Darkriver: The Chariot is a visual novel where you play as Ser Pharsaliea I of House Idragan, an angsty, profligate senator who must navigate the cunning and layered politics of The Nations of The Darkness set against a backdrop of explosive and violent protest in order to save the world from falling into all-out war in 2 days. 

At the moment the game is making steady pace towards a Kickstarter and precedent release in 2027. The game's script and art has tested exceedingly well, but the UI/UX of the game requires a major overhaul. Our problem is that our artist is also our main developer which often leads to situations where art must be compromised to push development forward.

We are looking for a Game Developer to come on board on a short-term, contractual basis in order to help us flesh out and polish both core features of the engine and implement features based on continuous testing feedback to afford our artist the time he needs to make the game really beautiful.

Play the demo here. The password is: "Sixteen".

Key Details:

• Role: Game Developer (Contract)
• Pay: $2,000USD per month\*
• Hours: 15-25 hours per week 
• Location: Remote
• Duration: 2-6 months contingent on successful funding

Job Description:

The Chariot is built in a bespoke, event-driven SDL3-based engine in C++. The visual style of The Chariot heavily relies on shader effects, particles, and animated vector line drawing. This is a 6-month opportunity for a developer who can:

• Quickly get to grips with and start working in an SDL3 game engine.
• Work with our artist to build out the Vulkan-based graphics pipeline and shader effects in Shader Slang.
• Produce quick in-engine mockups of new features.
• Fully implement and perform QA on new/existing features, dialogue scenes, and UI designs to a polished standard. 
• Bug fixing and compatibility work.
• Maintain the existing and future codebase with simple, useful documentation.

Nice to have:

• Experience creating shader art.
• Having a multifaceted set of skills which extend beyond Game Development.
• Being well read/educated. Everybody on the team contributes to writing so we are looking for candidates who can keep up.
• Past projects that impress us.

\*Currently, this is a passion project between a small team who are all working without compensation. We are currently in the process of securing funding in order to bring permanent full and part time members onto the team, but nothing is certain. We have a little over 2 months of our own money set aside for this role at the moment.

Some excerpts from our "Team Vision Statement":

• EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT. "Make every part of the game with your whole heart, but be okay with cutting it when it's needed. Be ready to defend everything you make."
• THE TRUTH. "You should BELIEVE in what the idea is. Making art is a process of discovering hidden truths. YOU will know when YOU find one."
• YOUR WORK IS YOURS. "What you signed up to do as your job when working on the game is your jurisdiction. You should be selfish and egotistical about what you do and how you work."

If you're interested in working with us, fill out our application form.