designer on an ambitious, unannounced 360 / PS3 action game. I've also remained active in the indie community, releasing my free logic game, ir/rational, at the end of last year, reviewed very favourably by Rock, Paper Shotgun at the time.More details at www.tomjubert.comWhat I'm looking for:Moving onto bigger things has inevitable drawbacks in the area of risk vs reward. In my free time I want to work on something ambitious and exciting, things nowhere more at home than in the indie community.I'm looking to join an ambitious team working on a project that pushes boundaries. I’m happy to work in any capacity from script polishing to voice work to narrative design.I'd also be happy to hear from any programmers or artists looking to collaborate on a new project.The only requirements I have are:1.You’re working or looking to work on something fresh and challenging2.You actually have a cat in hell's chance of finishing the thing.Influences:Facade, Thief, Planescape, Braid, Giants: Citizen Kabuto, Ceramic Shooter, Small Worlds, Vampire: Bloodlines, Sleep is Death, Everyday the Same Dream, L4D2 and many, many more.I'm particularly excited about procedural gaming, dark humour, philosophy and interactive dialogue systems.Compensation:I'm happy to work on whatever system your team is currently on - smaller figures up front, royalties on release or even not for profit. What I really care about is working on something fantastic.Contact:contact@tomjubert.comMore details at www.tomjubert.com[Edited by - TJJ on May 18, 2010 3:55:25 PM]
  $160k US/year is a pretty inflated "starting salary" for narrative designers.  Kudos to you if you've been making that, but, to give just one example, Bioware pays its senior writers less than $100k US/year (I believe closer to $80k).Per Gamasutra's game salary survey, in 2009 writers earned an average of $61k a year.  (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27938/2009_Game_Developer_Salary_Survey_Sees_US_Average_Dip_4_Percent.php)Maybe a "narrative designer" is the equivalent of a lead writer, but I'd still be surprised if their salaries "started" at $160k/year.But, who knows?  Anyway, like I said, congrats to you if you've been pulling down significantly more than that, which I assume you have given that you're beyond whatever your starting salary is. . . .   ;  How about taking a look at Rise of Heroes: Online. See what you think and get back to me!http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=571484   ;  @WriterForHireAh, that's for a FREELANCE writer. Freelancers spend a lot of the time lining up new work and waiting for jobs to start.@EmpireProductionsThanks, I'll take a look.   ;  I'm very impressed at your qualifications, but I'll just forewarn you that many of the projects on here (I would say about 95% of them) will never see the light of day, nor have a completed prototype of some sort. I'm sure you're well aware of this especially since you've been working in the indie scene. Just be prepared to receive massive amounts of PMs from MMO and RPG projects with absolutely no team background. I would hate to see you waste your time.At the moment my artist and I are working on a 2D mystery game based on a theme of Frankenstein. I'm coding the game within the Playground SDK which is a great free framework for casual game development and it also gives the possibility of a publisher through PlayFirst. Here in the future if you would like to work with us on the story, I'd be happy to contact you about it.Anyway, good luck!   ;Quote:Original post by RymanAt the moment my artist and I are working on a 2D mystery game based on a theme of Frankenstein. I'm coding the game within the Playground SDK which is a great free framework for casual game development and it also gives the possibility of a publisher through PlayFirst. Here in the future if you would like to work with us on the story, I'd be happy to contact you about it.Sorry that this is off topic, but PlayFirst no long takes submissions from third parties.  As taken from the rejection email:  "PlayFirst has entered into a strategic partnership with Big Fish Games to power our distribution portal. We will no longer distribute 3rd party games directly on PlayFirst.com but will instead gain access to BFG’s entire catalog as an affiliate."  We submitted a game to them using Playground SDK 5.0 and Box2D and that was the response we got.  Just a word of warning if the primary intent of using Playground is for the chance of PlayFirst picking it up (as was ours).Anyway, for the OP, do check out the past experience on any team you are thinking of joining.  As Ryman said most of the projects posted here aren't going to go anywhere.   ;  Thanks, yeah, I've spent time in indie, I know there's a lot of vapourware. That's why I've stipulated serious projects in the ad - I'll hold off until a project comes along that really looks good.   ;  Hey, you could help out with my game, Conquer all Time, I beleive it's ambitious because it involves time travel and no other MMORPG that I have heard of is like that, I also beleive it will be finished because I came up with the idea when I was 9 years old and I started coding it when I was 13, and I'm still with it.   ;  You may be interested in my project.http://wreckagegame.freeforums.org/index.php