Looking for an experienced / versatile programmer

[marks]

So, I'm making a game with a couple of friends and we're kind of stuck for a programmer - we had a few lined up and they have all fallen through on us. The game is in UDK (Unreal engine) so the code will be in UnrealScript which, even if you don't know it you will be able to pick it up very quickly if you're any kind of good at programming.

THE GAME!

o Top-down shoot-em up
o Objective-defense inspired gameplay
o Hordes of enemies

Thats it in bullet points, however you will just have to trust me that we are deviating from the cliche'd path heavily here and have a vision thats very different to your generic Alien Swarm clone. If you're really interested, you can read our design wiki here

WHAT WE WANT!

Experienced Object-Oriented Programmer:

- Experienced with Object-Oriented programming
I shouldn't even really need to say this.
- Experience with games preferred
Obviously.
- Willing to put in the time to make sure this gets finished
Because we are, and we don't want to work with someone who isn't.
- Willing to learn UnrealScript
We're forced to use Unreal's proprietary scripting language unfortunately, however its supposed to be quite powerful and easy to pick up though.

Preferred :
Very strong 3D math
Previous (FINISHED) game projects

What you will be doing:
- Gameplay Logic
- Bespoke camera system
- Weighted-randomized Wave Spawn Manager
- Weapon and Deployable behaviours
- Possibility of some swarm-type AI work

- Problem solving


THE DUDES!

Mark Sneddon : Game Design, Art Direction, Environment Art, Technical Art, Concept Art
-- Environment Artist at Creative Assembly
Brady Jones : Game Design, Level Design, Scripting, Concept Art, Character Art, UI Art
-- Freelance Artist working with clients such as Canon and Sony
David Cheung : Concept Art
-- Environment Concept Artist at Climax Group
Ed Harrison : Orchestral Audio
-- Yes, the Ed Harrison who did the soundtrack for Neotokyo
Martin Thompson: Ambient Audio



Previous work by the team:

http://www.neotokyohq.com/
http://www.zombiepanic.org/
http://www.contagion-game.com/
http://www.warimals.com/

Contact
mark@marksneddon.net

SOME PICTURES!

Really, this is pre-production research work so it doesnt look pretty, but it shows that we've actually done something:

[Ich 666]

Finally someone looking for people to work with the proper way.

[stoopdapoop]

I'm thinking you guys should run this by one of the programmers that fell through, assuming you're still in contact with them. It's very apparent that whoever wrote this doesn't really know what's needed from their programmer.

This doesn't really say what the programmer will be doing. You named some very specific but very fundamental things that the programmer needs to know how to do, but nothing really describing what he'll be doing. Honestly I think the engine handles almost all of what you've listed in the "what you will be doing" section. The real vector math is something that's mostly handled by the UScript vector functions, your programmer will probably only have to very do basic math operations. I can't see where you'd use any "3D math" with UDK either, I don't even think you have low level access to the code that handles projections and transformations and "coordinate math" is basically vector math and maybe matrix transformations if you feel like wasting your programmer's time doing things that the engine already does.

If your hordes of enemies have any special behavior then you'd want to mention (in a general sense at least, if you're trying to be hush-hush about your enemies) what kind of behavior you're trying to create. And you'll obviously want your programmer to be able to write flexible and efficient baseclasses for your world objects, players, enemies, and weapons that are EASY and QUICK to edit. If he does his job well then you any regular artist/designer should be able to go in and start changing values in the higher level classes and the game shouldn't fall apart.

This post is a little long winded, but I'm just saying that after reading, I still don't have any idea what I'd actually be scripting or more importantly, what skill's I'd really need to have. The skills listed are either not applicable, painfully fundamental, nothing project specific.

Edit: I see you ninja-edited your post, so I guess my post is now irrelevant.

[poisonic]

yeah this is the GOOD way to ask for help

[marks]

If I knew enough about programming to accurately detail that stuff - I'd likely know enough about programming that I'd be doing it myself. Writing "We're looking for someone who knows what the fuck they're doing and isn't going to disappear after a week" kind of doesn't work well. If anything, it should illustrate just why we need someone experienced lol

If you want to know specifically the stuff we need doing, I've listed my email address...

[stoopdapoop]

Fair enough, I was just trying to help you improve your listing. It's a lot better now.

[marks]

And I appreciate it thanks.

[stoopdapoop]

Was this spot ever filled?

[marks]

Yeah we found a guy who works at a canadian EA studio. He's in crunch at work at the moment though so not much is getting done in the short-term (understandably). We're considering looking for a second programmer who would work under him (so if anyone is interested - email me).