Developer (and artist? and sound?) recruiting

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tzlaine
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Developer (and artist? and sound?) recruiting

#1 Post by tzlaine »

MikkoM wrote:... would it be a good idea to do some advertisement on the Ogre recruitment forum http://www.ogre3d.org/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=9, to which loonycyborg offered a link to sometime ago? And if so what should we say about the Ogre usage in the project? That it is being used for the space combat engine and possibly something else in the future too? Also at this stage would we need both programmers and artists or just programmers or artists? Or is it still too early to do something like this?
I think it's finally time to return to this. I'm going to start recruiting efforts for programmers on Ogre's forums, and on SourceForge's Help Wanted page. If anyone has any input into how they think this should be done, please chime in now.

Also, I think it might be useful to call for artists on the Ogre forums as well, but I wanted a thumbs-up from Pd and eleazar first. Any places besides the Ogre fourms I should look?

Finally, we have little or no sound, and no one to make new sounds, which we will presumably need for combat (explosions, laser sounds, whatever). I guess I could try to find someone for this on the Ogre forums too. Any other ideas where to look?

I'll post my proposed recruiting pitches here before I post them anywhere else. Please give as much feedback as you can, so these can go out and be successful.

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pd
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Re: Developer (and artist? and sound?) recruiting

#2 Post by pd »

I had plans to recruit 3d artists on CG related sites, once we have something 3D to show, so essentially once 0.4 would be done. What I really want to avoid is having a bunch of hobbyist artists joining now and creating mediocre work.
As mentioned, I'll have plenty of time starting next week and I expect to pump out quite a lot of work. This can then be used as a guide for new artists. If we need anything, then concept artists and UI designers maybe. We don't need modelers!

As for audio, I might be able to help out there as well. I have some basic experience in this field and am going to expand this. So providing SFX, shouldn't be too much of a problem, music is another story. Still, asking in the Ogre forum certainly doesn't hurt.

M4lV
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Re: Developer (and artist? and sound?) recruiting

#3 Post by M4lV »

In case you don't this Creative Commons site already: http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/

it has plenty of usable sounds for combat and such and they seem pretty active with helping people.

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pd
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Re: Developer (and artist? and sound?) recruiting

#4 Post by pd »

Yep, I have this one in my bookmarks since ages, great resource!

tzlaine
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Re: Developer (and artist? and sound?) recruiting

#5 Post by tzlaine »

pd wrote:I had plans to recruit 3d artists on CG related sites, once we have something 3D to show, so essentially once 0.4 would be done. What I really want to avoid is having a bunch of hobbyist artists joining now and creating mediocre work.
As mentioned, I'll have plenty of time starting next week and I expect to pump out quite a lot of work. This can then be used as a guide for new artists. If we need anything, then concept artists and UI designers maybe. We don't need modelers!
I feel the same way about programmers too. We don't need a bunch of amateurs messing about in our codebase. However, it is time I think to add some more people. Every time Geoff or myself gets busy, development on our area essentially stops. So, I'm ambivalent, but on balance, I think it's the right thing to do. I won't recruit any graphics people, though. :)
As for audio, I might be able to help out there as well. I have some basic experience in this field and am going to expand this. So providing SFX, shouldn't be too much of a problem, music is another story. Still, asking in the Ogre forum certainly doesn't hurt.
This is really good news. The lack of decent sound effects (and the seeming complete vanishing of the sound crew) is disappointing. And we're going to need a lot more for combat. So, I'll put something together for putting on the Ogre forums.

tzlaine
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Re: Developer (and artist? and sound?) recruiting

#6 Post by tzlaine »

Alright, here's my initial attempt at a recruiting post. You can see the rest of the Ogre recruiting forum here. The whole point here is feedback, so chime in!

EDIT: Changed the non-combat screenshots.
EDIT: Changed the non-combat screenshots again, and added note about licenses.


Subject:
FreeOrion seeks smart C++ programmers willing to learn

Body:
FreeOrion is a project inspired by the awfulness of Master of Orion 3 to create a new high-quality sci-fi 4X game. The project is well under way, having started about 4 years ago. We're looking for a couple more C++ developers to increase development speed (we have lots of artists and designers). We target Linux and Windows, and occassionally someone stops by and makes us a Mac build too. All our libraries and our own code are cross-platform.

I (tzlaine) am the lead developer, and I'm a professional C++ programmer. Our other main developer is Geoff, a grad student. We try to keep the quality of the code to a very high level. This is necessary for a project as big, complex, and ambitious as ours. We also use most of the "modern features" of C++, though certainly not everywhere. By "modern features" I mean things like templates, STL, and Boost. So, if you are already this kind of programmer and are looking for a quality project, or if you are smart but not that experienced, and don't mind learning a lot, this is your project.

To get a flavor for the project, here are the libraries we use: Boost (most of its libraries), OpenGL, OpenAL, GraphViz, Ogre, Ogg, Vorbis, OpenSteer, and GG. GG is a GUI library I wrote for OpenGL. You can find it on SourceForge. It has drivers for use with SDL and Ogre.

We are a GPL project, and we use the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license for artwork and sound.

We have a website and wiki at http://freeorion.org , and a very active forum at http://freeorion.org/forum . Our code can be found on SourceForge too. Download the latest installer and have a look.

Here are some screenshots for our game to date:

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We are currently working on our 3D combat system on a branch. Here are some screenshots of that. We have no ships yet -- like I said, this is what we're working on right now. However, you can see that we're serious about quality output, as well as quality code:

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Those are placeholder planet textures. Higher-res ones are being made now. We have some very talented artists working on the project.

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pd
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Re: Developer (and artist? and sound?) recruiting

#7 Post by pd »

I'd like to see the first(outdated!) and third screenshot removed. The latest 3 screenshots should be included.

If you want to show the credits and production screens, I'd suggest using those:
Image - personally I think this might be confusing though, as it suggests much more activity, then there actually is
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The 3 new screenshots mentioned above are available here, scaled down to the resolution you are using:
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edit: You should perhaps also mention the licenses we are using for code and art.

edit2: more screenshots
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tzlaine
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Re: Developer (and artist? and sound?) recruiting

#8 Post by tzlaine »

I just grabbed those screenshots in a hurry. I have no particular agenda for which ones to show. I'll use screenshots from the wiki like you suggest. If you'd like to include others, let me know.

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Re: Developer (and artist? and sound?) recruiting

#9 Post by pd »

I've edited my post to hold all screenshots I'd use.

tzlaine
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Re: Developer (and artist? and sound?) recruiting

#10 Post by tzlaine »

Updated.

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pd
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Re: Developer (and artist? and sound?) recruiting

#11 Post by pd »

Ready to post IMO :)

tzlaine
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Re: Developer (and artist? and sound?) recruiting

#12 Post by tzlaine »

Alright, for everyone else's benefit, I'll leave this up until tomorrow, then I'll post it to the Ogre forums.

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MikkoM
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Re: Developer (and artist? and sound?) recruiting

#13 Post by MikkoM »

How do you define a smart programmer? And do all skilled/talented programmers consider themselves smart? Isn`t it enough that you are a C++ programmer who is willing to learn and to dedicate some of your time to the development of this project?

Now it is of course a good thing to try to recruit as skilled new members as possible, but what worries me a little, is that do all of the potential new contributors think that they are smart enough to join? Or will they see this project as some sort of a programming MENSA club where you need to be at least a tzlaine clone to help in any way?

tzlaine
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Re: Developer (and artist? and sound?) recruiting

#14 Post by tzlaine »

MikkoM wrote:How do you define a smart programmer? And do all skilled/talented programmers consider themselves smart? Isn`t it enough that you are a C++ programmer who is willing to learn and to dedicate some of your time to the development of this project?

Now it is of course a good thing to try to recruit as skilled new members as possible, but what worries me a little, is that do all of the potential new contributors think that they are smart enough to join?
Yes. Someone who doesn't think they're smart won't keep at a problem until they solve it. They'll give up early, and ask me to do it for them.
Or will they see this project as some sort of a programming MENSA club where you need to be at least a tzlaine clone to help in any way?
Does anything in the post suggest that besides the word "smart"? Why specifically would people reading the post think that?

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MikkoM
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Re: Developer (and artist? and sound?) recruiting

#15 Post by MikkoM »

tzlaine wrote: Yes. Someone who doesn't think they're smart won't keep at a problem until they solve it. They'll give up early, and ask me to do it for them.
OK.
tzlaine wrote:
MikkoM wrote:Or will they see this project as some sort of a programming MENSA club where you need to be at least a tzlaine clone to help in any way?
Does anything in the post suggest that besides the word "smart"? Why specifically would people reading the post think that?
Well not really. It`s just that projects usually welcome any kind of programmers, but FreeOrion seeks specifically smart programmers. So this might seem a bit elitistic.

However I think that the rest of your recruiting post reflects the quality that this project has, quite nicely.

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