http://thecompanions.net/Fatebound/index.html

Greetings!

    Who am I?:

My name is Johnathan and I am a game developer. I consider myself a decent programmer, but fail somewhat when it comes to art and asset creation. We are well known for our 'programmer art' as many may know...

That is where you muscular, bronzed folks at OGA come in.

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    What I am proposing:

My current project that I am working on is called Fatebound, a simple 2-player co-op, 2D, retro action game that is played through the browser, using the Phaser javascript game framework (<-- check it out).

The arcade game Smash TV would be an accurate description of how the game plays.

But I find myself in dire need of some visually appealing stuff for the players to gawk at.

Which is why I am looking to get some other people on board, to fill out the areas that the project is lacking in.

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    What I am looking for:

This is not meant to be a strict 'Apply to be whatever' system, but just to show what kinds of people I hope to attract and the skill areas that are required.

If you don't want to commit to the project, but want to be able to pitch in what you can at your own leisure, that is great.

I think having an official 'team' of developers that have defined roles becomes restricting in a place like OGA, so I'm not going to do it. If you want to get involved, get involved. I'm not going to complain about free art (though it might not get used if it doesn't work for the game).

Screen art:

The game requires a few scenic concept art pieces for use in one loading screen, a main menu, a how to play page, a credits screen and a level select screen. At current, there are 5 planned levels, with a variety of themes and moods that need conveying to the user. 800 * 600 px is the default size of the game window, so no bigger than that. Pixel art environments that are smaller than that can be scaled up in the code without loss of the sharp pixel edges. (This technique reduces resource loading times too.)

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Character & monster art:

The game will feature an assortment of ugly critters for the players to lay waste to during their jolly gaddings-about. Help the poor beasts out by making them beautiful instead. Most of them will be your run of the mill medieval fantasy sword-fodder: Goblins, Zombies, Rats, with a themed boss at the end of each level.

The character sprites that I have been using so far could also do with 'new robes' shall we say...

What I had in mind instead was for the characters to look a lot more like this: http://lekonua.deviantart.com/art/Pixel-Wizard-353250665

Both the characters and most of the enemies will be maximum 32 * 32px, then scaled in the code to whatever size is needed. Some enemies, like bosses, will need larger dimensions to get enough detail on them.

Why this size? Maintainability. Need to be able to produce assets of similar quality and style throughout the project for the sake of consistency. Movement animations (2-4 frames per enemy) will also be highly desirable, which will require more time at higher resolutions. The longer a project will take, the most chance it has to fail.

Unless several contributors feel it would be worth increasing this size, I will stick with it for now.

More details ---> Character sprite specification document

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Environmental tileset art:

One of my favourite pieces on OGA at the moment is this RPG style tileset by Silver IV, which I have been using and intend to use for the rest of the project: 

http://opengameart.org/content/basic-map-32x32-by-silver-iv

This is a great foundation for what I had in mind for the levels to look like, but several specific tiles are lacking that are needed for this project. Each level has a different theme, requiring tiles like:

• Lava (animated, 2 frames)
• Burnt paths/ground
• Frozen water
• Mud
• Tombstones
• Cave interior walls
• Palm trees

Many more things. Basically a whole variety of different tiles and background objects, as each level has many individual needs. This sounds like a lot, so levels will likely need to be completed one at a time, or risk having 5 permanently 'in progress' ones.

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Level designs/maps:

At present, there are 5 planned levels, each with its own theme and design requirements. The levels are quite small and are intended to foster tight, frantic combat. A brief description of each can be found in the GDD with some reference images. They are:

• Snowy mountain pass. There will be some ice tiles that will cause slowness.
• Volcano. Or inside or underneath a volcano, in a magma chamber. There will need to be some streams of lava tiles that cause damage.
• Town graveyard. Spooky, eerie feel, with visibility impeded by a fog overlay. Will need gravestones/graves that will spawn additional enemies when disturbed.
• Tropical island. Paradise, until the local wildlife notices you are there.
• Underground temple. An almost completely black level, with only a burning torch (or several) to light the way.

Each level is meant to be played like a gladiator arena, in which there are enemies approaching from set locations around the edges of the map towards the players.

Imagine sea creatures appearing in the dark water in the example map that I have created below and making their way to land to hunt the players.

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    What's in it for you?:

Nothing. Nothing of immediate gain at least.

This is not a paid project. I am not offering you anything for your time and effort except my thanks. I am not going to bore you with 'You get 15% of all profits if it makes any." stuff, because this game wont.

This is intended to be more of a fun portfolio project than anything, but who knows, it might grow some stubby wings and make like a flappy bird into the public spotlight.

All assets contributed to this project by members of OGA, will belong to those individuals, for them to put here on OGA at their own discretion, providing they don't use a restrictive licence that would stop it from being used on this project.

All source code files for the game will be made publicly available (can't really prevent that, as its a client-side web game), and all contributors will be clearly acknowledged in the game itself.

As you might have guessed by how substantial this Resource Request is, I have a good idea of what to expect from this project, and from you, should you decide to help out.

Here is the 12-ish page game design document for Fatebound, that I would strongly advise anyone considering contributing to have a read of. GDD link.

It contains more details about some things mentioned here, and some stuff I haven't mentioned.

I am going to be trying to organise and keep track of the development of the project using Padlet, a very cool tool for fast, easy collaboration between multiple people. http://padlet.com/Arcanorum/fatebound (<-- Take a look, maybe add something, but don't troll or I will have to restrict posting privileges =L).

The most recent working version of the game will be hosted and made available for play on my little website that I use for testing my games. http://thecompanions.net/Fatebound/index.html

From here, should the project go well, browser gaming websites will be the next stop for getting the game 'out there'.

That is all I have to say for now, and hopefully I have enabled you to make a well informed decision regarding joining. Questions are encouraged about anything about the game. Dump 'em below.

Farewell, for now.