Aus Actionscript Programmer Needed

[kennsj]

I'm a high school teacher and Flash animator with a game project currently in the early stages of development. I anticipate that it could get some government funding. At the very least, it will be marketable to educational institutions.

I have a historian/Aboriginal liaison and a musician for the soundtrack (I have the writing and animation covered myself), but I am missing a programmer. I'd prefer it if you're located in Melbourne, but as long as you're in Australia, things should work out fine.

I could just program it myself in Visual Basic, but I'd rather do the whole damn thing in Flash. It'll look and play nicer, and be more easily communicated that way.

If you're interested, get in touch. I already had one AS coder flake on me, so ask for lots of details and make sure you know what we're talking about before you say "yes".

Oh, and don't bother if you don't have any working Flash games to show me as proof of your ability.

Thanks.

[23450]

Im sure you wont have a problem finding people from Melbourne, i live in Canada and i have seen and known more people from there on these forums then anyone else 1000 miles from me. Good luck.

what is the pop of Melbourne anyway?

[kennsj]

Are you talking Melbourne, Australia? Or Melbourne, Florida?

If Australia, that's great news. I hope someone gets in touch.

[Kabomb]

I live in Perth WA if that's ok. Also, what type of game will it be like ( a quiz, a shooter game etc.) And will there be profits, if so how much. You can check out my profile for games I've already made. As soon as you give me more detail I'll decide whether I'm in or not.

Thanks.

[kennsj]

It'll be an action game, with run-and-gun gameplay in an isometric perspective.

The player should be able to walk, run, attack with about 6 weapons, talk to NPCs, and ride a horse.

The game will be split into 30+ missions, each with a different objective (clear the stage of enemies, race, pick up x amount of objects in y amount of time, etc.), separated by animated cutscenes.

The $$$ we're talking about will be dependent upon how big an Arts grant I can get. And that will depend upon the the quality of my submission.

The intended timeline is about 6 months. I expect the grant would be equivalent to 6 months' wage, but that is just a guess.

I'm impressed with the quality of your work, Kabomb, but a little worried by your age. Can I be sure that you'd be committed enough to see this project through to completion?

Let me know what you think.

[Kabomb]

sorry, but I can't give up that much time. and just out of interest, how will this be educational?

[TommyGun]

At 6/5/06 12:36 AM, 23450 wrote:

what is the pop of Melbourne anyway?

3-4 Million last time I checked

or was that for the state...

[Fion]

I'd love to get involved if I could. I consider myself a rather good programmer and I do live I hour out of Melbourne. I am only 15 but I would put as much time into the project as possible, putting some time aside for school work obviously. You may not want me to help due to age if so thats okay. Whats the theme of this game? and what are you creating it for?

[kennsj]

Yeah, St. Sileighty, it's 3.6 million people in the city of Melbourne.

To answer Kabomb's question about how it'll be educational, and Fionmaster's regarding the theme...

The game will be set in colonial Victoria (a very violent place). You play through a variety of historical events, learning about things like the genocide of Aborigines, bushrangers, the gold rush and the Eureka Stockade. The idea is that the player learns about Australian history by living through it.

I'm creating this for two reasons, Fionmaster. Firstly, because I think it's a killer idea and so do many of the people around me. Secondly, because I think I can make money from it.

I think I'd need to see some more sophisticated work from you before asking you to participate in the project, Fionmaster. Have you developed any games with AI? i.e. Games where theres's a bad guy who attacks you?

[Fion]

I think this is a great idea for a game and as a matter a fact I just finished doing this in school. As far as AI games I have created some sketchy sort of things that never got completed but if you like I'll chuck a little something together now. It wont be graphically great but it will show you my abilities in AS. Also I've added you on msn wheather you have it or not is another thing but if you do have it it would be a lot easier to talk to you. I'll email my example to you ASAP.

[kennsj]

Cool. I look forward to checking out your AI demo.

I'm on MSN under a different email address, but I don't often use it. It crashes my system. I hate Microsoft's Internet apps. They're unstable.

[Fion]

My AI test is done and has been sent to your email adress, I hope you like it. It is however just some simple stuff that I put together to show you some of my skills if there is anything else you want to test me on I will be happy to do it.

Had to remember some of that good old Pythagoras to get this one working.

[Chrispington]

I'm quite interested in this idea, and consider myself competent when it comes to actionscript, although I am still learning. (does the learning ever stop?)

I live in Sydney, and have recently been working on a top down shooter, similar to what you are talking about.
I first started an isometric game, but the need to draw 8 different animations for each of the angles you would see of the characters for every different action they could do changed my mind, hence the switch to top down.
(learning the actionscript was more important than cool isometric graphics)
But if i'm not doing the graphics, that wouldn't be a problem.

I started learning on VB in highschool, but be warned, flash if far more prone to lag than VB, so highly complex AI can be a problem, although this may just be caused by my less than simple methods. (as I said, still learning)

But yeah, i was planning to make an isometric RPG as my next actionscript attempt anyway, so this game is a fortituous prospect.

Here's the game I've been making as my actionscript learning adventure. still VERY unfinished, but also pretty playable:
http://www.lazy-nati../ProjectValidus.html

And yeah, iv'e also recently been reading 'the fatal shore' by robert hughes, about the birthing of australia as a nation, which is highly relevant.

On a side note, I did a two year course on digital animation (mostly 3D), which doesn't really matter if you're doing the graphics, but it lets you know I am capable of learning :)

I have tons of spare time, but one question remains: How much is my time worth to you?

So yeah, if you like my game (so far), and think my AS skills are up to what you have in mind, [e-mail] , or just reply here. I would like to know more.

thx

[kennsj]

At 6/5/06 01:48 PM, Chrispington wrote: but be warned, flash if far more prone to lag than VB, so highly complex AI can be a problem, although this may just be caused by my less than simple methods. (as I said, still learning)

I intend to keep the AI pretty simple, so hopefully that won't be a problem. I like the inbuilt media support Flash offers. You have to do all this extra code just to play two sounds at once in VB, and it has horribly slow sprite redraw. Those are probably my main two reasons for choosing Flash as the platform for the development of this game.

Dude, I'm impressed with your game-in-progress. I kind of has similar controls to what I was thinking of for this project.

I don't want to give away any more details in a public forum like this, so I'll email you.

[Glaiel-Gamer]

sounds like an interesting idea, too bad i dont live in australia (but you can look at my stuff if you want anyway)

[Pyromaniac]

I could do this, but I dont live in Australia. I dont see why that is nessecary though.

[kennsj]

At 6/5/06 08:01 PM, pyro111 wrote: I could do this, but I dont live in Australia. I dont see why that is nessecary though.

Because I intend to apply for an Arts grant in Australia to fund this. They won't want their grant money going off-shore.

[Glaiel-Gamer]

At 6/5/06 08:08 PM, kennsj wrote: Because I intend to apply for an Arts grant in Australia to fund this. They won't want their grant money going off-shore.

you could always like... get it sponsored you know

[kennsj]

At 6/5/06 08:11 PM, Glaiel_Gamer wrote: you could always like... get it sponsored you know

Yeah, but I'd rather not have to put Coca-Cola cans into the game, if you know what I mean. Also, the audience would primarily be Australian, and it'll have that educational aspect, so I figure I'm better off seeking Australian government sponsorship, if you want to look at it that way.

[Glaiel-Gamer]

At 6/5/06 08:13 PM, kennsj wrote: Yeah, but I'd rather not have to put Coca-Cola cans into the game

armorgames.com
crazymonkeygames.com
flashportal.com

check those out, flash sponsor is different than commercial sponsoring

[kennsj]

At 6/5/06 08:14 PM, Glaiel_Gamer wrote: check those out, flash sponsor is different than commercial sponsoring

Thanks for pointing me to those, but they won't bring in the $$$ I'm talking about here, nor will they help the game reach its target audience.

It's cool that this form of sponsorship is available, though.

[Glaiel-Gamer]

At 6/5/06 08:20 PM, kennsj wrote: Thanks for pointing me to those, but they won't bring in the $$$ I'm talking about here, nor will they help the game reach its target audience.

It's cool that this form of sponsorship is available, though.

well like how much are you looking for, i'm sure they are willing to bargain. You can get a few grand from a decent game.

And if it's on the web i'm sure you'll get your target audience: everyone

[kennsj]

At 6/5/06 08:25 PM, Glaiel_Gamer wrote: well like how much are you looking for, i'm sure they are willing to bargain. You can get a few grand from a decent game.

Hoping for in the range of the tens of thousands. Got a few people to pay.

And if it's on the web i'm sure you'll get your target audience: everyone

Yeah, but the government grant would get it into Australian schools, specifically. It'll also get those involved some big-time public recognition.

Doesn't prevent the thing from being launched online, either.

[Glaiel-Gamer]

At 6/5/06 08:29 PM, kennsj wrote: Hoping for in the range of the tens of thousands. Got a few people to pay.

in that case i recomend not using flash. It's not meant for this big time stuff (and isometric lags on flash anyway).

C++ might be better for you in this case unless you insist on using flash

[kennsj]

Thanks for your advice.