The Wanderer, Single Player First Person dark fantasy RPG, with emphasis on looting, freedom & variety in choosing how to play, and world exploration.

Looking for a capable programmer with UE4 experience to help finalize the gameplay mechanics, finish an alpha version demo, and with that find a publisher and funding to help continue the development.

I'm a UI/3d artist from Transylvania, and I've been working on this project in my free time for the past 3 years.

The environment for the alpha:

Mechanical saw - an item that the player can assemble by finding cog wheels and other parts scattered throughout the world.

Grom, the friendly NPC

Character Window UI

Items UI based on rarity

Main Menu Button UI

Overall description and how it's going to stand out

The project is a spiritual succesor to gems such as Arx Fatalis, Diablo II, the Gothic, Spellforce and Dungeon Siege series etc. They all had interesting, captivating worlds and atmospheres, which really immersed you and took you to far away places.

The perspective is First Person, so the game will have all the advantages that come with it, such as improved immersion and atmosphere, first person animations, and it has a niche since there are very few First Person RPG's.

There is a strong emphasis on an interactive world, with a lot of hidden secrets and unique items that can actually be useful.

Such as plants that you can harvest and use to augment your senses, which may also have hidden effects.
Ore veins that you can mine, if you are skilled enough, the option to grow such skills and unlock more powerful ore.
Lakes and ponds where you can fish (if you found or crafted a fishing rod) and have different possible catches, some more rare and valuable than others.
The option to use these catches and plants to craft potions that may be used to improve your weapons
or provide that extra edge needed to defeat a boss or have a greater chance of survival.
Magic artefacts with dangerous effects, curses or spells, scrolls with unknown effects.
Parts that you can use to assemble custom weapons with enough mechanical skill.

Or you can just go ham and take on the beasts and foes directly, which will prove more challenging, but there is variety in that as well.
The combat system gives you some control, allowing you to choose your own fighting style, with direction-based attacks and special moves, and weapons to choose from that can synergise with the chosen style or not.
You can also take the path of the rogue and sneak up on people, steal their bread or deliver a critical back stab.

On top of that, the skill tree provides an additional level of customization, being able to create unique builds
such as attack speed builds (Agility) , tank builds (Vitality) , critical chance builds (Luck) etc.

A ton of secret areas, hidden rooms, riddles and mysteries.

Intricate world and level design. Every piece of the level is carefully handcrafted, designed to fit with the rest of the layout , every item is designed to fit as a piece of the puzzle which adds to the gameplay in a unique way, everything is deeper than meets the eye.

Current Progress and Plan

Player character: Jared, the rogue

The first gameplay video, Player movement & stances animation system:

Going straight down to the logistics, I've been creating assets and artwork for this project for 3 years now, and worked with several more or less serious programmers.

For the past 2 years I've been working with UE4 and gathered experience in many of its different areas, such as Materials, Animation Blueprint, Level Design Blueprinting, character and asset importing, AI, Controller Blueprints and Behavior Trees, Post Processing, Lightning, Particle Creation, UMG and User Interface, working with source control and maintaining a clean folder space and naming conventions, and more.

I have also created a 40 page graphic novel set in the same universe that acts as a prequel to the events in the game. We can use it to aid the promotional content.

There is also a 100+ page extensive GDD.

The current plan is an alpha gameplay demo that shows all the parts and features of the game that makes it stand out.

• -A dungeon environment with a few interactable elements that showcases the world style.
• -The player character, a dwarf friendly NPC, and 2-3 types of creatures.
• -A lot of items with unique features that the player can use.

With these we can create a set of short gameplay videos, focusing on different themes and paths that the player can take:

• -Herbologist -collecting plants and using them to create potions
• -Warrior -the flexible combat system
• -Thief -stealing from the NPC and sneaking attacks
• -Dark artefacts -finding and using sinister magical items with unique gameplay
• -Mechanical - collecting all the parts scattered around the world and using the NPC to help you craft it into a mechanical weapon
• -Prospector -mining various ores and using them to craft better weapons or even explosives
• -Fisherman -using various baits that increase chances for rare drops that can give permanent stat increases

With these videos we will look for a publisher and funding, then gather more artists and assemble a studio.

It sounds like a lot, but I have already created the assets and animations for all these items and objects, and imported most of them into the engine. I have also integrated the ones with custom animations into the player's animation blueprint.

Art side, the environment, characters and items, the player movement animations, the rat animations, the combat animations for the friendly NPC are all finished, the UI is partially finished with some polishing left to do, and the particles are partially finished.

Programming/Gameplay side, the Inventory/Looting system is in mid development. You can pick up, grab and move items around, throw them, collect them in the inventory and move them around in the different slots, and tooltip functionality.

Animation system/AI side, the programmer assigned has done nothing, and eventually I took over and created the movement and combat animation system for the player. What's left is to integrate custom actions animations such as climbing stairs or other custom animations. I also created some AI but I'm not a programmer so it doesn't hold up to the standards that I would like, and I plan to leave that to the programmers and focus on the art side.

There are also some destructible wood boxes, planks and barrel blueprints, and some random gameplay objects that you can interact with.

What's left is:

• -Finishing the inventory system, looting, tooltips, equiping armor and weapons, stats, unique item gameplay
• -Stat system/Health/Energy/Experience/leveling up
• -Quest/Journal
• -Dialogue/Cutscenes
• -AI and combat mechanics
• -Various level design gameplay.

Open Positions

Programmer - AI & Combat system.

Programmer - Quest & Dialogue/Cutscene system.

Currently there is one programmer working on the Inventory/Looting system.

Looking for a capable programmer with UE4 experience to join forces and create a great RPG.

The time frame will depend on how fast the programmers will advance as most of the art side is finished.

Requirements:

• At least 1 and a half years UE4 experience.
• Understands the engine, the way it works and how it wants you to code things.
• A good understanding of OOP workflow and how the blueprints and C++ work together.
• UMG experience and an understanding of the Slate UI framework is a plus.
• At least 20-30 hours of time/week to work on the project, so that we can finish it before we grow old.
• The knowledge, expertise and capability of implementing the needed mechanics in a realistic time frame.
• A proactive positive attitude towards solutions and getting things done.

So if you feel my vision and want to know more, and think you can bring this project to
life, then contact me for more information at:

Skype: andyblahblah1

Discord: Hermit#8917

or PM

Thanks and have a great day!

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