itch.io

Project title: The Zone: Stalker Stories

Steam page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1299540/The_Zone_Stalker_Stories/

HD trailer:

The brief:

Zone is a narrative RPG with turn-based card combat inspired by titles like Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon. Cool and weird post-apocalyptic themes, heavy supernatural elements, and a dash of SCP-style horror. Lots of unique audiovisual style and top-notch writing to boot.

We're looking for an artist to create isometric levels for the player to explore, full of interesting nooks and details. Much of the design will be up to the artist, so creativity is required. Previous experience or education in level design would be a plus.

Environments can be either fully hand-drawn or 3D renders painted over -- either way, 2D skills are essential. We do have a Blender environment set up to assist with perspective, so basic 3D skills would be a plus.

Examples:

We have this Google Drive repository set up with various examples of our existing environment art.

Who we are:

I'm a veteran indie dev with years of experience on many commercial ventures, including the highly-successful Mount&Blade franchise.  Zone is my passion project, crafted together with a few professional visual and audio artists contributing in their spare time.

I handle programming, writing, game design, direction, and various other tasks including UI art and SFX.

Compensation:

Flat fee per finished environment, paid via PayPal without any intermediaries. Our budget is a maximum of $200 per environment, with very relaxed deadlines. We expect to need 2-4 environments in total.

We allow team members to retain ownership of and resell any assets they create for Zone.

How to apply:

IMPORTANT NOTE: Along with your application, please include a small art test of one (1) tree or bush with toxic properties, fully rendered and coloured, in our unique isometric perspective (see the Google Drive repository for examples as well as a Blender file with appropriate camera settings).

Applicants will retain all legal rights over this asset. We will not lay any claim to it without a working agreement.

Send an email to info@illuminated.games with an attachment or link to your test asset, as well as a link to your portfolio. Applications that don't include a test asset will not be considered.

Applications MUST be sent to the specified email address. DMs, comments on this thread or Discord friend requests will not be considered.

We only work with individuals. No 'outsourcing' or content sweatshops.

AI?:

We don't want AI involved in any part of the process. This position requires actual art skills.

Scammers, don't bother trying to pass off AI as hand-drawn art. We can tell.

Sorry about that. My guess is Apple update invalidated a bunch of old software security certificates, and I no longer have the ability to update GCK.

Someday I'd like to completely remake the old IG titles, but it'll have to wait at least until our latest title, The Zone: Stalker Stories, is done. And even if I do, they likely won't have Mac support because Apple makes it so prohibitively difficult for indie devs.

Project title: The Zone: Stalker Stories

Steam page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1299540/The_Zone_Stalker_Stories/

HD trailer: 

The brief:

Zone is a top-down narrative RPG with turn-based card combat inspired by titles like Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon. Cool and weird post-apocalyptic themes, heavy supernatural elements, and a dash of SCP-style horror. Lots of unique audiovisual style and top-notch writing to boot.

We're looking for an artist to create top-down or isometric levels for the player explore, full of interesting nooks and details. Much of the design will be up to the artist, so creativity is required. Previous experience or education in level design would be a plus.

Environments can be either hand-drawn 2D or 3D-rendered. We have a Blender environment set up to assist with perspective, so basic 3D skills would also be a plus.

Examples:

Who we are:

I'm a veteran indie dev with years of experience on many commercial ventures, including the highly-successful Mount&Blade franchise.  Zone is my passion project, crafted together with a few professional visual and audio artists contributing in their spare time.

I do the programming, writing, design, direction and various tasks, as well as UI art and SFX.

Compensation:

Negotiable fee per finished environment, paid via PayPal. We can't offer anywhere near industry standard rates, so the position would be best suited to someone just starting out or looking to gain experience in gamedev.

We also allow team members to retain ownership of and resell any assets they create for Zone. This could be of interest to 3D artists especially.

How to apply:

Send an email to info@illuminated.games with a link to your portfolio or examples of your skills, and an idea of your rates.

We only work with individuals. No 'outsourcing' or content sweatshops.

AI?:

Using AI to create concepts and examples is fine, but this position requires actual art skills.

Scammers, don't bother trying to pass off AI as hand-drawn art. We can tell.

Project title: The Zone: Stalker Stories

Steam page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1299540/The_Zone_Stalker_Stories/

HD trailer: 

The brief:

Do you enjoy creating fascinating 2D game levels? Ever wanted to show off your skills in a high-quality indie title?

Zone is a top-down narrative RPG with turn-based card combat inspired by titles like Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon. Cool and weird post-apocalyptic themes, heavy supernatural elements, and a dash of SCP-style horror. Lots of unique audiovisual style and top-notch writing to boot.

We're looking for a designer who can use expansive tilesets to create intriguing top-down or isometric stages for the player to explore, full of interesting details and anomalies. Bring your most creative ideas to the table, and then execute on them.

Levels must be assembled in Tiled or directly in Godot Engine 3.6 (preferred). Applicants need to be able to demonstrate some ability in either of these tools, or at least a great deal of motivation and proper understanding of 2D design fundamentals.

Previous level art:

Who we are:

I'm a veteran indie dev with years of experience on many commercial ventures, including the Mount&Blade franchise.  Zone is my passion project, crafted together with a few professional visual and audio artists contributing in their spare time.

I do the programming, writing, design, direction and various other tasks, as well as some art and SFX.

How to apply:

Send an email to info@illuminated.games with a link to your portfolio or examples of your skills.

It depends. If you can do stuff like this (or even higher detail), then yes:

https://twitter.com/livepixelart/status/1769880028400239028

https://twitter.com/84Aleha/status/1769731582502265121

https://twitter.com/VoragineGS/status/1770413842243178788

Low-detail pixel art on the other hand would not mesh with our style.

Project title: The Zone: Stalker Stories

Steam page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1299540/The_Zone_Stalker_Stories/

HD trailer: 

The brief:

Zone is a top-down narrative RPG with turn-based card combat inspired by titles like Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon. Cool and weird post-apocalyptic themes, heavy supernatural elements, and a dash of SCP-style horror. Lots of unique audiovisual style and top-notch writing to boot.

We're looking for an artist to create top-down or isometric levels for the player explore, full of interesting nooks and details. Much of the design will be up to the artist, so creativity is required, as well as the ability to work on an extremely limited budget.

Environments can be either hand-drawn 2D or 3D-rendered. We have a Blender environment set up to assist with perspective so some 3D experience is a plus.

Examples:

Who we are:

I'm a veteran indie dev with years of experience on many commercial ventures, including the highly-successful Mount&Blade franchise.  Zone is my passion project, crafted together with a few professional visual and audio artists contributing in their spare time.

I do the programming, writing, design, direction and misc tasks, as well as some art and SFX.

Compensation:

Negotiable. We can't offer anywhere near industry standard rates, so the position would be best suited to someone just starting out or looking to gain experience in gamedev.

We also allow team members to retain ownership of and resell any assets they create for Zone. This could be of interest to 3D artists especially.

How to apply:

Send an email to info@illuminated.games with a link to your portfolio or examples of your skills, and an idea of your rates.

Project title: The Zone: Stalker Stories

Steam page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1299540/The_Zone_Stalker_Stories/

HD trailer: 

The brief:

Zone is a top-down narrative RPG with turn-based card combat inspired by titles like Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon. Lots of unique audiovisual style and top-notch writing to boot.

We're currently in need of artists who vibe with the game's cool and weird post-apocalyptic themes, heavy supernatural elements, and a dash of SCP-style horror -- able to work on an extremely limited budget.

We're looking for top-down gameplay levels full of interesting details and places to explore. Much of the design will be up to the artist, so creativity is required!

Environments can be either fully hand-drawn or 3D-assisted. Some 3D experience is a bonus as we have a Blender environment set up to assist with perspective.

Examples:

Who we are:

I'm a veteran indie dev with years of experience on many commercial ventures, including the highly-successful Mount&Blade franchise.  Zone is my passion project, crafted together with a few professional visual and audio artists contributing in their spare time.

I do all the programming, writing, design, direction, video creation, as well as some art and SFX.

Compensation:

Either cash payment per finished piece (via PayPal), or rev share percentage (including Early Access income, starting from contract agreement date). We can't offer anywhere near industry standard rates, so the position would be best suited to someone just starting out or looking to gain experience in gamedev.

We also allow team members to retain ownership of and resell any assets they create for Zone. This could be of interest to 3d artists especially.

How to apply:

Send an email to info@illuminated.games with a link to your portfolio or examples of your skills, and an idea of your rates.

Project title: The Zone: Stalker Stories

Steam page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1299540/The_Zone_Stalker_Stories/

HD trailer: 

The brief:

Zone is a top-down narrative RPG with turn-based card combat inspired by titles like Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon. Lots of unique audiovisual style and top-notch writing to boot.

We're currently in need of artists who vibe with the game's cool and weird post-apocalyptic themes, heavy supernatural elements, and a dash of SCP-style horror -- able to work on an extremely limited budget.

We're looking for top-down gameplay levels full of interesting details and places to explore. Their design will be almost entirely up to the artist beyond the detailed brief, so creativity is required!

Environments can be either fully hand-drawn or 3D-assisted. Some 3D experience is a bonus as we have a Blender environment set up to help with perspective.

Examples:

Who we are:

I'm a veteran indie dev with years of experience on many commercial ventures, including the highly-successful Mount&Blade franchise.  Zone is my passion project, crafted together with a few professional visual and audio artists contributing in their spare time.

I do all the programming, writing, design, direction, video creation, as well as some art and SFX.

Compensation:

Either cash payment per finished piece (via PayPal), or rev share percentage (including Early Access income, starting from contract agreement date). We can't offer anywhere near industry standard rates, so the position would be best suited to someone just starting out or looking to gain experience in gamedev.

We also allow team members to retain ownership of and resell any assets they create for Zone. This could be of interest to 3d artists especially.

How to apply:

Send an email to info@illuminated.games with a link to your portfolio or examples of your skills, and an idea of your rates.

Project title: The Zone: Stalker Stories

Steam page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1299540/The_Zone_Stalker_Stories/

HD trailer: 

The brief:

Zone is a top-down narrative RPG with turn-based card combat inspired by titles like Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon. Lots of unique audiovisual style and top-notch writing to boot.

We're currently in need of artists who vibe with the game's cool and weird post-apocalyptic themes, heavy supernatural elements, and a dash of SCP-style horror -- able to work on an extremely limited budget.

We're looking for top-down gameplay levels full of interesting details and places to explore.

These can be either fully hand-drawn, or 3D-assisted with hand-drawn cleanup.

Examples:

Who we are:

I'm a veteran indie dev with years of experience on many commercial ventures, including the highly-successful Mount&Blade franchise.  Zone is my passion project, crafted together with a few professional visual and audio artists contributing in their spare time.

I do all the programming, writing, design, direction and video editing, as well as some SFX and some art.

Compensation:

Either cash payment per finished piece (via PayPal), or a rev share percentage for someone with patience who wants to sign on for the long haul. We can't offer anywhere near industry standard rates, so the position would be best suited to someone just starting out and/or looking to gain experience in gamedev.

We also allow team members to retain ownership of and resell any assets they create for Zone. This could be of interest to 3d artists especially.

How to apply:

Send an email to info@illuminated.games with a link to your portfolio or examples of your skills, and an idea of your rates.

It's not a small game, but if you're interested, my team could use someone to help balance combat/economy and come up with new cards and monster abilities.

Feel free to contact me at info@illuminated.games

Project title: The Zone: Stalker Stories

Steam page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1299540/The_Zone_Stalker_Stories/

HD trailer: 

The brief:

Zone is a top-down narrative RPG with turn-based card combat inspired by titles like Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon. Lots of unique audiovisual style and top-notch writing to boot.

We're currently in need of artists who vibe with the game's cool and weird post-apocalyptic themes, heavy supernatural elements, and a dash of SCP-style horror -- able to work on an extremely limited budget.

The primary task will be to create new enemies with cool and strange designs, occasionally with multiple poses for attacking, defending, etc..

These must be hand-drawn and roughly in line with the existing style, with some flexibility to add your own unique flair.

Examples:

Who we are:

I'm a veteran indie dev with years of experience on many commercial ventures, including the acclaimed Mount&Blade franchise.  Zone is my passion project, crafted together with a few professional visual and audio artists contributing in their spare time.

I do all the programming, writing, design, direction and video editing, as well as some SFX and some art.

Compensation:

Either cash payment per finished piece, or a rev share percentage for someone with patience who wants to sign on for the long haul. We can't offer anywhere near industry standard rates, so the position would be best suited to someone just starting out and/or looking to gain experience in gamedev.

In some cases, we also allow team members to retain ownership of and resell any assets they create for Zone.

NOTE: For payment, we use PayPal only. No alternatives or middleman sites.

How to apply:

Send an email to info@illuminated.games with a link to your portfolio or examples of your skills, and an idea of your rates.

Hi, thanks for your message.

Unfortunately, since your art is on Instagram, people without IG accounts (like me) can't really see much of it.

If you think you could draw environments that roughly match the style of the examples I posted in the ad, maybe try doing one and send it to me at info@illuminated.games ?

Doesn't have to be an exact match but it can't look wildly different either.

Project title: The Zone: Stalker Stories

Steam page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1299540/The_Zone_Stalker_Stories/

HD trailer: 

The brief:

Zone is a top-down narrative RPG with turn-based card combat inspired by titles like Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon. Lots of unique audiovisual style and top-notch writing to boot.

We're currently in need of artists who vibe with the game's cool and weird post-apocalyptic themes, heavy supernatural elements, and a dash of SCP-style horror -- able to work on an extremely limited budget.

Environments: We're looking for two things. Candidates can do either or both. 

1. Eye-level backgrounds (for battles and story)

2. Top-down gameplay levels (for exploration)

These can take the form of rendered 3D, hand-drawn 2D, or a mixture of the two, depending on your skill set. 

Examples:

Who we are:

I'm a veteran indie dev with years of experience on many commercial ventures, including the highly-successful Mount&Blade franchise.  Zone is my passion project, crafted together with a few professional visual and audio artists contributing in their spare time.

I do all the programming, writing, design, direction and video editing, as well as some SFX and some art.

Compensation:

Either cash payment per finished piece (via PayPal), or a rev share percentage for someone with patience who wants to sign on for the long haul. We can't offer anywhere near industry standard rates, so the position would be best suited to someone just starting out and/or looking to gain experience in gamedev.

We also allow team members to retain ownership of and resell any assets they create for Zone. This could be of interest to 3d artists especially.

How to apply:

Send an email to info@illuminated.games with a link to your portfolio or examples of your skills, and an idea of your rates.

Project title: The Zone: Stalker Stories

Steam page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1299540/The_Zone_Stalker_Stories/

HD trailer: 

The brief:

Zone is a top-down narrative RPG with turn-based card combat inspired by titles like Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon. Lots of unique audiovisual style and top-notch writing to boot.

We're currently in need of artists who vibe with the game's cool and weird post-apocalyptic themes, heavy supernatural elements, and a dash of SCP-style horror -- able to work on an extremely limited budget.

Environments: We're looking for two things. Candidates can do either or both. 

1. Eye-level backgrounds (for battles and story)

2. Top-down gameplay levels (for exploration)

These can take the form of rendered 3D, hand-drawn 2D, or a mixture of the two, depending on your skill set. 

Examples:

Characters: Here we're also looking for only one thing: Battle mode enemies with cool and strange designs (occasionally multiple poses for attacking, defending, etc.), 

These must be hand-drawn and roughly in line with the existing style, with some flexibility for your own unique flair.

Examples:

Who we are:

I'm a veteran indie dev with years of experience on many commercial ventures, including the highly-successful Mount&Blade franchise.  Zone is my passion project, crafted together with a few professional visual and audio artists contributing in their spare time.

I do all the programming, writing, design, direction and video editing, as well as some SFX and some art.

Compensation:

Either cash payment per finished piece (via PayPal), or a rev share percentage for someone with patience who wants to sign on for the long haul. We can't offer anywhere near industry standard rates, so the position would be best suited to someone just starting out and/or looking to gain experience in gamedev.

We also allow team members to retain ownership of and resell any assets they create for Zone. This could be of interest to 3d artists especially.

How to apply:

Send an email to info@illuminated.games with a link to your portfolio or examples of your skills, and an idea of your rates.

Project title: The Zone: Stalker Stories

Steam page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1299540/The_Zone_Stalker_Stories/

HD trailer: 

The brief:

Zone is a top-down narrative RPG with turn-based card combat inspired by titles like Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon. Lots of unique audiovisual style and top-notch writing to boot.

We're currently in need of artists who vibe with the game's cool and weird post-apocalyptic themes, heavy supernatural elements, and a dash of SCP-style horror.

Environments: We're looking for two things. Candidates can do either or both. 

1. Eye-level backgrounds (for battles and story)

2. Top-down gameplay levels (for exploration)

These can take the form of rendered 3D, hand-drawn 2D, or a mixture of the two, depending on your skill set. 

Examples:

Characters: Here we're also looking for two things.

1. Visual novel-style characters with multiple expressions

2. Battle mode enemies with cool and strange designs (occasionally multiple poses for attacking, defending, etc.), 

These must be hand-drawn and roughly in line with the existing style, with some flexibility for your own unique flair.

Examples:

Who we are:

I'm a veteran indie dev with years of experience on many commercial ventures, including the highly-successful Mount&Blade franchise.  Zone is my passion project, crafted together with a few professional visual and audio artists contributing in their spare time.

I do all the programming, writing, design, direction and video editing, as well as some SFX and some art.

Compensation:

Compensation will take the form of rev share (percentage of sales & crowdfunding) or skill trade (help complete my game and I'll help complete yours). We also allow artists to retain ownership of and resell any assets you create.

We're planning to release on Early Access later this year.

How to apply:

Send an email to info@illuminated.games with a link to your portfolio or examples of your skills.

Project title: The Zone: Stalker Stories

Steam page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1299540/The_Zone_Stalker_Stories/

HD trailer: 

The brief:

Zone is a top-down narrative RPG with turn-based card combat inspired by titles like Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon. Lots of unique audiovisual style and top-notch writing to boot.

We're currently in need of an artist to create cool and weird post-apocalyptic environments with a heavy supernatural element. Perspective is top-down RPG with our own unique feel. We're open to rendered 3D, hand-drawn 2D, or both -- just not pixel art.

Who we are:

I'm a veteran indie dev with years of experience on projects like Mount&Blade, Euclidean and The Next World.  Zone is my passion project, crafted over long years together with a few professional visual and audio artists, contributing in their spare time.

The team currently consists of 4 members including myself.

I work on this project pretty much full-time but I don't expect the same kind of commitment from others. Give me a rough idea of how much time you can dedicate to the project per week in your application.

Compensation:

Compensation will take the form of rev share (percentage of sales & crowdfunding) or skill trade (help complete my game and I'll help complete yours).

How to apply:

Send an email to biz@illuminated.games with a link to a portfolio or examples of your skills.

Project title: The Zone: Stalker Stories

Steam page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1299540/The_Zone_Stalker_Stories/

HD trailer:

The brief:

Zone is a top-down narrative RPG with turn-based card combat inspired by titles like Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon. Lots of unique audiovisual style and top-notch writing to boot.

We're currently in need of a 3d artist who can find and/or create appropriate assets, build cool environments out of them in a software suite -- Blender preferred but not required -- then render to 2d in classic top-down perspective. (Being able to do post-render cleanup and style tweaks in 2d would be a plus but not required.)

Who we are:

I'm a veteran indie dev with years of experience on projects like Mount&Blade, Euclidean and The Next World.  Zone is my passion project, crafted over long years together with a few professional visual and audio artists, contributing in their spare time.

We currently have 3 other members on the team including myself, 1 composer and 2 character artists.

I work on this project pretty much full-time but I don't expect the same kind of commitment from anyone else. Give me a rough idea of how much time you can dedicate to the project per week in your application.

Compensation:

Compensation will take the form of rev share (percentage of sales & crowdfunding) or skill trade (help complete my game and I'll help complete yours).

How to apply:

Send an email to biz@illuminated.games with a link to a portfolio or examples of your skills.

Project title: The Zone: Stalker Stories

Steam page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1299540/The_Zone_Stalker_Stories/

HD trailer:

The brief:

Zone is a top-down narrative RPG with turn-based card combat inspired by titles like Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon. Lots of unique audiovisual style and top-notch writing to boot.

What we're looking for is,

1. An artist to create backgrounds in visual novel or battle perspectives, roughly matching our current style, with or without existing images to work from. Potentially, custom top-down environment elements for the RPG parts of the game.

2. An artist to create visual novel-style character sprites, and potentially battle enemies, again roughly matching our current style. These will be animated in-game by me.

We'd prefer one artist per role, so we can maximise output, but someone who can do both would be very welcome. Check out the trailer above for examples of our current visual style.

Who we are:

I'm a veteran indie dev with years of experience on projects like Mount&Blade, Euclidean and The Next World.  Zone is my passion project, crafted over long years together with a few professional visual and audio artists, contributing in their spare time.

I work on this project pretty much full-time but I don't expect the same kind of commitment from anyone else. Give me a rough idea of how much time you can dedicate to the project per week in your application.

Compensation:

Compensation will take the form of rev share (percentage of sales & crowdfunding) or skill trade (help complete my game and I'll help complete yours).

How to apply:

Send an email to biz@illuminated.games with a link to a portfolio or examples of your skills.

Project title: The Zone: Stalker Stories

Steam page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1299540/The_Zone_Stalker_Stories/

HD trailer:

The brief:

Zone is a top-down narrative RPG with turn-based card combat inspired by titles like Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon. Lots of unique audiovisual style and top-notch writing to boot.

What we're looking for is someone who knows their way around 3D software -- Blender preferred -- responsible for creating assets (and/or hunting down useable stuff from online sources), building cool environments out of them, then rendering everything to 2D in classic orthogonal perspective.

Being able to do post-render cleanup and style matching in 2D would be a plus but not required.

Compensation will take the form of rev share (percentage of sales & crowdfunding) or skill trade (help complete my game and I'll help complete yours).

Who we are:

I'm a veteran indie dev with years of experience on projects like Mount&Blade, Euclidean and The Next World. Zone is my passion project, crafted over long years together with a few professional visual and audio artists, contributing in their spare time.

I work on this project pretty much full-time but I don't expect the same kind of commitment from anyone else. Give me a rough idea of how much time you can dedicate to the project per week in your application.

How to apply:

Send an email to biz@illuminated.games with a link to a portfolio or examples of your skills.

Project title: The Zone: Stalker Stories

Links:

Trailer

Steam page

Twitter page

The brief:

Zone is a top-down narrative RPG with turn-based card combat inspired by titles like Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon. Lots of unique audiovisual style and top-notch writing to boot.

What are we looking for? Primarily, help in fleshing out our battle system. Designing cards and abilities, balancing them against enemies, etc. etc..  Someone who can take charge of ensuring the gameplay is engaging and fun, and can do so in a considered and deliberate way.

Compensation will be in the form of rev share (percentage of sales & crowdfunding) or skill trade (help complete my game and I'll help complete yours).

Who we are:

I'm a veteran indie dev with years of experience on projects like Mount&Blade, Euclidean and The Next World. Zone is my passion project, painstakingly crafted over the course of years, together with a few professional visual and audio artists contributing in their spare time.

I work on this project pretty much full-time but don't expect the same kind of commitment from anyone else. Give me a rough idea of how much time you can dedicate to the project per week in your application.

How to apply:

Send an email to biz@illuminated.games with a link to a portfolio or examples of your skills.

No offence taken! This is a pre-alpha demo, we've not really given any effort to balancing yet, but you can rest assured we'll do our best to make any release version feel fair -- or if it isn't, we'll be listening and acting on player input to make it so.

Thanks for giving Zone a try, it means a lot, and I'm really glad you've enjoyed it so far.

Thanks for the kind words! Obviously what you've been playing is a very, very early demo -- almost everything about it is still being worked on, and stuff like the map movement will definitely be polished much more in future.

Hi, Illuminated Games here! You may know us from our game Golem Creation Kit which we recently contributed to the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality.

Our big news is that the first demo of our new game, The Zone: Stalker Stories -- part of the Steam Game Festival -- is out and now also available on itch.io.

As a unique blend of genres, chock-full of gorgeous hand-drawn art, and music and writing crafted by industry professionals, we like to think it's something pretty special. We hope you'll agree.

The full announcement devlog has further information and screenshots for anyone who's interested.

We're also hosting an AMA on Reddit ( https://www.reddit.com/r/iama ) at 6pm tonight (20 June), so if you have any questions that haven't been answered, we'd love to see you there!

I run a wee indie studio called Illuminated Games, and I'd be proud to include our commercial game Golem Creation Kit in this bundle.

https://winterslice.itch.io/golem-creation-kit

I am a full-time developer with many years of experience in the games industry, having worked on games like Mount&Blade, Euclidean, and The Next World. I'm leading a small team in developing a new commercial project, and we're looking for a talented 2d artist to design hand-drawn characters and enemies with a post-apocalyptic flavour.

The Zone: Stalker Stories is a mixed-genre original idea -- part PvE card game, part open world top-down RPG -- which draws inspiration from titles like STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, Dungeon Crawl, Magic: the Gathering - Shandalar and Slay the Spire.


DEVELOPMENT STATUS

The project is in pre-alpha -- we are rapidly completing content for a vertical slice demo, which should be ready for a public unveiling in 3-6 months.

The team currently consists of myself (programming, design, writing, sound, UI), 2 artists and a composer.

REQUIREMENTS

- Creation of characters and enemies with a mysterious post-apocalyptic feel. Think more along the lines of cosmic horror rather than zombies or bulging mutants.

- Creation of small item icons (200x200px max) and/or small card art (500x500px max).

Previous experience with released games is a plus, but quality is the primary concern. 

OPPORTUNITIES

We'll be using the demo as a basis to launch a Kickstarter campaign and move towards Steam Early Access. We are offering a share of funds raised from these sources, as well as sales of the final release if you stay on for the long haul.

This isn't my first first rev-share rodeo; people I've partnered with previously can verify I both release projects and pay bills.

This project is meant to be weird and intriguing. If you have unique ideas that will turn heads, we're interested!

I'm open to skill trade as an alternative to rev share -- help me finish my project and I could help you finish one of yours (within reason and my abilities).


TO APPLY

Please send an email to biz@illuminated.games with a link to your portfolio.

              

Hi, I'm Ryan Span, the team lead at Illuminated Games.

We're currently looking for a talented artist and a designer to help create and define our latest in-house title, The Zone: Stalker Stories.

Zone is a mixed-genre original idea -- part visual novel, part PvE card game, part top-down RPG -- which draws inspiration from titles like STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, Magic: the Gathering - Shandalar, Dungeon Crawl and Slay the Spire, seamlessly merging elements from each into a fun, coherent whole.

DEVELOPMENT STATUS

The project is in pre-alpha -- the overarching systems are playable and ready for content. Screenshots and gameplay footage are available on request.

The team currently consists of myself (programmer, writer, director) and 2 artists.

REQUIREMENTS

Our first milestone is to create a public demo impressive enough to make a splash. To that end, primary requirements are:

GAME DESIGN

• Creation, testing and balancing of new and existing card mechanics
• Maintaining clear and concise design documentation

LEVEL DESIGN

• Design of temp/final levels and environments (puzzles optional) using hand-drawn tilesets, by way of an easy-to-use proprietary level editor

ART

• Creation of hand-drawn top-down tilesets in classic RPG style
• Creation of characters and backgrounds in visual novel style

Themes are sci-fi and post-apocalyptic.

Previous experience with released games is a plus, but quality is the primary concern.

OPPORTUNITIES

The chosen candidate will have a big hand in defining our look and feel. We're going bold and unique, so if you've got a vision that will turn heads, now is the time and this is the place.

Previous experience working in games is a plus but not required -- quality is our primary concern.

COMPENSATION

We use a revenue-share business model, which has worked well for us in the past, enabling IG to put out a string of released projects. Our contracts include a percentage of Kickstarter/Early Access funds as well as post-release sales.

TO APPLY

Reply to this post or send an email to biz@illuminated.games with a link to your portfolio.

Hi, I'm Ryan Span, the team lead at Illuminated Games.

We're currently looking for a talented artist to help create and define our latest in-house title, The Zone: Stalker Stories.

Zone is a mixed-genre original idea -- part visual novel, part PvE card game, part top-down dungeon crawler -- which draws inspiration from titles like STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, Dungeon Crawl and Slay the Spire, seamlessly merging disparate elements into a fun, coherent whole.

DEVELOPMENT STATUS

The project is currently in pre-alpha -- most of the overarching systems are playable and ready for art. Screenshots and gameplay footage are available on request.

REQUIREMENTS

Our current aim is to achieve an impressive public demo and possibly go straight to an Early Access release. To make it happen, our minimum requirements are:

• 1-2 top-down tilesets (32x32 or 64x64)
• 4-5 characters (some variations, very little animation)
• Some background illustrations

Themes are sci-fi and post-apocalyptic.

We are on course to achieve our milestones in 3-6 months. All of the above needs to be finished in that timeframe. Being able to work fast is a big plus.

OPPORTUNITIES

The chosen candidate will have a big hand in defining our look and style. We want to go bold and unique, so if you've got a vision that will turn heads, now is the time and this is the place to put your art on the map.

Previous experience working in games is a plus but not required -- quality is our primary concern.

COMPENSATION

We use a revenue-share business model, which has worked well for us in the past, enabling IG to put out a string of released projects. Our contracts include a percentage of Kickstarter/Early Access funds as well as post-release sales.

TO APPLY

Reply to this post or send an email to careers@illuminated.games with a link to your portfolio.

After more than a year as a Steam exclusive, Illuminated Games's quirky visual novel hybrid Golem Creation Kit is finally getting a full DRM-free release here.

We're also giving it 50% off to celebrate the launch!

If you're interested in weird, experimental indie games with great stories, check out the devlog announcement:

https://winterslice.itch.io/golem-creation-kit/devlog/72112/itchio-full-release

Or go straight to the store page:

https://winterslice.itch.io/golem-creation-kit

(And there's Steam, too, of course, which is good for reading the kind reviews we've had so far.)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/650680/Golem_Creation_Kit/

I sincerely hope you'll give it a chance!

My latest game, Golem Creation Kit, is now up on itch.io in free demo form!

GCK is a little drag-and-drop game wrapped in a rich visual-novel-style story, with comedy and charm and excitement aplenty. Expect bright, gorgeous 16-bit pixel art and a soundtrack to match!

The demo contains the first 4 days of the story campaign and the 8 basic elemental golems. Just enough for you to decide if you like it!

The full version is available on Steam for a paltry $4.99.