RonanHayes

Initially it's pay upon completed item. Once we build up a relationship we will move to more standardized terms. What we found is that if we pay 1/3 upfront we never see 1/3 of the work or it gets to 85% and never gets done... So we rather build up a business relationship first. Also the pay is not based on how great you think you are . It's based on what we mutually agree is a good price for the work at hand. Some people with 0 commercial experience or even a portfolio are unlikely to get paid roles. That said good work is good work and we are willing to look past lack of commercial work provided you have a strong portfolio. Textures are always needed ,send an email and we can talk further.

Two reasons, firstly there are alot of good mappers out there that may be interested in joining the team directly. They would be on a deferred payment system like mods. As in they work in the hope that the project will generate enough revenue to pay them. Secondly: Given that I am not an approved user I assumed I was not allowed post there, so why make more work for the moderators when I can just post here.

It's a full game, not a mod.

I am not willing to talk about specific work and rates in a forum. Either email me or it's not going to happen.

It's by far the easiest mapping tool out there. I assure you that everyone has looked at this tool suite and said to themselves that they would love to try it out. Supports both brush and mesh styles, you can create libraries to quickly instance your level. You can easily switch in and out varying material layers and you can instantly view your results as if it were ingame.... Now perhaps this is giving some people massive clues and for those still not able to put 2 & 2 together. I as a programmer can easily import content, move it around and build levels with ease. Obviously I will deny all forms of speculation until the announcements are made freeing us from our NDA Obligations.

Just to give some perspective on this. I am currently looking to spend $10,000 to help further the progress of the level. We will provide all the research, footage, reference material, base textures and even PSD files to help in the development. This is also a chance to use some fantastic technology that very few Companies have gotten their hands on. (Imaginary or not) I am willing to break up the contracts and coordinate multiple people on this, so if you fancy working on a small number of buildings, props or other aspects there certainly is the room to work. The contract will be determined purely on your previous experience and quality of work.

It's been just me and a handful of others contributing what they can, so yeah why on earth would it not have been in development for 5 years. When you are 1 programmer doing all the coding, coordination, web development, content management etc. Yeah I can understand why it would take 5 years. The current art team has been with the game for two years now, and very few leave the team. Look at some of the big mods. RNL, INS and ND all started before 1944, and only 1 of them has released. Development takes time when you are not doing it full time. Whatever your beef is, you are making yourself out to be an idiot by the way you are posting. Regarding the contractors, well they are not all saints are they?? Alot of them want money, do a hap-hazard job and fuck off. Which is the case. Now I would name and shame them but that's not my thing. The simple matter is I pay contractors what they ask, I expect for the results to be as per the spec. Just because an artist cuts and runs doesn't mean there is something wrong with the project it simply means that artist was a wanker. The fact that I am willing to part with $150, $250, $350 for a weapon texture and $1000 for a character or vehicle would that not indicate that I am serious about the product and confident in it? If you are not interested in the game or in joining the team then why bother posting at all?

I like imaginary 'do-all' engines too As I said kick me an email and I will give more information, but I will not go into in forums.

Kar was only done once, although the thompson has been done 7 times due to contractors screwing us over and never finishing it, and very few contractors are willing to finish off someone elses work. We also don't dress up our media etc as we prefer to spend the time developing. If you join the forums and get into Civilian status (10 posts & registered longer than 10 days) then you will see alot of media. The hobo status on the forums is not updated as frequently. (If you give me your username I will bump you straight to civillian status)

We made a source mod to test out the AI mechanics, No point wasting development time on bigger engines if the AI didn't work. We were happy with the results so we moved on. We licensed the Reality Engine and they failed to support it, infact some might argued they reverted the feature set to such an extent where there was no effective scene manage. Thankfully for us we have had a good solid standards in place so nothing has gone to waste. Maps, Models, Textures, Audio, Animations and Code are all portable to any engine. So I would argue it's not time wasted but rather potential risks eliminated. Last thing you want is to be using an engine and when you go to pitch it to the publishers it freezes up or runs at 16 frames per second, because someone in all their infinite wisdom decided to bastardise an engine which was in use by several licensee's just so you could ship your own shoddy product. I would go into specific details but a forum is not the place. Nothing we have developed has gone to waste. As you must be aware Jaboo development takes along time and something on the scale of 1944 would be expected to take a little longer than your average mod or basic FPS game especially when developed in your own time. I also clearly said we were not the engine above, but rather an engine that has the same development workflow as the one we have been using all along. So again no time has been wasted, when you are spending your own money on such a project wasting time is not an option.

http://www.multiverse.net/ For the record we are not using it. Think big!

Well Unfortunately nothing people can say will have me or the team change the concept in the game. Our Art Team is Solid, or Programming Team is solid, so if you are looking for a good opportunity then this could be it. Fine WW2 may feel done to death but the same can be said about alot of other Genre and Cookie Cutter games. If I was to post this in the paying section would everyone be so quick to judge? Technically if the right level developers came along I would have no problem paying them per map section or even by the hour. That said I was not willing to mislead people as not everyone is at the contracting level. Yet because I am posting in this section people feel free to tell me that my project is doomed to fail, that it's a terrible subject matter and that every game that has gone before has done it better. That's all well and good, but I am Qualified Programmer with several years experience and with shipped games and technology under my belt. The team has several games under their belt and several misc projects as well. We know what we are doing, we know how to develop the game and we are doing so because we enjoy the subject matter. So I would appreciate it that people kept their views on the Genre to themselves and focus on the content and game itself. If you have a genuine critique or constructive criticisms I will certainly take them onboard. But whinning about the subject matter will not change it.

It's a licensed Engine which I unfortunately cannot give details off during the current NDA status. If you want more spefic details on it feel free to email and we can arrange them, but all I can say on forums is that it is a AAA Tier Engine with a mature toolset. The Engine is being widely adopted by the industry.

No connection, one of our developers is working on it so he is credited in the game. Can't really say more than that. @ E-Freak My Connection Timeout so the edit didn't come through, but what i was refering to is even 1% is a huge figure for onscreen and is not going to happen. War was not about running and gunning, the majority of the units kept their head down other than to run from cover to cover. As it stands now typically the player will see from 0 - 60 units on screen at any given time. The engine handles them very well no problem at all.

Why would you assume that all 250,000 units are visible? It's AI and It's scaleable LODed AI at that. This means that only units in and around the player are alotted accurate processing time. Majority of these are not drawn by the engine

In the context of game development WW2 is considered a Genre by developers. Irrespective of what you feel for WW2 games there is clearly a market for it and we are catering to that market by providing the Entire Opeartion not just cross sections.

Seems like some pretty lofty goals. Good luck with that. I will never understand why an independent team, free from the constraints of publishers or hype would bother doing a WWII game. It seems like exactly the sort of game you'd want to avoid making as an independent team simply because a) So many mod teams have done it so well already (Red Orchestra, DoD, etc.) that it would have to be really polished to stand out b) It's going to be difficult to find talented people who want to spend their hours modeling the exact dimensions of Normandy as opposed to, you know, doing something somewhat original as to attract talented people who would join simply for the sake of working on something new and exciting. Well the reason why people would work on a WW2 game like this is just those Lofty goals you mentioned. The AI, the Tech that is inplace (up and running mind you) is some of the best tech out there. There is also something to be said to what you can learn from making a WW2 game. Sure it's not everyones cup of tea but tell our modellers that. Paul Sutton for example goes through around 4 vehicles a week... So there is people out there who like WW2 and like working on WW2 games. You ask others and they will say simply because Operation Overlord has never been done justice. It's always a cross section of a map, with some generic scenario or soldier telling the tale. 1944 is not about a story, it's not about a tale. It is about an event that evolves. It doesn't so much matter what the player does or what the AI does as the battles always progress and evolve. So you end up seeing the entire operation played out as you would have done it. At times it will be 100% historically accurate at others it will be the alternatives. Everyone to their own I guess. If you want to know why I am making the game well thats simple. 1. I finish what I started 2. The scale of Overlord allows me huge freedom for my AI 3. WW2 is just another Genre like Sci Fi and I find it compelling and interesting. It's certainly as enjoyable to play a WW2 game as it is to play a Good SciFi game. Your arguement on working on something exciting is rather funny. You can work on something exciting that may never get released. Or you can work on 1944 and play it as you make your maps and art. It's all relative really the game is big enough to allow people to get excited about what they do. These are not small cross sections of maps. This is an entire North West of a Country that is in the game.

Team name: Frantic Games Project name: 1944 D-Day : Operation Overlord Brief description: We are developing a WW2 simulation. The core focus will be on Normandy and simulating the events that take place. Our aim is to simulate the movements of all the units and the actions they take. This is not about a narrow cross section of a battle, or a derived scenario, this is about taking the known information of the event and allowing the AI and the player to determine the outcome of the event. The game takes place in a 1:1 time ratio and commences at 00:00 June 6th 1944, the game will continue until the win / fail conditions are met. The ultimate goal is to provide the player with the freedom to experience the Event from all angles, while still allowing the AI to depict the overall progression of the game. The AI will adapt its tactics and take different actions depending on how battles are going. The player can then select any AI unit and take control of that unit, directly effecting the course of battles. The gameplay will be as realistic as possible, with the AI following an exact set of procedures and rules which we have researched from documents and tactics relating back to the war. For more information please visit our site: 1944 D-DAY : Operation Overlord Target aim: -Full Retail -Steam and other online Distribution systems. Compensation: We offer several options. -Investment Options -Deferred Payment -Contracting (per item basis) (I'm going for broke right now ) The project is not yet funded, so all finances comes from myself and other team members. Technology: - Top Tier AAA Engine - PC is our primary platform - Mac, 360 & PS3 are also possibilities depending on support - Speedtree Talent needed: -Environment Artists Model & Texture Buildings, Props and other content required by the level design team. -Level Designers Assemble the games levels based on the research and maps provided. -Other Positions We have plenty of other positions available but I want to stress that we are really pushing for the demo level to be complete. So we need Environment Artists & Level Designers. Team structure: We have a core team consisting of Programmers, Artists, Researchers, Audio Guys and Co-Ordiantors. The team is very large and very dedicated. Anything that we cannot achieve within the team we outsource. We are looking for serious developers only, if you can't commit to the development or you don't have the time then please don't apply. You will be given a trial first where we will see how you progress and develop. If we both find that we like working together we will progress further and integrate you into the team, signing NDA's, Contracts and Release forms. The Team is attempting to make Frantic Games their career, so we take it very seriously and each team member contributes between 20 - 40 hours per week, while also working their full time jobs. The teams credits speak for themselves. Current Titles in development include (Team Members Credited on): Hellboy (PS3/360) Viva Pinata : Party Animals (360) Little Big Planet (PS3) TBC StarWars Title Batman DarkKnight (Movie) For the record I am the AI & Gameplay programmer so my role is more than just "StoryWrtier" / "Web Admin". I obviously have a hand in everything. Just felt I should clarify the point!! Website: http://www.franticgames.com (getting an overhaul) 1944 D-DAY : Operation Overlord Contacts: email: recruit@franticgames.com From there we can arrange MSN Meetings etc and begin the trial process. I can potentially disclose far more information via email etc. So if you want to know more about the project feel free to contact me. Additional Info: I want to stress that we are a very serious development team. While we don't expect team members to contribute 20 - 40 hours per week, most of us do so because we believe in the project. We also have a very high success rate in placing people in the industry, so it is a great stepping stone for those who are interested. Here is some recent media (Can't release ingame shots just Yet due to NDA)

Cheers no risk in getting pushed around by some very picky members, heck we had a thread as to what you can do in game, and one guy wanted to be able to take a crap Needless to say I walked away from thread rather promptly. With regards to the mods, it can backfire only if you get lazy and let it back fire. If we release a good solid WW2 mod for both HL2 and BF2 it wll stand to us. Even at this stage going to investors with the Marketing plan simply blew their socks off. For example: http://www.invent.dcu.ie/ were very impressed with the proposals put forward and we are in talks with getting support from them. The games industry is such a high risk market, if we dont finish the game, I will personally be in huge debt which I wont allow. So you look at if from another angle. We can sit back and hope a publisher will pick us up (Highly unlikely, unless we present them with a near complete product, and even at that its most likely going to be on their terms) Or we hit reality and drive our focus purely at giving the community the mods and the game. We sell the game directly to the community @ €40 a pop. Provided we meet our ganme requirements and expectations of the community and the mods are solid interms of quality we could realistically look at about 2000 x €40 Now thats being rather negative here, as most likely the community of a solid mod with a full commercial game behind it, would generate a community of around 10k + members. But Im not one to believe in false hope, soI will say 2000 members and will firmly stick at that as my goal. 2000 x €40 = €80,000 which equates to about €70,000 after tax, a modest figure for an Indie game team, and seeing as how we have a strong 500 member community at the moment, just of the back of a HL2 mod, Im confident we will reach the 2000+ member mark, but in time will telll. So with that €70,000 we can pay all the team members, and contributors as well as set ourselves up for the next project. Without the mods behind the game, bringing in the community I would have been very sceptical that we could even reach 500 members let alone 2000+. Heck before I ventured into the mods, I had my site and forums up and running for 8 months with some very impressive content including full demos of the game and we only hit 47 members over the 6 month development period. As opposed to the 50 members a week that we have now. So you can clearly see that the Mods provided they are done right will bring in the community too us. And provided we keep our feet on the ground and have realistic and timed perceptions on the success of the mods and game everything should work out fairly well, perhaps not always to plan, but it will be enough to keep us the developers happy, and certainly deliever the goods to the community.

The mods are not complete games, the mods are merely a taste. We use them to test both our game rules and our AI code without the pains that go with rigourous beta testing. I can assure you that posting on forums as an Indie Developer does not attract the same attention as going at the mod scene. I have been on CGTALK, CGChat, Maxforums, and Gamedev to name a few for many years, and its only now that people are looking at the project with interest. The mods will only cover a small portion of the game, and will target certain areas, its not expected to be a complete solution. I mean how on earth can you get 160x160km of terrain in the source engine? We had to come up with our own terrain rendering system just to handle it. With regards to servers, the processing is very very efficient, and works well on many of the PC configurations I have tested on. Thanks for your concern, but I have been over these points hundreds of times. Its pretty simple: 1. Release Quality Mods to generate Support 2. Immediately there-after release the Games SDK and feed the community with weekly updates (both Mods and SDK) 3. Evolve the game with the community and keep them in the loop at every step. 4. Beta test within the community 5. Release the Game within the community. The idea is pretty straight forward you feed the community as much content as you can. You dont give them BS, you dont give them excuses, you simply be frank and honest with them. At the end of the day they will accept any delays or bugs because you were honest about development problems or procedures. You simply dont fill them with crap or hide out for a while until the smoke clears. Sure to the outsiders it may seem bad and they may not give it another glance, but if you keep your core demographic happy, content and within the loop you have a very strong relationship with your fanbase and they will back your decisions.

The reason for going after 2 mods is rather simple. Indie games dont get enough or any attention can you actually tell me any indie games out there at the moment? More than likely not, infact I doubt most people even know what major indie dev studios are out there..... My point being, tapping into HL2, BF2 and other major games, allows us to generate a huge fanbase for only a minimum amount of time. Our development workflow remains the same. If we need to learn a special trick for a given engine we bring someone in (Hence the HL2 animator search) At the end of the day it is only costing us 4 members, 4-6 months work to get the mods in order. Its great Marketting, great PR and shows the communities what we are made of. This system has been complimented by several key figures (some from EA, some from the indie scene) So we will stick by it and finish what we started.... At the end of the day it will bring more fans to our community, and will help expand our potential too no end. Let me point out exactly what unique features we have: 1. 160x160 km of terrain, thats over 12800000000 vertices representing the terrain, @ 2 metres per pixel. NASA and other Elevation Resellers do not have a map that detailed. They can only provide a map @ 50m per pixel 2. We cover every nation at the moment we have over 16 nations in Normandy alone and the long overdue praise for the Canadian, Austrailian, New Zealand, Irish and many many more. 3. Over 250,000 units control in realtime, moving around a map 160x160 km. All with their stats, health, general information and much more detail being captured. 4. An agressive training and campaign system 5. Over 256 players online (its looking like over 512 players online) Playing on a map of 160x160 km, with over 250,000 AI units on the map 6. An intelligent AI system, that monitors, controls, adapts, recalculates and evolves over the the course of gameplay. 7. 24 Hour clock system, with Rayleigh Light Scattering 8. Fully integrated and improved physics system, including complete building destruction, terrain deformation, metal bending, RealisticTank Tracks, Rigid Body. 9. OVER 250,000 UNITS TO SELECT FROM. 10. Realistic Squad Dynamics 11. Complete Tactics Engine, Communication Engine, Rules Engine, Pathfinding Engine, State Engine and of course these are all coupled into our AI Engine, which is developed using Genetic Algorithms, Neural Networks, FUSM, Goal-Oriented Action Planning, Hierarchical Task-Network (HTN) planning, Task-Method-Knowledge (TMK) and also TIELT (Testbed for Integrating and Evaluating Learning Techniques ). All are integrated in their own right and all are capable of being used to evaluate and determine what the AI should or shouldnt be doing. 12. We are releasing a complete SDK to the community long before the game is even released. Some MODS, will have permission to be standalone. We will provide hosting and servers for the mods and in certain circumstances we will be on hand to help the mods. Now I honestly cant see how this isnt bringing anything new to the table. The AI alone is enough to be considered new, but the fact that we are using a next gen engine and really pushing the graphical boundaries. We are handling over 250,000 units, over 200+ vehicles, over 70+ weapons, and allowing the player to select any unit they want to play with.... Anyway more to the point, if anyone is interested in joining the team, or seeing what we are about. ronanhayes@franticgames.com Cheers

Cant give a price Im afraid, but it was alot at one point I was giving over 3/4's of my monthly wage for several months just to pay for the technology. Im a full time Professional Programmer with a Multi National, I guess you can make your own assumptions from there.

Exactly I assure you I enjoy a WW2 game as much as the next, but Im no WW2 fanatic. These games have their place and they need to be exciting and offer new avenues to the player (What I believe we are trying to do) I actually started this when I tried to convince my College Lecturers that making a game for my Degree was actually of educational benefit. Obviously they wernt buying the "Yet another lets go kill the Terrorists" or "Yet another Sci-fi Game with Big over the top weapons". So I opted to create an AI system that would learn from students and present them with a challenge, as the student progressed through the game the AI would either increase the challenge or decrease the challenge depending on how the player was doing. It also had a set educational curriculum that it was required to cover, and slowly present to the player without them realising it was completely educational (more game than education so to speak) Obviously the only feasible setting for this given the Irish Education system was History and the only topic within that which I had a remote interest in was WW2. Look on the bright side it could have been "Yet another ART History during the 16th Century Game", OR "Yet another Poetry Game based on the writings of WB Yeats" Every game has its place, be it WW2, SCI-FI, MMORPG or other. Just once they bring something to the players that they will enjoy and get value for money with.

csharp would it interest you if you knew one of our planned mission packs is the Finnish Efforts during WW2? (weapons and vehicles currently in development, we are also trying to source a DEM for the land mass) At which point the mission pack becomes very easy to develop once we have secured the DEM and modified it. Our focus is not just on June 6th but other operations. It just happens June 6th is the most famous D-Day. So its our best starting point.

I have no false aspirations of breaking into the industry, nor do I pitch the game to people as their ideal way of breaking into the industry. The best way to break into the industry is to focus on your portfolio. Develop your talents by working in all areas that interest you. The reason I state its not your usual WW2 game and not your usual team. Is simply because of the Sheer Scope of the game, the flexibility and coverage that it gives. Yes its another WW2 game, but its taking another approach. Its taking a step back and putting an AI in control of the events. Thats why the game itself is different, in its core the AI drives the game, not the player hitting flags for scripted events. If the player were to stand still and fortunate not to get involved in any combat, the game doesnt simply loop around a series of events, or wait for the player to do some key objective. The game continues on, the AI is a very exciting thing to work with, and while the genre may be WW2 it is still a challenge to develop everything on such a scale and scope that the game covers. As for the team, we are well organised, well structured, and we give the freedom for people to jump into areas they wish to explore. We are willing to invest in techonology and believe in our idea to the extent where more often than not we have put our hands into our pocket and paid for new technology and not to mention contract artwork. We have a firm business plan in place, but without relying soley on the hopes that a publisher will pick us up, we also have plans (and by plans I mean we have a complete infrastructure physically in place) and we are 100% aware we most likely will have to self publish this game, but we are willing to do that. The exposure the mods and game is getting is also worthwhile, with the head developers behind speedtree having a strong interest in the project. As well as the other technology developers. Sure its another WW2 game, but it does things differently, is designed and built in a different way, targetting a different market and ultimately delievering a new comprehensive experience of D-Day.