I do hope it is appropriate to post this here.

[size=14px]The Bronze Forge project is looking for team members[/size].

Summary:
The Bronze Forge goal is to build a viable business that provides customers access to multi-player games via the Internet. We have no intention of competing with the big names of the games business who often produce variations on a theme that has been done to death, "only-with-even-better-graphics-this-time-oh-and-700-new-spells".
Instead we will focus on games that can be developed by a small team, within a reasonable timeframe. We will avoid concentrating 70% of the development resources on cutting edge 3D graphics. Instead we?¢_Tll spend those 70% on game design and depth of content.

Games:
The plan is to develop games for a niche of the game playing market, more specific to gamers who enjoy intellectual and, possibly, emotional challenges. We pick themes that are not common in today?¢_Ts computer game market, but have a track record in strategy and simulation gaming. This includes political, religious, psychological, "mature", fantasy, science fiction and horror themes.
The initial effort planned will be a "board game" type simulation inspired by such films as Power Play and Salvador.
As more games are completed they will be added to the Bronze Forge stable and customers can log on and participate in any of the game titles being offered.
We also wish to give players a gaming milieu where they can meet others with similar interests in gaming. As part of this we wish to give customers the possibility of rating their peers (in a controlled manner to avoid "grief" tactics).

Rewards:
Bronze Forge is currently an "Indie" type project, meaning it has little funding except for critical investments or low cost contract work. Participants will therefore work either against reimbursement when the project generates an income or ownership in the company. The project recognizes the importance of legally binding agreements to ensure the rights of both the project and all contributing team members.

Organizing work:
Since this will be a "distributed effort" we have selected a number of collaborative tools for team use. It is vital that every member is active when it comes to communication with the rest of the team. How you are progressing (or not) is vital information to the project, and to stay on the team you must stay in regular contact (this helps maintain the feeling of working in a team as well).

Philosophy and Vision:
It is the profound wish to <u>CREATE</u> that drives this project. The creation of games and the creation of a business that will one day make the team members into makers of their own destinies and, incidentally, provide them with an income.
As a part of that vision the Bronze Forge project wishes to emphasize the importance of mutual respect within the team.

The short and long term goals include:
1. Build a business that generates enough revenue to support further development
2. Build a team that works well together
3. Develop further games consistent with philosophy described earlier
4. (Long term) Develop a Multi-player Persistent World that supports a low number of participants (typically 300) per instance, but that actually implements PvP in a controlled manner, controlled player justice, as well as community building that has meaning in a game world context.

Experience or knowledge we are looking for includes:
?¢_¬¢ SQL
?¢_¬¢ MySQL configuration
?¢_¬¢ Network security
?¢_¬¢ Encryption
?¢_¬¢ DirectX (mostly DirectDraw, but possibly also DirectPlay)
?¢_¬¢ Client / Server design
?¢_¬¢ Borland Delphi, or possibly Java. (C++ is not ideal for us, but don?¢_Tt be discouraged)
o TCP Sockets using Indy (or alternatively DirectPlay)
o Multi threading
o Blocking sockets
o State machines
o Observers
o Time scheduling
o "Smart" referencing
o Object script extensions
o XML
?¢_¬¢ Simple encryption
?¢_¬¢ Simple AI such as A* variants
?¢_¬¢ Windows GUI
?¢_¬¢ 2D and or 3D graphic design
?¢_¬¢ General Linux inc. security/firewall
?¢_¬¢ Non-computer game design, war/strategy/simulation game experience, RPG experience
?¢_¬¢ A little web site development (Php, Python, or other)
?¢_¬¢ Credit card processing services

Requirements:
You must be able to show a reasonable progress on a week by week basis * (see below) and, barring force majeure, be an active contributing member until the project completes to benefit as specified in your individual agreements.

In addition, you must be willing to
?¢_¬¢ document your work
?¢_¬¢ keep a log of hours worked and submit this to the team in a weekly basis for approval
?¢_¬¢ keep in regular communication with the team through the tools provided. This part is very important!

If you possess one or more of these skills/abilities, or believe you can build them in fairly short order, you might just be the right person.

* Note on work load.
This being a non-funded project initially, a majority of the team?¢_Ts members will be otherwise employed during the day. As a minimum, a Core Team Member must be able to contribute with at least 3-4 hours a day (on average) while they has open tasks assigned for the project to have sufficient progress.
However, owning interest or other compensation will be partly calculated from work contribution.

Time frame
Currently we are calculation with about 12 months to complete infrastructure and first game coding, i.e. start first beta phase. However, this figure is very much subject to change as the team composition is not yet fixed.

Contact
Initial contact must be made to hoyem@online.no. (Use the word "BronzeForge" in the subject line)
Tell us a bit about yourself, your experience, and your ambitions. Everyone will receive a reply, and the most promising applicants will be contacted for further interviewing.


Tore Hoyem
Bronze Forge project manager
Temporary site: www.bronzeforge.com

(Note: This ad has been posted on several game developer sites)