Devil Hunter Project: Recruiting composers and artists

[Duke2go]

Hi,

I'm working on a project that my co-creator and I have named Devil Hunter: MIyumi. This is a video game in the vein of the old side-scrolling action games from the 80s and 90s, which is a genre we feel that has kind of fallen by the wayside in recent years. The game is going to be very similar to the Ninja Gaiden series on the NES with elements of horror akin to the Castlevania series and the action platforming of Strider 2. The game will be set in the late 1800s in Japan and will involve a young Devil Hunter named Miyumi and her mentor Shin. The Devil Hunter tribe basically protect Japan from the Yokai (japanese demons). Our main villain, a japanese succubus, attacks the Devil Hunter village while our 2 protagonists are away training, setting up a quest for Miyumi and Shin to track down the Yokai and save her family/clan. We've already fleshed out a lot of the story and I have bios written for the different characters and placeholder images. Right now I'm coding the game myself using the Unity Engine and the game is actually playable at the moment, though I'm still programming specifics for the characters, special attacks, enemy AI etc. I'm shooting for the end of March or April to be completely finished with the engine. We have already contacted many graphic artists and designers, and have assembled a great team, but I'm ultimately trying to turn this project into the establishment of a legitimate indie game studio, so I want to assemble the most talented people that I can.

While I have a lot of the graphical aspects covered, I have no experience composing music. Right now I have a few pieces of placeholder music for use while I'm programming just so I can get an idea of how it will look and sound when its finished, and all of the tracks I've used came from OCRemix. I figured if I was so taken and inspired by remixes from members of this site, then this would be the place to try and recruit some talented people who obviously love creating music. I have a very broad taste in music and I would like to incorporate some actual instruments for some parts and "kick ass" tunes for others. The game will also have cinema scenes like the original Ninja Gaiden Trilogy on the NES, so I'm approaching this more akin to a film than I am to a video game. I want the visuals and the music to sync up to create a complete experience and I can provide examples of music that has inspired me. We are rapidly approaching the point where I will start crowd funding the game and it is my intention to have a completed opening cinema, first stage with functional boss character, and closing cinema that will eventually be the transition from stages 1 to 2. As project manager, head writer, and lead programmer, I made a decision that we could not attempt to crowd fund off of the work of others, so I need to find people who want to create original music that we can use for the proof of concept, which will be fully playable. So right now I need 3 to 4 tracks total, but eventually it will be closer to 20 to 25 depending on how many stages we use and if there is any DLC provided. I'm a particular fan of the original Ninja Gaiden soundtracks from the NES, the Megaman X series (particularly 2 and 6), Castlevania series (like SotN and Rondo of Blood), and other games in different genres including RPGs like Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, etc. But I'm not locked into a specific genre of music, so I'd like to discuss the project and see what types of original compositions we can come up with.

Like I said previously, I'm trying to build a fantastic team that can do everything in-house. I want to have composers and musicians on staff who share my love of gaming and visual media who can then grow their own talents any way they see fit. I've also created a closed group on Facebook for my development team so that we can bounce ideas off of each other without worrying about external input unless we ask for it. I'm going to close with a message I posted to that page that hopefully conveys the seriousness of my intentions.

"I know this project is going to be a lot of work, and I have no issue compensating anyone for your time and effort. I really want to take care of everyone as best I can once the game is completed. Which is why I'd like to work it out so that everyone involved gets a percentage of all future sales and re releases of the game. And I want to build the studio so we can all work together to make awesome games and even branch off to comic books or other forms of media and make a decent living doing it. I will make you this promise, if you will help me and make a little now, I will do everything in my power to push you as high as I can off of this stepping stone that we're building.

Most game developers start off with funding before they start programming. I just started programming because I need something of meaning in my life and I was going to do whatever I could do to get there. I'm tired of working for other people and I'm ready to "kick down the doors" of the video game industry. So I'm going to make this happen and nothing is going to stop me. And anyone who comes on the journey with me is going to be as successful as I can possibly make them.

So I'm glad you're along for this trip. And again, I promise you I will make it worth the journey, especially once we can start crowd funding and I have money to spend. Your art/talent is worth it, because if I didn't feel it was, I wouldn't have reached out to you in the first place. Every one of the people I've gathered around me have skills and talents that better this team. You all bring something special and unique to the table and I can't do this without you.

This is not going to be an easy undertaking. If anybody wants to get off the roller coaster, feel free with no hard feelings from me. But I hope you see value in my vision and that you will continue to walk with me. I hope you all have a great rest of your week my friends. And thank you for helping my dream become a reality."

If you're interested in what you've read, please feel free to message me here or at duke2go@gmail.com. Eventually I'll establish an official website for the project and finished game, as well as a specific email address, but right now I'm a freelance writer and it is easier for me to check my emails all at once rather than trying to keep up with 2 or 3 different addresses simultaneously. I apologize for no images in the thread, but if you're interested please message me and I can send you preview videos of where the game is currently and other concept art we've come up with so far. Thanks for taking the time to read all of this and I hope that we can work together to build something special.

 

Mike

[Duke2go]

Just want to post a quick update.

I've had a response to this post, so I've started developing my music team. There are 2 composers on the team currently. We also have 5 different artists who are working on the concept art/spriting for the game. We're set on releasing an initial teaser trailer on March 31st, right now with some royalty free music since nothing has been finalized yet and we want to start getting interest out about the project. We're also aiming to have the crowd funding started on April 30th, running either for 30 or 60 days depending. We also have set a final release date for the project of around December 1st, 2018 provided we hit our crowd funding goals. If anybody has experience with crowd funding and wouldn't mind giving me some hints, I'm certainly all ears. I'd like to increase my music team, and I ultimately want to build a staff for a legitimate game development studio, so if this sounds like something you might be interested in, please reply to this post or message me directly. The contact info is in the initial post. I'm also trying to find a way to post some actual concept art and previews of the game engine, but the last time I promoted anything photobucket's terms were different, so I don't know where I can host images to link for free. Anyways, thank you to anyone who is interested or can give me some education about crowd funding or even music composing.

 

Mike