[Unpaid][Animators][Artists] 2D/3D Artists and 3D Animators needed for a hobby project Thread

Hi everyone, my name is Stefan and I am looking for people that would be interested in a project a couple of us are working on. The game is being developed in Unreal Engine 5.0. Right now it there are 4 Programmers and 2 3D Artists who recently joined the project, before this I was developing the prototype for bit over 4 months solo. We are looking for:

• 3D Artists (characters, environment)

• 2D/UI Artists (item thumbnails, HUD design, widget mprovements, ability icons)

• 3D Animators (animations for humanoid-like characters and 3D objects like chests, doors ecc…)

Brief Overview And Story

Violent Ends is an ARPG game set in a sci-fi setting. Story is set in the year 2182, where humans have almost entirely devastated Earth, with scavenger colonies being the only inhabitants of the planet. Before Earth became uninhabitable, enormous space stations were constructed in order to spread humanity across the Solar System in hopes of preserving life. These stations, called Terrapods, housed dozens of active staff and a central AI system, called the EXO-Mind. A few decades after the program began, Terrapods began reporting unusual sightings in the space around them. A station close to the Alpha Centauri system, Terrapod Pollux, suddenly goes silent. A squad of military personnel is dispatched to investigate. Upon arrival they quickly realize that the survival of these stations depends on them getting rid of the invaders they have not seen before.

Core Gameplay

The game is very much inspired by The Ascent (Store.steampowered.com) gameplay-wise. It is a single-player game played from a top-down perspective. Players have the usual movement via keyboard keys (WASD) and shooting is done using the mouse. Accent of the gameplay is definitely the guns and four different types of ammo that the players can use which are: standard, burst, shotgun and sniper rounds. Some guns can use every ammo type, others can have restrictions. Using gear is the key to success, players should be involved into customizing their character with a wide variety of items. Players can also utilize abilities to aid them in combat or in exploration, however they are limited to only 3 at a time. These abilities consume stamina to cast, which is also tied down to the players ability to run or dodge (dash/roll) to evade incoming projectiles.

Systems That Are Implemented

Inventory

• Move, swap, merge, split or drop items

• Equipped item stats apply for the character

• Separate inventory for the four different ammo types (displayed in the HUD)

Items

• Six core item types: helmets, body armors, legs, boots, arms and weapons

• Ability to specify the name, thumbnail, description and ranges for the stats (lowest possible and highest possible)

• Actual stats are randomized upon the first time an item is created (won’t re-randomize an existing item)

• Specify the maximum amount that an item stack can be at (how much can one inventory slot store)

• When dropped, items fall around the player (curve like fall), depending on where there is free space

• Items get randomized stats upon dropping

• UI for tooltips of each item, showing the player the details about it

• Items have 7 different tiers and 5 different rarities (common, uncommon, rare, epic and legendary)

Interaction System

• Specify if the player can interact once or multiple times with an object

• Floating widget showing the respective interact key if player is close to an interactable object

• Blueprint and C++ implementations for what should happen upon interaction

• Box collision in front of the player which determines if he can interact with something (it is in that box) or not

Chests

• Generates loot from data tables on spawn or via custom events

• Can be ‘re-stocked’ based on time or any other trigger

Quests

• Four types of quests for now: location, interaction, collection and defeat/slay

• Quests can be chained and their prerequisite quests can be specified

• Reward can be XP or item/items (or both)

• Objective progress can be increased/decreased (i.e. dropping collected items will decrease it)

• Full customization when it comes to how objectives chain together

• UI for the quest, its active objective and a tracker showing where the objective is (arrow that also shows the distance)

Shooting

• Shooting speed, gun range and reload speed is determined by the ammo you are currently using

• Widget above the player that displays what ammo you are using and how much you have left in the magazine

• Damage dealt upon bullet hit depends on the damage stats of the gun

• Damage can be physical (countered by armor) or fire (countered by fire resistance). Will be expanded in the future

• Each ammo is its own input action (four input actions for the four ammo types)

• Ammo can be set to pierce multiple opponents, this is available to all types of ammunition

RPG Stats

• From health and stamina to critical chance and critical damage

• Items can both increase or decrease these stats but some (e.g. health or stamina) cannot go below 0

• XP and leveling

• Skill Tree

• Players can spend skill points, obtained by leveling up, to buy abilities and improve their character

• Customize prerequisite abilities as well as each individual cost

• Line textures with animations (color change) that help visualize which ability progresses where

• Three hotkey slots for abilities

I'll try to add some videos and images when I can, my account is fresh here which doesn't allow me to post links. I can of course send you some videos/images privately if you do decide to reach out!

For AI I just have one ranged enemy so far, mainly used him to test stuff around. Another thing that I don’t really know where to put is that there is a system for occluding static objects that are obstructing the view (i.e. walls that cover up the player, you can see it in the videos above).

-For source control we are using git and azure dev ops.
-Method of communication would be Discord.

For artists that are reading this, I don’t expect AAA quality assets, we don’t even need them given the perspective of the game (top-down). Desired art style could be something similar to Arcadian Rift by David R. B. (Youtube.com). Of course this all depends on what you are comfortable with, but I would generally stick to something not overcomplicated. If you like making sci-fi/futuristic assets then this can be a place for you! In our discord we have some reference images of what we are trying to achieve.

What Is The Goal For The Project?

Well the goal would be to get a playable prototype and see what feedback it gets. If it gets a lot of good feedback we could turn this into a commercial game. For now though, the plan is to at least get a decent portfolio piece for everyone and of course to have fun while developing! Plan is to finish an MVP in a few months, this of course depending on the team size and the work put it.

I am open to other ideas, gameplay improvements and welcome creative thinking, but keep in mind that we simply cannot create a massive open world MMO or stuff like that. A lot of effort goes to trying to keep the scope of the game limited to a small team of developers, so I would just hope that you can keep that in mind 😃

If you are interested and want to know more, feel free to message me here or on discord (𝐿𝓊𝒸𝒾𝒻𝑒𝓇#4920) and we can take it from there. Cheers 😄