Yeah, it's been ages. XD College is going well enough.

I recently downloaded Microsoft's XNA Game Studio 2.0. It is fun as heck to mess with. XD So I got back into game programming, though I've switched languages, obviously, and am now using C#.

Thing is, I need assistance. So this'll be a combination explanation-beg-for-help.

The main character is Eri Donnal. She's rather young-ish, innocent and curious, but determined--and she's an android. She doesn't know this at the beginning, of course--the two other people she runs into at the beginning only refer to Irisa Dunner (formerly Donnal) as her mother. The player controls Eri.

The beginning... She wakes up, remembering nothing, in a bare room with a small creature staring down at her. It runs to the door, and Eri lets it out of the room. The creature runs to the arms of a man, Eyebright--the first person she meets in this place. The second, who Eyebright knows well, is a man who introduces himself as Fai--Eri's "brother." Eri eventually finds that it's true, in a sense, though Fai was created and activated while Irisa was still alive. Fai warns her not to stray far, because the station they're on has been infested with violent creatures called Silence. But at the mention of Irisa's journals being stored in various places on this station, Eri decides to explore regardless. The player will get to explore environments ranging from light residential areas to observation decks to cargo bays and storage areas to a hydroponics bay and an artificial "outdoors" originally created for the pleasure of the inhabitants. There are five people on the station--Eri, Fai, Eyebright, and two others that the player will encounter while exploring. The creature that Eri woke with--named Eve--serves as a "partner creature" in the battle system I'll go into next. There are five other partner creatures on the station.

The battle system will be real-time. The range of attacks will depend on the class the player has reached (by stat balance in the level system), two cards, and the partner character. The partner character can also level up and contribute to the player's stats, which allows for a certain degree of class-switching without having to gain levels. That is, if you have Eve, the fire partner, develop with a lot of water resistance to add to your own, and you concentrate on Eri's fire attack power, Eri will have the attack set of the class corresponding to fire+water. But if you switch to Pascal, the wind partner, and you've raised him with emphasis on wind attack, Eri's combined stats may show emphasis on fire+wind rather than fire+water, and her attacks will change. With this system, attacks are unlocked as the player gains new partner creatures and cards to combine.

So what do I need?

1. Someone who can draw better concept art than I'd be able to manage on my own. I know what I want out of the characters' faces--most of the relevant ones have existed in my head for years. But outfits? Except for Eri, not so much. Drawing skill? Mine is moderate. I must have confidence that this person can produce better quality work than I'd be able to manage. Another way to put it... The basic look is mostly done. There will be a bit of creative license, but the point is to make the characters look good, not make the characters. Creativity will come mostly in the enemy concept design--we do need a lot of enemies. Preferably creepy, though there will be ones that look human. Have at it on the human-looking ones, haha.

2. Someone who can do level design. A space station is only fun if you have a floor plan, and only if it takes a bit in the way of puzzles to deal with. They should also be able to help with what kind of puzzle objects will be necessary--blocks that can only be taken out with a water attack, for example, would prevent the player from proceeding until they have the relevant partner/cards. Debris could be shot out of the way.

3. Someone proficient at 3D character modelling. Style? Think Radiata Stories or Eternal Sonata. At a moderate poly count--not N64, but not something that'd make most people regret playing the game. The models will be based on the concept art produced.

4. Someone proficient at 3D scene and object modelling. Could be the same person as above. Regardless, I'll need scenery to go with the level map. Object modelling includes any attack projectiles.

5. Someone proficient with animations of 3D models. Could be the same person as one of the above. I've seen some pretty bad walking animations in my time, for example, and I'd like the characters to look as natural as possible. Another thing that's always annoyed me has been the characters' feet not matching the ground motion, so you get that "running on ice" effect. I'd like to work with the animator to fix the speed and animation so it looks halfway decent, haha.

6. Someone who can help with the math. How attack affects damage done, how elements affect damage, how resistances affect what the player takes, what ratios should be required for a class change, etc.

7. Someone who can provide input on all system aspects and suggest improvements.

8. Someone who can help with general programming issues. For example, coding events and scenario.

9. Someone who can do the 2D work. For example, designing the menu interface and providing the background/icons. Someone who can help whoever ends up doing the object models.

In all cases, I'd like to see previous work before discussing terms.

I do intend this to be a commercial release eventually, so all contributing materials used have to allow for money to be made. (For example, some creators of Photoshop brushes prohibit their use in commercial projects. This would mean they cannot be used for this game project.) So if the contributors pull off something people would buy, we all stand to make a little money. We'd have to complete it, though!

If you've gotten down this far and are going, "Well, what makes me sure that this person will see this through?" Frankly, if it's just me, I might not. Other people will keep me in it. I've got a PSO/U event to run next month, but after that, I'll have a fair amount of free time to dedicate to the cause. As for the current game progress, I have the control scheme mostly in. I can register key/button presses, the game has WASD/left joystick movement control of a player. The three things on my list next are collision tests, camera movement, and creating test enemy objects. Stats exist, but without first creating enemy AI, I won't be able to use them for much. I can render 3D objects on the screen, and I can render 2D objects on top of them with no 3D deterioration (I have applied the SpriteBatch fix, haha), and I have a working pause button set up for the menu to be dealt with when the interface has been designed.

You can ask me directly if you have any questions or want to help out. My MSN is hiya2040 at hotmail dot com. My AIM is TsukikoRain. My Yahoo is TsukigawaNekura. I mostly appear offline, but I'm usually there. XD Thanks for any help you can give. <3

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