The Malazan Project- Recruitment

[General King]

Hi I am General King. I am the lead modeller for the malazan project.

Malaz is the world created by Steven Erikson and Ian Cameron Esslemont. It is one of the most detailed, and epic pieces of fantasy fiction created in the last ten years.

Our aim, currently, is to recreate a small bit of that world; Malaz Island.

We have spent a long time working out exactly how to do this, and now we are moving forward with the actual development. The project will be carried out in the Unreal Development Kit, essentially a free version of the full Unreal Engine, which we can develop in until we make sales, at which point a royalty is applied. However, before going into full development of our vision, we are going to simply create a small slice of what we wish to achieve, in order to show the authors that we can bring their world to life, and obtain a license from them.
For all intents and purposes, this is just like working on a mod, except at the end of it you could actually get paid.

So, we are presenting to you all the opportunity to join in on this massive undertaking. For those of you looking at a career in game design, this will also serve as a great learning experience, and resume piece.

Presently, we need a minimum of:

3 level designers
8 3D artists / modellers
3 concept artists
1 composer
5 voice actors
2 writers (must become comfortable with the setting)
3 texturers
4 programmers
3 animators

Requirements are: 18+ and a measure of past experience, either in your relevant fields on in creating a mod. If you are under 18, but have extensive experience, then feel free to apply, as we will still consider you for a position. All applicants should provide examples of their work. (Modellers of course samples to be in form of a demo reel of your work)

If you are interested send me a pm and a small piece of work as an example of your ability. Or email me johnikins@hotmail.co.uk

Thanks,
-General King, on behalf of the Malazan Project Team, Lead Modeller

[General King]

More information can be gathered at

http://www.modcraft.net/community/index.php?showforum=862

These are our main forums.

[Dread Raven]

Update

As the current Acting Lead Level Designer, for the Malazan Project- I'd like to clarify a couple of issues. Specifically, I would like to address some of the questions that applicants have frequently been asking us.

Firstly, we would like to assure any potential recruits that we have been in contact with the estate's of the authors who have written the series of books in question, and specifically with Steven Erikson himself.

A mutual agreement has been reached between all relevant parties, that before we are licensed to create an entire RPG, set in the Malazan world, we must first create a short demo- in order for the authors to be able to better understand our interpretation of their universe and continuity.

Secondly, candidates applying for roles as Level Designers or Programmaers may send examples work from other game engines (including game modifications) for review, as long as they also express a willingness to learn to use the UDK engine.

Finally, in addition to the given email address- please feel free to contact me at dread_raven@hotmail.co.uk if you are applying for a position in Level Design or Programming, or alternatively contact me on Skype, where I use the username dread.raven or PM me either here, or on the Modcraft forums (http://www.modcraft.net/community/).

[Citizen86]

Sounds like an interesting idea, and good to see it's more than one person with a big idea....

Are any of these books published yet? I've never heard of it, but I'm not a big fantasy reader either... I've always enjoyed fantasy RPG's though.

Edit: Well I answered my own question with a bit of googling... yes there are published books. Since 1999 at that.

[Dread Raven]

Indeed, almost the full series is published already- so we have some catching up to do! :p

At a quick count, I believe we have 11 members who are already fully active- with a few inactive members hoping to return to the team in the near future, and a couple of people with pending applications to the team.

This said, we are still looking for more modellers, programmers and level designers in particular- although there are still spaces available for all roles detailed in this topic's main post.

[General King]

Hi John King again, a notice stating that I need modellers with experience in character modelling. As I have a shortage of this skill in my department.

As always you can send me a pm or email me at johnikins@hotmail.co.uk

Thank you

John King

[Fang]

Holy crap, my jaw just dropped to the effin' floor upon seeing this thread.

I'm a newcomer to the Malazan series, currently plowing through Memories of Ice, but it's I dare say among the best fiction I've read as of late. Top. Notch. Period.

A couple of questions if you don't mind;
Q: Firstperson or thirdperson, other?
Q: How are you going about to capture the great characters, will you be making some kind of a dialogue system or will it be cinematic dialogue?
Q: Will the progression be linear or sandbox/focused mainstory or branching mainstory(ala Bioware)?
Q: How much will the mainstory be tied into the events of the novels? Mind you I have only read as far as half into Memories of Ice as previously mentioned.

I am a modeller myself, it would be a pleasure to work on a project like this, but I'm afraid I don't have much to show of yet. Perhaps I'll send in an application at a later date.

Anyway, this is a dream-project, hope it works out for you!

[OwenM]

:D

Always good to see more Malazan fans.

I'll answer your questions, though I'll have to truncate some of my responses, because I tend to get carried away. :P

First person, at this stage. It'd be nice to be able to switch, but that will depend on the time and skills we have available.

For this project, we're avoiding most of the 'major' characters - two that you won't have heard of yet, but feature as reference characters in later books (or as major characters in Ian Cameron Esslemont's works...due to the time period we're working in, we see more of his than of SE's) are Ameron and Possum.

We'll be using a mix of cinematic and actual choice-based dialogue. The former to give a real sense of who the characters are, and to add to the feel of the game, and the latter to allow players to unravel information, and talk their way through situations.

Once again, the answer differs between this project and what we envision as being the final product, but: mostly linear, with a open world approach, however. You will be able to complete events in different orders, but due to the limits imposed upon us we can't quite create something of the grand scope that Bioware would, or (because I hate to use Oblivion as an example of good open-world story telling) along the lines of Morrowind. But there will be optional side stories to pursue, and such like.

In this case, the events tie directly into main story, or mythos, of the world. If you recall the events of the Gardens of the Moon prologue, then this story takes place around then (give or take maybe a year...). It also ties in very closely with the story depicted in Night of Knives, also by Ian, rather than by Erikson.

But the idea is to tie into the events of the books, closely but not too closely, if you will.

Modellers are in huge demand, so if you've got any examples of your work then I'm sure we'd be interested. But if you aren't confident of your abilities yet, that's OK, we'll always be looking for more members. ^^

Hopefully I've answered your questions, but I'm trying to avoid spoiling some of the plot lines you've yet to encounter...and without referencing those it can difficult to explain where the story fits into the greater history of Malaz. XD

And thank you for the words of support. The Malaz world is particularly dear to me, so I really intend to push this to completion. ^^

-OwenM/Silencer, Project Lead.

(Edited for paragraphing...makes it less of a wall of text)

[Fang]

Thanks for the response :)

This all sounds very good, I'm glad you're not going for something impossibly ambitious as those projects just seems to crumble over time.

Two more questions just materialized in my mind, (sorry :D)
Q: Will the player character be tied into the world right from the get-go? Or will you be an anonymous character to begin with?
Q: Will you have any kind of character-customization? Either choosing appearance of your character or acquiring new inventory items such as armor/weapons etc. Or even a leveling-system with skills/talent-trees? (I realize some of this might be on the difficult side of achieving)

And as for me, I think I need a bit more time to find a good modelling workflow, especially if I'm going to join a mod such as this, where I'd want to be as productive as possible.
I'm most certainly going to keep an close eye on this and get in contact with you when I think I'm ready. Hopefully soon.

[OwenM]

No problem, questions are good.

We're tying the character in straight up. We need it to establish the story and avoid leaving too many doors open (which we wouldn't have time to fill in, really).
Character customisation is a good point - we really want to have, at least, a male/female character choice. But we will definitely be having an inventory system, with new items available as you progress, which you'll collect off dead folk and the like.
Now, we'd *really* like a levelling system, but unless I get some really skilled programmers, I don't think it's entirely feasible.

:)

Thanks again, and good luck with getting better! (Which loses some of it's generosity when you realise that you getting better is kind of good for me, too :P )

[Team-QQ]

@ Fang "
And as for me, I think I need a bit more time to find a good modelling workflow, especially if I'm going to join a mod such as this, where I'd want to be as productive as possible.
I'm most certainly going to keep an close eye on this and get in contact with you when I think I'm ready. Hopefully soon."


50% of something, is a lot more than 100% of nothing.
(One of) The best ways to learn is to just get involved anyway. :)

Enjoy your Modelling


udkDan.

[General King]

@ Fang Dan is correct.

This is my first time as Lead Modeller, am I nervous? Yes I am.

Will I make mistakes? Most likely.

But all I care about is making a cool game.

John King (Lead modeller)

[General King]

Right I'm now looking for modellers with character modelling experience (3-4 modellers) in regards to normal modelling such as buildings and etc you will refer to me. But when it comes to character modelling you will be a seperate individual team. The assistant Lead Modeller will be head of this team and will be overall number 2 of the modelling team. The Assistant Lead Modeller will be picked from any character modellers who apply and are accepted into the team.

Also Dread has informed me that he wants two more Level designers and a programmer that is there to help the level development team.

Thank you for your time

John King (Lead Modeller)

[Nawrot]

Hmm, do you read your PM's ?

[General King]

I have now Nawrot, brilliant looking maps I've sent the releveant details you need to know by pm. Any more questions I'll be happy to answer them.

John King

[Fang]

I see what you guys are saying, give me a few days and I'll send you some of my work.
On that note, it'd be nice to see some work from you guys and your team, so to get an idea of roughly what you're able to achieve, if you don't mind.

Also what do you think the experience level is in the team in general?

[General King]

Well a group were from the oblivion modding community, I was original a RTS modder lol so my experience is more in rigid body models. The model work I done for this mod are up on the Malazan World bit of the modcraft forums.

PM me your contact details and I'll send some pics of my work for you to have a look.

[OwenM]

Well, it's nothing impressive yet, just mock-ups of the area that we want to do, but you can follow our progress at http://malazanmod.wordpress.com/, which is our blog.
I'll have to make a point of putting up more stand-alone resources that we have, because currently it's just our level outline. :)

[Fang]

@General King, thanks for the email

@OwenM, thanks

I've been apart of startup teams before and it's hard, I'd hope you were further along.
At the moment I'm looking for a MOD that has strong work and is further along, because I think that would be an more beneficial learning environment for me.

However, I will keep an eye on you guys, may Opoon smile on you :)

[OwenM]

Hey, no problem. I understand. :)
It is a tough project to take up, and we do have to put in a lot of work...but that's what we're into. :P

And thanks. ^^