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Disthron
Account closed
Registered: Sep 2013
Posts: 21 |
Looking for C64 programmer [paid]
Hi everyone,
I've been developing a retro throw back game for the PC in the style of the Commodore 64. I'm working on a Kickstarter project to get it finished and I was thinking of having an actual Commodore 64 port as one of the stretch goals.
No one on the team has any live C64 programming experience so I'm putting the call out to people who might be interested in working with us. The artwork will have to be converted. Our artists try to stay as faithful to C64 specs as possible but little things can still slip through the cracks. Also you'll basically be on your own programming wise. If you're interested in the project please send me a PM and we can talk more about specifics.
Since this will be a stretch goal I can't guarantee this will go ahead even if we get funded. But I need to talk to someone in order to know how much it will cost, and thus how much to ask for in the stretch goal.
Thanks for reading my post.
~Disthron |
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11386 |
Quote:he didn't say he was making 5K a month, he said he had a full time job and 2 part time jobs.
math, can you do it? a fulltime job at $25/h is 5k/month (or perhaps 4.5 - but you get the idea) |
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PopMilo
Registered: Mar 2004
Posts: 146 |
Quoting GroepazQuote:he didn't say he was making 5K a month, he said he had a full time job and 2 part time jobs.
math, can you do it? a fulltime job at $25/h is 5k/month (or perhaps 4.5 - but you get the idea)
Well... To quoute Six "...$25/hour was a conservative estimate... I make almost twice that at my day job...".
According to math it's around $8k ;)
It's not that much off topic if question is can you find coder willing to code for an amount that someone else is ready to spend.
Imho it's quite reasonable for a someone earning $50/hour to employ someone who's ready to work for $5/hour...
As all is relative, $50 in New york can provide you with same services and goods as $5 in other part of the world...
$8k sounds like "funny money" to me. Facts from my part of world (Serbia) are that as an engineer in a factory in a small town I earn around $400 a month which is still good as average wage for most of the workers is around $250. Beauty of it is that with two paychecks like this my family lives quite well. We work 7-8 hours a day, have 3-4 weeks of vacations, travel to Rome, Vienna or Budapest and spend at least couple weeks every summer either in Montenegro or in Greece ...
If I need extra $100 I take additional paid work for $10-$20/hour... You can guess my feelings if you offer me $5 for an hour that I would spend anyway writing 6502 code. At least I don't have to explain to wife where those 100Eur for Retro Gamer subscription come from ;)
Anyway... Imho it's hard to estimate and promise any amount of money to develop something for C64 in advance. When was the last time someone wrote a beat-em-up mixed up with RPG on C64 ? There are too many unknowns...
My suggestion to Disthron is to provide some graphics for testing purposes and let the guys with extra time and c64 love try to do something cool with it. If tests succeed then you can try to gather further support and push the game to the finish line with what ever it takes - be it passion or cold, hard cash ;) |
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CreaMD
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 3057 |
I don't want to be off-topic (I'm really sorry for that), but Groepaz, you should consider the possibility that $50 (or $25) isn't necessarily flat rate $400 or 200, but it can be time-tracked task based work. I myself work that way. I charge 15-25 EUR depending on clients and tasks, but my average income is about 1700 EUR brutto / month (based on average from last 2 years). (I could earn twice as much but I don't... which is caused by laziness and passive aggressive behavior ;-) (that second thing is a novelty, I realized that few days ago and now I study myself for symptoms ;-)). And even when it's quite nice money over here, I'm constantly out of money ;-) |
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11386 |
thats not a "full time job" then. that implies sth like 8h a day, 5 days a week, ie around 150-200 hours per month. |
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Martin Piper
Registered: Nov 2007
Posts: 722 |
Back in the day such games would be coded in a couple of months. |
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cadaver
Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 1160 |
Though the couple of months would mostly apply to the "by the numbers" action games, right? If a game contained significant R&D (simulation games, games with cinematic qualities, unique design or otherwise ambitious) it could easily be longer.
This game here isn't really complex in the basic combat gameplay, but the engine needed to support it good enough on the C64, plus the cutscene work if those are ported, could easily push it into the more "ambitious" category. |
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PopMilo
Registered: Mar 2004
Posts: 146 |
Quoting cadaver...This game here isn't really complex in the basic combat gameplay, but the engine needed to support it good enough on the C64, plus the cutscene work if those are ported, could easily push it into the more "ambitious" category.
Agreed. This is definitely one of ambitious ones.
Take a look at additional material here:
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=42309.0
And here:
https://www.facebook.com/EdelinTalesPortalsofDoom
On the bright side - design, story and lots of graphics looks done. |
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Fungus
Registered: Sep 2002
Posts: 686 |
I nominate Martin Piper, surely with his genius level of knowledge and years of experience in the industry he can whip this out for you in a couple of months.
He's already got an engine that's perfectly suited to the job, and even an excellent netcode library perfect to make this a fantastic multiplayer experience for all. |
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Krill
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2980 |
Interesting project. Not at all impossible technically, given enough compromise.
If money is an issue for potential "C-64 consultants", living outside of the U.S. helps. As seen in previous posts, things generally cost less in the rest of the world, but income tends to be less as well.
Disthron: I wonder, what is your motivation for such an ambitious "stretch goal"? Your original PC port is not yet finished, but would possibly be delayed while the C-64 port will still be in development. Since you and everybody in your team seem not to have any C-64 development experience, i'm assuming no C-64 specific fondness or nostalgia, except playing the games. Why do you care?
Would a C-64 port increase the popularity of the entire project so much, even if only initially via Slashdot publicity etc.? Was it a personal or strategic decision to have a C-64-ish look from the start? Why not SNES or any other classic 8-bit platform, as this type of game has been more successful on other platforms than C-64, i believe. |
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Disthron
Account closed
Registered: Sep 2013
Posts: 21 |
Quoting KrillWhy do you care? Would a C-64 port increase the popularity of the entire project so much,
No, in fact most people probably wouldn't even bother downloading an emulator to play the ROM..... It's just cool to have a new game on an old system. I don't know, maybe getting it to run on actual hardware makes it feel more legit? Maybe it's an affirmation that we liked these things because they WERE actually good and NOT just because they were the only thing around at the time. I don't know what it is, I just always thought it was really cool when someone comes out with a new Atari 2600 game, or a new Megadrive game.
Quoting KrillWas it a personal or strategic decision to have a C-64-ish look from the start?
It was somewhat strategic. I knew I wouldn't be able to make a AAA 3D game, and rather than make a bad 3D game I decided to try and make a good 2D one. And I've always been a fan of the pixel art aesthetic.
Also, I noticed that even though you would see mocked up screen shots and sometimes even animations of "What would X game be like on the C64".... no one seemed to actually be making any games in it's style. During the course of development, taking to people about my game I only found 1 other team who was developing a C64 style game. I mean, even the Apple 2 was getting more love than the C64 with stuff like Organ Trail. Mean while it seems NES styled games come out every other week. Not that I have anything against the NES mind you but.... I mean give some other systems a chance.
When I started considering Kickstarter for additional funding I started entertaining the idea that maybe, if we could use the artwork from the PC version we would only need to hire a programmer and we could afford an actual C64 version as well! Unfortunately the artwork would need a lot of converting and apparently the coding would be a LOT more involved than I'd initially thought.
Anyway Here's a link to the only other C64 retro through back game that I'm aware of.
http://www.indiedb.com/games/dustbowl-a-wasteland-adventure
Here's a link to a YouTube channel that likes to make video mockups of what modern games might look like on the C64.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml3jjWssiCs |
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