ABSTRACT: Seeking programmer to assist in prototyping a casual space-combat game with a 2.5D, third-person viewpoint. Think Star Control II Super Melee mutated with Space Harrier… Initial game design complete… Initial art direction complete… Programming? Uh, several screenshots bundled into an app on device that pings Flurry and PubNub. Yeah. That far along…
Greetings All!
I’m a game and level designer based out of New York city. I’ve been in the game industry for about 10 years, starting as a sprite artist for Gameboy Color games. I’ve worked on Web, Casual Downloadable PC games, IOS games and a game targeted at Windows 8 RT tablets. I’ve also worked outside the game industry as a visual designer for the past 15 years.
I first became exposed to Lua after a company I freelance with switched to building levels in Lua instead of hardcoding them in Objective-C. I liked the language and set about looking for tools that would allow me to leverage my newfound skill set. Corona fit the bill. I’ve been evaluating Corona for the past 3 months, and using Lua for about 6 months.
I’ve decided to move forward with a prototype for a casual space-combat game using a 2.5D, third person view. The game is basically a bastard child of Star Control II Super Melee and Space Harrier… I’ve worked out as much of the game design, visualization, and monetization strategy as makes sense at the pre-prototype phase.
After fruitlessly looking for a Corona contract developer on oDesk and other sites I decided to post here, at the source, on the Corona SDK forums. I hope this project catches the eye of a seasoned Corona developer…
THE PITCH
I’m looking for an experienced Corona developer to do the “core” coding on the prototype, while I handle everything else (art, contract art, contract audio, level design, etc). The idea is for me to iterate on your scripting until I (hopefully) find the fun in the prototype. Then you’ll review my code and I’ll request an additional module of code to implement additional prototype features (or implement them myself and you’ll tighten them up).
Since not everyone has the available time to participate in a project for the long haul, and not everyone works well together, I would also like to work with someone who would help me spec out the project’s scope as a paid contractor and then work with me to determine a fair revenue split for the portion they can work on as well as a cash exit that would leave the project unencumbered by shares (should it come to that).
Some of the core code I’ll need to proceed is the following:
(1) 2.5D scaled sprite engine (i.e., Space Harrier) with ability to detect object collisions in 2.5D space
(2) Orbital gravity simulation (simplified 2D billiard-ball style physics)
(3) Enemy AI (finite state machine). Seek, Evade, Shoot. Waypoint-following. The game is in open space, so no complex terrain.
The prototype will have a player avatar and 4 enemy types. The player will fight these enemies “in orbit” around a central gravity object, shooting or bumping into them. For the prototype enemies will:
- shoot at the player (and possibly at one another),
- bump into the player,
- avoid the player when low in health,
- avoid the central gravity object, and
- waypoint to a specific set of locations when player is out of range.
The initial implementation of this would be rough - think GAME JAM quality - enough to prove (with tweaking) whether the game design is viable. There would also be:
- a basic UI implementation, as well as
- hooking up “proof of concept” communication with 3rd party cloud services
I’ve already compiled a ton of reference material related to the prototype implementation. A more detailed explanation and game description (including graphical mockups) will be provided to the selected developer.
Once we get rolling communication will be via Skype, Google Docs, email. Code hosted on GIT. I also have licenses for several relevant 3rd party libraries and services. You will have no out of pocket expenses.
I’m looking to complete the prototype by the end of March 2013. Start development in early January 2013.
Please note, I’m looking for someone as EXPERIENCED as I can get to improve the chances of the prototype succeeding in a reasonable time frame. So if you’re a hobbyist with very little practical development experience but a ton of free time, I’ll still probably go with a Pro who has only 8 hours a week free. Also, if you don’t have any work samples you can reference, it will be hard for me to evaluate you versus someone who has a ton of stuff they can show. So if you reply, please provide something more substantial than “Let’s do this. Email me.” 
If you’re interested in some additional biographical info on me, here’s an article I wrote several years back for a game development website.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130053/breaking_down_breakout_system_and_.php
Cheers!
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