itch.io

Thanks to everyone who applied, an applicant has now been selected.

Introduction

Hi there,

My name is Christopher, I am the creator of Purpose, an Open Source chose-your-own adventure game created in Twine 2 using Snowman 2.

"Purpose is an episodic story about a young woman struggling with the loss of her sister in the Walker-infested post-apocalyptic world. Join her on her journey as you make decisions that influence the outcome of the story, in this choice-based text story inspired by Telltale Games' The Walking Dead".

Originally the game was entirely text-based, however, over the past ~5 months I have been working with a talented artist to bring some visuals to the game, and turn it from a text-based story into something that more closely resembles a traditional visual novel; see the Devlogs for more detail on this.

Up until this point, the team has consisted of me handling all the code and infrastructure, and DesDarkDesigns creating all the art and UI elements. Between the two of us, we've made a significant amount of progress, and the core gameplay loop is very nearly finished. However, I have recently started a new full-time job, and do not have as much time to contribute to the project as I have previously. That being the case, I would like to hire someone to take over for me in the coding department, allowing me to focus on the creative direction of the project.

Project Details

Tech stack:

• Game Engine:
  • Twine 2 (HTML/CSS/Vanilla JS)
    • With a custom "template engine" using HTML tags.
  • Snowman 2
  • jQuery
  • A handful of custom "libraries"
    • Audio (music & sound effects).
    • Image Preloading.
      
    • Gamepad/controller integration.
• Cloud saving system:
  • PHP
  • MySQL
  • Typescript

The custom "template engine" effectively takes stock Twine passages, and converts them into lists of instructions to be actioned one-by-one. I'll use a short example to explain:

This passage is ingested at runtime by the template "engine" and is actioned accordingly, such as in the image above:

1. The "special" UI is selected.

   
   

   1. The Special UI consists of one character slot and one background image slot.
2. The music file called "limping" is played.
3. An Action is displayed.
   1. An Action is any text displayed on the screen that is not speech. Speech and Actions need to be stepped through by the play before the next tags/steps are actioned.
4. The first character slot is populated with the "Sarah" character, using her "limping" variation.
5. Some actions are displayed.
6. The special (background image) slot is set to the "backstreet" image.
7. Some actions are displayed.
8. A list containing a single option is displayed for the player to choose from to further the story.

Most of the project uses this simple template system, with the exception being the menus, which still use vanilla HTML/CSS/JS. These Menus will be a focus area for the applicant as they are presently very lackluster.

Work Details

At a minimum, I am looking for someone who will be able to work with the artist to implement UI elements (read: menu buttons, backgrounds, loading screens, etc.) into the game using HTML, CSS, & JS.

If willing and able, I would like the successful applicant to continue where I left off in converting the game from text-only to the new visual novel style; this entails converting individual passages from text to the new template system and making small tweaks to the writing as required (e.g. splitting existing paragraphs over multiple new "steps" for easier flow/reading). Additionally, going through and adding in "extras" (i.e. gamepad rumbles, music, sound effects, etc.) using the template system would be a huge help; I'll explain how this works, it's very easy to implement.

All work will be committed publicly to GitHub.

If the applicant and I work well together, there may be opportunities for future employment on unrelated projects that could benefit from a front-end developers touch, if the applicant is interested.

Applicant Requirements

Must have:

• Experience with front-end development (HTML, CSS, & JS).
  • A portfolio, however small, is required
• Eye for design and detail.
• Some experience with Git (or willing to learn).
• Two to three hours a week to work on the project.
• Good written communication skills.
• A Discord account (or willing to make one).
• Able to work effectively in a team.
• Able to operate independently, but able to ask the team for help when needed.

Nice to have:

• Experience with Twine 1 and/or 2.
• Experience with GitHub (creating Pull Requests, Issues, Code Reviews, etc.).
• Good verbal communication skills (talking over Discord voice chats).
• Experience working on visual novels (any engine).
• A sense of humor.

Any country/timezone is fine, so long as the applicant can understand English and is able to reply to messages in a timely fashion (within 24 hours).

Payment

I'm flexible and open to an agreed-upon fixed price, per-hour, etc. Happy to discuss payment with anyone that reaches out.

Money will be sent via PayPal, either as a Goods & Services payment in Australian or US Dollars, or the applicant can create a PayPal invoice that I will pay.

Applying

If you have any questions, please post them below.

If you would like to submit your expression of interest, please send an E-Mail to hello@purpose-game.com, making sure to include your portfolio. Please be aware I do work full time, and may not be able to respond to your E-Mail right away; feel free to post below that you have E-Mailed, as that will trigger an itch.io notification E-Mail to my personal E-Mail that I will see sooner.

I will edit this post when an applicant has been selected.

Thank you very much for reading :)

Certainly do! See the comment above regarding chapter two, and thank you, I appreciate the support 😊

With my focus on the redesign at the moment, chapter two isn't on the cards just yet. You can read more about the redesign here:

https://infernochris.itch.io/purpose/devlog

Once the redesign is finished, chapter two can be started 👍

Thanks for your kind words!

Images have been removed from the game's files.

Hey there my name is Christopher,

I am currently seeking an artist to help bring some life to my (presently) entirely text-based game. My intention is to add some art elements in order to convert the game from a purely text-based experience into something that more closely resembles that of traditional visual novels.

Ideally, I would be asking for some character portraits with various facial expressions that would change depending on the context of the scene.

If that sounds like something you might be interested in, let me know and I'd be happy to provide you with more information :)

Thanks for reading!

Yeah I am sorry about that, I would imagine getting right to the end then losing all your progress would not be cool 💀 But your sacrifice means it won't happen to anyone else!

Thanks for playing by the way, hope you enjoyed it

Spoilers ahead for anyone that hasn't played the game yet (you should, by the way).

I wasn't really sure what I was expecting when I started the game, but I ended up enjoying the experience thoroughly. Finished it in around ~45 minutes, but I didn't feel like I'd rushed it; I am a quick reader.

I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the characters; considering the relatively short length of the game, and the lack of backstory provided regarding them, I felt I had a reasonable understanding of who they were and what they wanted; minus Haze, that wasn't clear to me until near the end of the game.

This might sound silly (I don't play Visual Novels very often at all), but I didn't know the backgrounds/sprites moved between "levels"/"scenes". So when I was reading along and the eyes of the characters were moving, I kept looking up going "Did those move? I think they moved... Nah they didn't move", and then felt very silly when I realized they were in fact moving. Anyway, I don't know if minimal movement is the norm or not, but I liked that the movements (such as eyes, eyebrows, smiles, etc.) when talking with Haze were very subtle, vs. the other character whose name I've forgotten because she's not important! Ending 3, if you couldn't tell. The subtle movements fitted the sad/melancholy theme perfectly, and made the big movement reveal at the end all the more impressive and unexpected. The art itself was great, very impressive; I wish I could draw/design like that, well done.

When the choices came up, I found myself sitting back and pondering for a few minutes, weighing up the pros and cons of the decisions; all except the last decision, that Demon is staying here, no pondering time required. It's not often a game gets me to stop and think like that; I won't lie, I was torn choosing between Ella and Haze. One might have offered a loving relationship at best, and a dysfunctional friend-zoned one at worst, while the other would have offered a proper friendship and their wisdom at best, and possible death/torture/other bad 'Demon stuff' at worst; it was a tough pick, but I was glad I picked Haze in the end; I think he needed Willow just about as much as Willow needed Haze.

I thought the mental health aspect was very tastefully applied; some games take it a bit too far, but you hit the nail on the head I reckon. I was very much expecting Ella to walk up to the lake and go "Ok why are we here?", which could have sent Willow into some deep spiral as she questioned her sanity, what's real and what's not, etc., but no, Haze is real, and in that moment it solidified to me that Haze was acting with Willow's best interests at heart, and it wasn't just Willow's own mind toying with her. I might be reading into it a little too much, but I wonder if Willow was so accepting of Haze as a direct result of her mental struggles? I was worried that Willow was a little too trusting of Haze, in that she didn't seem to question if Haze was real or not, which in itself spoke volumes regarding her mental health and added another layer of complexity to the character, but, alas, Haze was real.

I started writing this with the intention of leaving a review, and it seems to have just declined in me writing my rambles on the page, so, hopefully you find something in here useful.

TL;DR: Good story, good characters, themes well applied; definitely worth a playthrough.