Greetings!
I'm a dev with 15+ years in the field and have worked on and released multiple games and demos.
Over the last few years, I've been building a game called Ikon.
Ikon is a multiplayer online realm (with dedicated headless servers) where players become evolving creatures called Ikons. You explore a living world, hunt wild Ikons, battle other players, and claim eggs to unlock new forms. Each Ikon grows differently, with customizable abilities, mutations, and builds that let players shape their own playstyle.
Think creature collection, but you are the creature.
This project has been in development for a few years now and already has a solid foundation in place. The core systems are built, the design documentation is robust, and it's been iterated at its foundations to focus on the player experience.
I did have to step away for a little over a year due to cancer, and during that time my previous team sort of fell apart. I'm now in remission and back at it, fully focused on pushing this forward.
Before that break, I spent time testing the concept with different communities, especially players from games like The Isle, Beasts of Bermuda, Path of Titans, and even fans of Pokemon and Palworld. The response was consistently strong. There's clear interest in this kind of experience, which gives the project real potential.
Visually, the game is similar in style to those of Pokemon or Palworld. It is heavily stylized.
Here is a screenshot from the current game.
Here is a video of some early gameplay.
What I’m looking for:
- Community Managers - Social-savvy management, especially for community building and moderation. You are welcome to bring in a mod team as you see fit for community such as discord. I am really shit at socialization so I need someone strong and self-motivated here who can really take control because it takes like nothing to bring in a crowd for this game.
- Marketing - Posting to social media or what have you (that magic marketers do). I had brought in a team for this before but they didn't really do anything so I'd like a proactive person/people who can be self-motivated, knows what you need and what to ask for (pics, game demo to test and record stuff, whatever). I've always believed you should market right from the gate.
- 3D Character Artists - stylized creature modeling with clear understanding of retopology and rigging. If you don't want to rig, please help find someone who can or chat up any animators we get. Still, please understand how retopo works and how mesh moves with a skeleton. I'm a hobbyist at best and the current characters are my own attempts but I would rather someone with proper education and/or experience. Our characters are stylized and meant to be very optimized - maybe one material for the whole body each. Designs are fairly simple for this reason (again, think Pokemon or Palworld).
- Animators - (combat, traversal, creature personality - Experience with ABPs is a plus but not required). We are working with UE, not Unity, and it has some differences if you're used to Unity. That said, most things can work out. We have numerous movement states so you need to be comfortable with that. I don't expect super complex rigs with a billion bones, optimization is key.
- Concept Artists - Concept artists for either creature concepts or level design concepting would be fantastic. Both are highly important. Please ensure you can work with the stylized look of the game and keep it consistent.
- Level Designers - I have a bunch of fancy pretty assets you are welcome to use and we can get/make more if needed. Consistency in style is very important, and an understanding of creating large, performative, natural worlds. We are aiming for hand-crafted maps that may or may not support some procedural generation, but we're largely going hand-made. The map is currently 4km x 4km and we are using UDW, UDS and a really nice landscape material. You're welcome to play with any of it.
- Musicians / Sound Design - Anything from environmental sound to battle music to squishy footsteps and roars would be great. I have a few sound packs you're also welcome to play with (footsteps, water, various creature noises) or make your own.
Absolutely no AI whatsoever is to be used in this project.
Important:
Please drop your portfolio in the thread. No DMs please.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!