Freelance level designer needed for commercial game

Uh... did you steal Morrowind's old site code?

I'd apply if it would have been a theme that I liked.

moved to Classifieds

Exactly how much experience is required? Can you give a bit more info on the job requirements?

i like the theme. i would apply if i wasnt working for another game already.

Are you like trying to get the game to run on a P2? The textures look like they are 64^2 or something. The detail of the maps is not any better:( Ahh well, its a RPG, so history and gameplay is quite important.

The no payment, only royalities sounds kinda vague. How many copies do you usually sell? How much in royality can be expected?

Never ever expect to see any royalties! No matter who you work for.

That was exactly what I feared.

Quote from marque_pierre

Never ever expect to see any royalties! No matter who you work for.

Unless it's a game you never worked on. Oh Halo PC I love you so much!

Quote from marque_pierre

Never ever expect to see any royalties! No matter who you work for.

Why is that? Say for example you sign a contract which agrees to pay you a small amount of money per copy sold. Unless the game doesn't sell at all, why should you expect no royalties?

Royalties sounds swell by principle. However all the pros I have ever talked to have said the same, 'don't expect to ever see any!' Why is that? Well, very, very, very few games of the thousands upon thousands made every year, do ever break even allowing the developers to get near the haunted royalties. That is just another sorry fact from the way this industry runs right now. So unless you work for Valve, Naughty Dog, Blizzard, Rockstar North or those other 10-15 companies like them, don't believe the hype.

I remember the guy who came to Uni for a talk, from Rare said when joining Rare the royalties would be where you'd earn all the 'big' money, and that it was also hit and miss - Starfox Adventures sold pretty well (over a million and a half) while Grabbed by the Ghoulies didn't and just about broke even (and I bought it for like £40 and two weeks later Game reduced it to £20! :/).

Sure. As far as I remember, Rare still has a nice 3 point something million titles sold per games released. But how many RAREs are there out there? And then you have games with super people behind them, like Beyond Good & Evil, where I am sure the developers also never saw a dime of royalties.

The harsh realities seems to be that this is a very attractive industry to work in, but just because we have all played Half Life, doesn't mean we will ever get a shot at making the next Half Life. I remember meeting a games developer who had worked in the games industry for various companies for 15 (FIFTEEN!) years, and he only had one published game to his name. Everything else had been scrapped along the way. Man, he was bitter!

Thousands of games are made every year. Out of them a couple of handfulls break even or make a profit. Royalties? You do the math...

But that's what contracts are for. With a good contract, it shouldn't matter if the company doesn't make any money because you will still get a certain amount of pay no matter what.

The point is, most of the games that pay royalties only either never make it onto store shelves or sell shitty. As a result you get zero to none money for the work you did.

I'd never work my ass for hours on end to be paid royalties only for a game nobody's gonna buy. A stable company that has the potential to make a nicely selling game should be capable of paying their workers PROPERLY.

Right on Klein. If you are worth hiring, and your work is worth using, you are worth paying.