Aemon Games, LLC is seeking artistic talent with a penchant for environment, building, objects, and/or UI design for our story heavy monster tamer game. 

The game (a very short summary)

Aemon takes place in the near future in the Tanaman Archipelago which was almost depopulated during a war where humans used Aemon (AI enhanced monsters) as weapons, driving humans to retreat to a nearby continent. Those which remained have rebuilt settlements in the island in relative isolation for the past several hundred years. Now others are returning to the island to recover lost technology, forgetful of the devastation caused by AI and genetic engineering. You will explore a story rich environment seeking for historic relics, interacting with various political and religious factions, and discovering hundreds of Aemon.

The game is geared towards veterans of the genre and seeks to correct institutional problems and shortcomings of the genre while providing players new and meaningful choices in team and moveset composition. We are striving for a more serious story than other monster tamers while still maintaining a healthy humor making it accessible to everyone.

The art style for the game is in process of development, if you are interested in helping you will have the opportunity to shape this. In general terms, the game will consist of 2D rendered art, propped up like billboards in the engine to allow for dynamic lighting and shadows in a 2.5D style. Here are some links to art which we like and are considering modeling linework, textures, and tone after: Building one, Building two, Building three, Character.

Scope of services sought for

Environment: The nature of a monster tamer inherently lends itself to significant art services. Environments will range from icy regions to volcanoes, jungles to plains, beaches to swamps, and mountains to caves to name a few environs. Each environment will need battle background designs and overworld tile design.

Buildings and objects: The archipelago is divided into three primary regions which have distinct personalities due to the cultural influences of each. Kershan stems from a Mesoamerican heritage whereas Grappa and Ivatue indicate Polynesian and First Nations of the Arctic influences respectively. Architecture for buildings, particularly ruins from buildings prior to the war, will include influences from these heritages. Other features include bridges, boats, vehicles, shrines, arenas, building appliances, etc. these features are intended to have a semi-futuristic feel and alternative technological advances from the real world.

UI: Design will include menus for the game menu, pause, battle scenes, inventory, maps, monster party tab, dex, guides/quick references, game mechanic pages, upgrade screens, etc… The desired vibe includes a sharp, clean look speaking to futuristic technology such as AI and nanotechnology. We want the UI to feel fresh within the genre. Most importantly, info should be shown in such a way to feel natural and easily accessible, providing a seamless experience for players. A monster tamer battle relies on heavily on providing players information to make informed decisions.

State of the game

• The dev team consists of nine team members including five artists who are chiefly focused on character and monster designs (there are a lot to do).
• The game world lore is well established and the game design document first draft is complete. We continue to work through the design doc refining mechanics native to the genre and new alike.
• Art for the game to date includes chiefly concept sketches for some of the 465 Aemon in the dex (will be 700ish at the end). Artists continue to work through the sketches while other artists begin to refine sketches into full character designs.
• We intend to have an internal alpha build sometime next summer to begin testing and working out more marketing materials. To do so, we’ll need to begin soon with environment and UI design. This ties into work being completed now to help determine an art style for characters and creatures.
• As noted by the header, the project is a revshare project with the team working at their own pace due to “real” jobs and life. I try to keep workload realistic and ensure family and health is not hindered by game development on the side.

Sounds interesting

If you are interested in working on the game please send me a dm and we can chat (not the most active on itch, also can email me at aemongamesllc@gmail.com). I can provide more details to specific questions and send info from the game design doc upon request.

If you are interested in the game but not working on it, you can follow our discord here: https://discord.gg/HhXfqSQtbW