Project Name: Aurora
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
It is difficult to describe to you my vision for ‘Aurora’, because (as far as I know) it is very unique. To describe it in terms of other games, you could say that it is closest to a mixture of Diablo/Zelda/Audiosurf.
You begin your adventure as a small glowing light in a pitch-black world. I won’t bother telling you the storyline I’ve come up with so far, but basically, your mission is to restore light to the world.
The game is highly particle-centric, with the background being black most of the time, it brings out the vivid colors of the many entities that you battle with. What I think is the coolest part about this game is the music incorporation. The particle effects, physics, and AI behavior will be partially based on the music that is currently playing, which intends to give the user a very immersive experience.
Compensation/Motivation
You will not earn any money (neither will I).
If your contributions are a part of the final product, your name will be in the credits.
Hopefully you’ll have a fun time!
TECHNOLOGY
The game will initially be written in Java using the 2D graphics API (please spare me your snide remarks). Then, if the game is successfully completed (which I presume it will be), it will be ported to C++ if speed is an issue. We’ll be building the game off of the Void Engine (which I created).
TALENT NEEDED
I am seeking any and all skilled/experienced programmers, artists, designers, composers…you name it.
Artists: GUI/sprite/terrain
Game Designers: storyline/level-design/gameplay
Composers: be talented at creating exciting music which fits the scenes in the game. It could be very fun writing songs for such a music-oriented creation.
Programmers: I am looking for people who know Java OO-Design like the back of their hand. Also, know concurrency and how to use SVN.
CONTACTS
If you liked the concept or are interested in joining the development team, you can respond to this post or email me-- jmirra@andrew.cmu.edu 
ADDITIONAL INFO
I have been creating games in my spare time for the past several years. I’ve completed many small projects as well as a rather large RTS which involved a whole team of programmers, artists, and composers. I’m very focused, I will not stop until this project is completed.
Appetizer
Here is the map editor which I started recently:
https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/58032/Aurora_Editor.jar
Click multiple points on the map to create a map border which renders using Bezier curves.