Hi everyone, my name is Stefan and I am looking to expand our team that is working on a top-down, sci-fi ARPG project. At first I started development alone but after a while I team-ed up with other developers so we can bring this to life!
The game is being developed in Unreal Engine 5.0 (we are looking to upgrade to 5.1 at some time). Right now we have 3x Programmers, 1x 3D Artist, 1x Animator, 3x 2D Artists, 1x SFX composer and 2x soundtrack composers. We would be looking for:
- Concept Artists (Characters, Guns, Props, Items)
- 3D Artists (Characters, Gun Models, Environment)
- 3D Animators (Humanoid Animations)
- AI Programmer (C++, Behavior Trees)
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. 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.
Systems That Are Implemented
- Inventory
- Items
- Interaction System
- Chests
- Quests (Location-based, interaction-based, slay/defeat and collect something)
- Shooting
- RPG Stats
- Top-down Occulsion
- Leveling
- Collectables
- Skill Tree & Abilities
For AI we have one ranged and one melee enemy so far, mainly used them to test stuff around. We got basic movement, shooting and strafing to go along with them but we will need to improve this in the future.
Pictures & Videos
Here you can see some images of what the game used to and how it currently looks like:
https://last-known-entry.imgbb.com/
Here are some videos showcasing the above systems and some gameplay:
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 would be something similar to Arcadian Rift by David R. B. You should look into the imgbb link (or latest videos) to see what kind of assets we already have and see if you can fit in with that. If you are interested in the project I will share you a google doc for art and assets and you could look into everything that is needed and some reference images to go along with it. Concepts are needed for pretty much everything, from guns to characters, props and environment etc..
Art-wise we would need someone to be in charge of character models. This includes stuff like the main player, enemies and NPCs. For the player and some enemies we will be looking into the same dimensions as the Unreal mannequin but for others we of course will take a different direction.
- Characters that we are looking for are humanoids (people in sci-fi suits, think like master cheif, doom guy etc..), robots (look into Arcadian Rift for examples) and alien-like creatures (if it doesn't become overcomplicated)
Following the characters, we would be also looking for someone to focus on the gun models.
Lastly, we could definitely use some help with environment so if you feel like the assets that we have right now are a good base and you can build on that, do hit me up!
For animators that are reading this, you will be working with the Unreal mannequin and it's rig. We have figured out how to work with this in Blender, don't know for Maya though (rig doesn't come with IK in Maya). Some brief examples on what we would be looking for:
- Idle, walking, running
- Weapon swapping
- Reloading
- Chest opening
- Interacting
- Death
- Roll
The above is the mandatory stuff we need to get everything rolling and remove the Mixamo character that we are using right now. Depending on what you can make animation-wise will also dictate what we can pull of with certain abilities and enemy characters as well. If you are interested and can help with these kinds of animations we would be more than happy to have you!
For programmers that are reading this, I'd first like to say that you will be on the AI side of the project, with help from all of us. If you are familiar with pathfinding, group behaviors and tactics, you could help us a ton. To be more specific, here is a very brief list of things we would be looking into together with you:
- Enemy avoidance, proper pathfinding and avoiding bumping into each-other
- Flanking, rushing and evading
- Proper chasing for melee-enemies
- Patrols/formation-like movement
If this is something you know how to do, it would be a massive help for the project, other aspects of code are pretty much covered by the three programmers in the team, this is the only area where we are weak.
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.
If you are interested and want to know more, feel free to message me here on reddit or via discord (πΏππΈπΎπ»ππ#4920) and we can take it from there. Cheers :D