[MMO] Please read if you are a professional artist or developer.

What we're doing
For the last few years we've had a license for an online Discworld/Terry Pratchett board game (ThudGame.com). This is the only online gaming license Pratchett's ever allowed. But we want to expand the license to an MMO. With that license, we could get some serious funding.

But to get the license, we need to create a truly impressive playable 3D demo, along with some quality concept art, and pitch the idea to Pratchett. Not a full game, but just a small area, one "zone". Nonetheless, it won't be easy: his computer is at the very top end, and with him being a bit of a gamer, we can be sure he's played all the really good looking games. So, more polys, more detail and more textures than the finished game would have. "Concept art as a playable environment". Doesn't even need to be client/server, it should run singleplayer on one machine.

We have the advantage that we have access to him, and a history with him, so he knows and trusts us (we hope!). But we'll be up against others who'd pay millions for such a license, so we need to demonstrate that we totally "get" the Discworld, and understand what he wants to see in an MMO.

Even given our history, there's only a slim chance of getting the license, and an even slimmer one that we make a go of it and make money out of it, so it would be best for you to presume that any work you do on this will most likely end up being written off as "for the portfolio." Pessimistic? Perhaps, yes.

Concept
If you don't know the Discworld, think "city at the beginning of the industrial revolution, with magic and dark, subtle humour". We need just one short street.

A single, very finely crafted zone, probably not even bothering with the building internals. Since it's a small zone it could be perhaps unusually high detail for a game, though still needs to be way low-poly compared to rendering. There is a list of items that are strictly required for the demo, and which we'd be very specific about: any other stuff you feel like doing is up to your own creativity and desire to show off.
6 building externals (3 would suffice, rotated),
5 items,
Generic street clutter,
5 animated (interactable?) characters,
2 Ankh Morpork streets,
1 skybox,
weather effects,
sound effects,
lighting.

If the demo grows beyond that, great, but that's the minimum required.

Engine/Hardware[b]

We're agnostic on this - we'll use whatever gets the job done best.

Odds are we'll use DarkBasic Pro or Torque since it seems to have more support for different types of texture mapping than RealmCrafter. I think of the three, only DBP does parallax mapping. If anyone has access to a visually better engine that we'd be allowed to use for this demo, I'd be very interested to hear it.

The demo must run smoothly, but would be run on the best gaming hardware that we could rent for the day, so this isn't a huge limitation.

[b]What we offer

* I can't pay up-front.
* I most likely never will.

All I bring to the table are:
- a knowledge of what Pratchett likes and dislikes
- access to him
- an established relationship and online gaming license with him
- what we believe to be the largest web-based community of Discworld fans as a starter community.

I also have a fair few years of experience in the community management, tech support, development and testing aspects of MMOs, and some good contacts in the industry.

However, I can offer little to no compensation, at least for this demo. Might be able to get some signed Pratchett goodies, but that's a less than 25% chance based on past performance with thudgame.com, so I don't like to promise anything on that any more.

What happens after the demo depends on what happens when the demo is presented:

1) We get no licence and are told to scram. Entirely possible with Hollywood so interested in the rights nowadays. In this case I can prettymuch guarantee anyone involved in the demo will be considered first in line for work on the MMO... but it won't be a Discworld MMO any more, so you might not be interested. If you remained interested, some form of profit-share would need to be worked out. At your option we can sell your models, textures and art through our e-commerce system, at the very least until you've recouped the money that we'd pay for them.

2) It's possible that we may get a license with clauses like "no external funding, must be free to play". So it could end up licensed but still Indie-funded. This would mean no wages for the forseeable future, except possibly for the dev leads, but is likely the best outcome for those volunteers who'd want a lot of creative input on the direction of the game, or who'd be interested in a possible profit-share rather than a flat wage. Again, we can sell your models, textures and art through our e-commerce system, and I would of course be willing to consider other funding arrangements as well/instead.

3) If we do get licensing or funding, there's a good chance we'd be offering proper paid jobs at industry rates, but I'll likely have a whole lot less control over recruitment, and the game itself. Either pTerry or the funders might have their own preferred art-houses, etc. My preference, particularly for a team that works well together, is continuity, so I'll definitely put your names forward and argue vehemently for those that did well. Just beware that politics might prevent it.

And either way, you'll naturally receive full credit for any use of your work, and we would be happy to be used as a reference.

Please be aware that there is a very small chance that we'll get this pitch through from the current stage, to actually having serious funding. The number of hurdles between here and there is huge. You can almost guarantee that you'll have to write this off as "more stuff for the portfolio". I have high hopes, but realistically, option 1 above is by far the most likely.

What we need

* 2D concept artists. The pitch will need to be accompanied by about 10 pages of blurb, slathered with lots of really good concept art. Something tangible for them to play with and take home. So, need art.

* 3D low-poly mesh artists/animators, ideally professionals with access to copies of Maya, 3DSMax, XSI etc, especially those experienced in statics and objects. We do have one character artist, but can never have too much talent!

* 3D Texture artists with a full understanding of various mappings, ideally including parallax mapping, and other DirectX9 compatible maps and technologies.

* Musicians. Might just stick a random MP3 on, though.

* Sound FX/foley guys.

* Possibly pixel artists for GUI design.

* Anyone else I forgot: if you can help, just let me know how.

For the demo, you retain copyright, and unless you choose otherwise, license us to use your work only for this one demo. This is not "work for hire," so we do not retain copyright.

This will change for the game itself, though, where we are likely to require copyright of all work done as "work for hire", or better, for it to be released to the public domain.

Also looking for

* An engine. DarkBasic Pro or Torque look like the best I can afford, but I'm very open to other suggestions.

* Other suggestions. Hey, they're always welcome!

Etc

If you're feeling keen and want a glimpse inside the pre-design of the game itself, there's a 135kb doc of my notes. Nothing's final yet, but it gives some idea of the directions I'm leaning in: dewimorgan.com/tmp/mmo-design.txt

Please get in touch if: you are interested (if so, what are your rates?); you know anyone else who might be; you know of more appropriate places to ask; you know others working on similar projects with whom I might be able to pool resources; or you just have questions or comments!

If you are interested, please let me know your rates, and your licensing terms.

Thanks for reading.