Touhou ~ Edge of Fantasy (a Touhou adventure game, still with screenshots!)

[rfw]

Touhou ~ Edge of Fantasy(working title)

tl;dr innovative Touhou RPG adventure game in XNA/C#/Python needing artists, musicians and artsy people. Wall of text below is more descriptive.


Touhou ~ Edge of Fantasy is a hybrid platformer/top-down RPG/adventure game/a lot of other weird things. Intending to bring new, novel concepts to the RPG genre (read: reusing old concepts from a bunch different games), this is a project to create a Touhou RPG that's not old and stale. You won't find a boring old RPG Maker game (or even an RPG Maker game in any form) here (yeah I know I'm being unfairly mean here; I enjoyed Yume Nikki but that's beside the point)!

I currently have three annotated screenshots showing the capabilities of the engine, mostly technical (ignore the awful programmer art and SWR Raymoo). Due to the request of a programmer on the team, the current code base is under wraps until your application is successful and you are granted access (don't worry, we won't make you sign a non-disclosure agreement, but a lot of it is still private currently).



We currently have a team of two experienced (and lazy) C# programmers, two moderately experienced C# and Python programmers (myself being one of the two) and an editor in reserve (no writers required as of yet). We also have three language adaptation specialists (read: translators) in the team, though I'm not entirely sure why.

Plot:

We don't actually have a plot as of yet, but it's in the works... somewhere...!

Gameplay Concepts (extremely tentative):

• Spell cards affect the environment (? la Pok?mon).
• Jumping in platformer mode is in four stages -- single jump, double jump, hover and flight.
• Non-level based growth mechanics.
• Both platformer and top-down gameplay.
• No items. There is no persistent HP therefore no real need for items.
• Partially turn-based battle system (see footnote 2).
• Attacks are all spell cards. They use a resource known as AP (action points). All attacks require AP, and AP regenerates over time. AP is not influenced by anything, except waiting a turn, maybe.
• Overdrive Boundary spell cards, similar to the concept of a rage bar/whatever else. There's something incredibly fulfilling about watching a bar fill up and unleashing a can of whup-ass afterwards.
• No MP, as AP replaces this.

Technical Details:

(I'm the current lead programmer, so, naturally, this is the section I'm most concerned with/excited about -- yeah I'm an awful geek)

The game is programmed in a mix of C# and Python, with XNA 4.0 as the game's main backbone library. Python is the primary scripting API, as well as the map language (this may be a silly design choice), whereas C# interfaces with XNA and handles the semi-low-level things. Python acts an object representation layer which subclasses C# types exposed to the dynamic language runtime, such as NPCs, Players and Scenes.

Positions Open (in order of decreasing urgency):

• Artists (sprites, backdrops, etc.)
• Music Composers (orchestral, preferably)
• Programmers (Python and C#)¹
• Code Review (C# mostly, as I'm a Python native)
• Battle Choreographers²

While beta testers are appreciated, there is currently no need for them and therefore please do not request a position as beta tester until testing is open.

If your application is successful, then we will provide you with further information regarding the project.

Please send samples of any work, creative or otherwise.

We require a casual commitment (full commitment is, of course, greatly appreciated) of at least one year on this project, as this will be quite a large project. I regret to say that I am unable to offer any form of compensation, but I hope this doesn't stymie my attempt to garner help (I trust you're all nice people).


Footnotes (I feel like I'm writing a dissertation here):

• Programmers need to know their stuff!
  I'm incredibly wary of bad programmers so I'll be administering a test on Python or C# to any prospective programmers.
  
• What the hell is a battle choreographer?
  As the primary battle system is a Namco X Capcom-esque timed button pressing-type system (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DztVo-nZ9vE), there's a need to calibrate the timing to (more or less) millisecond precision. This involves balancing the duration of every attack, enemy weights for juggling and toss height and a whole bunch of other factors. Currently this position is tentative and there is no need of it until a suitable battle implementation is completed. But it's there! :V
  

[Supreme Gamesmaster]

I can maybe do music, if you can give me a program with which to do it (the best I have right now is a MIDI synthesizer). Orchestral pieces are my specialty, so... Samples available a) in my game's BGM folder, though I imagine pieces for a game like this would be rather elaborate, and b) on request, in... posted Mediafire links since neither of us have PMing unlocked yet.

(Actually, I'm not very confident, but I figured you'd prefer to have too many applicants than too few.)

My first post was also a request for help. -_- Oh, well.

[rfw]

I can maybe do music, if you can give me a program with which to do it (the best I have right now is a MIDI synthesizer). Orchestral pieces are my specialty, so... Samples available a) in my game's BGM folder, though I imagine pieces for a game like this would be rather elaborate, and b) on request, in... posted Mediafire links since neither of us have PMing unlocked yet.

(Actually, I'm not very confident, but I figured you'd prefer to have too many applicants than too few.)

My first post was also a request for help. -_- Oh, well.

Thanks for your offer, I really appreciate it. I've forwarded it to the rest of the team (sorry for taking so long, bad timezones etc.) and I'll let you know when we come to a finalized decision.

Again, thank you for your application, but we would still like to wait for any other applicants - after all, it is better to have too many than too few.

[rfw]

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