I recently decided to resume working on a personal video game project in my free time. This time I will only do what I like doing, which is the game engine and its API. Coincidentally, it also features my passions for post-apocalyptic scenarios and motorized vehicles. But for that project to happen, I need to find an interface developer.
API what?
Typically, in most single player games, the game engine and the interface are packaged together in a single application. However, in multiplayer games, a central system has to make sure that the game state is coherent for all players involved. All individual games are communicating with the central system to check the consistency of the game state it is showing to the player. One way of communicating is through an API, a documented list of publicly available methods that can be used to retrieve the game state and eventually issue game commands.
Why not do the whole shebang yourself?
Because in my case, it just doesn't work. I've started at least half a dozen projects on my own but I never managed to deliver a game that was up to my expectations. All the game I created where functional, but always featured way less depth that I initially envisioned. And it's not that I was not technically able to add those features to the game engine. It just is that I couldn't bring myself to create the interface to show the features to the player.
Yes, it means that I will have to welcome someone else to the project, which is a significant risk because of all the required communication and understanding between us, but a risk is better than my proven track record of half-baked games. Plus, I'm not particularly stubborn, and as long as I do what I love doing, which is designing a data model and create access points to it, I think I'll be fine.
Ok, what is it about?
The setup I came up with combines both my personal interests and relation to previous game engines I created. It is basically a Mad Max MMO game. The point as I see it would be to start a wasteland motorized tribe from scratch, and take it through deserted landscapes to gather the necessary resources for survival and improve your vehicles fleet. Eventually, resources being scarce, race/combat would ensue, either against other players or NPCs. One goal could be to be able to gather enough resources to settle down and fortify one of the few never-ending resource supplies to be able to profit from it as long as possible before being dislodged by rival tribes.
The good news is I would not start from utter scratch. The eventual racing/vehicle tuning part can be achieved through my first video game project ever about illegal street races 🇫🇷 (no laughing). The world map can be obtained through a world generator I created for my latest project Scrambled Nations, a Risk-like strategy game. Finally, an eventual spare parts crafting system can be done using the engine behind Timecraft. Heck, if it comes down to arena combat between warriors teams, I also have an aborted project about a Football Manager-like in a medieval-fantasy setup.
Sounds about right, but what do you need again?
Glad you aksed! Currently, I need to get in cahoots with an interface developer, most likely a Javascript wizard, that would be interested in the project, like to discuss game design and create a video game interface that would draw on the API I would create on top of the game engine. That's pretty much it! If this person lives around New York, it would be great, but I can work out a remote partnership as well.
In the medium/long run, if this partnership proves fruitful, we would probably need the services of an artist to bring the game screens to life. If the project looks promising, I would probably throw some money around to get quality work, but we are already in the speculation section.
Hope you enjoyed the read, and don't hesitate to share around to anyone who might be interested in the project, either as a player of a developer!
(Images from The Pulse Navigator tumblr (banner) and the Wasteland Weekend website without permission)
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