Programmer / Level Designer

Programmer wanted for Riptide, an action-platformer about cyborg culture.

LOOKING FOR: 1 C# Programmer with experience in 2D Platformer level design.

CURRENT TEAM: 1 Writer/Director; 1 Programmer; 1 Concept Artist; 2 Sprite Animators; 1 Musician; 1 Sound Engineer. Note that we're all approximately college-age. Though I myself fill the director role, I'd like someone willing to participate in a kind of jam-band workflow with these people; internal collaboration and consistent communication is a must.

INFO: Riptide is a sci-fi action-platformer focused on customizability, momentum, and aerial movement. The player controls Wendy Westing, a girl with two cybernetic legs, one enhancing movement (left-click) and the other enhancing combat (right click). These legs can be modified with FootWare, chips that perform their properties. FootWare can be swapped quickly mid-level for optimal traversal. Players can bring four sets of FootWare into every level, mixing them strategically to get the highest rank.

The game explores Western culture's relationship with technology and self-expression. Centuries into the future, a company called NOVATO is the cultural center of an environmentally-ravaged USA. NOVATO, which produces cybernetic limbs, secretly funds a private vigilante team to maintain justice and tear down corrupt operations protected by the law. As Wendy learns more about NOVATO's interests and the Earth's history, she becomes spiritually disillusioned. My goal with this world is to paint a neoliberal, utilitarian utopia, and then challenge it from the inside.

In short, Riptide is what happens if Ursula K Le Guin was raised on Neon White, 2D Sonic, and Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows.

PROGRESS: Done with the early stage of development, but still a long way to go. Most major mechanics are integrated in a basic way; the GDD is finished and polished; and the art is well underway. Development officially kicked off in early September. The plan is to work on a demo for Kickstarter containing the first 1/4 of the game, which we hope to complete this year.

PAYMENT: A combination of revenue sharing and a monthly retainer. We'll negotiate the contract if you reach out, but the retainer would be somewhere in the realm of $250 USD. I understand this is rather small -- I'm paying for the whole thing out-of-pocket, so I can't go significantly higher than that. If the Kickstarter is successfully funded, you'll take a percentage of that funding and of the eventual total game revenue (somewhere around 10% of profit, depending on your contribution).