Are you a 3D ENVIRONMENT ARTIST and willing to spend some time on a joint venture? Then we want you to join us!

The Project

Rampage M is an oldschool style, top-down shooter which focuses primarily on singleplayer and cooperative multiplayer, later we may want to add competitive multiplayer modes too. We are making this game because we just love to make a game. We are not trying to compete with AAA game titles, but we do have an eye for quality.

See also Rampage M on IndieDB for blog posts, screenshots, movies, etc.

Story

The story takes place on Mercury in a distant future where space travel within our solar system is as common as airplanes are today. Mercury has been colonized mainly by mining corporations which are mining for its metal and minerals. Most of the buildings are underground, because the temperatures at the surface are extreme. One day, the miners discover an unknown type of metal deep underground and they attempt to drill through it, with no success. Special drilling heads are made on Earth and shipped to Mercury, but just before they arrive they lose contact with the landing site on Mercury.

In the beginning of the game, the player finds that aliens occupied Mercury long before humans did, but the aliens live inside the planet core within a metal hull around their cities to hide their precense from our scanners. Apparently these are the aliens that have been abducting humans for centuries and performed tortuous experiments on humans.


Gameplay

We want an oldschool gameplay, which means non-linear maps and bonuses in areas you don't really need to go for the mission goals. The aliens will have basic AI and the game will not focus on aiming skills to get them killed. There will be puzzles to solve, civillians to rescue and a lot of weapons to shoot with. The game engine will change the locations and amount of aliens depending on the number of players in cooperative multiplayer, so that it still requires effort to play through the game together. We also have special armor, shields and damages in various types which introduces a more strategic puzzle element throughout the game.



Engine

The game engine is proprietary software written by Pascal van der Heiden and this is an ongoing process. We currently focus on big wins first and leave all polishing for later. The game runs on Microsoft Windows and will also have a dedicated server for Linux so that dedicated multiplayer servers can be hosted. We already have a good base engine to work with, but the special effects (shadows, lighting, particles, etc) and sounds are yet to be made. The video on the left shows our editing tools and specifically a feature in our engine that allows us to use meshes for wall and floor texturing. (But you should really watch the movie in HD on YouTube to see the details better)

The Team

We are an experienced team with a professional history in game development. When you join our team, you are working with dedicated people that don't give up easily or abandon the project.

Pascal van der Heiden

Pascal is the programmer and project manager of the team. With his work on Overlord and Overlord 2 at Triumph Studios, Pascal has several years of professional background in game development. He has also started and finished several successful projects such as Doom Builder and Bloodmasters.

Allert van der Leij

Allert is the lead artist at Triumph Studios (as well as in our team) and also has a background in game development with Overlord and Overlord 2. Allert has also worked on The Silver Lining (an unofficial King's Quest sequel) for about 8 years.

Rex Claussen

Rex is a level designer who has made several levels for various Doom sourceports and also well known with making complete game modifications. Also maintains his own website at doomnexus.drdteam.org.

Antoine Defarges

Antoine is a concept artists focusing primarily on environments. Antoine is an experienced freelance graphic designer and illustrator for several years. He made many paintings for books and magazines and is also a drawing teacher.

Duc Nguyen

Duc is an experienced artist with a focus on characters, but also does some environments and vehicles. He has previously worked for Yager on several prototype game pitches and at game developer Bigpoint on some of their games.

Tom Clercx

Tom is our animator for pretty much everything that moves. He has also worked as an animator for Triumph Studios and worked on digital content for Station to Station.

Baldi Konijn

Baldi is our concept artists who focuses on alien character concepts. His previous experiences with concept artwork are shown on his personal website.


Special thanks to Yoeri Vleer and Paul van der Laan for their contributions.

Open Positions

We're looking for a 3D ENVIRONMENT ARTIST, with experience in Autodesk Maya 2010.

Due to the nature of this project, we expect you to spend at least 8 hours p/week on it. If you have a good eye for silhouette, detail, and color, we'd like you to apply! Your job will consist of making specific modular surfaces, and props for use in our proprietary game-engine.

You will be tasked with:
- 3D modelling (hardsurface and organic).
- UV mapping.
- Texturing.
- Transfer hi-res to lo-res (diffuse, normal maps, spec maps).
- Help level designers blocking out environments and levels.

You will be guided by a lead artist, so your artwork matches our artsyle (stylised gritty realism). For our more organic environments, sculpting experience (Autodesk Mudbox) is a big plus.

Preferred software experience:
- Autodesk Maya 2010
- Autodesk Mudbox
- Adobe Photoshop
- xNormal
- nDo2

How to Apply

If you think you can help us out, please email pascal@codeimp.com.
In your email, please provide us with the following information:

  • Full name and skype username.
  • The open position you can fill.
  • How many hours a week are you willing to spend, on average?
  • What relevant previous experience do you have?
  • Provide links or attachments of relevant previous work (portfolio).
This project can make a good addition to your portfolio, but there is no direct financial payment. If you are looking for a paid job, then please do not apply.

Updated: March 31st, 2013