AFF:Planetstorm team looking for skilled mappers/leveldesigners

[strangelet]

http://www.affuniverse.com/artdepot/public/Misc/AFFPSposter1-fleetpageheader.jpg

Hello you lot.

Some of you may have seen our project around. AFF:PS is a game in the genre of battlefield, a pseudo-realistic ground combat core based in large environments with an array of vehicles and weapons. Our largest gimmick is that we also incorporate fleet combat into the mix, enabling our players to both pilot and run around inside huge capital starships in first person, operate and maintain all their systems, man their turrets, launch fighters from the bay, board other ships using Dropships, all in simultaneous realtime with gorgeous graphics, sound and fx.

We have both *space* maps and *ground* maps, the ground maps being more orthodox BF style wargames, and the spacemaps including the abovementioned starships for incredibly immersive fleet battles.

We have an amazing lead level designer but he only has one pair of hands (despite our efforts to genetically modify him while he sleeps) and next year we would like to expand our content to provide our community with more and better maps. To this end we would like to wave our hands in the air like we just dont care, and attract some serious minded individuals with the drive to create large environments to shoot people in/fly around.

this will be a long term project, initially voluntary but working towards a commercial release. we arent lifting a finger on it until after the new year because every one of us is seriously burned out from this year's titanic struggle to compete in the MSU contest. there will be in-depth planning stages this time around, since we've learned hard lessons from our MSU efforts.

we'd like to recruit mappers of some experience, ideally those who could take the lead on an entire map themselves complete with skills to build custom mesh where neccesary (altho we have a large art team to support you, so you could get away with just whiteboxing)

we'd also like to hear from anyone who perhaps would just like to help with lower level mapping stuff (mesh placement, lighting) so we can get some support for the *big boy* level designers. but all comers beware, we are deadly serious and we will expect a high level of commitment. we will also expect you to listen and take direction from our lead level designer.

The AFF family is a close knit group forged in the crucible of vast ambition and ample will to succeed in what we do. Our game technology is complete and working, you can play the current release downloadable from our ModDB page linked below.

thanks!
Josh *Strangelet* Grafton, Art Director, AFF:Planetstorm

[Nawrot]

I am interested. I can do levels and some modeling where its needed, my weak spot is creating textures. All i need to work are textures, somebody to skin my meshes (or rather paint empty skins that i can prepare) and concept art.

[strangelet]

exlent. keep in touch. in a week or so when the msu has gone away i'll post up the link to our IRC chan so you guys can come kick ideas around.

[Kyodan]

I'd love to help as well. I've done every part of the Unreal art pipeline (concept, modeling, level design, texturing, etc.), but my main strengths are in modeling and level design.

[evilmrfrank]

Hey I'm interested in joining the team! I'm really not that great at building my own custom art but I have a lot of experience as a Level Designer. http://www.evilmrfrank.com/ If your interested just send in an email to me. My email can be found at the bottom of the Resume page on my site, I won't post it here because of spam bots taking it XD

[Jetfire]

Awesome!
*goes back to ued*

[Phenicks]

I'm really looking forward to play this stand alone and announce it as free game to all my friends =p.

Good luck on the project and on MSU.

[Darcon]

I'm also interested in joining up! I'm pretty good at the lower level Unreal work and would like to get more experience in the area. I'm also a decent modeller and unwrapper.

I'm still assembling my portfolio at www.nickharris.ca (http://www.nickharris.ca)

If you're interested email me at zache860@gmail.com

[Azzedinistan]

Awesome!
*goes back to ued*

Awesome
*goes back to http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=707185 to wait for a reply*

[Gizmosan]

need any VFX artists for PlanetStorm? Loved the UT3 mod btw :)

[Hellclown]

I'll help if you need it, I can't promise a full-time commitment because I have my own project(s) to work on and guide. All the same if you need some help here and there I'm always happy to be a part of something, so feel free to send me an email (zaberhayes@gmail.com) or PM.

[dasKaRmA]

I am also interested.
I create levels for unreal since the first Title came out.
And made levels for commercial Products and mods.
I can also model, animate and texture Meshes in Max if its needed.
Here are a few links to some of my released Levels for UT3.
http://forums.beyondunreal.com/showthread.php?t=189318
http://forums.beyondunreal.com/showthread.php?t=185457&highlight=observatory

Drop me a PM or email (robert.chudalla@gmail.com) if you are interested.

[strangelet]

gizmosan, just wait and see our new uber fx. we have a vfx dedicated guy atm who has written a *system* which allows us to add dynamic light, sound, lensflares and particles in a much less complicated manner than piecing all of those things together in the usual UE way. consequently he went mental (every plasma round has its own lensflare now) altho we will consider all comers when we get into the swing next year. he may for example need a monkey (technical term referring to any kind of assistant) to do his bidding.

the sheer labor involved in decking out square miles of map means that we're more interested in mappers atm.

[strangelet]

daskarma we REALLY like your lighting and general decor, the observatory map looks really cool (reminds me a lot of the brothers-in-arms story levels)

what might be fun, really useful for us, and incredibly cool for our players, is if you guys go get our ut3 mod and make us some small fun maps. if thers enough response to this idea we can get tutorials on how to set up the AFF-Space and AFF-Ground gametypes (its pretty simple since most of our gameplay tech has been scripted with custom actors and volumes)

just a few of the cool features in our mod for mappers -

Weather Volumes -
volumes which affect the *weathering* layer which is present on all vehicles and charcters, allowing you to set 2 detail textures to fade in over time. our test map hhas a *sprayshop* where you drive the vecs into bays which color them in outrageous paintjobs, as well as Desert, Snow, Rain volumes which afflict them with respective types of weathering. we've not really made much use of this yet. the weathering params include not only being able to specify 2 different weathering textures per volume, but also have controls for color, specular, and normal maps for each layer. you can make things wet, muddy, grass-stained, frozen, covered in custard, you name it.

Weather Effect Actor -
this attatches a particle system to the player, casts a ray from a chosen direction and figures out if the *weather* can reach you. upshot, you run into a building and the rain stops. it also includes sound slots for ambient noise when outside, and a different sound to be played when the rain is being occluded. the *rainhit* noise is localised to the point where the ray is obstructed, so the effect is that you can hear the rain pattering on roofs.

custom objective actors
simple-to-use objective actors which require minimal kismet and when linked to AFFBaseVolumes automatically attatch startpoints, vehicles etc.

pre-made spacecraft maps and *hub* map
our space game uses seperate streamed levels to represent ship interiors. we have a blank *hub* map into which virtually any kind of environment can be streamed and set up with minimum fuss as a space level using any combination of our spaceships.

dropship spawns
AFFBaseVolumes and AFFvehiclefactories have a USEDROPSHIP feature which allows troops and vehicles to be dropped off by other vehicles. this is incredibly cool looking from the ground.

All staticmeshes use a few *master* materials that have some really neat features like Tinting and Weathering (see above) as well as detail dif and normal textures.

we have a crapload of content, about 20% of which is still unused. lots of modular kits of things. its a really nice lego set for mappers, and theres more to come!

so yeah. why wait for us to crank the devmachine back up? we'd really like to see what you guys can do with our content! go for it!

[Jetfire]

Gentle bump since the forum is more populated now than when we initially posted this. Still collecting names for when we start rolling again in the New Year.
Our last UT3 release is coming out this weekend, then we shall rest, recharge and plan and start the UDK version.

[nate0109]

If you can provide all models and meshes and textures, I can do that

[Jagnot]

I've been following your project for a little while, it looks amazing.

If it weren't for my classes I would volunteer and help with a level (4+ years experience), but as it is I'm gunning for two associates right now. : (

Good luck with your project!

[DELTATHUND3R]

Thats some pretty impressive works..Love ya hard surface stuff..Looking great guys.Nice idea lots of potential...

[musilowski]

Still in army, otherwise I might have the time to do some level designing midst my own little project.

I can do simple meshes and textures okay, but as you seem to have quite a large set of meshes already, I could do away with those.

I placed 5th in MSU P3 best DM/CTF level category, so I think I can consider myself an experienced mapper...

I'll return this summer and check whether you need still some mappers. Good luck on the project and congratulations on MSU so far! :)

[Jetfire]

Thanks, we'll still be around. Congrats on your win :)

[MrEL40Guy]

3ds max modeller/level designer here who is also interested in joining your team.......how are you fixed for music? Yes Im a musician/music programmer too!

[Jetfire]

We're sorted for musicians, thanks. Modelling/ LD stuff we would like to see a portfolio, we can't really just take your word for it :p
pm me if you'd rather not post it publicly ofc.

[MrEL40Guy]

Hi
Well, there are a few bits here on my profile at MySpace :http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewAlbums&friendID=298488954