LGP Development Company Sponsorship If you have always wanted to write a game, always wanted to do more with your skills, then this could be for you. LGP is sponsoring the formation of a new company for development of games for the Linux platform. We are looking for the best and brightest to bring a brand new era to Linux gaming. We are looking for eight developers, at least one of them with team leading experience, to come together and make the killer Linux game. What that game is, will be up to the group. Creative thinkers and excellent development skills should be the main traits of each applicant. SO, what are the details. Firstly, this is NOT a job. This is a future self-employment opportunity. We will not be paying a salary for this. So, you are probably wondering why you would be interested. 1) When the game is complete, LGP will publish your game. We will pay 100% of the costs to have it produced, marketed, and retailed worldwide. 2) 70% of sales revenue will go to the development company, to be divided up as the team sees fit. The remainder of the money will go to LGP to pay for marketing, and other publishing expenses. 3) If your game is good enough, then you should earn enough money from it to allow you to fund future game development, pay your own wages, and really get into the game development industry! 4) Depending on how good the game is, how much the public like it, and any porting to other platforms, the revenue from the game could be a modest 50,000 pounds (75,000 US Dollars) up to a substantially larger sum in excess of a million pounds. We cant make any guarantees, but make a good game, and people will buy it. So, how will it work? The following stages outline how we expect the process to work. Applications Initially we are asking people to send an application to us. Simply email devcompany@linuxgamepublishing.com with the following information. Your Name Your programming skills (including team leading skills) A sample of source code, 2K or under (2048 characters, not including newlines, whitespace at the start of lines, or comments that are not code), written by yourself, that does something cool, in either C, C++, or x86 asm (along with a description of what it does). Your feelings on the Linux platform and the gaming industry. This last section is left deliberately vague as we wish to see the creative thinking side of applicants Selection LGP will select 8 people from all applicants. Our decision is final. These eight will be a mixture that we feel can best complete the task. Introductions Introductions will be held on an IRC channel, As developers will likely be geographically separated, this is where most conversation between developers will take place. Naming The first task will be for the group to think of a name for the company. This will help everyone to begin working together. Game Selection Next, the group will have to think what kind of game to be created. We aren't looking for small games that can be made in a week, this should be a game that has mass appeal, playability, and replayability. No clones of existing games, nothing that will send people to sleep. Bar that, the choices are open. Ideally, can we make a new TYPE of game, instead of just another FPS/RTS/TBS. If a new genre cannot be discovered, can we think of a new angle on an existing genre. Original thinking would be a strong advantage here. Leadership LGP will, taking into account the wishes of the team, select a team leader. This person will be responsible for coordinating the project, making sure everyone knows what they are doing, and keeping things running smoothly. This person will not have hiring or firing powers, they must bring unsolvable issues to the LGP representative. Developer Commitment After the game outlines are made, it is possible some developers will not be interested in working with the type of game that is planned. At that point, they are free to walk away and we will find replacements from among the original applicants. Contracts Once the development team is committed, contracts will be sent for all to sign. These contracts will be outlining the details given here, and will protect the rights of both the developers and LGP Development Once development commences, each developer will be expected to make a commitment. A minimum commitment of 10 hours per week for each developer will be expected. If any one developer is not pulling their weight, then the rest of the developers will be able to bring this to the attention of the LGP representative, who may remove a developer if at least half of the development staff request it and LGP believes it is appropriate. Developers are obliged to make the minimum 10 hours a week commitment, but are encouraged to spend as much time as they can, to assure a reasonable development pace. Any developers requiring a break from working on the project must clear this with LGP, or will face removal from the team, and loss of all their future revenues. Artwork/Level Design/Music When the development has reached a suitable point where we know more about the art, level, and music requirements (if any), we will expand the team to include people with appropriate non-coding skills. Testing LGP will provide final testing and beta testing facilities, but in-development testing is the responsibility of the development team. If they wish, dedicated testers can be brought in to the project. Release When the game is ready, LGP will publish it. As soon as the game is released, LGP will hand 90% of the development company over to the developers to do with as they will. They can close it, or use it to make more games, the choice is theirs. Additional Rules: LGP commits to publishing the game but reserves the right to not do so if we feel that publishing will harm our company. We will advise the developers in the planning stage if a game design is unsuitable, and as early as possible during development if development standards are not high enough. The game must run on the Linux platform, but this does NOT exclude other platforms. The development team is strongly advised to consider cross-platform development, as each platform increases revenue. This is purely at the decision of the development team. LGP will market the game wherever we can for any platform it runs on.