Legends of Etherell : Antavia [Commission]
About the author
Hi everyone, my name is Aaron Victoria. I'm a game developer and composer. I'm also 1/2 of the SilverHelm Studios, and responsible for developing Legends of Etherell: Antavia; the first installment of our MMO franchise.
#2
Thanks for the speedy reply. We are looking to hire contractors momentarily, but only after securing a solid programming team to work as direct team members. Since royalties are involved, we are making sure to keep the team consolidated and effective, as opposed to massive and ineffective. I've worked with a few indie companies and that was one of their many failures. There were many team members, and the budget was so small, once secured, the companies were unable to secure outsourced material. However, at SilverHelm Studios, we are poised to complete this project (not to mention our publisher as well), and to do so we have to make the necessary provisions first.
We are keeping a list of our our potential outsource agents, as we are sure with the magnitude of game we are planning, we will be contracting a lot of outside sources.
05/18/2011 (5:03 pm)
Hi Ted, Thanks for the speedy reply. We are looking to hire contractors momentarily, but only after securing a solid programming team to work as direct team members. Since royalties are involved, we are making sure to keep the team consolidated and effective, as opposed to massive and ineffective. I've worked with a few indie companies and that was one of their many failures. There were many team members, and the budget was so small, once secured, the companies were unable to secure outsourced material. However, at SilverHelm Studios, we are poised to complete this project (not to mention our publisher as well), and to do so we have to make the necessary provisions first.
We are keeping a list of our our potential outsource agents, as we are sure with the magnitude of game we are planning, we will be contracting a lot of outside sources.
#3
Interesting, how involved are royalties? You state "Paid + Royalties", so I am assuming that you have a payroll structure in place (or are you looking to put contractors into a royalty situation?).
05/19/2011 (3:39 am)
Quote:Since royalties are involved
Interesting, how involved are royalties? You state "Paid + Royalties", so I am assuming that you have a payroll structure in place (or are you looking to put contractors into a royalty situation?).
#4
05/19/2011 (4:15 pm)
Sending you an email 
#5
P.S. It's always great to see a fellow half-Life modder. When's Black Mesa Source coming out?
05/20/2011 (3:57 pm)
@Aviticus: Let me be the first to welcome you and your team to the GarageGames community. With that being said, I'm excited to see what you guys will do with the Torque 3D engine. I can't wait play Legends of Etherell Antavia when its released.P.S. It's always great to see a fellow half-Life modder. When's Black Mesa Source coming out?
#6
@Luis, thanks you, I have received your message and will be contacting you earlier tomorrow; mountain standard time.
@Christopher, Thanks for the warm welcome my friend. Though I haven't worked with the Black Mesa team in over 7 years, it appears they are still working on the project. I'm excited to see their release, but am unaware of project current state. I separated to work on my half-life mod, Project Piranha o2, which has since been converted into a small saga to one day be transitioned into a game series. Unlike LoE, it will not be an MMO. It will, however, include online co-op. Once again, thanks for the welcome, it's nice to be a part of the community.
05/22/2011 (6:33 pm)
@Ted, royalties are an advantage for dedicated team members, contractors will only receive payment for time based on their specified rates. Employee salaries aren't close to the commercial standard, seeing as we have a modest budget. But, we do believe that coupled with our reasonable royalty/commission percentage, we can offset the unbalance. The only drawback to being is team member is that you would be required to work up until the finalization of the budget, without compensation. Our budget negotiation can be verified by contact our publishers, Aluna Games (www.alunagames.com). For more company related details, please feel free to email me and we can arrange a meeting via phone or Skype. Once, again thanks for the interest.@Luis, thanks you, I have received your message and will be contacting you earlier tomorrow; mountain standard time.
@Christopher, Thanks for the warm welcome my friend. Though I haven't worked with the Black Mesa team in over 7 years, it appears they are still working on the project. I'm excited to see their release, but am unaware of project current state. I separated to work on my half-life mod, Project Piranha o2, which has since been converted into a small saga to one day be transitioned into a game series. Unlike LoE, it will not be an MMO. It will, however, include online co-op. Once again, thanks for the welcome, it's nice to be a part of the community.
#7
05/23/2011 (12:19 pm)
Did you receive my email? Just checking...
#8
05/23/2011 (3:12 pm)
DarqueLord, what was your email? 
#9
ive always wanted to see a mmo with playable npcs. and you seem to have a staff to actually make it to work
For example, the king of a city is one of your actual staff. Where he logs on from 9am to 5pm. He can actually get to know people. And the better players of the game can be the kings guards. You could use a mic for voices. No more typing. That would get you immersed in the world a lot better.
Sounds kind of out there, but if your making 10 million a month with subscriptions it wouldnt be hard to pay a few people minimum wage. I think thats the next step in mmo's.
Ive always wanted to do it, but ill never have the time or the team to do it. Your game sounds like that would work pretty good with that concept though.
05/23/2011 (5:47 pm)
hey welcome to the forums.ive always wanted to see a mmo with playable npcs. and you seem to have a staff to actually make it to work
For example, the king of a city is one of your actual staff. Where he logs on from 9am to 5pm. He can actually get to know people. And the better players of the game can be the kings guards. You could use a mic for voices. No more typing. That would get you immersed in the world a lot better.
Sounds kind of out there, but if your making 10 million a month with subscriptions it wouldnt be hard to pay a few people minimum wage. I think thats the next step in mmo's.
Ive always wanted to do it, but ill never have the time or the team to do it. Your game sounds like that would work pretty good with that concept though.
#10
This is one of the many features that we have included in our game to really make the player feel like an influential part of the game world. The world is also very open, so the player never has to follow the story or side-quests. They can wanders the countryside hunting, raiding, or discovering treasures. It's all up to the player, and we think everyone will be happy about the openness of the game.
More will be revealed through time and effort. Thanks for the kind words.
05/23/2011 (6:02 pm)
Thanks Jordan, that is one of the later features planned for Legends of Etherell. We want to first populate the game and really engulf players to ensure that once we implement such a feature that we have a strong support system, so that it will blend into the game world seamlessly. Currently it works this way with factions. If you join a faction, you can rise in ranks and make decisions regarding raids, marking opponents for death, and issuing bonuses for bounties of those marked opponents. Once you reach the peak, the npc that runs the faction is removed and you become the head. Once another player reach the peak, they can choose to work as your administrator or challenge you to a battle for your position, thus making you the administrator. Currently, factions are allowed 1 leader and 3 administrators. This is one of the many features that we have included in our game to really make the player feel like an influential part of the game world. The world is also very open, so the player never has to follow the story or side-quests. They can wanders the countryside hunting, raiding, or discovering treasures. It's all up to the player, and we think everyone will be happy about the openness of the game.
More will be revealed through time and effort. Thanks for the kind words.
#11
05/23/2011 (6:06 pm)
Aviticus, I'm waiting for your email. In the meantime, to expedite things I'll be sending you my info.
#13
05/23/2011 (9:37 pm)
I just received your message Luis, I will be messaging you in a few moments. Thank you for your application, the interest is much appreciated.
#15
@DarqueLord, I still haven't received your email. Can you please resend? Thanks in advance.
05/24/2011 (12:05 am)
It appears there was an issue with my email server and it has been repair. I have received a slew of emails since. My apologies for the inconvenience everyone.@DarqueLord, I still haven't received your email. Can you please resend? Thanks in advance.
#16
05/24/2011 (12:37 pm)
We've filled our programming seats for the moment, our projected salary is minimal, so we are unable to hire more. We will be sure to post updates if we are able to secure more members.
#17
05/24/2011 (3:22 pm)
Good luck with everything!
#18
Our team has underwent a few changes over the past month and a half, including failure to finalize negotiations with our last publisher due to some unfortunate financial mishaps at their main branch causing them to close their video game division. However, we have began negotiations with 5 new "POSSIBLE" publishers, that are each awaiting a polished version of our playable alpha build the moment it is available. They have each expressed that they require this before further negotiations may be arranged. As I've expressed before including in the updated main thread above, this is a very serious project and we ask that all prospective members take into account the nature of our project and the importance of delivering a solid product before attempting to join our ranks. Our goal is to distribute the alpha to our 5 awaiting publishers once we've reached comfortable point in the alpha testing phase. Refer any questions or applications to me, Aaron Victoria, at aaronvictoria@legends-of-etherell.com and don't forget to go to our facebook or our official site for more images and information. I didn't want to spam the thread with images, because I wanted to insure decent resolution of the ones I added images. As always, thanks everyone for taking the time to read through the ad.
10/10/2011 (3:24 am)
Greetings Everyone:Our team has underwent a few changes over the past month and a half, including failure to finalize negotiations with our last publisher due to some unfortunate financial mishaps at their main branch causing them to close their video game division. However, we have began negotiations with 5 new "POSSIBLE" publishers, that are each awaiting a polished version of our playable alpha build the moment it is available. They have each expressed that they require this before further negotiations may be arranged. As I've expressed before including in the updated main thread above, this is a very serious project and we ask that all prospective members take into account the nature of our project and the importance of delivering a solid product before attempting to join our ranks. Our goal is to distribute the alpha to our 5 awaiting publishers once we've reached comfortable point in the alpha testing phase. Refer any questions or applications to me, Aaron Victoria, at aaronvictoria@legends-of-etherell.com and don't forget to go to our facebook or our official site for more images and information. I didn't want to spam the thread with images, because I wanted to insure decent resolution of the ones I added images. As always, thanks everyone for taking the time to read through the ad.
#19
12/11/2011 (1:57 pm)
Greetings everyone, our team is now looking for 2 dedicated programmers, interested in royalty earnings. New screenshots have been posted from our in-game server playtests. If you are interest please contact me at aaronvictoria@legends-of-etherell.com or on Skype using the screen name: beatsbyav 
Torque 3D Owner Ted Southard
Some of my experience with MMO creation using T3D can be found on the Epic Frontiers website, as well as looking at my blogs on this site.