   Are You Art Director I'm Looking For?
Project name:Knights vs. Orcs. This is not the final name.Brief description:Been working on this for 1.5 years on my spare-time. Idea is to create fast phased real-time strategy based on fantasy world.Some features:- 4 unit types (Completed)- 800x600 maps (Completed)- Free movement, no tiles at all (Completed)- Experience / levels for each unit. (Completed)- Level Editor (Work-In-Progress)As you can see I have managed to keep the project's scope realistic. The project is getting close to beta stage, so a lot of the work has been already done. Target aim:Publish it as indie game.Compensation:Percentage of the sales.Technology:My own 2D sprite engine. SDL for sounds currently. Platforms: Windows (done), Mac (done), Linux (considering)No specific tools.Talent needed: Art DirectorI'm looking for an experienced person who knows where to take the art of this game: what needs to polished, what needs to be recreated and so on. In short, to be responsible for this product's art.Team structure:- Me: PM, programming and some design (most design ideas came from feedback)- Experienced business guy to help in marketing & sales.Website:None: see additional information for game package and screenshot.Contacts:arto.ruotsalainen@gmail.comPrevious Work by Team:My experience:PortfolioLinkedInAdditional Info:Download ZipFeedback:Any feedback is appreciated! Feel free to contact me through e-mail or private message.[Edited by - Arex on May 20, 2009 12:05:59 AM]
  I don't know if I can help because I am very new to all of this, but could you please clarify what you are looking for.  Some of the things you are asking for are a concept artist and someone to create 2-D sprites, but you have a screenshot where you obviously had some conceptual thought and furthered that into the creation of sprites for your combatants.  So I guess what I am asking is do you want to get a different/complimentary perspective on your current work or do you want to use your current work to do a complete visual enhancement of battle scenes?  Or, perhaps, since you stated that you were so close to a beta you want concept artists and sprite programmers to create cutscenes to enhance the story or make the middles of battles more in-depth themselves?  Hope I haven't created any confusion.   ;  No you didn't create any confusion. I think I did. :)It was pretty hard to really describe what I'm looking here as I need an artist who can do a bit of everything. There is something ready, but needs loads of polishing (some might need to be recreated), I need marketing material and so on.So basically an art director, person who knows where to take the art of this game: what needs to polished, what needs to be recreated, etc. I'll change the description a bit. Thanks!   ;  Some suggestions I can give you about polishing, from my perspective anyway, concerns the battle interface for the player.  Whenever I've seen RPGs on G4 TV there always seems to be an overload of text, icons, and graphix constricting the battle that should be the main focus of the game.  Now I know many MMORPG players really drool over this type of interface, but it kind of alienates me, the casual gamer.  I do not see this as too large of a concern when viewing your screen shot, but what you could do is focus more on creating a sense of individuality for your combatants (ie., make them bigger with more attack/action animation detail.  Also, another problem addressed on G4's series X-Play, using the example of the MMRPG addaption of the Alexander movie, is to not make your combatants just charge into each other, which really removes a lot of the strategy from the game.  One concept that I viewed that could avoid monotony is the use of a multiple party system in The Last Remnant (X-Box 360)(though an obvious fail).  This multy-party concept mirrors squad divisions in an actual assault, having commanders that coordinate with one another to perform effective tactics like phalanxes, and this would allow multiple goals for both enemies and allies to be set in order to ensure a tactical victory.  While this may be getting too complex, my driving suggestion is to seek artists who will enlarge and detail the combatants for a more emersive game play feel versus watching ants run into each other in the center of a vast and detailed battlefield that you do not really have time to admire even if it wasn't mostly covered up by stats and updates.  Hope this helps.   ;  I'v been trying to minimize the user interface load on the screen as it is anyway so small. Maybe it could be optimized even more.Thanks for your thoughts!   ;  Bump. I'm still actively looking for excellent candidate.   ;  Just looking for clarification - if it's Shareware how can there be compensation based on a percentage of sales?  Sorry if I overlooked something.   ;Quote:Original post by SeothenJust looking for clarification - if it's Shareware how can there be compensation based on a percentage of sales?  Sorry if I overlooked something.I believe you're thinking of freeware.  Shareware normally has a free version with some limitation (like a demo, a timed trial etc.., nag screen) and then you pay for the full one.   ;  Hey, does your team need a composer/sound designer/audio guy?  If you're looking for someone to come up with sound FX, ambience and music specifically made for your project, look me up at soundclick.com/otherworldaudio.  If you like what you see, send me an email at petemarquardt@otherworldaudio.com.  I have yet to do work for a fantasy game, but I would love the challenge.Best of luck and success,-Pete Marquardtpetemarquardt@otherworldaudio.comComposer/sound designerotherworldaudio.com   ;  Yeah, one audio guy would be great. I'll send you e-mail.   