Hi everyone, my name is Stefan and I am looking for people that would be interested in joining a team which is currently working on a project I started alone some time ago. The game has been in development for the past 5 months, at first I worked alone and just recently teamed up with other developers and am looking to fill out some missing roles we have and hopefully together we can bring this one over the finish line.
Right now we have 4 Programmers, 3 3D Artists, 3 2D Artists, 1 SFX composer and 2 soundtrack composers. Here is what we would be looking for and some brief description of what specifically would help us the most:
- 3D Artists
- Character models for the player and enemies
- Humanoid/Robotic/Alien type characters
- 3D Animators
- Working with the rig from the Unreal Mannequin and root controlled based animations
- Some examples of what would help us a lot:
- Holding Weapons (just upper body)
- Shooting (gun movement and recoil)
- Unarmed walking/running
- Jump/Roll 8-directions
- Grenade Throw
- Weapon equip and weapon swap
- Variety of reload animations
- Melee swipe attacks/punches/swings
- Keypad Interaction
- Pressing a chest for it to open
- Ability animations (depends on what you can make, e.g. rushing forward or some spins)
- AI Programmer (C++)
- Combine all AI logic and build behavior trees
- Work with blackboards and AI controllers
- Set up, build and use EQS queries
- Creatively try to solve common AI issues (e.g. bumping into each other)
- Write custom decorators, tasks and queries in C++
Brief Overview And Story
Violent Ends is an ARPG game set in a sci-fi setting. Story is set in the year 2182, where humans have almost entirely devastated Earth, with scavenger colonies being the only inhabitants of the planet. Before Earth became uninhabitable, enormous space stations were constructed in order to spread humanity across the Solar System in hopes of preserving life. These stations, called Terrapods, housed dozens of active staff and a central AI system, called the EXO-Mind. A few decades after the program began, Terrapods began reporting unusual sightings in the space around them. A station close to the Alpha Centauri system, Terrapod Pollux, suddenly goes silent. A squad of military personnel is dispatched to investigate. Upon arrival they quickly realize that the survival of these stations depends on them getting rid of the invaders they have not seen before.
Core Gameplay
The game is very much inspired by The Ascent gameplay-wise. It is a single-player game played from a top-down perspective. Players have the usual movement via keyboard keys (WASD) and shooting is done using the mouse. Accent of the gameplay is definitely the guns and four different types of ammo that the players can use which are: standard, burst, shotgun and sniper rounds. Ammo differs in terms of reload speed, gun range, damage dealt and shooting patterns. Some guns can use every ammo type, others can have restrictions. Using gear is the key to success, players should be involved into customizing their character with a wide variety of items. Players can also utilize abilities to aid them in combat or in exploration, however they are limited to only 3 at a time. These abilities consume stamina to cast, which is also tied down to the players ability to run or dodge (dash/roll) to evade incoming projectiles. All of the shooting is constrained to the X and Y plane, only action on the Z axis would be stuff like grenade throws and some custom animations/moves in the future.
Systems That Are Implemented
- Inventory
- Items
- Interaction System
- Chests
- Quests
- Shooting
- RPG Stats
- Skill Tree
- Occlusion System (hiding walls obstructing the view)
Here you can see some images of what the game currently looks like:
https://lastknownentry.imgbb.com/
Here is a video showcasing the above systems and some gameplay:
https://gfycat.com/marriedredbrontosaurus
https://gfycat.com/pertinentoffensivedutchsmoushond
https://gfycat.com/dimwittedenchantedestuarinecrocodile
For AI we just have one basic ranged and one basic melee fodder type enemy, all using the same model as the player as we don't have a replacement yet. For programmers interested in joining as an AI Developer, here is some of the things we would be very happy to improve on:
- Enemies not bumping into each other
- No friendly fire
- Basic level of flanking and positioning
- Different behaviors for chasers, supports and ranged characters
For animators reading this, if you are comfortable in making stuff like I mentioned at the beginning of the post and want to see this game come to life then this project could be a great one for you. A lot of the stuff has already been implemented and we are basically waiting for animations to just wrap up the already implemented stuff (e.g. grenades are just missing the throw, everything else is added). Animations have been a very limiting factor so far and we feel like a dedicated person for it, combined with some asset help, can greatly improve the game. Depending on what you can make is how far can we take certain ability ideas, enemy design and so on.
For artists that are reading this, we don't expect AAA quality assets, we don't even need them given the perspective of the game (top-down). Desired art style could be something similar to Arcadian Rift by David R. B. , for more references take a look at some of the photos in the above link where you can see some of the already made assets. Of course this all depends on what you are comfortable with, but I would generally stick to something not overcomplicated. If you like making sci-fi/futuristic assets then this can be a place for you!
Preferred method of communication would be Discord.
What Is The Goal For The Project?
Well the goal would be to get a playable prototype and see what feedback it gets. If it gets a lot of good feedback we could turn this into a commercial game. For now though, the plan is to at least get a decent portfolio piece for everyone and of course to have fun while developing! If the post gets good traction and we get more people on the team, the prototype could be finished in a couple of months, of course depending on the actual team size and the work put it.
We are open to other ideas of course and welcome creative thinking in order to improve the game as much as we can, but keep in mind that we simply cannot create something very complicated or the same quality as a game coming from hundreds of developers from a AAA studio.
If you are interested and want to know more, feel free to leave a comment here or message me via discord (???????#4920) and we can take it from there. Cheers ?
