PS3 Indie Game Project @ UC Santa Cruz : Seeking artists

[solidslade]

Greetings OCR, long time listener/lurker, first time poster here.

We are a group of hackers and 3D artists working on an indie game project. Recently, our university has acquired a license, an SDK and development tools for the PlayStation3 platform. Our group intends to create an experimental RTS game, with an AI driven universe.

We are looking for musicians who want the following;

- exposure to game development.

- eager to share their music as part of a game experience.

- fan of Robert Heinlein, Orson Scott Card, William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Isaac Asimov.

- well versed in piano, electronica, and a little bit of game design.

- willing to work in an indie team, with members from Europe and South America.

Our group needs to develop the following, within a year;

- musical score for various game events.

- transition effects, sound libraries.

- music that fits in very well with space-opera style science fiction.

We intend to submit this project to the various games festivals (IGF, PAx10 and others). This project is also a track requirement for graduating seniors at UCSC's computer game design major. Our project has a one year development cycle, which includes prototyping, development, beta testing. We also have an agreement with Sony, who has rights to see the work firsthand. If the project has commercial viability, and a good user base, Sony intends to ship the game into the market.

Thanks for reading. If you have any further inquiries, feel free to contact me :

slade at soe dot ucsc dot edu

Cheers.

Slade Villena

Hacker : A.I., Operating Systems, Game Engines

PS3 Developer Lab, UC Santa Cruz

[Meteo Xavier]

Whens the music deadline? I'm always eager to join these projects, but right now I'm absolutely swamped with other commitments. That may change down the road, so I'm asking now so I may still have the opportunity.

Additionally, what type of criteria are those of us going to have to follow to get our tracks on your game? Most of us have busy lives and few us just have the time it takes to do 4-5 tracks for your game, get 3 rejected and 1 maybe, then go back and do it again, and again, and again, etc. etc. Obviously, you have quality standards and its not our job to give you shit music, but what exactly is the level you're looking for? We can't all produce Ocremix quality stuff time after time.

Additionally, will you be mastering the musics? If you get a lot of different tracks from different people, you clearly know the soundtrack will be aesthetically off-balance with different volumes and mixdowns. If thats the case, I might find some already made stuff for you to use, since production is what sucks up most of my time.

[solidslade]

Whens the music deadline?

Our deadlines will be matching the submission times for the IGF, which accepts submissions beginning in the summer. We have one academic year as our proposed time budget, with a few months afterwards for debug, tweaking and post production. We intend to submit material that is highly polished and worthy of publication.

We would like musicians who can work with this process, we intend to work on week-by-week commits. Our milestones and tasks will be spread out over 2 week intervals. We are now working on forum access from my university, as well as a data upload server.

Additionally, what type of criteria are those of us going to have to follow to get our tracks on your game?

Once people are accepted into the team, we will ask artists to develop

musical scores for various in-game events. We were hoping this would follow a space-opera distinction; there is music playing all the time, for each game event. Game events will dictate, through an AI filter, what music will be played.

(think Star Wars. If you notice, there is always music playing throughout the film. We intend to do the same, but with the aid of an event detection system)

Additionally, will you be mastering the musics? If you get a lot of different tracks from different people, you clearly know the soundtrack will be aesthetically off-balance with different volumes and mixdowns.

We're looking for a few good musicians first, than we can discuss how we render music, and what kind of style they will follow. We have one academic year to work on this project, with some post-production time before the submissions to the games festivals, which gives us enough time to develop a fully realized musical score.

[Matt E. Waldman]

Oh wow, this sounds very promising. If I wasn't busy with starting college and other projects, I'd LOVE to lend a hand!

Keep us posted, this seriously sounds like an awesome project!

How much time do you guys have to develop the title?

Edit: Oh wait, you answered that a minute ago, whoops!

[solidslade]

Oh wow, this sounds very promising. If I wasn't busy with starting college and other projects, I'd LOVE to lend a hand!

Keep us posted, this seriously sounds like an awesome project!

How much time do you guys have to develop the title?

Edit: Oh wait, you answered that a minute ago, whoops!

Thanks

We intend to gather artists, mainly from the web communities. Our university has no "technical artists" community, and we can't find anyone willing to help us with 3D art or music here. We wanted the extend this opportunity to artists who want to get a taste of game development, and also expose them on the PS3 platform.

[Meteo Xavier]

Our deadlines will be matching the submission times for the IGF, which accepts submissions beginning in the summer. We have one academic year as our proposed time budget, with a few months afterwards for debug, tweaking and post production. We intend to submit material that is highly polished and worthy of publication.

We would like musicians who can work with this process, we intend to work on week-by-week commits. Our milestones and tasks will be spread out over 2 week intervals. We are now working on forum access from my university, as well as a data upload server.

Like WHEN? As in, are you starting in SEPTEMBER and hoping to wrap it up in MAY? People who have worked on projects like this know what happens with everyone's schedules and delays and changes. We need rough estimates with calender names.

Once people are accepted into the team, we will ask artists to develop

musical scores for various in-game events. We were hoping this would follow a space-opera distinction; there is music playing all the time, for each game event. Game events will dictate, through an AI filter, what music will be played.

(think Star Wars. If you notice, there is always music playing throughout the film. We intend to do the same, but with the aid of an event detection system)

So its ORCHESTRAL then or ambient techno? Space Opera could mean virtually anything to us. How polished are you looking to get out of us? Is this a process where we submit something we worked on for 10 nights, wait a week to hear back from you, only to get back "Nope, I'm not digging it. Try something <insert vague and conflicting definitions of music here> and do it again.>

Don't let my harsh tonality fool you, I'm not trying to be an ass, this is stuff I've heard all year working on projects like yours and its very frustrating to work on. Today, in fact, one of the PAID projects I'm working on just told me "Great News! I'm changing the whole project, paying you less and throwing away 20 hours of your work!" /summary. Well, I'm not sure if he's throwing away what I did already, but you get what I'm saying.

I mean, you're not contacting professionals who are dying to work for free for the most part, you're contacting would-bes and hobbyists who have one-two jobs and real lives. Most of us don't have huge recording studios and all the best shit and the idea of spending 5-8 hours a track to get it rejected turns us off the project quicker than you would believe.

Again, I know you don't want shit, but how high is the mark is what I'm asking.

We're looking for a few good musicians first, than we can discuss how we render music, and what kind of style they will follow. We have one academic year to work on this project, with some post-production time before the submissions to the games festivals, which gives us enough time to develop a fully realized musical score.

I don't know what you mean by "render", but its a musical production term. Mastering is, I'm pretty sure, what makes even the tiniest sounding piano loud and bright and balanced in a song mix and it can make all the difference in a track and soundtrack.

[solidslade]

Like WHEN? As in, are you starting in SEPTEMBER and hoping to wrap it up in MAY? People who have worked on projects like this know what happens with everyone's schedules and delays and changes. We need rough estimates with calender names.

We are starting NOW. We forward our submissions in JULY 2010 Post Production for Sony and anyone else, TWO MONTHS OR MORE.

So its ORCHESTRAL then or ambient techno? Space Opera could mean virtually anything to us.

I'd like orchestral, and techno. Space Opera, at least my definition, deals with over-arching, "epic scale" plots : "Death Star" comes to mind. Also, for the StarGate series, "Ascension" comes to mind as well.

How polished are you looking to get out of us? Is this a process where we submit something we worked on for 10 nights, wait a week to hear back from you, only to get back "Nope, I'm not digging it. Try something <insert vague and conflicting definitions of music here> and do it again.>

We're doing week-by week submissions, which MEANS we have responses and feedback on a weekly basis. We are concurrently setting up forums and a data server for the task.

Don't let my harsh tonality fool you, I'm not trying to be an ass, this is stuff I've heard all year working on projects like yours and its very frustrating to work on. Today, in fact, one of the PAID projects I'm working on just told me "Great News! I'm changing the whole project, paying you less and throwing away 20 hours of your work!" /summary. Well, I'm not sure if he's throwing away what I did already, but you get what I'm saying.

As with any Indie project, the collaborative process requires a lot of active participation and transparency. We don't intend to just "throw out" work, we want to develop them.

We have a whole freaking year. This isn't your usual "commissions" style job. We want our artists to take ownership of their art assets, and not just be someone grinding out content.

I mean, you're not contacting professionals who are dying to work for free for the most part, you're contacting would-bes and hobbyists who have one-two jobs and real lives. Most of us don't have huge recording studios and all the best shit and the idea of spending 5-8 hours a track to get it rejected turns us off the project quicker than you would believe.

Nor do we. Hey, a common attribute!

[Meteo Xavier]

Ok, now we're talking!

Whole year huh? Sign me up as interested and willing. Unless you want anything on my youtube and myspace, I might not be able to get to you until the end of year, but I definitely want to contribute and work on thi project some.

[solidslade]

Ok, now we're talking!

Whole year huh? Sign me up as interested and willing. Unless you want anything on my youtube and myspace, I might not be able to get to you until the end of year, but I definitely want to contribute and work on thi project some.

drop my an email, see OP. Will update you guys as much as possible

[Meteo Xavier]

I sent you a private message, will that work?

[solidslade]

I sent you a private message, will that work?

sure, but an email addie would help as well.

[Meteo Xavier]

Alright, I sent you an email too. Check it in like 10 seconds... maybe more.

[prophetik music]

meteo, you're really desperate to get into this field, aren't you? whatever happened to your writing - as in, english writing? i seem to remember you were into that as well.

i'll be sending you an email, slade. i'm currently scoring two other games that are coming to fruition and i'm looking for more projects.

[Meteo Xavier]

meteo, you're really desperate to get into this field, aren't you? whatever happened to your writing - as in, english writing? i seem to remember you were into that as well.

Desperate doesn't begin to describe it.

What are you referring to with "English" writing? Do I not write in English? I don't understand that at all.

[prophetik music]

i thought you were more into creative writing than composing. maybe i'm just ignorant.

slade, you should have an email in your box from me. i included the contact info for my project leads on the last two games i've scored so that you have a little background on where i'm coming from.

[Meteo Xavier]

i thought you were more into creative writing than composing. maybe i'm just ignorant.

No, I do that too, I just finished the rough draft of a novella for ERASERHEAD Publishing's New Author something series and I'm getting a short story published in whatever the next issue of absurdistjournal.com is going to be.

[solidslade]

bumpage....