Tower Defense MMO -- Seeking Artists

[FTPStudios]

Introduction
We have been busy building a tower defense MMO game that runs in a web-browser with 3D technology and we are following the free-to-play model with micro-transactions. We are launching a closed early release version on July 30th to a small group of privately invited individuals as we continue on towards our first public release on November 15, 2010.



Our two current founding members consist of veteran game developers that have over 30 years of combined experience. We also have two contributing members also with 30+ years of combined experienced (for a total of 60+). Unfortunately none of us have any artistic background, and all attempts to find an artist to join us has failed and after you hear what we have to say, you'll see why it's been challenging. Once we find our founding artist, we have all the components to make whatever we want. In the meantime, our game is chock full of placeholder and dreaded "programmer" art.

Our company is a virtual studio, which allows all of us to work in separate states and countries. 2 are in the US in different states, 1 in Canada, and 1 in Europe. We maintain our own servers and have all the infrastructure to allow people to work anywhere their computer is -- which includes agile project management software, a collaboration wiki site, source control, and online game servers.

The short version is that we are a bootstrapped startup. All of us are investing our own time, money, and skillsets into this venture and we have no money to pay salaries to ourselves nor for any employees or contractors. Therefore given the situation, we would offer an amount of company equity -- we're in the process of forming a proper C-Corporation, and depending on the level of success from launch, it could lead into a full-time salaried position with bonuses and benefits, not only for you, but for us too!

Given the tough realities of the video game industry with so many out of work, competing for so few jobs -- we'd figure there would be other like-minded people out there like us. We are well positioned to succeed in these evolving times, and if we could just find a veteran artist that wants to take a chance on this venture, it'll vastly strengthen our efforts and speed of success.

We are flexible to cater to candidates with different levels of experience and skillsets. Ideally, we could find someone with Art Director experience -- someone that can take charge of the visual direction, be very hands on creating assets, and eventually migrating towards managing a team of artists and outsourcing once we have found our success. So you can see how even the Art Director position will evolve with the startup.

In addition, we are also quite willing to cater to purely hands-on artists able to create quality assets under our direction, especially people that are looking to build up their portfolio and get exposed to the game industry. We'd be most happy to spend the extra time to help you grow and learn about game development in an agile environment.

First, I'll talk about some of the key types of assets we're hoping to create. I hope some of you will be excited about the direction we want to go:

Tower Defense
In this mode, our graphics and performance capabilities will match that of Defense Grid, but in a web browser. Their style is pretty similar to ours in that they are on the more sci-fi end of the spectrum like us, and with similar technology and being 3D its a closer match than I would have thought, without specifically trying to copy them. We'll have a wide range of weapon turrets ranging from salvage to exotic futuristic. We also have several other components used in the tower defense gameplay.


Environment
Players will be able to travel the world "Final Fantasy" style -- mostly a not-to-scale system where key locations and the player are shown iconically, while the rest of the terrain is pretty realistic. Camera mode will be most similar to RTS games... in this example I show Command & Conquer 3 reference.


Characters
With any respectable MMO, we plan on having an character avatar system -- initially in 2D, and later in 3D, with limited customization. We plan to do the potato-head system of mixing-and-matching parts like eyes and hairstyles. In addition, we'll do clothing and accessories -- pretty much like the Xbox Live avatar system in scope and functionality. But this has not even begun yet, other than some R&D experiments on the underlying system. The ideal characters would be a blend of Valkyria Chronicles and Advanced Wars in style:





Here are some of the key attributes we require/desire. We'd be open to bringing on someone with most of these, or two or three of people with complementary abilities:


Mandatory Requirements

• Comfortable working in a virtual studio / entrepreneurial setting. We have learned that not very many people are suitable for that kind of environment. The right person here will show a lot of ownership and initiative to create and improve things and show a lot of passion.
• Have your own computer equipment and a copy of 3DSMax 2010 and Photoshop CS3 or above -- which is what we are currently using.
• Be able to support your own living expenses for the next 5+ months until we are able to generate revenues from this product.
• Modeling assets is crucial using 3DSMax 2010 -- we need someone that is able to make turrets and monsters at a minimum.
• Loves tower defense games -- you'll need to be able to demonstrate your passion for this.
• Several abilities from the Desired Skills list, below.

Important Desired Skills

• Modeling and texturing (UVMaps and material settings).
• Skinning and animation (weapon firing, walking/hit reactions/deaths for monsters).
• Creating particle systems for weapons and destruction.
• Artistically strong at creating sci-fi turret weapons.
• Artistically strong at creating our monsters -- most similar to robotic/crystal insects.
• Experience with hybrid realistic/cell-shaded art style -- like Borderlands or Valkyria Chronicles.
• Artistically strong at creating environmental assets (terrain, rivers, snow, trees, rocks, city ruins, etc.)
• Creating avatar systems -- mix-and-match parts like eyes and hair styles, etc that we can use in a 2D first pass, and a 3D second pass also using art styles similar to characters in Valkyria Chronicles and Advanced Wars. In addition to this, visible clothing and equipment.

Additional Desired Skills

• Experience with models containing emissive lighting.
• User Interface creation and 2D art.
• Experience creating functional vehicles -- like trucks and tanks.

Please submit any applications to jobs@ftpstudios.com including anything you feel is relevant. Cover letter, resume, and links to any online portfolios would be ideal.



I also figured some of you might be interested to see actual screenshots from our game in progress (we have both client and web versions -- identical quality):


Front end login screen


Tower Defense 1


Tower Defense zoomed in

[Cartercao]

very nice share, thanks.