3D Artist Wanted!

Hi there! I’m Trevor Powell, director of VectorStorm Pty Ltd, and the designer/programmer of MMORPG Tycoon 2, which is out now on Early Access on Steam.

My company is looking to contract a 3D artist in or around Melbourne, Australia to help create more art assets for the game. This is a paid position, full or part time.

The game

MT2 is a single player Tycoon game where you build your own MMORPG; from naming the MMO to the cities, class models, and enemies. The player’s job is to keep their game entertaining enough to keep their subscribers happy (Or if not happy, then at least still paying their subscription fees – yay, capitalism!)

The game is currently seeing some success on Steam and as such there’s been a huge demand for new assets for people to play with in-game.

Examples of the game’s current art:

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The art style

Our art style is intentionally very crisp and clean. We use no textures, and try to use simple, interesting shapes wherever possible.

Our models aren’t actually low-polygon, even though they have a similar aesthetic (some of them are actually quite high-polygon!). Instead, we’re highly interested in exploring the contrast between smooth and faceted surfaces, with an eye to maintaining a model’s legibility even when viewed from several kilometers away.

A few notes I’d like to make to point out features of the samples above that I particularly like:

• None of our characters have pupils on their eyes. This is to symbolically show that they are not real alive creatures; they are only character constructs in a simulated MMO inside a computer.
• The mage class actually has no eyes modelled into his head. This is because he is (by default) wearing a wide-brimmed hat.
• The blacksmith shop has an anvil embedded into its structure (this is more visible when viewed from above), to help players recognise what it is from a distance.
• Similarly, the potion shop has a huge potion bottle on its roof, also to make it more recognisable to players from a distance.

The team

Hi, I’m Trevor Powell, the designer/programmer of MMORPG Tycoon 2. I’ve been a games industry programmer for more than 20 years, though MT2 is my first indie release. Previously, I was doing big console games for big studios.

Ordinarily I work out of the Arcade, in South Melbourne, but during the current Covid-19 pandemic I’ve been working from home, like pretty much everyone else in the Melbourne area!

I also have several contractors who have been helping out with the game, but at the moment development is mostly me, our community manager Skaidris, and Peter and Anne-Marie on music and sound effects, respectively. A few awesome artists have worked on the game over the course of its development, but there’s nobody focused on that right now, which is why I’m looking for a few folks to jump on and help fill out our stock of buildings, scenery objects, character models, and other objects!

The position

I’m looking for 3D artists for a 6 month contract; folks who can make fantasy assets in a no-texture style that would match the current game artwork.

The work to be done will initially be the creation of buildings, scenery items, vehicles, and very simple characters, to allow our players more options creatively with their world building.

Any 3D software knowledge should be fine, as we import 3D models into the game from FBX files, but Blender is what we have been using so far and what we have the most familiarity with. A love for low-polygon-inspired fantasy artwork would also be a big plus!

If you could send any examples of work and a resume to media@mmorpgtycoon.com we’d love to get in touch to talk about work starting ASAP.

Must have capacity to work from home, with potential to work from The Arcade in South Melbourne, if/when lockdown safety permits.