Sands-of-War is recruiting

Hello fellow mapcorians. I am the Project Leader for the Source mod Sands-of-War2.

We are currently in need of all kinds of talent. It's not like that we don't got a good team already, in order for SoW2 to reach a satisfying level of quality. We are currently 19 people on the team.

I am well known in the HL editing community, we have coders and moddellers on board, we have a decent website that isn't on Geocities, we already have some proof of concept code and screenshots and I am not 14(neither are any other on the team).

SoW2 is not just a random idea by some n00b who wants to make the best game in the world. We have already completed Sands-of-War1 for HL1, so you can trust that we can handle this.

Currently the most art and info about SoW is related to the HL1 version of the project.

Sands-of-War

SoW is a fully established and released mod, which has received the ModDB award. The last version was downloaded thousands of times.

I have noticed that there are a bunch of talented mappers in here. It would be appreciated if some of you make a SoW map.

There is not much work in converting a map to SoW. Removal of the

bombspots and exchanging the current spawn points with SoW spawn points.

Around the map there should be placed 5 flags representing important areas

If you want to make it perfect you can add a bit more modern or slightly

sci-fi elements to the maps. Sands-of-War is a modern mod set in the very

near future.

Website:

http://sandsofwar.net (redirect)

Jobs page:

http://sandsofwar.net/index.php?page=jobs

Job information

Working on Sands-of-War is an ideal way to learn more about game production. We can offer you a friendly athmosphere with helpful teammembers. On the Sands-of-War crew you will be respected for your skills and personality - not your sex, skin colour or religion.

A position on the Sands-of-War team is a great opportunity if you want to work with game development. Working on a mod is the best thing you can do if you want to get a job in the games industry. At the Sands-of-War team we focus on not only producing cool mods, but also learning more. We learn and help each other everyday and it will make you a better game developer faster than ever before.

As a Sands-of-War teammember you have a very high chance of getting your work out to many people. There are lots of mods, which never gets released and much work which never see a release. At Sands-of-War we finish what we start and do whatever we can to further develop the mod. As a prove of this you have Sands-of-War1 which we have finished and released several public versions of.

If you decide to join the team we expect you to work hard and dedicated. You will have to use at least 3-4 hours per week on the mod. Its is important to work dynamicly and use more time during times where it is needed. Do only join the team if you are fairly sure that you will also be able to work on it at least 3 months later. People who are capable of keep working on a single project for a long time is needed.

All crew members must be capable of:

- Work on their own and as a team

- Get new ideas/features by themselfs

- Implent ideas/features by others

- Stay in contact with the rest of the team(forum, IM, IRC, etc.)

- Act and talk responsible

- Respect other opinions, cultures and the freedom of speech

- Read and write english on a technical level.

- Passion for games

- Previous experince in game design

- Follow directions set by the leading members (Lead Coder, Lead Level Designer, etc.)

- 16 years or older(exeptions are possible if case of exeptional talent)

Level Designer:

- 2+ years of experience work level design

- Experience with Valve Hammer Editor and the Source engine

- Understanding of lighting and athmosphere

- Understanding of game flow and playability

- Ability to optimize levels without degrading their visual quality

- Texturing or modelling skills is a plus

Map shots - SoW1, maps are made by me

[Blocked Image: http://moddb.com/images/cache/mods/13/1310/gallery/water_23235.jpg]

[Blocked Image: http://moddb.com/images/cache/mods/13/1310/gallery/water_22472.jpg]

Concept sketches - SoW2

[Blocked Image: http://nicklas.byriel-pedersen.dk/sow/g36c.jpg]

[Blocked Image: http://sow.thexnetworks.net/concept/snipers.jpg]

[Blocked Image: http://sow.thexnetworks.net/concept/AIM_Guerilla.jpg][Blocked Image: http://sow.thexnetworks.net/concept/AIM_Sniper.jpg]

Comic

[Blocked Image: http://sow.thexnetworks.net/gfx/sowcomic1.jpg]

Ahh, if you dislike sand, then a position on the SoW team is probably not for you:)

That piece of concept was the very first from one of our new artists, so he started out with something safe and simple. Furthermore concept sketches like that are being made because SoW2 not is set in 2005 and therefore can't just reference pictures.

I do however agree with you to and your comment is also to some extend similar with what I originally said to the concept artist.

So few replies:( More comments are appreciated.

Site

We are current in the proces of migrating all content on the site to a CMS system utilizing the forum. This allows for us to easily update the site without having to mess with ftp, html, etc. Furthermore it also gives more people on the team the oppurtunity to edit and update the site.

As you can see we have added a bar so that you can go through all the old news easily. On the forum we have added a warning system so that we easily can administrate the users.

The new URLs are:

Homepage: http://www.sandsofwar.net

Forum: http://www.sandsofwar.net/forum

We have updated the jobs page, which can be found here:

http://www.sandsofwar.net/index.php?page=jobs

It now contains all the information you need if you are thinking of applying for a position on the Sands of War team. We have also added the number of open positions. We are currently recruiting positions for all areas on the team, so please apply if you have any experience in game development(mapping, coding, texturing, modelling, etc.)

We do also have Developer Journals now. You will get to hear a lot of insider detail, which don't make it to the frontpage. You can also learn a bunch about how we work and what we work on.

http://sandsofwar.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=28

Concept art

This week we are showcasing some special concept art. The weapons below are not just concepts, they are actually modelled in 3d! Concept sketches like these make it much easier to see what the weapon looks like. Furthermore it is also much faster to do the model, as the concepts are already in 3d.

Both of the weapons are for CoDe. The first one is the sniper for the Recon and the last is the Vulcan for the Commando.

[Blocked Image: http://www.sandsofwar.net/images/thumb/6361_1115567294.jpg][Blocked Image: http://www.sandsofwar.net/images/thumb/1769_1115567294.jpg]

Bigger versions can be found in our new screenshot gallery:

http://www.sandsofwar.net/index.php?page=Screenshots

Quote

if those are my model they were designed to look good in a redish lighting.. now they look very green.

If you are talking about the models in SoW_Khefren, then yep, it is your models:)

Quote

this mod could be interesting maybe. if the gameplay was more about stealth tactics in massive open enviorments... like finding sand colored people in sand with a high powered rifle.

The environments in SoW2 will be more massive and open than in SoW1.

Quote

Cut the real time warfare shit, its boring; Rather make it more in style of the concept weapons (the ones with clothing), nomad style. I think it would atleast make it abit special, and not just a "cs clone" in pure sand environments.

Thx the the idea, I agree. We are actually working on cutting the real time warfare shit for SoW2. In SoW1 the teams were very bland, but in SoW2 they will far more different. One of the teams will have this nomad stile that you are talking about. The other team will be high tech and polished:) This should seperate our mod from all the CS clones.

We are now releasing the fgd to the public so that everybody can begin their SoW2 mapping.

Download

http://sow.hl2files.com/maps/sow2.fgd

SoW2 progress

Sands of War 2 is coming along great, especially on the coding front. The second milestone has just been released to the team. It does already support the following features:

- Teams

- Classes

- SoW classic gameplay

As you can see we already got the whole gameplay from SoW1 coded in! The new flag capture system has also been improved a lot compared to the one in SoW1.

There are also some other stuff in it, but it is too early to talk about for now. Further info will be released as we approach the release.

Sands of War 2 fgd

The first public version of the SoW2 fgd was released some days ago. Before I could get to post the news we already had a new version ready:)

The fgd is needed when you create SoW2 maps, so now the mapping can really begin! Be sure to inform all your fellow mappers that they should start mapping for SoW2!

The fgd changelog and download can be found here:

http://sandsofwar.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=258

If you want a job as level designer on the SoW team, then you can find more info here:

http://www.sandsofwar.net/index.php?page=jobs

We are currently recruiting for basicly all possible positions, even lead positions. If you like any area of game development, then be sure to pm me.