itch.io

Hi! I'm Kevin from Fictium Sound Design and also the sound director / designer / composer and the co-manager of a small horror indie game studio called "Black Pigeon  Games".

Who are we?

We are a small studio of 3 people dedicated to creating story-rich, immersive and unique indie horror games.

Our is staff is one UE 5 developer, one narrative designer and one sound designer, and we are looking for a generalist artist that can create detailed and high quality digital sketches to translate the narrative ideas of our writer as well as props, CGs and 3D models. Ideally the artist should be able to handle both high-poly and low-poly, but preferably low-poly in the absence of the latter.

What's our difference in relation to other rev-share indie game studio projects?

Well, we don't mass invite a lot of people alienating the ones who truly like our creative vision and philosophy, each member that becomes our staff is curated and highly valued.

Specially because, we are looking for highly talented and ambitious individuals. if we succeed it's going to be your name alone on the game's credits that you'll be able to flex as an actual portfolio that carries weight in the industry.

That being said we prefer to work in small numbers in order to build trust and  personal connections between the members, as well as to allow each one of us to shine our artistry and do our very best in our work.

What's our background as a studio?

We are probably a low-to-mid tier in terms of expertise in our crafts so we have a philosophy to learn and improve as we go. But the developer has 4~5 years experience with the Unreal Engine, the write has already won local literary prizes and I have a YouTube channel almost hitting 500 subs (you can access that on my Itch's profile) with my original video game music, as well as a track record of sales throughout the main asset stores, with a promising horror game (inspired on Silent Hill) being developed with me as the solo composer (you can check that out on BlueSky by searching for "Bloodguilt Vita").

A few notes on the selection process

We understand that having to do too many things is complicated and that you may have just one or two of our requirements, but if you happen to be a talented visual artist and would be willing to develop the other skills as we go, that would also work. What really matters is to find out if there's chemistry between us, because like I said, we're betting on the opposite direction of other studios, everything we here is personal but also done professionally due to you actually caring about the studio and our projects.

What's our current projects?

We've got a low-poly horror on hold and we're currently developing a high-poly one with a simplified project scope (because we don't have yet an artist).

The low-poly horror: "Ratkiller", which is about a rat exterminator trying to survive amongst a few survivors in a future apocalyptic world where "Gods" built matrix-like machines to serve their own agendas where they used humans in biological experiments. The "great machine" project failed, the "Gods" abandoned the world and a cult was formed to try resuming the construction of the "great machine" despite a pending otherworldly danger that is connected with the "great machine".

The high-poly horror: "The Crossing", which is a smaller scope project where a father and son decided to go camping but then unspoken past issues surfaced involving mental illnesses, military dangers, and a fragile relationship between a father and son.

Business model

Revenue-share with equal split % between all staff members. That means you'll earn money based purely on skill and collective results, not by contribution based on time (such as hourly rates).

Recruitment process

It goes both ways ~ we'll test to see if you're really interested in working with us by observing your work in a test period, and you'll test us to see if you like our creative vision and businesses model, if everything goes well then we'll discuss the details further ahead. 

Also, you must not be in another revenue-share project so that you can provide the minimum availability for our project, as we understand you'll probably also be doing freelancing work, creating assets, doing a day job, etc.

If interested please send us an email to socials@blackpigeongames.io with your portfolio and describing a bit more of yourself.

Our social media links:

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/blackpigeongames.bsky.social

Thank you for your attention.

Now that you know you have potential have you thought about trying to release a commercial game on Steam perhaps?

Hey man, I just played your game! Interesting concept tho' I wasn't able to get through that narrow corridor with 2 of them lol.

Feedback:
- Nice PSX aesthetics, tho' it looks like to be less low poly than classical PS1, so it a touch of originality.
- Good use of general SFX.
- The stingers are simple but effective, however maybe a more nuanced drone / dark atmospheres / ambiences could help it.
 - The use of shadows and the colored eyes were very well implemented.

Coolio.  Are you planning to release something on Steam eventually when you get the hang of it?

Hi, I'm a horror composer and a big fan of PSX style horror games. I just played this short demo, and here's the feedback:

- That blurry/dirt effect on the color added an extra for the game, props for that.
- I didn't quite understand the thing at the end but I found it hilarious.
- Gotta put some SFX for footsteps, doors, maybe some crickets and whatnot (since it's in a forest).
- Also, despite these titles working well with silence, if you decide to develop it further it would be interesting to have some piano music for the menu theme as well as some more nuanced drones.

No problem! Have you thought about setting up social media accounts such as BlueSky? It's easier for people like me to check out what you're doing and help you out.

Hey man, Horror composer giving feedback here. First of all congratulations on starting to develop low-poly horror games, I'm a huge fan of anything related to that.

Feedback:
- It looks like your're still on the learning process so it's all a bit crude, like the simple fonts (with no graphic design details) telling the player straightaway what to do without much of a proper pacing, but I bet in no time you'll get better and better with these.
- Some of the SFX are a bit poorly made and you'd probably need some simple animations to make them more effective.
- You probably could use some music and/or atmospheric drones.
- There's a bit of lag which's probably something related to how the game was coded or designed.

Keep up the good work!

Hey man, I just played your game as i'm also a fan of the souls  like genre. it looks like the game is in its very beginnings, so i have a few remarks:

- There should be an option for keyboard settings besides with game controlers (i don' have one for instance).
- It's a big laggy. I think that seems to be a very common and difficult problem to solve, that is, to make it run 30 FPS+ while using 3D graphics.
- Some of the SFX are weird, specially the footsteps, also some of them are a bit too loud.
- Are there innovative gameplay mechanics that will be implemented besides it being a hack and slash game?
- I think I heard the soundtrack somewhere else. It looks like to be royalty-free or from a Paid Music pack. That being said, have you considered where exactly the sound direction will go towards?
- The camera is a bit weird too, if you're aiming towards a souls like 3D game that and the character control should be as smooth as possible so that players aren't frustrated when doing difficult battles.

Now the good part:

- It's really cool that character's an archer and not a swordsman for once!
- I really like the visual aesthetics, it's good for a starting point.
- It's a proper 3D dark fantasy game! It takes balls to do it as It must be really challenging, I'm happy for that!

I'm a dark fantasy game composer by the way, if you need any help let me know!

Oh, I see, yeah, that also works. Good luck in your endeavours, also if you happen to join a future game jam you already have my contact!

You've got some cool assets. So you're more of an artist. I'll follow you just in case there might appear an opportunity for collab work such as game jams and stuff!

Interesting. Haven't you starded posting on social media such as BlueSky btw? That would be interesting for more people to find out about your work. By the way, if you're interested I have a free horror music pack on my profile, it's also on YouTube and on Unreal store as I guess you'll either have to learn music composition by yourself or choose royalty free sources?

Cool. What's your plans in terms of game development as of now?

Cool, no problem, what's your game development plans for the future?

Hey! horror game composer giving feedback.

I really enjoyed your game, congratz on starting into horror games.

A few remarks:

- I felt some minor lags during specific moments.
- Mouse sensitivity seems to have reseted during the cutscene.

Although these kinds of games work perfectly well with silence it would've been interesting to experiment with some sound design maybe for the tense moments.

Also, the SFX was solid. Good job.

Hey man, VGM composer here.

I just played your game and beat taurus. Got me laughing with the "almost dark souls", lol.

First of all, good job starting out with the dark fantasy genre, as it looks a bit underrated in the indie game zone, I see much more standard fantasy then dark fantasy ones.

I think you have the potential to heard towards a Blasphemous-like direction, get this shit more and more darker to get a dark metroidvania.

So, tho' the art looks decent I think you good keep working on it. I'd say to try finding a cohesive sound pallete for the SFX. Also, I'm not really sure if the 8 bit fits in there.

I have a couple of dark fantasy boss theme songs you can download for free (just attribution needed). If you feel you'd benefit from that, you can access the "Free Fantasy Music Pack" on my Itch profile page. Perhaps "Eldritch The Torturer" or "The Weeping King" could fit your game. If you've got a female boss down in the road you could use "The Bestial Queen".

It does, I sent the log to your email.

Yeah, I can listen to the music. I can run Elden Ring on high settings here so I believe it must be something else.

Hey! I liked the general idea of your game, but when I downloaded the current build to test no image appears on the screen! Do you think you could fix that so that I can play and give an initial feedback? Thanks.

Oh, in that case if you need music I have this FREE 2D Platformer Music Pack. Perhaps it may be useful,  it's 8 Bit / 16 Bit retro style. https://fictium-sound-design.itch.io/free-2d-platformer-pixel-music-pack

I'll be on the lookout for when you get back at developing your RPG game!

Sure! Just add me on Discord.

You've been putting a lot of thoughts into that! I just happen to know the basics of Akira Yamaoka's composition thought processes, the harmonic choices he likes doing with chords, form, structure as well as how to recreate those ethereal, dream-like pads with layered SFX for both the calm and horror parts. Whenever you're ready, If you'd like, I could compose a free 2min sample to see if you like it! 

Are you still developing this one? If so I can play and scan for a deeper feedback. If not, are you working in a different project?

Hi, I'm Kevin, if you need a composer for the game jam I'm available. Here's my work:

https://www.youtube.com/@fictiumsounddesign

Discord Contact: fictiummusic

Hi, I'm Kevin, if you need a composer for the game jam I'm available. Here's my work:

I'm proficient with authentic mono 8 bit music, you can find an entire album of NES era on my YT channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@fictiumsounddesign

Discord Contact: fictiummusic

Hi, I'm Kevin, if you need a composer for the game jam I'm available. Here's my work:

https://www.youtube.com/@fictiumsounddesign

Discord Contact: fictiummusic

Hi, I'm Kevin, if you need a composer for the game jam I'm available. Here's my work:

https://www.youtube.com/@fictiumsounddesign

Discord Contact: fictiummusic

Hi, I'm Kevin, if you need a composer for the game jam I'm available. Here's my work:
https://www.youtube.com/@fictiumsounddesign

Discord Contact: fictiummusic

Hello, I'm a RPG composer and I just played your game! Congratulations for attemping to do an action rpg game, it's a very challenging genre!

Here's my feedback:
- The sound panning is off, its mostly coming from my left speaker, it should be coming out equally from both sides.
- It's a good idea to loop several music during gameplay, but I'd say you should watch out for music that ends up breaking immersion, I noticed that some that played in there would be a better fit for a dark dungeon than a forest.
- There seems to be a UI bug when more than a window is openned. For instance as I was openning the skill level window + the ESC menu it crashed the game.
- Maybe remove the enemies screamming sound SFX and leave it for specially and key characters? It'd be less repetitive.
- Props for the day and night cycle, that was cool!

Thanks for the feedback! I suppose you're heading towards a dark fantasy music palette for your project?

The Team: We are Black Pigeon Games. An ue dev, a musician and sound designer and a write that met through a successful game jam and decided to team up to create a video game studio!

A new game development studio currently developing a singleplayer, story rich, survival horror game in Unreal Engine 5. RatKiller. The team currently comprises of 4 members spread across the globe from the US to Brazil. Currently, we are a programmer, musician, and a writer. Every team member is also either a student or working full time and contributing towards this project on a part time basis and thus we aren’t expecting someone to dedicate all their time to the project.

The Game: "In the far future, a primitive rat killer who lives in a planet-sized computer realizes the people he worships as gods have disappeared. While he searches for the missing gods, something grows hostile, hunting fellow rat killers inside the endless dark maze of wires." We created a short demo of the game as part of the ScreamJam2024 game jam and are looking to build on the game and eventually release on Steam. The time frame for release is currently expected to be about a year as we are still in an early stage of development. We want to create a handcrafted experience for players and not another quick asset flip. The music for an initial trailer of the game as well as the game play for the jam is down below:

Gameplay Video:

Trailer Audio: https://soundcloud.com/fictiumsounddesign/ratkillers-official-trailer

The Role: We’re looking to expand the team with another highly-skilled artist, working remotely, who can create visually appealing models and textures with a low poly count and low resolutions as well as take part in ideation and game design document decisions. Skills:

• Low poly 3D modelling: rigged characters, props and architecture
• PS2 style textures

Desirable:

• Some level of industry experience
• Creating concept art
• Animation
• Importing your assets and creating materials in Unreal Engine 5

Compensation: An equal profit share split once the game is generating revenue. Please send an email to fictiumsounddesign@gmail.com if interested!

Hi!

Latest free rpg music here!

Character Theme:

Waltz Theme:

Latest free piano music!

You can license it via attribution crediting me as "Fictium Sound Design."

There's both a complete and loop version.

Like the video and subscribe to the channel for more!

Hi! I'm a RPG composer and I like goth aesthetics and the guilt theme is very interesting! I'll be looking forward to see your next steps!

Hi! I'm a big fan of Graveyard Keeper and also an RPG composer. I'm looking forward to see how your project will unfold! I think since the your ideas are quite good it'd be interesting for you to use Unity as it has more functionalities!

Do you like Anime Music?

Here's a free one, just don't forget to attribute me credits:

Here's my next free 2D Platformer Pixel Music Pack featuring 11 free OSTs.

Just give me credits if you use it to properly apply the license!

Happy game developing!

Hi!

Here's my newest free pixel music pack for you!

Just give me credits if you use it to proper use the license!

https://fictium-sound-design.itch.io/free-2d-platformer-pixel-music-pack

Thanks!

Thank you very much for this! I used one of your background image on my free pixel music on my YouTube channel.

Thanks! More will come!