Zengi
October 13th, 2008, 05:13 PM
Team name:
Mindkiller Productions
Project name:
Metal and Dust
Brief description:
Metal and Dust ( M.A.D. ) is going to be a sci-fi tank warfare MMOFPS. It will involve three factions struggling for power. The majority of the gameplay will be vehicular warfare. Players will not command people, but instead machines of war, that can be upgraded in a modular way. We have been working on it for two years now and the technology is solidifying. We are in need of content artists.
Target aim:
We are aiming to distribute our product online and collect a monthly fee.
Compensation:
No compensation, unless profit is made.
However, we have attracted attention, from a bunch of different sources, including Microsoft. At the very least, you'll be getting some good experience, while also building your resume.
Technology:
The engine is all home grown.
Client is written in XNA.
C# API's used for the Networking component.
The server is written in Mono.
The DB is a MySQL backend.
Target systems are Win XP / Vista / XBox360 ( after PC release ).
Talent needed:
Concept Artist(s): We need concept artists. Although some themes have been established for the different factions and locales present in M.A.D, most of the world is without a face. We need talented individuals to create the look and feel of Verga, its ecology, and landscape. Also although the factions must abbide by some themes, these are flexible and allow plenty of artistic freedom. Must be able to create semi original work.
Mesh Modeler(s): We need creative people to model our game world. M.a.D. will focus on futuristic military outposts and machines of war. We are looking for people that enjoy modeling tanks or other machines of war. There will also be a good deal of architectural work to be done. Experienced in some sort of moding or game project preferred but not required given the right portfolio.
Texture Artist(s)/Skinning Artist(s): We need someone that lives and breathes Texture art. Much of a game's look & feel can come from the quality and style of it's textures. Therefore, we are looking for talented individuals to make our project justice. Experience in gaming is preferred but not required given the right portfolio.
Team structure:
Flaviu "Zengi" Andreescu - I am the lead coder, and designer for MaD.
I've written our engine technology from scratch as well as the server.
I started Mindkiller Productions in 2001 although this project is only
about two years old.
Justin "The Tyrant" Bacco - He is our sound engineer. He is also creating the
music for MaD, which is inspired by Grunge and Industrial as well as many
other genres. He also co-founded Mindkiller Productions with me in '01.
Igor "Mensis" Shpakov - He is our head mesh modeler. He has been with us for
a year and a half. All those jagged pieces of war machine you see in our
content are his handy work. Dabbles in many other aspects such as our
front end web developing. All around go to guy.
Steve Maresca - Our glue man. If it's got an electric pulse he can hook it up,
make it cook, clean, and feed the kids, all from a snazy web interface.
VM specialist, he is the progenitor of Zentific, which we rely on for
managing our server back end. He is an affiliate and has been with us
for many years.
Justin DeMaris - If Steve is our glue man, then JD would be our glue sculptor.
He maintains our DB. He also coded our registration process and doctors
the SVN server when it gets sick. He gets things done, and provides us
with wonderful things like our two click production release process.
He has also been with us for many years.
Arthur "Beetlegauss" Wang - He is our lead concept artist. He is also a talented
writer. He is slowly shaping the look and feel of our universe and doing
the project great justice with every click and key stroke. He's been with
us about four months.
Ryan "Raigon" Quinn - Resident tinkerer. Currently drawing up the geography of
Verga. Has many interests and talents. He has been an affiliate since the
inception of Metal and Dust and helped prototype many of the ideas behind
it.
Website:
http://www.metalanddust.com (http://www.metalanddust.com/)
Contacts:
I can be reached at:
mido@optonline.net or
flav@metalanddust.com
My AIM:
Mido709
Previous Work by Team:
Mods for Rune:
Jetpack Assault
MKP Arena
UT2k4:
Flaviu "Zengi" Andreescu worked on total conversion Eden Eclipse
for the first Make Something Unreal contest ( we got into grand finals ).
Many silly weapons and additions to UT99 and Rune.
Additional Info:
Hello ConceptArt.org . This is a port from my post on GameDev.net. I thought their template was fairly solid so I have chosen to use it here. It's been a few months since we chimed in. Work is progressing smoothly on the project but we are still in need of content designers. The technology is maturing as well, although there are still quite a few rough edges. We continue to incrementally update our tech demo to show the community that we are capable and dedicated enough to see an MMO project to completion. Tech demo requirements and instructions are below, at the end of this section. You are welcome to drop in and play, but keep in mind this is an alpha tech demo, so be kind, and don't expect too much.
I will share some screen shots and offer some commentary to give you an idea of our current progress. Keep in mind, these are tech demo shots, and do not represent the planned quality of our release.
Here is some mesh work by Igor.
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad2.jpg
Here we have the beginnings of our mapping utility.
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad4.jpg
This is our in game terrain sculpting tool being built and finally becoming stable enough for usage.
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad8.jpg
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad9.jpg
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad10.jpg
This is an Inquisitor tank driving on non terrain surfaces. Adding this functionality seems trivial but posed many challenges given our real time combat and security requirements.
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad11.jpg
This took about an hour to make with the terrain sculptor, a huge improvement from the previous method of terrain development.
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad13.jpg
This show cases our terrain object dropper. Our mapper is still rough, but surprisingly flexible.
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad14.jpg
This is new, our REX particle system. I just completed this and am very satisfied with the power / flexibility it affords us. That is a single particle system instance. The shot shows off it's ability to change size, shape, color, position, velocity, etc given the initialization variable. It is interesting to note that all of this is entirely customizable within the mapper utility ( no coding necessary, all variable based ).
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad17.jpg
This is REX being applied to create projectile trail effects. Again no new code, just different starting settings.
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad16.jpg
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad18.jpg
I hope this presentation has shown that we are very committed to seeing this through. I know many times [MMO] projects ( let alone MMOFPS ) are the center of doubt because the sheer technical / design difficulty associated with such projects. However, we have been recruiting since '07 and continue to refine our technology in order to try and overcome the stigma associated with [MMO] projects.
Now onto the tech demo. If you go to our web page, http://www.metalanddust.com (http://www.metalanddust.com/) you can create an account by following the link right on the main page( our system will e-mail you, you have to click the link in order to validate the account ). You may download the actual tech demo from the link right on our main page ( it is only around 20 MB ). The link is a self updating link to the latest build. You need .NET 2.0 , XNA 1.0 Redist, and Direct X9c ( August 07 or later ) to run it. If you have problems, let me know via AIM and I will attempt to walk you through it.
The web page is mid-refactoring, and hasn't been updated in a while, but the registration works just fine as well as the download. Questions welcome.
Note: This is a tech demo alpha so expect some instability. I run the server in debug mode, instead of setting it up to auto reboot so that I can get good information and fix problems as they occur. As such, the server might not be up when you try to connect. If this is the case, and I am not reachable by AIM, please try again later.
Feedback:
ANY
Mindkiller Productions
Project name:
Metal and Dust
Brief description:
Metal and Dust ( M.A.D. ) is going to be a sci-fi tank warfare MMOFPS. It will involve three factions struggling for power. The majority of the gameplay will be vehicular warfare. Players will not command people, but instead machines of war, that can be upgraded in a modular way. We have been working on it for two years now and the technology is solidifying. We are in need of content artists.
Target aim:
We are aiming to distribute our product online and collect a monthly fee.
Compensation:
No compensation, unless profit is made.
However, we have attracted attention, from a bunch of different sources, including Microsoft. At the very least, you'll be getting some good experience, while also building your resume.
Technology:
The engine is all home grown.
Client is written in XNA.
C# API's used for the Networking component.
The server is written in Mono.
The DB is a MySQL backend.
Target systems are Win XP / Vista / XBox360 ( after PC release ).
Talent needed:
Concept Artist(s): We need concept artists. Although some themes have been established for the different factions and locales present in M.A.D, most of the world is without a face. We need talented individuals to create the look and feel of Verga, its ecology, and landscape. Also although the factions must abbide by some themes, these are flexible and allow plenty of artistic freedom. Must be able to create semi original work.
Mesh Modeler(s): We need creative people to model our game world. M.a.D. will focus on futuristic military outposts and machines of war. We are looking for people that enjoy modeling tanks or other machines of war. There will also be a good deal of architectural work to be done. Experienced in some sort of moding or game project preferred but not required given the right portfolio.
Texture Artist(s)/Skinning Artist(s): We need someone that lives and breathes Texture art. Much of a game's look & feel can come from the quality and style of it's textures. Therefore, we are looking for talented individuals to make our project justice. Experience in gaming is preferred but not required given the right portfolio.
Team structure:
Flaviu "Zengi" Andreescu - I am the lead coder, and designer for MaD.
I've written our engine technology from scratch as well as the server.
I started Mindkiller Productions in 2001 although this project is only
about two years old.
Justin "The Tyrant" Bacco - He is our sound engineer. He is also creating the
music for MaD, which is inspired by Grunge and Industrial as well as many
other genres. He also co-founded Mindkiller Productions with me in '01.
Igor "Mensis" Shpakov - He is our head mesh modeler. He has been with us for
a year and a half. All those jagged pieces of war machine you see in our
content are his handy work. Dabbles in many other aspects such as our
front end web developing. All around go to guy.
Steve Maresca - Our glue man. If it's got an electric pulse he can hook it up,
make it cook, clean, and feed the kids, all from a snazy web interface.
VM specialist, he is the progenitor of Zentific, which we rely on for
managing our server back end. He is an affiliate and has been with us
for many years.
Justin DeMaris - If Steve is our glue man, then JD would be our glue sculptor.
He maintains our DB. He also coded our registration process and doctors
the SVN server when it gets sick. He gets things done, and provides us
with wonderful things like our two click production release process.
He has also been with us for many years.
Arthur "Beetlegauss" Wang - He is our lead concept artist. He is also a talented
writer. He is slowly shaping the look and feel of our universe and doing
the project great justice with every click and key stroke. He's been with
us about four months.
Ryan "Raigon" Quinn - Resident tinkerer. Currently drawing up the geography of
Verga. Has many interests and talents. He has been an affiliate since the
inception of Metal and Dust and helped prototype many of the ideas behind
it.
Website:
http://www.metalanddust.com (http://www.metalanddust.com/)
Contacts:
I can be reached at:
mido@optonline.net or
flav@metalanddust.com
My AIM:
Mido709
Previous Work by Team:
Mods for Rune:
Jetpack Assault
MKP Arena
UT2k4:
Flaviu "Zengi" Andreescu worked on total conversion Eden Eclipse
for the first Make Something Unreal contest ( we got into grand finals ).
Many silly weapons and additions to UT99 and Rune.
Additional Info:
Hello ConceptArt.org . This is a port from my post on GameDev.net. I thought their template was fairly solid so I have chosen to use it here. It's been a few months since we chimed in. Work is progressing smoothly on the project but we are still in need of content designers. The technology is maturing as well, although there are still quite a few rough edges. We continue to incrementally update our tech demo to show the community that we are capable and dedicated enough to see an MMO project to completion. Tech demo requirements and instructions are below, at the end of this section. You are welcome to drop in and play, but keep in mind this is an alpha tech demo, so be kind, and don't expect too much.
I will share some screen shots and offer some commentary to give you an idea of our current progress. Keep in mind, these are tech demo shots, and do not represent the planned quality of our release.
Here is some mesh work by Igor.
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad2.jpg
Here we have the beginnings of our mapping utility.
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad4.jpg
This is our in game terrain sculpting tool being built and finally becoming stable enough for usage.
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad8.jpg
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad9.jpg
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad10.jpg
This is an Inquisitor tank driving on non terrain surfaces. Adding this functionality seems trivial but posed many challenges given our real time combat and security requirements.
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad11.jpg
This took about an hour to make with the terrain sculptor, a huge improvement from the previous method of terrain development.
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad13.jpg
This show cases our terrain object dropper. Our mapper is still rough, but surprisingly flexible.
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad14.jpg
This is new, our REX particle system. I just completed this and am very satisfied with the power / flexibility it affords us. That is a single particle system instance. The shot shows off it's ability to change size, shape, color, position, velocity, etc given the initialization variable. It is interesting to note that all of this is entirely customizable within the mapper utility ( no coding necessary, all variable based ).
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad17.jpg
This is REX being applied to create projectile trail effects. Again no new code, just different starting settings.
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad16.jpg
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~fla04001/dasmachina/mad18.jpg
I hope this presentation has shown that we are very committed to seeing this through. I know many times [MMO] projects ( let alone MMOFPS ) are the center of doubt because the sheer technical / design difficulty associated with such projects. However, we have been recruiting since '07 and continue to refine our technology in order to try and overcome the stigma associated with [MMO] projects.
Now onto the tech demo. If you go to our web page, http://www.metalanddust.com (http://www.metalanddust.com/) you can create an account by following the link right on the main page( our system will e-mail you, you have to click the link in order to validate the account ). You may download the actual tech demo from the link right on our main page ( it is only around 20 MB ). The link is a self updating link to the latest build. You need .NET 2.0 , XNA 1.0 Redist, and Direct X9c ( August 07 or later ) to run it. If you have problems, let me know via AIM and I will attempt to walk you through it.
The web page is mid-refactoring, and hasn't been updated in a while, but the registration works just fine as well as the download. Questions welcome.
Note: This is a tech demo alpha so expect some instability. I run the server in debug mode, instead of setting it up to auto reboot so that I can get good information and fix problems as they occur. As such, the server might not be up when you try to connect. If this is the case, and I am not reachable by AIM, please try again later.
Feedback:
ANY