Heart of the Universe
Artist Hiring for Visual Novel Development
First of all, I’d like to thank you for taking a gander at my request!
The Dev16 Community:
Secondly, I am the founder of Dev16: an indie development team with a focus on helping aspiring artists and other content creators. Growing a community and expanding as an artist is a complicated task. So, Dev16 was created with the thought in mind of gathering new members in the field and giving them the push they need and something to build a portfolio with. The discord listed in the contacts section below is the hub for all announcements and where I would like for all the people working on the project to meet. It is a fast and efficient way for us to all communicate, and while it is not required for you to be active in the community or even use discord, I would highly appreciate your compliance if you were willing to do so. This is also where the community hub is, which means the players of the visual novel will be meeting.
On this note, I would like to mention that full credit will be given to the artist(s) that make this a possibility. This includes, but is not limited to: Name in the credits, promotion of artist during promotion of development, and links to social media or a portfolio via the discord server and/or attached in the credits of the game.
The Project:
I’m looking to form a team for development of a visual novel known as Heart of the Universe - A sci-fi, space opera, comedy centric, romantic, story about a young man and the crew he takes on, seeking adventure and wishing to break up the monotony of his life by taking a trip through the vastness of space.
It will feature a complex system of choices, currency, and relationship points, each of them contributing to which route will be achieved in the end of the game.
I am the writer and the programmer for the project, which means that the positions of the voice actors, musical talent, and artists still must be filled. I am currently taking care of all but the latter, which is where you would come in.
This post is currently in search of a character artist, not the background artist, musical talent, or voice actors.
Note: This project is a lengthy visual novel with a plethora of routes, choices, and multiple chapters that should make the story contain hours upon hours of replay-ability. In short, it will require much by way of dedication and as an artist we require you to be part of the team for the entire journey.
There will be a set of goals and stretch goals on the kickstarter page that will be started, which will require extra designs for characters, CGs, backgrounds, etcetera. If these goals are reached, it is expected that you as an artist will be able to continue working alongside the rest of the development crew and help to produce more content to coincide with the rest of the visual novel, as well as help fulfill the rewards under its section. Proper payment will be provided for every work completed, before and after the kickstarter campaign.
If you are interested in the project already, but wish to see what is currently completed and want to get a feel for the script, this link https://onio.itch.io/hotu/download/Op3v ... eEx71RCqbY
Character Artist:
The art style I am seeking is of the anime kind, in which you will become the illustrator for the characters that appear on the screen. If you accept the job after my approval, concept art for the characters may be provided as reference material. The concept art is open to tweaks and changes, and is only for base outfits of the characters. As the game develops, there should be the presence of multiple outfits per character depending on the location and scenario.
As the character artist, you will be the person up to the task of drawing everything for the CGs as well. This means that experience in not only character illustration, but backgrounds (to a certain degree) is required. While your main task will not necessarily be designing the backgrounds for the entire game, this is something that should be noted.
Character Overview:
One of the characters is a bounty hunter who wields a sniper rifle, possibly holding it in their hands and it always at their back if not being carried (such as their character appearing normally on screen). I felt this should be stated as the presence of weaponry on her person may or may not matter for certain artists.
Characters range in age from 9-25, there being a total of 9 characters (8 with standard character appearances, the main character only appearing in CGs as it is from his perspective). There is one nine year old girl and a fourteen year old boy, the rest of the characters ranging from 22-25, a mix of male and females.
There is no presence of NSFW content, though there is the presence of standard fanservice and innuendos. This does not mean if you are an artist that makes works such as these that you cannot submit a request, but it simply means that the skills required to do such work will not be applied or required here.
Art Style Reference:
If you are wondering what kind of style I am interested in, I personally believe the visuals of the indie development company PixelFade’s ACE Academy are right up this stories alley. This is especially because of its futuristic elements that it contains. I would like to note that while ACE Academy has animated character sprites and emotional display through bubbles, this is not planned to be an integrated feature in Heart of the Universe
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3966 ... E_Academy/
Another example of a desirable artstyle is PixelFade’s Crystalline. Though, it contains elements of Live2D of which will not be included in Heart of the Universe. As well, the designs for the characters in it are fantasy based rather than futuristic in it.
For further reference, the DeviantArt for the character artists of PixelFade's team is here: sunimu.deviantart.com/
Note that while this art style or something around this is the preferred one, I am open to looking at other works and artists, so feel free to submit your work if you wish.
Required Information:
Available Times/Time Zone - I am in Eastern Standard Time (EST) and my hours are exceptionally free during most nights and days, though any information you can provide to ease meeting periods would be greatly appreciated. If you have a schedule that shifts around a lot and cannot provide definitive times, I understand that, but Time Zone is still a requirement at the very least. This is also so I do not accidentally message you while it’s the middle of the day for me and it’s only three or four in the morning where you are.
Samples And/Or Portfolio - Anything you wish to send can be done via email, a post below/personal message, or discord’s messaging system (Note: Discord has a file size upload limit, though a link to a file uploaded through Google Drive can be used to bypass this). Whichever you feel more comfortable with, feel free to use.
Pricing - This is important as I wish to determine how much you are charging. Payments will be completed through PayPal, as it is the system I trust for doing so.
Contacts:
You can contact me through discord or email:
Email: officialdev16@gmail.com
My Discord Username Info: Onio#7422
Further Information:
If there is anything else you wish to know about (Storyboard, characters, etcetera), you can contact me through the means above. This is fine by me if you wish to do so, as knowing more about the project may dictate whether or not you wish to submit any of the required information above. As also stated earlier, discord is a much appreciated form of communication, especially for requesting additional info. You can expect a response from me swiftly, granted it is not during the time I am out or asleep for the night.
If you've read this through, I thank you for taking the time as I know it is a lot to take in. I hope in my thoroughness, we can reach an agreement.