Hi everybody,
since late 2004 I have been working almost without pause at a brand-new game (working title: "uniVERSUS") which, I hope, should appeal to many.
The point I'm at now is critical, as I badly need a pixeller and a level designer - without them, the project would just die -, so that's why I'm announcing this here. Actually, since the game has four different kinds of graphics (backgrounds, sprites, cutscenes and terminal GUIs), the work can be done also by several graphicians (but, of course, no more than one pixeller per kind), provided they can make their styles match/blend nicely.
Anybody who wants and is able to seriously commit himself/herself to a demanding yet very interesting and promising project is invited to contact me privately (email: saimobvq*interfree,it). I will answer to each and every application and, of course, I will eventually choose those who impress me most and with whom communication is easier (obviously, people from my country have an advantage in this regard).
Now, I guess that such an announcement would be rather uninteresting if I did not disclose any other information, right? ;)
Well, here's a sort of manifesto; please read carefully, it may be worth it...
***
uniVERSUS is a vertical shoot'em-up which aims at being highly innovative while sporting, at the same time, a great "oldskool" style - in a nutshell, it wants to be a "retro-innovative" game.
It is created with passion, love, careful handcraftmanship and a touch of bedroom-coding insanity; it features fresh ideas never seen before in the genre; it is based on and enriched by complex techniques and mechanics, which, however, do not affect playability in a negative way as the gameplay is engineered to let the player always feel in command and truly enjoy the progress through carefully designed levels.
It targets both newbies and experts of this semi-forgotten genre and, even if the reasons will be inevitably different, it hopes to provide both with lots of pure fun.
uniVERSUS is intended to be released commercially for AmigaOS 4, Linux, MacOS X, Windows XP and possibly other platforms (with AmigaOS 4 receving a "special treatment" as a helping push in this difficult moment).
[Note that, although developed mainly on AmigaOS 4, uniVERSUS is constantly tested on other platforms as well, so this is not just wishful thinking.]
The code is in a very, very advanced state but, unfortunately, that's about all. In fact, in this demo:
* the very few and short levels are meant to just test the code and in no way are representative of the final playability;
* most of the graphics are temporary;
* audio is completely absent;
* the management part is incomplete;
* joypads/joysticks are not supported;
* there is no configuration utility;
* some parts are incomplete;
* there may well be nasty bugs ;)
For these reasons, this demo does not really show all the potential already present, so it is absolutely recommended to read thoroughly the included design documentation.
***
Those who aren't happy with just words (who can blame them? not me, certainly!) can surf to
http://saimobvq.interfree.it/uniVERSUS/index.html and download a WIP demo for both AOS4 and Windows. It is very important, however, to keep in mind that the lack of decent graphics and proper levels does not allow the demo to show the real potential, so I absolutely recommed to read carefully the enclosed design documentation.
Enjoy, and remember that my mailbox is ready to be crammed by your applications ;)
saimo
P.S. This is already being discussed on AW.net (http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php ?topic_id=20607&forum=15). Since it would be demanding for me to follow several threads (as inevitably I would end up being asked the same questions), I'd like to ask you to partecipate, if possible, to the discussion over there. Thank you.
