GameTableOnline is looking for contract progammers

Business and Project Management Discussions Jobs and Resumes
#1

GameTable Online www.gametableonline.com is an internet gaming site that creates online versions of popular strategy board, card, and dice games for play over the Internet. Currently you can play online versions of, Bosworth, Cosmic Wimpout, Drakon, Igel Ärgern, Kill Dr. Lucky, Lord of the Fries, Nuclear War and Vampire by Reiner Knizia.

We have thirty games licensed and need experienced java programmers to help bring them to life online using our existing Java game engine.

Program one game for us and here is what you’ll get:
*) A financial stipend depending on the complexity of your game (half at beta and half at live).
*) A lifetime membership to GameTable Online.
*) A completed game on your resume being played by the public at a real online gaming site.
*) A hosted copy of your information off of the Game Center page of your game.
*) Real world programming experience using a mature gaming engine and working with industry professionals.

Requirements:
*) You are a strategy game loving, commercial-quality Java senior software engineer, on hiatus for a couple of months by choice or by chance or desiring to work in your spare time, and you a hungry to develop a game that people will actually play.
*) You are very comfortable with Swing and basic 2D graphics programming – no animation necessary, but plenty of mouse gestures on layered components. You know your way around the Swing/AWT thread model issues.
*) You know how to reduce program complexity by judicious subclassing.
*) You are able to develop in a client-server model that is best described as an extended co-routine.
*) You enjoy bootstrapping a project rapidly by studying example code, UML sketches and Javadoc APIs, and by questioning the other developers.
*) You can effectively communicate in English (written and verbal).
*) You can maintain high visibility with low noise:

  1. keep the art designer alert to what you need next;
  2. get GUI sketches, mockups and prototypes to the game designer to nail design down early;
  3. suggest improvements or fixes to the core code;
  4. maintain a buildable, “exercisable” version of your game in the repository from early in development;
  5. establish and hit mini-milestones.

Interested?
Email us a cover letter and resume to info@gametableonline.com

#2

How big is the biggest stipend you have ever given?

#3

Thanks for posting this question. Our stipends are not huge due to the fact that we are a start-up. They range from $2k to $4k per game.

We are specifically looking for folks who program games in their spare time and are looking to get fully licensed games that they code up on a public site for play and for use as resume material.

Thanks again for your interest.

#4

At that salary, these games presumably take just 3 or 6 weeks to design, write, test, debug, and launch?

Personally, it doesn’t sound like a great deal, unless you are out of work and aren’t being paid anyway (probably great for students).

If you’re interested in making money out of your games, you might want to hang on until the new year, when the Java Games Factory should be providing ways for you to make money off your game(s) whilst still retaining full ownership of them.

Of course, it’s not the same - JGF won’t pay you any money. And it’s not targetted specifically at board games. But it will give you an easy route to sell your games yourself, and (optionally) take care of most of the publishing side. More work required, much more risk, nothing up front, yet potentially a lot more cash in the long run.

Shrug. Good luck with Game Table Online, anyway :).

#5

That was mean Adam :slight_smile:

It sounds pretty okish from my pov. So, yea I’m interested. I’m also knowledgeable in exactly those fields :wink:

I’ll write an email (later).

#6

[quote]That was mean Adam :slight_smile:
[/quote]
Sorry, not intended to be. If these guys can run a business like this, and give some nice short-term game-programming contracts out then that’s great. Especially since similar “short” g-prog contracts normally turn out to take months with no increase in pay (not due to deliberate screwing around but just because new games tend to be a lot more time-consuming than you expect. Look at Cas, boldly proclaiming 6 months back that Super Elvis was already what AF was intended to be: sub-2-months (or was it 1?) complete lifecycle. Um. Yeah. He’d just done a game of similar size using the same libraries using the same team and if even with all that it still winds up taking 6 months then I feel less guilty at my own failures to complete a game in anything less than 6 times the originally planned time!)

So, all power to them. But I’d hate to get someone chastising me in two month’s time saying “I just wrote a complete game under an exclusive license for X dollars and if I’d known you were going to provide a viable means for me to self-publish this for free by the time I finished my game, then I wouldn’t have given it away like this!”.

#7

Heh. Well, my first java project (in 2000) was a board game - monopoly (with database and network stuff). And no, I didn’t know what I was doing back then, but it turned out pretty well.

The good thing about board games is, that they are almost completely without feature creep. No animation (usually). Rules set into stone. It just won’t grow in all directions at the same time, because it can’t etc.

#8

My problem is perfectionism :confused:
Puppy Invaders is 50% complete already. LOL. As if.

Cas :slight_smile:

#9

Hahaha I love you guys :slight_smile: Rimscape was supposed to be done in August :wink: It’s November now and I’m still adding features haha. Part of the blame goes to my designer, he keeps requesting more stuff :slight_smile: At any rate, In about a month it’ll be 2 times the expected length of the project, so I understand that haha.

If GameTable Online can present a good design doc with everything they want in the game up front, so that there are minimal surprises, then I’m also interested.

#10

Thank you for the continued dialog on this post. For those of you interested in finding out more about coding a game for GameTable Online I encourage you to email info@gametableonline.com. All individual questions can be answered in that way.

With regard to the more general questions I can address those. Each game that is coded for GTO is done so with a very in-depth design document, the guidance of our System Architect who has not only built our Java engine, but is also an expert in the field, art creation/support, and the support of our design staff.

This site and its community continue to grow with the help of folks like you. I hope this clears up some of your questions.

The best – KSchonlaw

#11

If it’s not too much to ask - could we see such a specification document for an already-shipped title (less NDA’d and proprietry details)?

Cas :slight_smile:

#12

Cas, in order to share this information we would require a signed NDA. I can assure you that each design document or specification document is extremely detailed. Joe Minton, the owner and president of GameTable Online and person in charge of such documents is a video game industry veteran. He applies that knowledge and level of professionalism to each GameTable Online game.

I’d encourage you to visit the site www.gametableonline.com to view the games that we have developed and look at the blogs for the games that are currently being coded. In doing so, I think you will see that each game specification document was/is as I explained above.

Thank you again for your continued interest.

The best – KSchonlaw

#13

[quote]Cas, in order to share this information we would require a signed NDA.
[/quote]
Why?

A spec isn’t that special, surely, especially if you’ve already implemented it?

What do you think people are going to do if they see your spec? You can’t prevent them from going off and writing games based upon a glance at your spec for a game that’s being released to the public: anyone could infer that information already. And they probably had the game idea already, too (which you can’t protect either).

Sure, there may be a few special bits (e.g. patented algorithms, security passwords, etc) that are and must remain secret, but you can just cut them out of the doc (as is routinely done with legal documents made public in court hearings)?

LOL. I’ve heard that plenty of times before, and it doesn’t mean anything. If merely being a “video game industry veteran” meant you were good at writing spec docs then we probably wouldn’t have the majority of games overrunning schedules and failing to make a profit.

#14

Just a note here - I don’t do fixed price contract work without a cast-iron specification, and I generally expect a reciprocal degree of flexibility in the client. That is, if you want people to work for you, show a bit of willing and produce a sample specification. You’re advertising here, which means you need to lure us in with things we want, not frighten us off with things you won’t do for us.

Finding a good, professional contract programmer is like finding a little sack of gold on the pavement.

Cas :slight_smile:

#15

I know Joe Minton, its an unusual enough name so its probably him. He worked at Cyberlore Studios, or maybe still does. He interviewed me several times in different years for a job there. He seemed like a good guy and knew what he was doing.

I should also mention that at the time, 1998, he was a producer and then moved up to run the entire company. If I am thinking of the right guy. So he has 10+ years experience.

Hi Joe :slight_smile: