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Indie Game Development Discussion Thread | Of Being Professionally Poor

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J

Jobbs

Banned
Feep said:
So, it *just so happens* that my company, Iridium Studios, has a job opening. As of, like, today. If you're interested, forward a cover letter and resume to iridium@playiridium.com. We're looking to hire as soon as we can. I know there's lots of talent in this thread, so I wanted to post this here. = D

LEAD GAMEPLAY PROGRAMMER
Location: Burbank, CA

Description: Take over lead gameplay development on There Came an Echo, a voice-controlled real-time strategy game. We use the Unity engine. The candidate will organize and manage the primary codebase, navigation mesh traversal, AI design, battle mechanics, and overall structure of the game. He or she will work closely with the designer, artists, and sound team to create an intense, narrative experience.

What It's Like Working Here: We're an indie studio, so we don't have crazy perks, but we're a highly passionate team working on something genuinely new and exciting. We all share the same room, so "meetings" aren't really a thing here. We work cleanly and efficiently as a small team. All employees are encouraged to assist with design in all aspects (especially on Level Design Mondays!). We're also all NeoGAF members, and browse the site occasionally throughout the day. Just occasionally, mind you.

We're a chill group, and we get along extremely well with each other.

What We're Working On: There Came an Echo is highly narrative driven. The cast is AAA caliber, led by nerd icon Wil Wheaton playing the lead role of Corrin. You can check out our old Kickstarter pitch here, our vertical slice video here, and some recent cutscene stuff here. All very early, of course.

Compensation: We're indie, but we're not asking you to work for cookies and paper clips. We're offering reasonably competitive industry rates, especially if you've got some experience. THAT SAID, this is not a guaranteed position past August 2014 or so. We'd love to keep you on after the completion of the project, but it depends on how the game does financially.

Hardline Requirements

- Be really, really good at Unity
- Be a pretty cool person

These Are Really Really Good Things to Have

- 2+ years experience in the gaming industry, having shipped a final product
- Significant shader design experience
- Significant AI design experience
- Significant experience with 3-D animation and 3-D games in general

These Would Be Nice

- Bachelors Degree or Higher
- Experience with Mac and Linux development
- Experience with designing for VR (Oculus Rift)
- Experience with the Kinect/System.Speech libraries, or other form of voice recognition software
Click to expand...

I meet none of your requirements and I can barely program at all. But I'm really, really sexy. I can be the dudecandy around the offi-- err, room. LET ME KNOW!

Seriously, though, good luck, is this going to strain the budget or what? What brought you to this decision after all this time?
 
J

Jobbs

Banned
Kyuur said:
Just a reminder to those who would be interested: Ludum Dare 28 is this weekend! Great chance to come up with some new ideas or take a quick break from your existing projects.
Click to expand...

I tried this on my own once a while ago. Theme was "you are the villain". I was using stencyl. I whipped up this really strange and lazy character design.

cutiehead.gif


Lack of defined arms made it easier to animate.

It was called "Cutie Face" and you're a chick with monster head who threw your head at people and ate their body parts after exploding them. It was coming along but somethign got corrupted with my stencyl project file (long story) and I lost almost a full day of work. I said fuck it and Cutie Face was never made.

I haven't tried another dare since, but if the theme is one I like, I'd consider it. My obsessing with what some might consider small details makes it hard for me to work within the confines of a jam, but I also recognize that that may be all the more reason that it'd be good practice.
 
M

Makai

Member
Feep said:
I'm the programmer, so no, he did not quit. = D

Just looking for someone better than me, and to help speed development up!
Click to expand...
I am a Unity programmer, but I am probably no better than you. I could point you to someone in the Wii U dev program who likely is, however (although he has his own company, so might not be available).
 
F

Feep

Banned
Jobbs said:
I meet none of your requirements and I can barely program at all. But I'm really, really sexy. I can be the dudecandy around the offi-- err, room. LET ME KNOW!

Seriously, though, good luck, is this going to strain the budget or what? What brought you to this decision after all this time?
Click to expand...
Will PM for Dudecandy position ASAP

Uh, let's just say I won a lotto scratch-off, or something. ;)

ActionRemix said:
I am a Unity programmer, but I am probably no better than you. I could point you to someone in the Wii U dev program who likely is, however (although he has his own company, so might not be available).
Click to expand...
Well, feel free to ask. = D
 
K

Kyuur

Member
Does anyone have a problem finding this thread in their history, because they type 'independent' instead of 'indie'? :| Constantly!

Edit: Forgot the reason I originally came to post here! Here's a cool tool called Stutter that I saw yesterday, developed by Zach W Lewis. It basically is used for forcing you to switch between tasks so you don't get stuck doing one thing unproductively. I can't count how many times I've been stuck on something and it took getting away from it to help me realize an answer.

http://stutterapp.com/

Jobbs said:
cutiehead.gif
Click to expand...

Jobbs I can't not love your style of game art. I can see how your perfectionitis might lead to your downfall during compos like Ludum Dare though, haha. Definitely not a bad thing in the overall though!

Bollocks said:
what are the themes(the final 5)?
Click to expand...

There are quite a few more than 5 themes. It's the 5th (final) round of voting! Too many to post in here, so here is a pastebin for you: http://pastebin.com/jbsjG1TU

My personal favorite is 'Death is Useful'.

dancrane212 said:
Darn, I'm going to miss it again! One of these days my schedule with line up with the event, sounds like it could be fun.
Click to expand...

I know those feels. I miss it almost every time. Free to do it this year, finally!

Feep said:
I'm the programmer, so no, he did not quit. = D

Just looking for someone better than me, and to help speed development up!
Click to expand...

Transitioning into full time project lead / designer then Feep? Seems to be your forte. :)
 
R

razu

Member
Kyuur said:
Does anyone have a problem finding this thread in their history, because they type 'independent' instead of 'indie'? :| Constantly!
Click to expand...

Try subscribing, and then going to the subscription tab at the top. It's super handy! :D

Still waiting for the LD theme... it's 1:39am here... :D
 
H

HellBlazer

Member
OK, the theme is "you only get one".

Not particularly keen on it, myself, but I'll see what I can come up with... 72 hours left! (Or 48 hours for you hardcore solo compo people.)
 
J

Jobbs

Banned
Ludum Dare theme is "you only get one".

What ways could this be manifest in a game design that'd be interesting to me, as a core, classic type designer without much interest in experimental gameplay?

Hmm.
 
R

razu

Member
Jobbs said:
Ludum Dare theme is "you only get one".

What ways could this be manifest in a game design that'd be interesting to me, as a core, classic type designer without much interest in experimental gameplay?

Hmm.
Click to expand...


I think you have it round the other way. You are supposed to interest the others! :D
 
R

razu

Member
ItIsOkBro said:
Who/where/how do you guys get music? Always wanted to do video game music but idk even where to start.
Click to expand...

I wrote my own. It's really not that hard. Look into trackers or even garageband. Performing music is difficult, but setting notes to be played back is way less difficult! You just iterate until it sounds cool. There are a billion tools now too.

I found it to be the most fun of the whole process. Probably because it was so outside of what I normally do, (industry programmer by day).
 
I

ItIsOkBro

Member
razu said:
I wrote my own. It's really not that hard. Look into trackers or even garageband. Performing music is difficult, but setting notes to be played back is way less difficult! You just iterate until it sounds cool. There are a billion tools now too.

I found it to be the most fun of the whole process. Probably because it was so outside of what I normally do, (industry programmer by day).
Click to expand...

i don't know...I feel like it takes a certain level of aptitude to layer instruments together, real or virtual, in a way that sounds pleasing to the ears. Maybe you‘ve got a knack for it...I‘d hate for it to be something anyone can do well with the right tools.
 
R

razu

Member
ItIsOkBro said:
i don't know...I feel like it takes a certain level of aptitude to layer instruments together, real or virtual, in a way that sounds pleasing to the ears. Maybe you‘ve got a knack for it...I‘d hate for it to be something anyone can do well with the right tools.
Click to expand...

You do have to learn a bit about music, but that's the same with anything. There are rules like anything else. My point is that anyone can do it. Anyone can do anything. Draw every day.. in a couple of years you'll be a shit hot artist, pretty much guaranteed.

You can do it!! :D
 
B

backstep

Neo Member
I'm curious, what are people using for task/project management, for small or single person teams?

I know Eclipse has great mylyn support built-in, but I'm using visual studio. VS's built in task panel is so rudimentary, I guess to push people toward team foundation server. I'm already using GIT for source control, so I don't need or want that feature of TFS. Also, while TFS's project management is really powerful, it's complexity is a problem, since the free version (TFS express) doesn't expose the actual tasks in a very user friendly manner (the board and My Work are paywalled). I can't really justify buying a full TFS license to use 10% of it's features.

For the last few months I've just been abusing //TODO: in my source files for small tasks, with a text file to list broader features I want to track. It's really not cutting it as a long term solution though.

Ideally I'd like something that allows you to create features or work items, which can then have sub-tasks added to them. I'd like to be able to assign priorities to both features and their sub-tasks. I'd also like to be able to assign features to categories, rather than a simple done/not-done status (i.e. planned, in-progress, done, bug etc).

I've given up on finding something with all that integrated into the IDE via an extension, and right now I'm looking at web-based services like Asana or Trello. Does anyone have any experience with those, or suggestions that might be more suitable?
 
Tiu Neo

Tiu Neo

Member
HellBlazer said:
OK, the theme is "you only get one".

Not particularly keen on it, myself, but I'll see what I can come up with... 72 hours left! (Or 48 hours for you hardcore solo compo people.)
Click to expand...

Not a big fan of the theme. It didn't really inspire me, most of the ideas I got end up being based on things that everyone is doing, like "you have one bullet" and "you have one live". Not very exciting.

The only "good" idea I had was...

Tempy said:
Someone make a QWOP game with one leg.
Click to expand...

...something like this, where you would need to escape from a maze with an one-legged man. If you pressed only the WASD keys, you would fall. You needed to time your presses between space (jump) and WASD (direction) to move.

But then, I tought that would be a bit too tasteless, and dropped the idea.
 
R

razu

Member
Day One of LD48 complete!

I went for You Only Get One.. Slot! You can only carry one thing at a time.

It's a radical departure from the modular world of Chopper Mike: click for video

Click for screenshot...


Targeting 1080p @ 60fps. Which it's doing nicely on my machine.

Plenty to do tomorrow. Will spend the rest of this evening putting in structure. Main menu, help messages, death, results... Then tomorrow will be fleshing the level out into something that you can complete, and requires a little bit of thought or skill.

This is a great use of a Saturday! :D
 
M

missile

Member
Feep said:
So, it *just so happens* that my company, Iridium Studios, has a job opening. As of, like, today. If you're interested, forward a cover letter and resume to iridium@playiridium.com. We're looking to hire as soon as we can. I know there's lots of talent in this thread, so I wanted to post this here. = D

LEAD GAMEPLAY PROGRAMMER
Location: Burbank, CA

Description: Take over lead gameplay development on There Came an Echo, a voice-controlled real-time strategy game. We use the Unity engine. The candidate will organize and manage the primary codebase, navigation mesh traversal, AI design, battle mechanics, and overall structure of the game. He or she will work closely with the designer, artists, and sound team to create an intense, narrative experience.

What It's Like Working Here: We're an indie studio, so we don't have crazy perks, but we're a highly passionate team working on something genuinely new and exciting. We all share the same room, so "meetings" aren't really a thing here. We work cleanly and efficiently as a small team. All employees are encouraged to assist with design in all aspects (especially on Level Design Mondays!). We're also all NeoGAF members, and browse the site occasionally throughout the day. Just occasionally, mind you.

We're a chill group, and we get along extremely well with each other.

What We're Working On: There Came an Echo is highly narrative driven. The cast is AAA caliber, led by nerd icon Wil Wheaton playing the lead role of Corrin. You can check out our old Kickstarter pitch here, our vertical slice video here, and some recent cutscene stuff here. All very early, of course.

Compensation: We're indie, but we're not asking you to work for cookies and paper clips. We're offering reasonably competitive industry rates, especially if you've got some experience. THAT SAID, this is not a guaranteed position past September 2014 or so. We'd love to keep you on after the completion of the project, but it depends on how the game does financially.

Hardline Requirements

- Be really, really good at Unity
- Be a pretty cool person

These Are Really Really Good Things to Have

- 2+ years experience in the gaming industry, having shipped a final product
- Significant shader design experience
- Significant AI design experience
- Significant experience with 3-D animation and 3-D games in general

These Would Be Nice

- Bachelors Degree or Higher
- Experience with Mac and Linux development
- Experience with designing for VR (Oculus Rift)
- Experience with the Kinect/System.Speech libraries, or other form of voice recognition software
Click to expand...

Interesting, yet I don't meet some of the more important points, i.e. being
good at Unity (haven't thouch it at all), nor am I an 3d animator.

However, am cool with lots of maths, physics, graphics, c/c++ and assembler.
These are the things am most interested in esp. from a principle level and
from a programmers point of view for developing cool stuff for video games.
Am curious how this will turn out for my own games....


ItIsOkBro said:
Who/where/how do you guys get music? Always wanted to do video game music but idk even where to start.
Click to expand...
Like razu said.
I also had no idea about music and the languages musicians use to speak. Yet
recently started to program realtime sounds from scratch using basic sine
waves etc. modifying them making some sounds and have quickly grasp some of
the principles of music. I programmed some example like pitch sliding from one
note to another and stuff like this. Sure, this doesn't make you any good
composer, which is an art so to speak, but it's a start and it allows you to
understand music, musicians etc. much better esp. with respect to music done
with computers.
 
M

_machine

Member
Day 2 of LD starting after a heafty 11hrs of sleep (only 2hrs the day before, though) and our completely mad boardgame-ish 6-player multiplayer clusterfuck's progressing with majority of the shit load of 3D assets done. We're totally out of our minds and our together dev time is about to come to an end as we've been using the school as our grounds, but me and our main programmer should be able to finish the game tomorrow at our homes.
 
F

F-Pina

Member
AWESOME!!!
Our game, Murder in the Hotel Lisbon made it to TOP 100 on IndieDB for the 2013 IndieDB Awards. Also, we are the only Point'n'Click there! P'N'C REPRESENTIN!!! :p

You can check all the Top 100 titles here.
And I am not asking for votes, in fact I think there are a couple of games that are more interesting than ours, but making it this far is really cool and I just wanted to share with my fellow Indie Developer Gaffers :)
 
A

anteevy

Member
backstep said:
I'm curious, what are people using for task/project management, for small or single person teams?

I know Eclipse has great mylyn support built-in, but I'm using visual studio. VS's built in task panel is so rudimentary, I guess to push people toward team foundation server. I'm already using GIT for source control, so I don't need or want that feature of TFS. Also, while TFS's project management is really powerful, it's complexity is a problem, since the free version (TFS express) doesn't expose the actual tasks in a very user friendly manner (the board and My Work are paywalled). I can't really justify buying a full TFS license to use 10% of it's features.

For the last few months I've just been abusing //TODO: in my source files for small tasks, with a text file to list broader features I want to track. It's really not cutting it as a long term solution though.

Ideally I'd like something that allows you to create features or work items, which can then have sub-tasks added to them. I'd like to be able to assign priorities to both features and their sub-tasks. I'd also like to be able to assign features to categories, rather than a simple done/not-done status (i.e. planned, in-progress, done, bug etc).

I've given up on finding something with all that integrated into the IDE via an extension, and right now I'm looking at web-based services like Asana or Trello. Does anyone have any experience with those, or suggestions that might be more suitable?
Click to expand...

I'm using Trello to track features and bigger tasks. My lists are "Current Backlog", "In Work", "Done" and "Future Backlog". I'm working in iterations that last 1-2 months (working alone and it is a side project, so I'm not doing strict deadlines or the like). When a new iteration starts (= my current backlog and in work lists are empty) I repopulate the current backlog list with new cards and some from the future backlog list. Then I archive my current done list and add a new empty one. Labels are "Feature", "Change", "Bug", "Task", "Framework".
For code changes I also use "//TODO" in MonoDevelop (which automatically creates todo entries in the todo window). For brainstorming, ideas and everything else that doesn't fit in there I have separate txt files.

Maybe some of this can help you find your own workflow. :) This is my first "multi-month project", therefore I'm still working on improving my project management skills. But it's working great so far and really helps me stay focused and motivated.
 
R

razu

Member
backstep said:
I'm curious, what are people using for task/project management, for small or single person teams?
Click to expand...

I just used post-it notes on Chopper Mike. You can draw on them, which is handy. And drawing on paper is always a billion times faster and more detailed than any digital version of a note.

Nice and satisfying when your desk goes from being swamped in notes to none :D
 
C

cbox

Member
backstep said:
I'm curious, what are people using for task/project management, for small or single person teams?
Click to expand...

Trello and notebooks around these parts. I love how I can be anywhere and update my team with what's new.

We're working on a pacifist gameplay mode whre you have to avoid floating mines, just need to add a start and end section :)

L7JDv.gif


and a bonus smashy smashy,

IUEQ9.gif
 
R

razu

Member
jillytot said:
Here's my 48 hour Ludum dare entry for the solo compo.
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=29382
Click to expand...

Nice one! Played, and voted! :D


I finished and submitted my game!

Link: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=14280


What a cool weekend! Definitely recommend LD to anyone who hasn't tried it before. I learned a few little bits about unity and specifically character controllers that I didn't know about before!

I really should make a VAMflax utility package and put it on my site, so that I have all my usual library of things for everyone to use.. because then I don't have to write them every LD48 :D
 
B

backstep

Neo Member
Thanks everyone for their advice and Trello recommendations, it looks like I can set it up to do almost exactly what I needed. Much appreciated!
 
C

cbox

Member
Pasta_Soup said:
I love all the particle effects. And everything is so fluid - gives off a "flOw" vibe. Looks great!
Click to expand...

Thanks! The flow of the game is something we really tried to nail from the get go. Everyone who's tried it has commented on saying the controls feel really tight, which makes me happy!

Another note for our game that we're pretty excited for - we actually FINALLY landed a composer to create a few tracks for us. So far, there are 4 tracks that perfectly meld with our game. This stuff is getting really exciting now :)
backstep said:
Thanks everyone for their advice and Trello recommendations, it looks like I can set it up to do almost exactly what I needed. Much appreciated!
Click to expand...

No prob, it really is an awesome tool - and free to boot. Here's a shot of what our board looks like,

gPiHCSt.png
 
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