[S-Play tester] [S> Other] Paid Creative Director/Game Doctor - I can up your game to a whole new height.

[GordonShock]

Hello devs,

Do you have wild ambitions? Do you want to grow your company, and see the full scope and potential of your game become a reality? If yes, then please read on.

I offer you my skills and experience in two ways: being part of the team as a creative director, or providing detailed feedback on a consultancy basis as a game doctor (see the "additional comments" section for what game doctoring includes).

A little about me.

I have 20+ years of experience making films, video content, and photography. Films, videos, and games share a great many similarities as they are all made up of many parts, each requiring different skill sets to successfully tell a story while engaging the audience/gamer to the fullest. Both also deal with complex workflows involving many types of programs, as well as the time-consuming beast that is customer relations.

I've been a gamer since I was 5 years old, and I still play "regular games" when time permits it. My Steam library has over 200 games, and I played 98% of them. I've been an avid "adult gamer" for the last two years (thanks to F95 for that!), I play daily, and I keep track of 100+ games as well as patronize a few developers of games I greatly enjoy. This library is quite varied in terms of taste, gameplay style, and fetishes. I've played on all engines that matter.

Whether you want to add me to your team or doctor your game, all the following skills, experience, and strengths are at your disposal.

Skills:

• Direction
  • I have a finely tuned sense of direction in terms of breaking down scenes, creating the right shot list, using the proper pacing, as well as optimizing scene composition with environmental interaction
• Visuals
  • I've been shooting with a camera for 20+ years, whether as a cameraman or photographer. Therefore I fully understand framing (and when to use the appropriate type of framing), composition involving many characters, aperture, depth of field, and bokeh. I'm also well-knowledged in lighting and tailoring it depending on the mood, emotional resonance, and location
• Editing
  • I am an accomplished editor with thousands of editing hours under my belt. Through that experience, I have developed a keen sense of pacing, both within scenes and overall. I can also effortlessly put together trailers and teasers
• Story & Dialogue
  • I've directed all kinds of content, and they all tell stories. With the skills above, I can help with reducing exposition to a minimum, and tweaking characters so they become more unique and authentic. I can also trim down and optimize a script or scene(s)

Other, relevant skills and strengths

• Communication & Customer service
  • The bulk of my experience was done on a freelancing basis, thus I was the one responsible for getting the gig and communicating with the clients (and the freelancers I hired) throughout the production. By nature my communication skills are excellent, but they were made better over time through constant use and tweaking. Thus I can assist in community outreach, external communications, and customer relations; freeing you up so you can spend more time on development
• Software proficiency
  • I master editing software such as Magix and Premiere. I am also very well-versed in Lightroom and Photoshop along with many plugins for all. I've dabbled in Daz, so I understand a bit more than the basics, and I'm about to do the same for Blender. I'm also at ease with the Office suite, and can quickly learn CRMs, or any other software you may use to assist you business-wise
• Research
  • I have a knack for researching and finding the right information, assets, references, and more. This can also free up a lot of your time

On a personal level, I am affable, hardworking, efficient, dedicated, and easy to work with. I keep my ego quite in check, I am goal-oriented and the best idea wins, regardless of its provenance.

I also possess a network made up of artists and technicians; voice-over actors, colorists, and sound engineers, among others, that can get involved for timely needs, or down the road.

Preferred method of contact:
Initial contact through direct messaging here, and then we move on to your platform of choice.

Employment Type & Rates:
Creative Director: Remuneration will depend on a great many factors, and chief among them is time involvement and the number of duties I have to perform. That being said, I understand the start-up reality and can be flexible, especially so if I see great potential. Even though my experience is vast, I suggest you do not assume, but reach out to me and let's talk.

Game Doctor: $50 USD/hour + 5% -15% commission of monthly sales for the following six months. The commission depends on the size of your member base; the bigger it is, the lower the commission will be.

Note
Do not use the game doctor rate as a possible means of deducing my creative director rate. They are both commitments, but doctoring is short-term while creative directing is long-term and all-encompassing. They are two very different ballparks.

Playtester: $25 USD/hour

Availability:
Open to both full or part-time

Work Samples:
Please DM me, and I will share my professional website with you. Note that all the work there was done by me, that includes production, directing, editing, and color grading for photography.

Additional comments:

Game doctoring

Here's what's included:

• Meeting with you in order to have a rounded understanding of your product, its intended audience, and your immediate and distant goals in terms of story, character development, and gameplay mechanics that may affect the former two. I will also need access to your character relationship graph and rollout plans, among others.
• Three playthroughs, each with a different focus
  1. Overall impression
  2. Visuals, look, pacing, audio
  3. Worldbuilding, story, characters, and dialogue
• Once these are done, I will draft a document containing an overview, followed by an in-depth analysis of the eight items listed just above, each with its own subsection containing the following:
  • Overall analysis
  • Highlights of the positives, and recommendations to make them even better
  • An itemized list of parts that can be improved. This will include details on why I believe so and will be complemented by screenshots and references. I then offer recommendations to rectify the situation, with more than one option more often than not

Notes

My analysis will take into account the state of your game. If it's alpha/beta, then my recommendations list may be extensive, but if your game is out, my recommendations will be meant to be implemented onward, while offering you options to improve the existing parts in a time-effective manner, thus further improving your game overall while offering a stronger first impression to newcomers.

My analysis does not cover bugs or gameplay mechanics. If you wish to include that, I can also playtest it at the aforementioned rate, and include it in my analysis.

Playtester

As a playtester, I will provide you with an analysis containing the same amount of details as described above, but only for bugs and gameplay mechanics.

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I am more than willing to sign an NDA, but regardless, any information disclosed to me, from the first point of contact onward will be kept confidential until you tell me otherwise.

This is a serious offer, and I hope I was able to convey the most important thing about me which is that my standards are high, and I am looking for devs who put excellence first and foremost.

I appreciate your time and consideration, and I look forward to hearing about your project.

Regards,

GS

 

[KiaAzad]

An impressive resume.
You're a prime candidate to start your own game. I suggest doing that on the side, since it can be a while before somebody that can afford your services comes along.