Hey guys,

Himalaya Studios is on the lookout for an AGS programmer to help expedite progress on our upcoming RPG/Adventure game, Mage's Initiation: Reign of the Elements:

Please note that this is a commercial paid project. A contractor arrangement will be worked out with the successful applicant. If you think you fit the bill, please send an application/resume!

Applicants should have the following qualities:


1) Self-motivated.

2) Experienced with AGS scripting.

3) A passion for Role-Playing/Adventure games (like Quest for Glory and King's Quest) and be familiar with how both genres work. (Bonus points for clever puzzle design ideas & creative solutions).


If interested, please send an e-mail to contact@himalayastudios.com with the subject line "AGS Programmer" and let us know your skills, what AGS games you've worked on, and what you think you can bring to this project. Any questions, feel free to ask.

Thanks!

Does this position mean that Himalaya has been successful in obtaining funding?

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http://www.tabletsonline.co.nz

Not yet. We recently finished our business plan, but have hit a hurdle. We're waiting to hear back from a few people before we can proceed with pitching to any investors.

The scripting position mentioned above would be a lump sum payment (50% of front, 50% upon completion of the game) and the person would be hired as a contractor, rather than receiving an employee salary. If we're successful in being funded, we'd be able to hire them full-time, in addition to other artists and programmers.

Did the success of phoenix kick starter make you consider going down that route?

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http://www.tabletsonline.co.nz

We've considered Kickstarter before, but the incentives/rewards you have to offer eat into time as well as the funding you've just raised. Seems a bit counter-productive... also, it's not as hard for us to get our hands on that amount of funding from friends and family if absolutely necessary. For what we're planning, we really require investor equity of a much larger amount, so that we'll be able to afford full-time employees from the get-go.

That is a good way of losing friends and getting on the bad side of family, "absolutely necessary" or not. Frankly, I'd stick Kickstarter as the "absolutely necessary" route in that case.

It's a pretty common funding method for start-ups who require seed funding but don't wish to give up a sizable portion of their company share to investors. Friends and family funding is how we've funded our previous commercial games, and there have been no issues. Everybody who invested got repaid with interest, but obviously it's best suited for relatively low amounts of money. Of course, there's the risk of not breaking-even, but that's true with any other funding method too.

I just mean that we already have access to the level of funding POS received via Kickstarter. And if things went pear-shaped with 30-40K of borrowed money, it probably wouldn't be too hard to recover from. But naturally if you don't have the wherewithal to repay your creditors in the event of failure, you would certainly need to consider the pros and cons of how it'll effect your relationships and whether that's the right funding method to pursue. That's a personal call.

Whereas for any amount higher than 50k, I think Kickstarter is too hit-and-miss to be used as a serious funding method. This is where proper angel investors or VC's need to be brought in, as they make their business from risking higher amounts of money with the understanding that nothing is guaranteed. In fact some investors require start-ups to raise 50K or more of friends & family seed funding before they'll even consider making an investment, as they want to see that you (and others) have faith that your business idea is a good one.

What has the response been like to the advertised position? Much interest?

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http://www.tabletsonline.co.nz

Yup! We've brought 2 scripters on board to assist with a couple of projects we have running. Gargin is one of vict... err lucky applicants. And the other is an AGS forum regular whom we haven't finalized things with yet.

All in all, the extra help should speed up the game's development significantly. Other managerial tasks have been consuming too much of my time lately so I wanted to prevent stagnation by having the scripting be able to progress in the interim.

Now, if only we could find more reliable hi-res, pixel art sprite animators...

Pardon me for jumping in, but what sort of requirements does the pixel animator position have? I'd assume they're pretty much the same as those of the programmer position, but I wanted to know if there were any other details.