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Apprenticeship Program

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Apprenticeship Program

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Slightly Esoteric Apprenticeships

Looking for an opportunity to gain hands-on experience on an indie game project? Want to apprentice under Jackson and/or work alongside other likeminded indie game developers?

The Slightly Esoteric Apprenticeship Program is an opportunity for indie game developers of all levels to get experience working on projects together. It is design to facilitate communication, collaboration, and for participants to build confidence in themselves through learning by doing.

Throughout the program you'll be working alongside likeminded developers and artists under the supervision and mentorship of Jackson and/or other senior developers.

Time in the program will lead you to a deeper understanding of who you are, how you work, the type of people you work with best, and more accurate expectations and understanding of how the game development process works which you can carry forward to future titles.

By the end of each development cycle in the program, you will come out not only more competent and confidence but also with a unique and interesting new published project you can add to your portfolio.

What to expect

  • Projects receive support in the form of regular (weekly, fortnightly, or monthly) meetings with Jackson or another senior developer. These meetings are for the participants of the program to present their work, ask questions, and receive guidance and suggestions on what to do next.
    • Note: This program relies on initiative of participants! We are not here to tell you what to do, but instead aim to offer guidance and suggestions for how to find the information you need, how to approach and tackle the specifics of difficult problems, and soft skills like how to schedule the project in order to stay on track.
  • There are no strict rules as to what your apprenticeship program should look like. Everybody has different goals, availability, skills, etc. and so learning to accommodate these differences and still find a mutually supportive way to work together is the entire purpose of this course.
    • Each project will be different, and so will each team dynamic and culture. For example: Team size, weekly hours of commitment, types of skills, project scale, etc. These are all up for discussion and will be explored early on to create a working culture that feels easy and natural.
  • There are several projects occurring simultaneously. New applicants have the option to apply for one of these on-going projects or to request/help starting a new one. (See the list of current projects below, or submit your pitch for your own project.)
  • Participants completing and releasing a game while in this course are entitled to revenue share and part ownership of the final IP. You made it, so the credit belongs to you! The details of this ownership (percentage etc) are something to discuss as each project unfolds.
  • Apprenticeships are flexible and can accommodate all disciplines (blueprints, network code, 3D art, VFX, SFX, animation, etc.) The types of product are also flexible; project suggestions can include traditional games, VR/AR/MR, films, and/or other interactive digital media.

Program values

  • Authenticity: The core driving force of this program is the authentic creative expression of the individuals involved. The purpose is to experience the enthusiasm and freedom of an individual passion project, but with the network and support of other passionate people who feel the same in their own areas of the project. We prioritize love for the craft and the authentic expression of all individuals. All game design plans, schedules, means of communication, team dynamics, software, and so on are all arranged in the service of facilitating labours of love by all involved. Fostering a community where participants feel encouraged and empowered to be and express their authentic selves.
  • Courage and Originality: We are not here to create ordinary run-of-the-mill games that have been done and redone a thousand times. The Slightly Esoteric Apprenticeship Program was given its name for a reason; we work on projects that are strange, creative, bold, and a little off-kilter. We prioritize exploring unique and original ideas over playing it safe. Given the choice between the well-trodden path and the mysterious one leading off into the unknown, we will often take the latter. This can make our projects unpredictable and challenging, but we believe that this where the great stuff is made. We are here to push the boundaries of what can be done with interactive digital media, and foster confidence and competence in our participants to chart unknown waters.
  • Community: This program revolves around the energy that is generated when people get to know each other and find ways to work together that are exciting, mutually beneficial, and natural. This is not a program built on the commoditization of skills and the reduction of people down to purely what they can do in a technical sense. This is a program to get to know people, make lifelong connections and friends, and to work together to build something personally and collectively significant, and unique to the group of people who made it. Similarly, we prioritize finding ways to relate and work together that are natural and frictionless for all involved.
  • Initiative: The purpose of this program is NOT for seniors to tell you what to do, but to help you figure out what it is that YOU want to make, and then finding ways we can work together to nurture that drive. You might join one of the projects below that already has a partial vision and plan laid out, but once you join we want to encourage your unique contribution to make part of the project your own. Our projects are organized around fostering autonomy, so that participants can gain confidence to move up to project manager roles or move on to run their own projects. This program is searching for candidates who can be proactive about developing games; asking questions to the mentors, taking initiative and building things to show, then getting feedback and suggestions for the next steps.
  • Pacing: There are no expectations with how long projects in this program should take, nor for the rate that any team should work. Slow and steady projects are great. Fast and crazy projects are also great. What is essential, however, is that all participants are on the same page and work in an arrangement that feels natural. As a general principle, however, moving in the right direction is more important than the speed at which we move.

Active projects

Esoteric Instinct

Esoteric Instinct is a magic-based multiplayer co-op with characters based on the constellations of the zodiac. Each of the 12 playable characters -- following a traumatic or other initiatory event -- awakens to a spiritual plane of reality transcending time, connecting with their spiritual kin from across different places and ages of the Earth. Here the characters enter a celestial simulation designed to test and grow the strength of their spirit while learning to cooperate and work with the values, strengths, and weaknesses of the other zodiacs and the values they each represent. Players incarnate into a world existing in the interstice of mind and matter, and face off with manifestations of their demons and attempt to reach and cross the threshold at the centre. Gameplay is third-person with multiple game modes including co-op roguelike and a player-versus-player practice arena.

//// Gameplay & Game Design ////

Esoteric Instinct draws from a range of inspirations regarding its magic system including:

  • The bending and elemental systems of ATLA (including subtypes such as mud, lava, smoke, ice, steam, lighting, etc.)
  • Nen system of HxH (object transmutation, manipulation, emission, conjuration, enhancement, specialization.)
  • The interconnected chemistry system of BOTW (wood, metal, stone, and interactions between them including burning, electric charge, physics destruction, physics object manipulation, etc.)
  • The unhinged ability scaling of Risk of Rain 2

This project takes somewhat of a first-principles and systemic approach to its ability systems. For example, spells aren't simple blueprint events that fire on input, but instead are concatenations of smaller subsystems that can be combined in different ways to produce different outcomes (i.e. a flamethrower is produced by combining a spark with a pressurized gas emission. That same gas emission ability could be used without a spark to flood a room with an opaque gas to obscure visibility, or a toxic gas etc. Similarly, lightning is produced by creating a positive and negative potential energy on oneself and at a distance which causes an arc that could be potentially misdirected if other electrical potentials or means of grounding are in proximity.) The purpose of this approach is to create a world built on foundational rules for the player to experiment with and apply their own creativity. It is designed to be off-rails and a playground for original and resourceful thinking (often under constrained circumstances.)

Other examples of the foundational mechanics of the engine include the telekinesis/manipulation ability (the power to move physics objects made of wood, steel, concrete etc), the transmutation ability (transmute that physics object from one shape to another), emission (convert objects to energy to use for spells), conjuration (convert energy into physical objects), etc. The physics and object manipulation systems are designed to work hand-in-hand with the magic system using rules of chemistry as an interface.

//// Next steps for this project ////

Esoteric Instinct started off mid-2024 but ran into problems with resources and funding. It's our first time working together as a studio and so we're still trying to navigate a way to a) work on making a great game while b) not starving or ending up homeless while c) not selling the soul of the project. The team are passionate and talented but we're all on hiatus working on other stuff while we figure out a way to sustainably give this project the attention and dedication it needs and deserves.

We're looking for new talent to join the project:

  • Most urgently we are looking for competent blueprint (and/or C++) programmers with an interest and passion for game design of non-conventional gameplay mechanics and combat.
  • 3D environment and character artists.
  • VFX artists (for making spells that can interface with blueprint logic).
  • More important than any specific role, however, is the passion and enthusiasm for the project. If this project lights a spark in you, and you can see a unique way to contribute that I haven't listed here, we want to hear from you!

Other information:

  • Director: Jackson
  • Positions:
    • Advanced blueprint and C++ generalists (character abilities, combat systems, achievement systems, game modes, multiplayer networking, blueprint systems, data management)
    • Senior environment artists and/or level designers
    • Technical VFX artists
    • Other! Apply if you have an other skill and want to be involved!

Voidtender

Voidtender is a sci-fi wildlife photography and exploration game -- except instead of being outside in nature, you're exploring procedurally generated digital realms inside a computer.

Themes: Survival, adventure, collectible/completionist, meditative, cosy but with slight meta undertones of cosmic horror.

Each world is a procedural environment not designed to hold your hand. They're beautiful but indifferent, and not even necessarily traversable. It's up to you to make judgment calls about how deep you go into any given realm, knowing that going too far could lead to you being forced to reset the seed.

This project makes use of the Endless World Component (https://jacksonnexhip.gumroad.com/l/EndlessRandomWorlds) and the Procedural Content Generation (PCG) tool. Each world is a bit like a mixing pot -- throw in some meshes and other rules and see what it spits out.

Sentient Metal

Sentient Metal is an unconventional tower defense game with non-linear & systemic tower abilities and behavior.

Think: Towers with blackboxes determining their abilities and behavior, and even resulting in emergent emotions of their own as they develop their own agendas and try to self-preserve etc.

Place down a tower, explore their system data and try to understand the wants, needs, personalities of each machine so that you can make decisions in its best interest and keep it on your side and performing optimally.

Also a good opportunity to explore some fun story telling to add context to the missions (Lego Rock Raiders is an old school game that did this really well.) Hence the cutscenes. We've got cyborg animals gathered around a military round table discussion god only knows what.

  • Director: Jackson
  • Positions:
    • Blueprint generalist(s).
    • AI / State Tree / Behavior Tree generalist.
      • Good opportunity to explore State Trees, AI, and other complicated and nuanced AI decision making and behavior. AI taking in a bunch of data, and then spitting out some strange ability with parameters calculated by a black box.
    • Worldbuilding and character writing.
      • I've used some AI tools (Leonardo, Rodin) to prototype some animal-machine cyborg characters along with an AI voice program to narrate a story. Could be a fun experiment to make this project about leveraging AI tools in a tasteful way.
    • Open to other suggestions if you like the concept

The Monad

The Monad is a first person psychological adventure game and guided meditation. Explore liminal spaces (pool rooms, school halls) representing psychological spaces inside the mind while solving puzzles to get to the next stage of the meditation.

Themes: Liminal space, dreamcore, guided meditation, psychological, cosmic and spiritual horror.

Could be a great opportunity to explore some unique story-telling. i.e. revisiting old memories which have changed after a significant event, finding new avenues to enter and exploring deeper and deeper into the psyche.

  • Director: Jackson
  • Positions:
    • Blueprint generalist(s)
      • Game designer (puzzle design, but not your ordinary cliche puzzles. Looking for somebody to come up with some ideas that are weird and different.)
    • Environment artist(s) (specializing in liminal spaces and dreamcore)
    • Sound design and music
    • Writing and worldbuilding (with a special interest for all things spirituality, psychological, philosophical, dreamcore, etc. i.e. resonates with thinkers like Carl Jung, Terence McKenna, Alan Watts, etc.)
  • Mood board: https://au.pinterest.com/jacksonnexhip/monad/

Emi-scary

Emi-scary is a sci-fi survival and adventure game where you need to engineer your own machines to produce energy to power your home and survive.

Play as Emi the android who gains self-awareness and realizes her world is doomed to decay under a regime of environmental abuse and exploitation.

Explore the wastelands of the Earth for tools and technology and engineer your own sustainable sources of energy. Will you build tech that is clean but difficult to engineer? Or opt for something more powerful but risk trying to mitigate the hazards?

The technology in the game will be built using first principles of engineering, energy, and electricity. Not the cliche game loop of picking up resources, crafting and item, placing it down. But instead opening up the circuit-board, arranging the components and engineering something unique.

Themes: Cosmic horror, venturing inside the minds of machines, exploration, procedural generation, base building, electrical engineering simulator.

  • Director: Jackson
  • Positions:
    • Blueprint generalist(s)
    • Worldbuilding / writing (somebody with a decent understanding of electricity, sci-fi, engineering, hardware engineering, robotics, AI, etc)
    • Sound designer
    • Musician
    • Environment artist
  • Mood board: https://au.pinterest.com/jacksonnexhip/emiscary/

Running Robot Man

Short trailer

Long trailer / updated gameplay demo

Running Robot Man is a co-op action platformer and dungeon crawler roguelike. Explore procedural dungeons collecting treasure for the "Establishment."

The dungeons generation and character abilities are the meat and potatoes of this project. The dungeon generation algorithm is designed to be similar to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, and give the same sense of anxiety and excitement when you're deep into a dungeon and not sure what biomes, enemies, and other hazards you'll come across.

Each dungeon is a bit like a chemistry pot where you can input enemy types, scaling rules, number of floors, environment biomes, floor generation rules, and also stacking modifiers like increased speed, permadeath, enemy scaling boosts, entry costs, dark mode, and so on.

The game is also co-op and designed to play with friends so you can revive each other and make plans of attack on deeper floors.

Inspirations include: dungeon generation of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and movement and systemic interactive game systems like BOTW.

The vision is to build this game up to about 12 different dungeons with different themes, enemy types, ability plugins, and other interconnected systemic gameplay systems.

This is my biggest project by far and something I am looking to build a team to work on over the next perhaps 5 years. Please enquire if you're interested in working on this project for the long-haul.

The game is playable on Steam with working co-op -- feel free to contact me for a key or more info.

  • Director: Jackson
  • Positions:
    • Blueprints generalist(s)
    • Environment artist(s)
    • Sound designer
    • Musician
    • Writing and worldbuilding (has some esoteric and scientific themes -- procedural dungeons are produced by collapsing indeterminate wave functions. The HQ sits in an indeterminate void-space and there are entitiesroaming around that break laws of physics.)
    • Other (reach out if you like the vision and want to be involved)
  • This game is already live on Steam but I want to eventually do a re-release when the game is fleshed out to its full majesty: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1708270/Running_Robot_Man_4/

How to apply

Click the purchase button to access the application form.

In your application please answer the following questions:

  • An introduction to who you are, what got you into game development, why you make games today, and what kind of games you are inspired to make.
  • A resume listing any education, skills and competencies (which software or other technical abilities you've got), relevant previous experience including links to previous work, portfolios, showcases.
  • Which project(s) you want to work on and why. Which role do you see yourself playing?
  • Your intention for your future in game development. Where do you want to be in 10-20 years? How does that vision overlap with joining this program and us working together?

Submitting a request for an apprenticeship program on your own project

Please submit answers to all questions above, along with:

  • An overview / pitch of your project. Include any game footage, playable prototypes, screenshots, and other relevant information to convey a picture of what you've got so far, and what you're going for.
    • Please keep it brief and to the point! These take time to review!
  • What kind of support are you after? How do you imagine the relationship between Slightly Esoteric Studios and your project now and in the future?

Thanks for reading! Hope to hear from you soon!

Please be patient! It takes a long time to process these applications!

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