🔒 Locked

Wanted - Lead Programmer for Historical RTS

Started by Wijitmaker Feb 7, 2003 at 1:30 AM 12 replies 2.5k views

Original Post

Feb 7, 2003 at 1:30 AM

Greetings, Fellow Forumers,

My name is Jason Bishop. I am the project leader for Wildfire Games' real time strategy project titled "0 A.D.". The game is a freeware historical RTS set in the timeframe of 500 BC to 500 AD, centering around the civilisation of Rome. If your looking for an opportunity to add to your resumé, this is a great project. Look no further! The WFG team is full of talented people who love RTS games and love making games.

We just reached our one-year anniversary and have laid down some great foundational work. Some of the accomplishments of the past year were creating a website with 70+ pages, preliminary work with the AI, a prototype engine, a 150+ page design document, completing roughly 25% of the artwork, 6 musical tracks, 1 promotional video, and gaining a 'foot hold' in the amateur game development world. Unfortunately, our lead programmer has recently been forced to step down from his position, due to the lack of free time he has available while attending college. So, I'm looking for someone to fill his shoes, ideally with the following skills:

Excellent people skills (friendly, offers support, and constructive criticism)
High level of general programming knowledge, and a well-rounded coding background
Most importantly, able to devote a significant amount of time to this role

Experience with previous full-scale projects would be extremely valuable. The Lead Programmer's Responsibilities would be the following: 1) Managerial issues

emailing (to ensure that the programming team has all the information they need)
reviewing new applicants -answering questions in our forums
Assign projects to individual programmers (or groups of programmers)

2) Designing the game engine and system interfaces 3) Contributing to the code (when not occupied by managerial issues), to inspire the other programmers and remain up to speed on the process

laying out the architecture for the engine
helping to write graphics code

We currently have a well-rounded programming staff:

1 Graphics programmer, well versed in DX (our former lead programmer) 2 AI programmers 1 Multiplayer programmer 1 Tools programmer 2 Prototype engine programmer 1 Programmer who has background in databases and python scripting

We regularly receive applications from enthusiastic programmers, so the team can be expanded if necessary.

We plan to use a 2d/3d hybrid engine. Sprites will be used for the majority of the art (buildings, units). By using pre-rendered sprites, we hope to attain a better image quality for our units, while still benefiting from smooth-shaded terrain, a particle engine, alpha blending, and many more powerful tools that the 3d engine has to offer. Right now we are concentrating on making tools - an assembly (file archiving/compression) program and an animation packaging program for creating our custom sprites. We plan to develop the graphics engine under DX9, but if there is a VERY capable OGL programmer we would consider switching.

If you would like more information, don't hesitate to ask here in the forums... and be sure to check out our website. If you're interested in applying or have any questions, email me (Wijitmaker@juno.com) or go to this page and fill out the application form. An interview (via Instant Messenger) and code sample are required.

Thank you for your time and I wish you all the best in your endeavours, whatever they might be!

~Jason Bishop (aka Wijitmaker)

[edited by - Wijitmaker on February 8, 2003 2:40:52 AM]

Davaris

Feb 7, 2003 at 3:51 AM

I think you are insane to make this game freeware. It looks like it will be good enough sell.

d3s3rtf

Feb 8, 2003 at 4:30 PM

Bump for a fellow Wildfire Games member =)

Ian Cheshire

RajanSky

Feb 10, 2003 at 6:05 AM

*double bump* =)

I recently joined and this is one of the most talented, motivated, and friendly teams I''ve worked with. We could really use an experienced lead programmer, so please consider joining if you think you fit the role!

flyer_command_dude

Feb 14, 2003 at 3:05 AM

wish i could help you guys vut i got my hands tied with my own rts game at the moment.

billybob

Feb 14, 2003 at 5:30 PM

hot damn!

i agree with daravis, this is good enough to sell, easily.

MichaelT

Feb 14, 2003 at 5:43 PM

I have been working in the industry for some time and do think you are doing a mistake giving this for free. As commendable as it is, you could earn money from this. I have seen far worse games released than this one. You should reconsider and contact a publisher instead. I have no doubt it would be accepted by someone.

Wijitmaker

Feb 15, 2003 at 11:02 AM

The ''lead programmer'' position has been filled. Thank you everyone who applied!

Davaris, billybob, MichaelT - We have thought about publishing, but most likely we just don''t see that its possible. There are a few reasons that we believe would be advantageous not to publish.

Read the reasons here: http://www.wildfiregames.com/0ad/pages/faq.shtml (bottom of the page)

Maybe you guys have some ideas of how we can work around these issues?

Thanks,

Wijit

JonW

Feb 15, 2003 at 7:53 PM

Great game you guys have going.

I looked at your FAQ, and I have a few comments about some of your publishing issues.

quote:

1) Some of our 3d meshes and textures are not original and were not intended by the creator to used for commercial gain.

How much are we talking here? Would it be too hard to redo these yourself?

quote:

2) We would have problems splitting up the money. Deciding who gets what, and how much would just cause conflicts.

A timesheet system might help. Participants get paid based on the hours worked. You would do it as a percentage, so you would add all hours after a certain recording point, and pay the person based on their percentage of the total. Might be a management pain though.

quote:

3) We don''t have developer licenses for our software programs.

What kind of programs are they? I don''t know if it is morally right, but I would think that you could legally switch over to another, liscensed, program using the same resources. For example writing code in Microsoft Visual C++ Introductory Edition and then compiling it in Standard Edition later on. I don''t see how the company who made the product that you created the asset in would have rights to the asset, so you could use a liscensed version of 3DS Max on a model initially created in a trial version, and then use that model in a commercial product. You would have to look in the product license though, I don''t know anything about this. Does anyone else know if you could do this?

quote:

4) We are doing this more for the experience than for the $$$. Hopefully that will put a little more heart into the game.

Not much to say about that

quote:

5) We don''t want someone breathing down our neck with deadlines.
6) We don''t want some "suit" telling us that we can or cannot do something.
7) We want the freedom to upgrade, patch, or mod at anytime without first clearing it with our publisher.

I don''t know if you''d be interested in it, but the shareware market would allow you to have complete rights over your game. All you would need is a merchant credit card account, I believe. Plus you wouldn''t have to share the money with a publisher.

I think its great that you want to release it as freeware though. You would have a much larger fanbase, and that is probably worth more than the money

I hope this was helpful.

MichaelT

Feb 16, 2003 at 2:19 AM

quote:
Original post by Wijitmaker
The ''lead programmer'' position has been filled. Thank you everyone who applied!

Davaris, billybob, MichaelT - We have thought about publishing, but most likely we just don''t see that its possible. There are a few reasons that we believe would be advantageous not to publish.

Read the reasons here: http://www.wildfiregames.com/0ad/pages/faq.shtml (bottom of the page)

Maybe you guys have some ideas of how we can work around these issues?

Thanks,

Wijit

I also had a look at your faq and these are my thoughts:

1) Some of our 3d meshes and textures are not original and were not intended by the creator to used for commercial gain.

Evidently, you have access to 3d modellers so changing them should not be difficult. As a tip: Use them as reference and make a new mesh around them. That way you have a model that is almost the same but is yours to do with as you please.

2) We would have problems splitting up the money. Deciding who gets what, and how much would just cause conflicts.

Keep track of what you are doing, alternatively discuss a payment plan and stick to it. There will always be people who want more but in the end this will show you who is a team member and who isn''t.

3) We don''t have developer licenses for our software programs.

There are free compilers etc... out there. If you are concerned about trials, student versions then keep in mind that the game isn''t actually commercial until you release it. By then you already have money from your publisher to purchase any license you might lack. You can also contact the program developers and ask them to sponsor their program(s), many can be quite accomodating.

4) We are doing this more for the experience than for the $$$. Hopefully that will put a little more heart into the game.

I would agree if it wasn''t for the fact that people love money more ;-)

5) We don''t want someone breathing down our neck with deadlines.

It is up to you to decide when to contact them, do this when you are finished or almost finished.

6) We don''t want some "suit" telling us that we can or cannot do something.

Same as 5) If you are finished there is little they can say about it. After all, you offer them a product if they don''t want it it really isn''t your problem ;-)

7) We want the freedom to upgrade, patch, or mod at anytime without first clearing it with our publisher.

As a developer you always have that right. Better yet, put it in your contract and guarantee it.

____________________________________________________________
Try RealityRift at www.planetrift.com
Feel free to comment, object, laugh at or agree to this. I won''t engage in flaming because of what I have said.
I could be wrong or right but the ideas are mine.

Wijitmaker

Feb 17, 2003 at 8:18 PM

JonWoyame and MichaelT,

1) You guys are right if we needed to we could simply replace all the meshes and textures we are currently using, it would just take more time to complete the game.

2) Yeah, I guess the key here would be proper managment; there is also the issues of how to compensate those members who are minors. Your right it could be done, we would just need to take the time to set up some sort of time sheet on the members section of the webpage.

3) Well, my thinking on this issue is mainly 3d max and any programs that the programmers are using. Right now I''m using allot of ''educational'' software. You guys are probably right; as soon as we are near completion I could just fork out the money and expect to be compensated by the publisher in a short time. Then I think we would be ok.

4) Again, your right money certainly isn''t a bad thing

5) 6) and 7) Once more you guys are probably right. The key would be to finding some lawyers to comb through the details of the contract to ensure that we had as much freedom and rights as we possibly could.

If we did decide to do this, do we need to figure out the details now at such a premature state? Or would we be able to wait until the game is nearly completed and then just present a final copy of the game to the publisher?

We would also need to go through the formalities of forming a legal company correct?

I''m only asking because I want to keep our options open, and I love to hear any advice that you forumers would have on the subject. But, we REALLY want to make the game free!

It mainly boils down to doing something revolutionary... something that nobody has done before. That being, making a quality game that is FREE! You see this happens every time there is a project that shows potential. Some company with a bigger wallet will ''snatch'' the developer up and ''use'' them make their fame and fortune.

If we do this well and make the game free, I think the gaming industry will have to take a hard look at their selves and rethink some of the outrageous prices they are charging consumers.

Sorry that’s my rant for the day

*gets of soapbox*

Thanks again for your suggestions!

IDirect3D9

Feb 17, 2003 at 11:02 PM

Good luck getting the entire industry to change how it operates based on one game, even if it is the next Quake killer.

Wijitmaker

Feb 17, 2003 at 11:10 PM

IDirect3D9, your right - I guess in the grand scheme of things we are just a pebble being thrown in the vast pond of game development. It is probably foolish to think that we could make a difference, but there is always that hope

[edited by - Wijitmaker on February 17, 2003 12:26:17 AM]

Topic Locked

This topic has been locked by a moderator. New replies are not allowed.