Future Volunteer Recruitment: Game Development

[cheat117]

Your Discord tag: cheat117#1466

Applicable skills (see below): Java, C# (junior quality), DevOps Manager IRL - Qualifies me to learn quickly and from experience.

Availability & time zone: Weekends/Weeknights Pacific

Languages and libraries you have experience with: SQL, AWS, Python, Flask, Unity, Javascript, tell me what to learn, I'll learn it.

What you would be interested in working on: Literally anything and everything, small bugs, large bugs, troubleshooting things, testing things, I want in.

 

I know my qualifications seem small here, but I work with over 100 individuals across mulitple timezones and push myself to provide documentation, re-testable cases for troubleshooting and lead my team of 5 to help keep a multi-billion dollar operation moving and clicking. I want more of a challenge and I want to help revive a game I spent so much time with as a kid. Happy to chat and work with an experienced team who wants to make sure the product they distribute is excellent quality and as close to perfect as you can get (good enough works unless there's a show-stopper)

[JozanBrinter]

Hi! I just graduated from Becker College with a BA in Game Programming specializing in AI design and implementation as well as UI implementation.

 

I also am publishing a TRPG by the end of the year and have a lot of experience in systems design, management using SCRUM as well as world development and creation

 

Discord:

Jozan#3585

 

Applicable skills (see below)

C#, C++, Java, Python, AI design and implementation, UI implementation, managing teams, world dev

 

Availability & time zone

Moderate availability (5 to 15 hours a week), EST, Evenings most of the time

 

Tools and software that you are familiar with

Visual Studios, Blender, Paint.net, Unity, Unreal Engine

 

What you would be interested in working on

Almost anything on the front end side, not a strong backend/fullstack programmer. Specifically more interested in UI and AI

[TalKaline]

Discord tag: TalKaline#9190

Applicable Skills: C98, C++, Game development, Git, various scripting languages, Linux server administration

Availability and Time Zone: Weeknights Mountain Standard Time

Tools and Software: Git, Eclipse, SQL, Postgres, several other database implementations

What I'd be interested in working on: I'd be willing to work wherever the coders need me, but I'm *very* interested in touching up the mission code so we can create new arcs, and would especially like a chance to improve Architect Entertainment. This game needs more

[Scendera]

Discord Tag Scendera#6425

 

Applicable skills: tech support, formal training from Apple, informal experience pc side for years.

 

Availability and TZ: I work typically second shift Weds-Sun, CDT. I can be around before, after, and on breaks.

 

What I'd be interested in working on: I am in a position to potentially be able to give both user support for Mac clients and to be able to use my resources to confirm or deny bugs for the community at large. I've talked in depth more with a GM about specifics.

[Unknown Magi]

• Your Discord tag: Cheshire#1092
• Applicable skills (see below)
  • Game engine design experience: limited (personal projects only)
  • Database experience: extensive
  • DevOps/Fullstack: extensive
  • SecOps: extensive
• Central US Time Zone; Availability is broad, but usually outside 9-5 business hours.
• Languages and libraries you have experience with
  • Coding: Java, C++, C#, Objective C, Python, PHP
  • Scripting: Python, Bash, Powershell
• What you would be interested in working on
  • Happy to help out with light lifting on coding, but primary expertise lies in devops--Infrastructure as Code, Monitoring & Visibility, Code review & troubleshooting, Security Operations & Auditing, scaling & cost optimization, etc.  

[schrodingercat]

Discord Tag

Schroedinger#3329

 

Availability/Time Zone

EST, a few hours a week (between kids and classes and work!)

 

Languages and Libraries:

I am currently a senior year undergrad in CISE at the University of Florida. I know some C++, Java, a little assembly, and I am currently re-learning C. Any opportunity to work on this would give me something new to learn, and I would be grateful for that!

 

Work Interests:

Basically, send me where you need me, I will find it interesting! However, if there is the potential to add a shark and vomit powerset, I really would like to make that! Or anything to improve on graphics. I see this as a learning opportunity on something I am truly passionate about.

 

Applicable Skills:

I am also a skilled writer. I have written and published work on various topics from literary analysis to my own poetry. I can work with GIMP, Blender, and Inkscape. I know physics, as it was my original career intention, and I have done ALL the math courses.

 

 

[zchaco]

Hello all! 

Discord name: zchaco#9557
Applicable Skills:  I went to university for Computer Science Game Development. Core languages include C++ and front end, mostly HTML5 and Javascript. Experience using Git and working with remote developers. Mostly interested in level design, characters, and possibly QA. My professional experience is in Production and managing asset pipelines, which I can help out with if you find that managing all of the tasks and remote developers becomes cumbersome. Would love to help in any way that I can! 

Availability & Time Zone: PDT - available most mornings from 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM, then evenings from 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM Monday - Friday

Interested in working on: Production, QA, Level Design, Character Design, and happy to pick up any bug defect tickets 

 

 

Edited October 3, 2019 by zchaco

[Arcaten]

Discord tag: Arcaten#3868

 

Applicable Skills: 
- Decent background in C, but limited C++
- Strong background working in distributed systems
- 7 years using MSSQL, MySQL, git

I'm not a game dev by trade, but I have a decent background in C and 7 years working in distributed systems and web development. That said, I've always wanted to get into game dev and never got a chance. I have demonstrated a knack for being able to dive into large legacy codebases and get ramped up and productive very quickly.

 

Availability & Time Zone: EDT - available early mornings (7-9am) and evenings most days (8pm-12am, excluding Wednesday, Thursday, Friday), can make myself available for almost any time during the weekends.
 

Interested in working on: Literally any aspect of development. Always wanted to get into game dev and CoX has been part of my life since middle school, so this would be an incredible opportunity.  I understand that there is no need for additional volunteers at the moment but I would love to get read-only access to the repository/repositories to be able to familiarize myself and possibly be able to pitch in if/when there's a need.

[nikkowalski]

Hello, I'm Nik.  I don't have a discord account yet but I can get one. I carry a bachelors in game and simulation programming and design. I know C#, Javascript and my C++ is a bit rusty, Modeling from 3ds max. Character Modeling, Rigging of ik and fk rigs both simple and complex, animation. Lately I just dabble in unity as a hobby anymore. I used to do augmented reality back in 2009. I am also a disabled veteran of the army and have no need to work for money and thus have plenty of free time. This game inspired me to get in to game development back in 2005. I would love to be a part of resurecting this game in any way possible. This MMO engine looks similiar to something I worked with in college i would love to take a crack at it. Contact me at: [email protected]

Edited March 31, 2020 by nikkowalski

[Taffer]

• Your Discord tag - Taffer#9272
• Applicable skills - C99 (full-time, current), cryptography, application security, porting, etc, etc. (coding since the 80s)
• Availability & time zone - Low availability during the week; generally around Wed/Thurs nights and weekends. In-game. 😉 (@Okagi on Excelsior)
• Languages and libraries you have experience with - C, Python, C#/.NET, C++ (rusty), SQL (MySQL, Postgres, SQL Server - all rusty), POSIX, code analysis, etc.
• What you would be interested in working on - improving security, improving code quality, removing Windows dependencies

I helped the Ourodev folks for a bit, but then got busy (and one of them was able to dedicate a lot of time/effort, I couldn't keep up). I keep having an itch to remove the Windows dependencies from the client code base (I think Ouro already finished porting the servers to Linux?) so we can build native Mac/Linux versions. It's already using OpenGL (isn't it?), which would have been the biggest hurdle... I should probably just grab the code from there and start poking...

 

I worked for 15+ years as a technical writer, too, and would be happy to chip away at the typos. I post screen shots regularly to the typos thread. I suspect this would be the biggest contribution I could reliably make.

 

[cyberlogan73]

• Your Discord tag
  • cyberlogan73#6964
• Applicable skills
  • Have a strong knowledge of C98 and C++, and have worked with DSLs before
    • No experience, 20+ years of software development in other languages
  • Are comfortable working a very large existing codebase
    • Yes
  • Have experience implementing new systems
    • Yes, 20+ years developing systems for many startups across many industries (IT/Telecom, Education, BioTech, Media/Entertainment)
  • Have experience with the various systems in a game engine; including rendering, the tools pipeline, performance optimization, dynamic content, etc.
    • None, but very willing and capable of learning
  • Have worked with modular and distributed systems
    • Yes, 20+ years (distributed architectures, MS-SQL Server)
  • Have a strong working knowledge of SQL databases and writing queries
    • 20+ years of MS SQL Server experience, many years as DBA. Stored procedures, functions, triggers, indexes, query optimization, data modeling, replication, mirroring
  • Are comfortable using Git
    • Yes
  • Are happy to use Discord to communicate with the rest of the team
    • Yes
• Availability & time zone
  • Mon-Fri 8pm-11pm CST, Sat-Sun 12pm-8pm
• Languages and libraries you have experience with
  • Relevant: C#, T-SQL; Others: Javascript, Python
  • 3D Studio many many years ago
• What you would be interested in working on - Database, System Architecture, minor QoL features (typos, standardized terminology), Cloud-based implementation
  • I am very experienced in Amazon Web Services. I currently have a private COH server implementation running on AWS. I'm very interested if there are plans to move to a cloud-based architecture such as AWS for fault-tolerance, stability and possible cost-savings.

 

Thank you for all of your work. I hope I am able to show my appreciation by contributing my own skills.

 

[Completist]

Discord: Voxen (hashtag) 2076
Availability: Wide open; 9AM-11PM Central time.

I'm a game designer, academic, and adjunct to the board game/tabletop RPG industry. I have basic programming skills, and have made game mods and prototypes in C++/C#/Java/Lua/Python; I am comfortable adapting to new environments and can pick up new skills quickly.

An experienced game systems designer/developer, I want to expand the available strategy pathways for players, and make ATs/sets feel more distinct and relatively balanced with each other.

 

The first thing I would do is spec up a dozen new ATs to discuss and develop with the rest of the team, then iterate and distill those ideas into one or two viable ATs based on interest and reusable assets. I'd also examine player preference and performance data to improve balance and tweak existing powersets, with a critical eye on keeping sets flavorful and unique.

[TerraSecundus]

Discord tag: Terra (hashtag) 0306 (has changed to Terra (octothorpe) 5199 since)
Time zone: EST/EDT (UTC -0500)

Availability: MoTuWeFr 7 PM-11 PM, Sat/Sun 12 PM-8 PM, not available on Thursdays

• As a heads-up: About one week of each month, I will be on the on-call rotation for my current job. I will still generally be available, but there's a chance I'll get pulled away to investigate or fix an alert going off related to the servers in my job's production environment.

Languages and libraries:

Pared down to what seems relevant to CoH's pipeline:

• C++ (C++98, C++11, C++14)
  • Several libraries within Boost, depending on the problem in question. (Too many to list in their entirety, and some have since been incorporated into recent C++ revisions)
• OpenGL and its GLSL shader language (ranging from versions 3.3 to 4.6)
• Linear algebra-focused math libraries such as glm
• Physics libraries such as Box2D
• SQL
• Network libraries for socket-level UDP/TCP communication between a client and server, such as Boost's ASIO IP/UDP library, yojimbo (reliable.io + netcode.io) and (now-defunct) ElectroServer
  • (RakNet is the most prominent example I can think of that would fit in this particular family of libraries, but I have not actually used RakNet itself. I only mention it to serve as a more recognizable illustration if no one immediately recognizes what I listed that I'm actually familiar with offhand.)
• HTTP server and client libraries, such as libcurl, Pistache, and the Microsoft C++ Rest SDK
• Max SDK for writing Autodesk 3ds Max .dll-based plugins

Other languages and libraries I've used, but do not seem immediately relevant:

• SDL 2.0 (as in Simple DirectMedia Layer)
• DirectX 11 and HLSL shader language (as of 2013)
• Java (SDK 8.0)
  • DropWizard- and Hystrix-based microservices to provide RESTful APIs over HTTP
• PHP (5.6. That version's way past its EOL, I know.)
• ActionScript / Javascript / other ECMAScript variants (AS3)
• Emscripten toolchain (compiling C++ or other LLVM-capable applications to WebAssembly)
• OpenGL ES and OpenGL ES Shader Language (2.0 and 3.0)
  • WebGL but only by way of Emscripten automatically translating OpenGL and OpenGL ES to WebGL
• Utilized domain-specific languages such as UnrealScript (UE3)
  • I'm not entirely sure if Lua scripting counts as a domain-specific language here when writing Lua-based addons for the FFXI Windower client wrapper.
  • Linux bash, Python, other general-purpose "glue" languages for small tasks
  • I've written my own lexer and parser for a bytecode-based interpreted DSL meant to be used in conjunction with a game engine that I wrote from scratch in C++ and graphics libraries. While it's not suitable for production use, and I'd use something else in practice, it was still educational.
  • When I was much, much, much younger (late '90s/early aughts), I got my start in things like ZZT OOP and RPGMaker 2000/2003 event scripting.

Other tools and technologies:

• Git (familiar with and used on a regular basis since 2015)
• SVN (as in Apache Subversion, used between 2011 and 2015)
• Scaleform (to convert UI elements authored in Flash to a format suitable for games, hooked up to game code, mainly in conjunction with UE3)
• Build management systems such as GNU Make, CMake, and PreMake
  • Relatedly, with the intent to compile the same codebase to target multiple supported compilers and platforms simultaneously, such as across Windows (Visual Studio), Linux (gcc, g++), and WebAssembly (emscripten) (The clang compiler and LLVM may or may not be involved, depending on the toolchain)
• Small amounts of NGINX, Apache, and Varnish (mostly modifying existing configuration or standing up small personal projects, not anything too in-depth)
• Linux-based systems (CentOS and Debian so far) (cron job and service/process daemon configuration)

More about me and what I'd like to work on:

 

As a younger person, I went into university with the intent to enter the game industry. My undergraduate studies (2007-2011) focused on getting a strong foundation in computer science not specific to game programming, but my graduate studies (2011-2013) were done under a program that specialized in skills necessary for the modern (at the time) game industry. After graduating from that program, I worked at a small company that ran a small stable of web and mobile games from 2013 to early 2015. I haven't re-entered in the video game industry proper again, but since late 2015, I've been working at a technology company that sells login and authentication technology to other companies with large userbases (millions of unique users with systems designed to handle 2000 HTTP requests per second). I still work on side projects here and there in order to keep my game programming skills from earlier in my career sharp -- I do not like its professional environment, but the technology and programming challenges involved continue to fascinate me.

 

In other words, over roughly the last decade, I've gone more wide than deep and I've worn a lot of hats. I feel like I have a strong grasp of the fundamentals required for programming across many contexts and do not rely on any specific technology. I can adapt to work in unfamiliar contexts as long as there's something familiar that I can map it to.

 

I do want to be clear that most of the technologies I've listed above are things I've worked with for a couple of contiguous years at a time. For the most part, I have not used any single thing 9 or 10 years straight for my entire almost-a-decade of a professional career. C++ and OpenGL are somewhat of an exception, but after I got my master's in 2013, the context in which I use C++ and OpenGL changed from academic (with the intent to become professional; my first professional job at that smaller game company actually dealt with AS3, Java, SQL, and PHP) to hobbyist.

 

During school, I started with "traditional" games that target PCs (single-player and small multiplayer networked games like FPSes made either from scratch in C++ or with Unreal 3), went to web and mobile games which had more lightweight clients but served as my introduction to slightly larger distributed systems (TCP and HTTP-based protocols with Java- or PHP-based game servers that connect to a mySQL database backend), to much larger distributed systems at my current job (PHP- and Java-based HTTP servers and microservices that connect to several different database backends).

 

I mentioned side projects -- even if I don't work in the video game industry proper now, I still like to tinker using the skills I learned in graduate school. So far, I haven't made a complete game with these, they're more like tech demoes or partially-finished explorations into a small aspect of game programming or another. This hobbyist context is where I looked at cross-compilation with emscripten and WebGL, the yojimbo network library and its whole client and dedicated server architecture, and other graphics rendering experiments just to get familiar with certain technology, like taking the game engine I made from scratch in grad school and making different rendering pipelines, e.g. naive forward rendering vs. deferred rendering vs. clustered forward rendering.

 

tl;dr: Left to my own devices, I'd like to work on optimizing the game's clientside performance, such as profiling draw calls/CPU usage/etc. to see where bottlenecks exist and what could be improved upon (profiling with valgrind and RenderDoc, seeing if there are any rendering patterns that could be optimized, e.g. batching calls to minimize state changes, the real close-to-the-metal stuff). There are also a few visual fidelity problems that I'd like to take a crack at, such as how certain models don't show up behind other transparent models, e.g. some hair options on characters don't show up behind glass panels -- which is a problem related to alpha sorting. I also enjoy making development and asset creation tools easier to use for people that don't go as low-level as I do, such as automating repetitive or onerous tasks that designers and artists are tired of dealing with.

 

However, if there's already a healthy backlog of issues to churn through, I feel like you might be able to stick me just about anywhere and I could help tackle those without needing too much onboarding or handholding.

Edited September 9, 2022 by TerraSecundus

[Dasterin]

I am not sure it's terribly likely for me to be a good fit, but I'll throw my info in just in case.

• Discord Tag:
  • Dasterin#6941
• Applicable Skills:
  • Some hobbyist C++ gamedev, mostly using the Lua C API for game entity logic/scripting. Very little in C98. Have a few WIP games using Love2D (which runs on LuaJit).
  • As most of my hobby code is 2D game work, I have some understanding of engine concepts (having written most of my stuff starting from just a graphics framework), but not much on the 3D graphics side.
    • I seem to recall that CoH was starting to move to Lua for scripted events before Live went down, so there is a possibility I could be helpful in that area, considering I have done a good amount with Lua and C++ in the past.
  • Distributed systems are something I'm familiar with from an SRE/"DevOps" perspective, my Day Job involves running an Elasticsearch/Logstash/Kibana system using Kafka as a message broker.
  • I've done a small amount with MySQL/MariaDB and Postgresql, nothing really with MSSQL, but the query language I'm pretty comfortable in
  • I use git on a daily basis at my Day Job
  • I use Discord as my primary social/communication platform (and have written a Discord webhook bot using AWS serverless tech, SQS, Lambda, API gateway, etc)
• Availability:
  • I am around most times outside of business hours (US Mountain time, UTC-0600 currently)
• Languages:
  • Lots of Python
  • Love2D / Lua
  • Some Ruby (a while ago)
  • Some C/C++ work, in a hobby 2D gamedev context
    • Have used the Lua C API a good amount
    • SFML was my go-to, haven't looked at SDL in a bit but used it a long ways back
• Things I would be interested in working on:
  • I think the best use of my skills (and interest) is probably on the tooling/engine side, once I brush up the C/C++ side, and if there is a way that doesn't involve in-depth 3D graphics knowledge. Most of my hobby game dev work gets to the "ok the engine and content tools are done... now what" stage and sort of halts. Tooling to enable people to create story arcs/TFs/missions etc more easily and effectively would probably be up my alley.
  • Mechanics design is really interesting, but I can't say I have any experience working on it outside of hobby stuff that was played by like 5 people tops.

[EE3K]

• Discord Tag:
  • Eek#5268
• Applicable Skills:
  • dabbled in C++ Little/no C98.
  • honestly, the gamedev i've done has been minor personal projects, some game jams and maybe a half dozen wow extensions. but  my job involves c# coding and I'm sure i can pick real C up reasonably quickly. 
  • reasonable experienced in REST, RFC and SOAP application development, but exclusively in an web application manner. little to no distributed gaming development.
  • I would be confident, if slightly rusty on SQL queries, Used to most of my work day before i got promoted out 5 years ago. but could be very familiar again very quickly.
  • I use git on a daily basis at my Day Job
  • I use Discord as my primary social  platform, work requires me to use their slack and teams and i like to keep them seperate
• Availability:
  • I am available mon -fri 5PM GMT -12AM GMT sat and sun i usually spend offline.
• Languages:
  • some Python, C/C++, experienced with C# and Java, familiar with Lua but not used it in years,
• Things I would be interested in working on:
  • I would like to become familiar with the engine and how everything works. I've been messing about in Unreal 5 and i'd like to see how much of the code is adaptable to that and how much is just flat out incompatible. 
  • outside of that, i'd like to help get new, expanded or reworked content into the game to continue your work of making it feel fully alive again.