Wildfire Games Application Form Options

[Kimball]

Wildfire Games Application Form

Welcome to the Wildfire Games Forums!

Wildfire Games (WFG) is a team of volunteer game developers from all over the world. We are committed enthusiasts and we donate our time and energy to create 0 A.D., a free and open-source PC game, for everyone to play, learn from, create with and share. We want to raise the bar for free, open-source games, and to celebrate learning and ancient history.

WFG started out as the small modding team that brought you the largest and most popular mod for Age of Kings in 2001 - Rome at War, and since the same year has been developing 0 A.D. from the ground up.

In case you didn't catch it the first time, we are a team of volunteers, and the only budget we have is our determination and our creative minds. Why would someone want to work on such a project for free?

• Well, some of us seek the chance to take part of something unique, the opportunity to learn and practice our skills and see first hand what it takes.
• Some of us are doing this because we all have dreams of developing our own game.
• Many of our former members have moved on to work for various notable game development organizations, thanking WFG for teaching them the skills they needed to succeed professionally.
• And some of us are in it for the noble idea of free, open-source, cross-platform software that anyone can use to learn about ancient history and game development.

Whatever the reason, you're welcome to join WFG.

What do you look for in a candidate? We're specifically looking for hard-working and motivated individuals with a good temperament, the ability to commit 10+ hours a week to the project, have a passion for RTS gaming, and an interest in working on one of the most ambitious free, open-source games to date. Members of WFG are expected to work efficiently and cooperatively to produce their work, but for the most part create their own work schedule to adhere to their required agendas. Working as a team means that everyone has a say in what goes into the project, and everyone has their piece of the puzzle.

How do I apply? You can apply by starting a new thread in this forum ("Applications") according to the following instructions. No need to take this the wrong way - we're still a small team of volunteers looking for some more volunteers, and we keep things pretty informal. This application system is just how we keep things organized around here.

You can use this application to tell us about yourself and what positions on the team interest you. We'll use your application to learn more about your moral standards, ability to work in a team-oriented environment and more importantly, your personality. We value a person's characteristics and social qualities, their ability to learn, and their aptitude for teamwork more than their particular skill sets and experience. The Wildfire Games development community exists as a place where we can learn, exercise our skills, and to have fun doing the things we love.

To apply, you will first need to register on the forums if you haven't done so already. Once you have registered, copy, paste and fill out the form below to create a new topic in the Applications Forum where you can receive direct feedback and current staff can direct questions regarding your application.

The use of a public forum makes the application process much more personal and efficient. We mostly use the forums as our primary way to communicate and you'll be interviewed in a casual, comfortable environment by our staff on a personal basis.

We ask you follow a simple format for the title of your application to keep things organized:

"[Game] [position] application - [name or alias] "

Example: 0 A.D. Texture Artist Application - Bobby Ognyanov

You can use your partial name or even a forum alias only if you insist, but we prefer to work in first-name terms at WFG.

Now comes the actual application. Copy the form below and paste it into the the thread body. Simply respond to all the questions and post the thread. Scroll down to view a description of the positions available on the team, what you can expect to do if you had that position, and also what positions we are currently seeking to fill.

CODE

[b][size=3]Position:[/size][/b] [i] The position or role you are applying for. See the list below for the current available staff roles in Wildfire Games.[/i]

[b]Name[/b]:
[i]Your full name (We prefer to work on a first-name basis).[/i]
[b]Email:[/b]
[i] youremail (at) provider (dot) com[/i]
[b]MSN Messenger:[/b]
[i] youremail (at) provider (dot) com, so we can chat with you[/i]
[b]Location:[/b]
[i]eg: Stockholm, Sweden (helps us to calculate GMT for real-time meetings). Where you currently reside.[/i]
[b]Availability:[/b]
[i]How many hours per week [u]on average[/u] do you think you'll have for Wildfire Games? What about 6 months from now?[/i]
[b]Age:[/b]
[i](Optional) How old are you? Not because it matters, but rather we ask this to anticipate your availability and other factors based on where you are in life.[/i]
[b]Occupation:[/b]
[i][(Optional) What keeps you busy in your day to day life? Student, work? etc. [/i]

[b]Skills and Experience:[/b]
[i]What qualifies you for this position? What experience have you had in the past? [/i]

[b]Motivation:[/b]
[i]Tell us what motivates you to pursue these skills and experiences.[/i]
[b]Personality:[/b]
[i]Creatively describe the way you see yourself in one sentence.[/i]

[b]Short Essay:[/b]
[i] How and when did you find out about Wildfire Games? What motivates you to be a part of the project? What do you seek to gain in being a part of Wildfire Games?[/i]

[b]Interests and Hobbies:[/b]
[i]Tell us briefly about some of the other things you enjoy doing your free time. We ask this to get to know your background a bit better[/i]

[b]Staff:[/b]
[i](Optional) Do you know, or know of anyone on the team? [/i]
[b]Community:[/b]
[i](Optional) What communities, websites, or forums do you frequent that relate to your interests and the gaming world?[/i]
[b]Favorite Game:[/b]
[i]What's your favorite game at the moment? What about your overall favorite?[/i]

Openings

OGL Programmer - The applicant should have a strong knowledge of OpenGL, and will be responsible for extending the engine's visual effects and features. Examples of tasks to be undertaken by the graphics programming division include decals, reflection/wave water effects, environment lighting and dynamic shadows, vertex animation, terrain blending, Fog of War / Shroud of Darkness, skyboxes, vertex/pixel shader material framework, and a particle weather system. Preferred qualities and skills include: Good C++ skills, problem solving abilities, strong game programming knowledge, communication and teamwork skills and motivated and passionate about game development.

Sound Effects Specialist - All sounds should be sourced by you personally, using creative foley techniques and manipulated using your sound editing prowess, excluding the use of commercial sound libraries. This project offers a fertile development environment allowing for experience and growth in the game industry, as well as the chance to choose an area of specialty within the field of sound effects editing and sound design that suits your passion and direction. An Audio engine built on OpenAL is ready for use; EAX may later be integrated to accomplish certain special effects.

Texture Artist - The primary job of a texture artist is to create textures for 3D models from a concept or reference image. Experience in a photo editing software such as Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or GIMP is desired. The ability to work with layers, advanced functions and tools, work with alpha layers, and various plugins is also desired. 3D experience is not required (but helpful) and unwrapped wireframe maps will be provided for the user upon acceptance, although the user may already have 3D software to extract the uv map template.

AI Programmer - The AI in 0 A.D. is multifaceted and requires work on many fronts. The AI needs to competitively function in single-player, multiplayer, and on randomly generated maps. Pathfinding, Computer Player AI (backend for scripting), Scripting, and Basic unit level AI are a few examples. Expertise in javascript and XML is required as well for this particular position.

Gameplay Programmer - The primary goal of this position is to comprehend the vision of the game as interpreted by internal game design documentation, and implement that. Some examples might be: implementing the mechanics behind trade, garrisoning, and construction of structures, creating various unit formations, writing random map scripts. Gameplay programmers must be familiar with XML and javascript as well as C++.

3D Artist - A 3-dimensional artist will be responsible for the creation of units, animations, props and structures for the game. The designer must have adequate experience in a mainstream 3D application such as 3DS Max or Blender, be able to properly UV map a model with a given texture, and it is preferred that the artist knows a little bit about animating, but it is not required for the position. Unfortunately, Gmax is not currently supported with an exporting script.

Animator(s) - The 0 A.D. development team is looking for a skilled animator or two to join the Art Department to develop additional animations for the game. The current focus is on skeletal animations and exporting to the Collada format. If accepted, applicant will be a key and important member of the Art Dept. Must have an eye and aptitude for animating humans, animals, chariots, and other common assets in a realistic and fluid manner. Preferred development tool is 3DS MAX 2009 (but Max 8 or 9 is okay too). Experience with exporting meshes, animations, and skeletons is required as is rigging models for animating. Experience with non-skeletal animating and sprite animations is a plus (this will be a future focus). Basic knowledge in C++ programming language and/or Javascript is always a big plus, but definitely not required. Skills in other art disciplines are always a plus. Amount of free time per week to devote to developing 0 A.D. must exceed 8 hours per week for the indefinite future. Examples of your work may be in the form of animated GIFs, various movie formats, or Max files in Max2009 or lower; your choice. Finally, as an integral part of the Art Dept. your name will be among the many others that have given their time and talent to the development of 0 A.D. Do you have what it takes to showcase your animating talents to tens of thousands of people once we go Gold? Then fill out an app and we'll talk.

Web Developer - We are about to redesign the 0 A.D. website, and to make this come true we need a skilled web developer. A good understanding of (X)HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL is required and knowledge of either the IPB SDK or IPB/Wordpress integration is needed to complete the project. If you have good skills in PHP/MySQL you can probably learn the latter pretty easily, so don't avoid sending in your application if you don't fell like you have good enough knowledge of IPB etc, though that is of course a big plus. Knowledge of either Flash or Javascript (preferred) is also needed, though you don't need to be an expert since it will just be needed for simple things.

Once your application is accepted, you'll immediately be able to settle into your new team environment and start work as soon as you're ready for it. Each member is given his/her own personal task manager forum, in which they can post whatever he or she likes, such as absences, game ideas, source images, progress reports, or ask for advice from other team members. Until the game is released, there will almost always be something for you to do. These things are extremely flexible and everyone usually gets to work on parts of the game they're most interested and capable of working on.

We look forward to your application and we welcome you to our team!

This post has been edited by Jeru: Jan 31 2010, 07:17 AM

[HG-Alex]

Will you ever be looking for more scenario designers?

[feneur]

I leave it to the Head of the Scenario Design to answer it definitely, but I'm almost 100% sure we'll be looking for scenario designers at some point in the future. We'll need some great scenarios to make the game as good as we want

[HG-Alex]

Cool. Guess I'll work on a new AoM campaign to put in a future application.

[Kimball]

Did you know that this guy first inspired me to start texturing with his leprechaun texture mod back at AoMH? Lol, if he can even remember that mod.

Glad to see you considering applying Peps. Hope to see you around.

[HG-Alex]

Hey PPE.

Haha, that mod was so screwed up.

What was that? Two years ago? I think you will be happy to know I no longer use MS Paint.

[Aeros]

The scenario design stuff and campaigns will occur later in our development process, but yes Alex we'll eventually start a little sub-team called the Design group which will be using our tools (both editor and modding tools) and basically working with them in their early states. We'll have people just do fun screenshots for awhile and gauge how they're doing and progress some of them into members of the team, eventually assembling a small group of map designers. This will likely start taking place in mid-late alpha with campaign design starting alongside the beta.

Yeah we definately should update that list above to include the scenario design role - basically you can apply with anything that you think you can bring to WFG or 0AD, the positions listed above are just general suggestions of what roles are among the team, though there are many many more.

This post has been edited by Aeros: Nov 16 2007, 07:57 PM

[Kimball]

Added the scenario designer field description.

[Aeros]

Updated with Age and Occupation field since I'm tired of asking that durring interviews

[tarion_31]

ignore this it was a mistake

This post has been edited by tarion_31: May 30 2008, 05:23 PM

[tarion_31]

so i have to make a new topic for an application? i tought it was in this post...i came right to this and i didnt notice that theres a sub forum for applicatons

This post has been edited by tarion_31: May 30 2008, 05:23 PM

[Alyssea]

Hows the editor coming? I'm interested in becoming a scenario editor and the wait is killing me

[Justinian]

Agreed.

[Kimball]

When Atlas is deemed to be at a stable scenario editing stage, we will hand-select scenario designers to join to aid in the creation of the campaign. We won't be choosing that many of you, since most of us on the team already are capable of scenario design.

[Poema]

don't know if this is the right place to post:

Position: Translator (english to : dutch/german/little bit france). consept art drawer, inovator

Name:
Ruben van Leeuwen.
Email:
tijgervanleeuwen@hotmail.com
MSN Messenger:
tijgervanleeuwen@hotmail.com
Location:
Geleen, Netherlands GMT+1.
Availability:
8 hours, maby 10
Age:
(17.
Occupation:
I'm a student at the moment, and PR & team leader of dutchgamingresourse.nl (still in development) .

Skills and Experience:
modded a lot of games, Photoshop experience, 3DSMax experience and I'm a reviewer/previewer on a couple of dutch game sites

Motivation:
I just love to gain experience in the gaming industy, in any way
Personality:
one of the few dyslectics (and I will neven know if that's the correct way to write is) which made writing his hobby, reading his passion, and innovating an art of his own

Short Essay:
Moddb.com / and I hope I can prove myself to you, me and the gaming world

Interests and Hobbies:
here is the list:
Judo,
Boxing,
writing
drawing
reading
learning

Staff:
dunno
Community:
as much as possible
Favorite Game:
at the moment Lord of the rings, battle for middle earth (easy to mod)

[feneur]

don't know if this is the right place to post:

Position: Translator (english to : dutch/german/little bit france). consept art drawer, inovator

This is not the place. But on the other hand you haven't applied for any of the open positions, so don't bother moving it to the right place. At the moment we don't have any need for translation as the system for taking care of the translations aren't in place yet, and probably won't be until fairly late in the development. We don't need any concept art at this moment, and if we'd need it there are enough artists on the team to take care of it. And we've got plenty of ideas, so no need for an innovator either I'm afraid. Feel free to make any suggestions you can think of in the 0 A.D. General and Ideas Discussion

[bradcapo2]

This is an interesting post.. thank you for sharing



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[Alek]

I could be a web designer, but the problem is I've almost no knowledge of PHP and MYSQL, I've only used PHP for setting up a forum one time. Could I still apply for this job? I've much experience with HTML and Javascript.

[WhiteTreePaladin]

This thread is intended to clarify the application process. It is the wrong place for posting an application or asking questions about a position. If you are interested in a position but unsure if you meet the full requirements, you may still post an application here in this forum (but not in this thread). Whether or not you are the right person for the job can be determined there.

Thank you for your interest and welcome to 0AD!


To submit an application, post a new topic here in the applications forum using the same format as the example shown in the main post here. (Look at some of the other posted applications there for additional examples.)

This post has been edited by WhiteTreePaladin: Sep 30 2009, 11:18 PM

[lostrozzacavalli]

Will this game contain a full editor? If yes, will there be applications as Scenario Scripters?