Job Openings for Investors in the Duatiu MMO

(Note: I will soon post a 'FAQ' on this blog about the project, answering some basic questions like 'Why is this game called Duatiu?', 'Do you honestly believe you can write an MMO by yourself without a budget?', "Why are you telling everyone your great ideal, won't somebody just rip you off and steal it?" and 'Do you really believe anyone is going to work on this project for free?  What, are you nuts??")

The following job openings are available for developers who wish to invest in the Duatiu game project.  It is important to remember that these are not 'paying' jobs; but rather a partnership opportunity where your level of contribution will be rewarded with shares of stock in the company.

There aren't that many times in life when you can take a chance on yourself; a time when you can hope to achieve significant financial return simply by contributing your own time and talent to a venture.  I don't need your money, what I need is your time and talent to make this project more successful than it would be without it.  Each person who contributes to the Duatiu project will be rewarded in exact proportion to the level of that contribution.  The worst case scenario is the project never ships or makes any money.  In this event you have lost some of your own personal time but, at least, you have gained some experience and are able to add to your portfolio.  In the event that the product does ship, but is not particularly successful (say garnering only a few hundred regular players), the business plan has been set up so that each contributor should at least be reimbursed for the time they originally put into the project and, of course, gain a credit for a shipping MMO.   However, if the game is a modest hit, say gaining a few thousand regular players over the course of several years, then everyone who invested in the project should see a return on their investment of time many fold. 

On the off chance that the game becomes a monster mega-hit (still only doing a fraction of the business of a studio MMO) and tens of thousands of players keep the game going for years and years to come, then each of the original investors will not only see a substantial financial reward but, perhaps, may even be able to make a career out of it

Example Scenario:  Let's say you invest about a 100 hours of your time on this project; garnering you 100 shares of stock.  Worst case scenario, you don't get a penny back, but you have some new content for your portfolio, a little bit of hard education, and a lot of experience.

If the game ships, and garners an audience of steady players, each monetized at approximately $8.33 a month, it breaks down like this:

• 500 regular players for five years = $2,500
• 2000 regular players for five years = $10,000
• 10,000 regular players for five years = $50,000
• 100,000 regular players for five years = $500,000

Now, that's a return on an investment of a 100 hours or work, or about two and a half full-time weeks.  Most of you know the kind of subscription numbers an MMO has.  I think it's fair to say that 500 players is a very conservative estimate.  And 2,000 to 10,000 regular players, assuming the game has the degree of addictive action I intend it to have, is not totally out of line.  In the studio world, 100,000 players of an MMO would be considered an abject failure by today's standards.  In fact by today's standards, if an MMO doesn't have hopes of achieving 250,000 regular subscribers it's generally not considered worth 'bothering' with.

I feel strongly that an MMO designed to attract a core following of  around 10,000 players who enjoy a certain kind of addictive game play is not a completely unrealistic expectation. (A note about monetization of this MMO.   The traditional MMO model is with subscriptions; and today more companies are experimenting with 'micro-transactions' and other ways to skim a tiny bit of money off of a massive, massive, massive population of potential 'free' players.  Duatiu will be monetized in a very old school way.  Just as once, long ago, we shoved quarters into an arcade machine, Duatiu will be monetized in essentially the same way.  Duatiu will cost one quarter to play the game for a half hour.  If you are a regular player, who really loves the game, and plays if for 20 hours a month, then it would still cost you less than a subscription to a conventional studio MMO.  If you decide not to play the game for a month then, unlike a standard subscription model, you won't spend a dime.  It's simple, flat, pay-to-play.  A quarter for a half an our of pulse pounding relentless MMO first person shooter action.  That sounds fundamentally fair to me.)

Let me be clear up front.  I am making this game.  Whether or not a single person joins the team to help make it better I am still making this product.  That is going to happen.  However, the game will be better, and most likely reach a much quicker return on investment, the more people who contribute their creative talent towards it.  If I have to develop and launch the game myself, up to the point that it begins producing a positive revenue flow, then I will most likely not be distributing any shares of stock.  No shared risk, no shared reward.

My personal goals are as follows.  At the minimum, I want to make this game simply because I want to play it myself; it's been a dream of mine for almost 15 years.  Next, I would most certainly like a financial reward for my effort.  And finally, looking long term, I would like to see if this game could become big enough to essentially support me 'in my retirement'.  

It important to note that if you are currently a working professional in the game industry you are probably not free to join this project (it would literally require a legal document from your current employer stating that you are free to contribute to this project, and frankly, that is simply not going to happen).  I am fortunate in that I am not currently employed by a game company and don't suffer from this conflict of interest.  If you are a student, or a freelancer, this is an excellent opportunity for you.

If you are someone looking to get a break into the game industry this is your chance (if you have the talent required).  If you are looking for a student project to work on or want to enhance your portfolio, you should strongly consider applying to be part of the team.

Below is a list of the positions available for people to contribute to this project.

• Attorney :While it is my goal to keep this project as simple and straightforward as possible, nevertheless, all of the basic legal documents covering the limited liability corporation and disbursement of stock should be properly filed.  I don't expect to need a giant investment of time from an attorney and, most likely,  I will just pay for this out of my own pocket.  However, if an attorney wishes to become a vested partner in the project in exchange for their legal services I am certainly interested in hearing from them.  One thing I will not be needing is a non-disclosure agreement.  This entire project is going to be done wide open and in the public arena.  Using a grass roots promotion campaign, not unlike that of 'Minecraft', I plan to shout far and wide what we are doing on this project to anyone who is interested in hearing our message.  That said, it is important to note that this is *not* an open source project.  Members of the team will need to respect the intellectual property rights of the venture and refrain from leaking source code or content.
• Financial Officer : As soon as this project begins generating any revenue at all we will need someone to manage the finances and make sure that all of the accounting is clear and above board and that all appropriate and necessary paperwork is filed with the various state and federal agencies. 
• Business Development : Even though this game is being self-funded, primarily through creative partners volunteering their time, still we will need to engage a number of companies as we push the game out into the larger world.  The business development person will be responsible for engaging companies which might handle billing, hosting, and promotion of the product.  Any part of the project that involves engaging outside companies will be addressed by this individual.
• Producer : Creating a game like this has a lot of moving parts.  Especially when you are trying to manage a virtual team which is spread out across the world.  The producer's job will to be to assure that we have the resources we need to get the job done.  He (or she) will be locating talent, tasking and scheduling content, reviewing submissions, and managing all of the elements to pool the resources of a diverse team in a focused manner.
• Art Director : The art director role is critical.  With all of the art being parceled out to a spread out team, it is the art director's job to make sure that there is a uniform look and feel to the content and to make sure that all of content which goes into the game is of an acceptable quality.
• Web Master : This is one of the first positions I need filled right away.  I have already purchased the domain name 'www.duatiu.com' and now, when someone goes to that URL they need to be greeted by a professional website which communicates the vision of this project and engages the online community well.  The web master is not only responsible for establishing and maintaining the website but also setting up the message forums, wiki, and any other online components which are critical to communicating our project to the outside world.
• Community Manager : Duatiu is going to be developed in a fashion similar to 'Minecraft'.  Very early in the project, in fact the moment we have a minimal first playable version of the game, we will be releasing it to the community at large.  Gathering feedback from that community and engaging them as we tune and refine game design is a critical role that needs to be filled.
• Public Relations : This is another critical position which needs to be filled almost immediately.  The public relations person will be responsible for promoting this project through all avenues that make sense.  We have a dual goal, first of promoting the project to potential partners who wish to become vested in the project by contributing their time and talents and, second, we need to let the gaming community know about the project by creating grass roots awareness that a massively multiplayer online first person shooter is being created outside of the conventional big studio process.   
• 3D Modeler : One or more artists who are expert in 3d modeling will be needed to contribute to the project.
• Texture Artist : One or more artists will be needed to produce high resolution, high fidelity, and compelling textures in support of 3d art.
• 2D GUI Artist : Some conventional 2D graphics user interface art will need to be created. 
• Lighting Artist :  Duatiu is using a baked in radiosity solution for global illumination.  The radiosity solution is provided by running the game levels through POVRay.  There is an opportunity for someone who is an expert in POVRay with a strong aesthetic sense for how to create dramatic lighting.  Placing, tweaking, and tuning interior lights in the game levels is a talent we could use.
• Character Artist : A character artist expert in creating detailed 3d models suitable for a real-time gaming environment is needed.
• Animator : An animator who knows how to 'rig' a 3d character model and then animate it with all of the necessary motion for a first person shooter is needed. 
• Programmer AI : A programmer who specializes in artificial intelligence could be used by the team.Though I plan to do most of the AI programming myself, I can always use expert input from others.
• Programmer UI : A programmer familiar with user interface programming is needed to implement the radar display, damage display, chat window, and other similar elements.
• Programmer Graphics Special Effects : A graphics programmer expert in producing special effects using the latest vertex and pixel shader techniques would be invaluable.  The game engine is written using OpenGL ES.  There is no DirectX code, and in fact the engine uses no licensed technology.  The design of the graphics engine is such that it can be feasibly, and easily, ported to as many other platforms as seems appropriate; especially for tablet based operating systems all of which use OpenGL.  Moreover, the core graphic engine is being designed to have very minimal hardware requirements, so that the game can run on as broad a base of hardware as possible.
• Programmer Server : A server programmer is needed.  The duties would include writing a login server, a match making server, and integrating billing software and other account management systems to handle safe, secure, stable, and scalable systems.
• Game Designer :  Surprisingly, this is the one position I really don't need filled.  The game design for Duatiu is pretty much complete.  Any additional game design elements will be fine tuned live during the beta testing phase.  However, there are a few elements which could benefit from some additional game design refinements and I would be willing to issue some shares of stock for this contribution.
• Level Designer :Fortunately, the game levels necessary to launch the game are already completed.  That is not to say I wouldn't consider some additional new game levels should the right person become available to author new content.
• Quality Assurance :  Quality assurance will largely not be a paid position.  Duatiu will be a constant state of open-paid-beta from the day you can play it.  This game will launch early, and often.  It will benefit from continuous testing and refinement as we get feedback from the fan base which builds around it.  All that said, however, there may be an opportunity for a QA person to perform to do some of the more well defined rote tasks as well as gathering and managing bug reports from the player community.

If you are interested in contributing to the project in any of these roles.  Please contact me by email with a copy of your resume and a link to a website showcasing your work.