Untitled Flash Space Game RFP Instructions

I am an independent Flash game developer in need of art for my current project, an online top-down 2D space game. Although my budget isn't large and I can't pay big studio rates, I don't expect artists to work for free. You will be paid for work completed (not "if the game makes money"). You will also be credited in game.

The style of the game is "fake 3D"; the artwork consists of bitmaps that are, or have the appearance of, a 3D rendered object from a birds' eye view.

Description of artwork

Most of the assets required fall into one of two categories: hulls and components.

Spaceship & Spacestation Hulls

Spaceship hulls will always be viewed in game from directly above as pre-rendered sprites. Except for special pieces used for splash art, none of these assets will ever be viewed from any other angle. So don't spend time carefully modeling the a ship's underbelly-- no one is going to see it.

The main context in which ships will be visible is in the active game window, which simulates a real-time birds' eye view of battle:

The above image shows how a ship would look in game (a distorted Battlestar is being used as a placeholder ship for illustrative purposes). This represents one of the larger ship sizes. The smallest game ships might be only 20 pixels across.

The other context in which a ship may appear is in the ship configuration screen. This is where players may customize their ship with special components. Components added by the player will not made visible in the in-game view. Here the ship appears larger (actual scale may change):

Example grid layout

Corresponding ship

Ship with design grid superimposed.

Ships are partitioned into a grid of "slots" into which players may add components. A small ship might have only a half-dozen slots. A large ship might have 30 or more. The example above shows a medium-large ship (represented by a squashed Battlestar). An important point is that the center of each slot square falls on part of the ship. The reason for this is that some visual effects will correspond to a component. For example, if a ship has a phaser bank in the forward most slot, then phaser shots in game may appear to come from the corresponding part of the ship.

When asked to design a hull, I'll provide the slot layout and the artist will be in charge of designing a 3D ship that can roughly match that layout, as in the above example. With most ships there may be some "fixed" components. Fixed components cannot be customized by the player and can therefore be incorporated into the hull model. For example, in the Battlestar example above I might specify that the two rear-most slots contain the ship's engines.

Small ships might have 10 or fewer slots. Large ships might have 30-50 slots.

Aesthetics

The general aesthetic I'm looking for should evoke the idea of a large capital ship in the player's mind, even when viewed as small in-game sprites. Think "Galactica" or "Enterprise" not "Viper" or "X-Wing."

Components

The other assets needed for the game are components. Components will not be visible on the ship's hull in game-- they will appear in the configuration screen and in the "grid" during ship design. These pieces may be rendered from other angles apart from top-down. The largest resolution that components will appear is 100 x 100 pixels.

Examples of components:

• Turret Cannon
• Missile battery
• Shield generator

Delivery Format

The final delivery for an asset should consist of:

• A top-down rendered preview PNG, no larger than 400 pixels wide.
• The 3D model and textures. These should be in a format that can be rendered by 3DS Max v. 9. If you use a different modeling program, please check that you will be able to provide the final output in this format. Since the assets will only appear in game as pre-rendred sprites, there's no maximum number of polygons.

Assignment of Rights

Once an asset has been accepted and you have received payment, you must agree to assign copyright of the asset to me, Kevin Lin. This means that I have unlimited rights to use the asset in this or any future project, and that you will not reuse or resell the same asset.

Proposal

If you would like to submit a proposal, please email me at nebula@wx3.com with the following:

• A link to your portfolio, preferably showing examples relevant to the project
• Your rates
• An estimate of the cost and time to produce 1 ship asset and 1 component asset
• Any questions you have about me or the project.

About the Developer

I'm an independent Flash game developer who has successfully developed and launched two games with a combined total of over 3 million plays. My last released game Starcom is not exactly like this project, but is of the same "theme."