Kung Fu Kingdom is a commercial game product being developed by Jesse Crafts-Finch and a small team of partners and volunteers. In order to provide industry outreach, interning opportunities, and to research the potential of task-based outsourcing, we have decided to open up our project to the public. This can be considered a form of task-based interning or simple volunteerism.
The Deal
In exchange for some contributions from the volunteer – anywhere from half an hour to a week – the volunteer gets credit on a professional game project and accumulates needed experience. We get some free work and you get to work on a great game project while only making the time commitment you feel comfortable with.
Do I Have to Move?
The Kung Fu Kingdom project is completely distributed: we have no central offices. Everyone working on the project does so from the comfort of their own home, local coffee shop, basement, or favorite picnic table. If you want to contribute to the project you will need to supply your own equipment, but you won’t have to relocate. You can stay right where you are so long as you have an internet connection. You don’t even have to get dressed… just don’t tell us about it.
How it Works
Kung Fu Kingdom runs a task-based contribution program where volunteers can sign up for one of the many tasks into which we’ve divided the project. After having fun contributing to a great product, they can either leave the project or sign up for another task. We list all of our available development tasks on our Task Board.
Each of our project tasks are accounted for on our primary development schedule; even if no volunteer signs up for a task or is able to complete it on time / on quality, it will eventually be completed by our team. This is an excellent situation for Kung Fu Kingdom and for volunteers. Developers who are less sure of their skills can still sign up for a task and give it a shot, while more dedicated developers and the development team are assured that the project will still remain on track no matter the quality or volume of our volunteers’ work.
I’m Still Not Sure
So, what additional reasons would you have to contribute to the Kung Fu Kingdom project, not including that Kung Fu is awesome, we are awesome, and, if you joined us, you too would be awesome? If you need an extra nudge to join us, we have listed some typical volunteer types’ reasons below:
[+] Unemployed Software Developer
| Like many others in the industry, you have recently been laid off, run off, ostracized, or otherwise canned. Like a fish. A fish without a job. You have applied to several jobs, a few dozen, maybe more, but nobody has responded yet. So what are you going to do with your free time? We all know that having large gaps in your employment history looks bad, but you are not interested in starting your own project when you might have to stop halfway through once you find a job.
By working on the Kung Fu Kingdom project, you will be able to keep yourself occupied with a fun project, keep unsightly employment gaps off your resume, build your skill set, and get yet another game credit. |
[+] Employed Software Developer
| You have a job, but it just isn’t doing it for you. Maybe you make point-of-sale software for warehouse distribution systems. Perhaps you are stuck in a spreadsheet all day. Regardless of what your individual situation is, you feel unfulfilled and want to do more. You want to make games. Some of you have not made the leap because you have bills to pay or obligations to keep. Some of you simply didn’t want to get involved in a mod project run by amateurs.
The Kung Fu Kingdom project can be your way out. You will get to follow your dream of making games, while being assured that the project is not run by a bunch of amateurs and will not fall apart at the first hiccup. We hiccup frequently, and it doesn’t bother us. |
[+] Graduates
| You are an exceptionally skilled graduate of a wonderful university, woefully unemployed because of the small size of our industry and the enormous amount of competition present. It’s a catch-22 we are all familiar with: you need experience to get a job, but you need a job to get experience. Kung Fu Kingdom is here to offer you a way to break in. You contribute your time on a small C#/XNA project working under experienced industry professionals and in exchange you not only get the experience of having done so, but a credit on a commercial game product.
Besides, it isn’t like you’re doing anything else with your time while waiting for companies to get back to you about your resume submissions, is it? |
[+] Current Students
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Some students just want to get ahead of the game, and who can blame them? With more and more students graduating each year with game development degrees, and the economy doing poorly, you will be competing with hundreds of other applicants for every job you apply to. So you want an edge. In fact, you want something more than an edge. You want something that will make you stand out from the crowd. You need to be a towering mountain compared to all those other puny hills. Ok, maybe I’m overdoing it with the imagery a bit, but Kung Fu Kingdom will make you stand out.
By volunteering for Kung Fu Kingdom, you will not only get a credit on a commercial game product, but you will receive the much needed experience of working with a team of developers towards a common goal: producing a great game. School can only prepare you so much; eventually you will have to jump in and learn on the job. Think of it as a regular internship, except that you don’t have to move from your home or fetch coffee for the team in order to get it. The more you contribute, the more you will get out of the experience, but no long-term commitments that would keep you from finishing your term project are required.
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[+] Artists of All Varieties
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Maybe your a budding artist looking to build your portfolio, or perhaps a professional who would like to see some of their artwork show up in a game instead of molding in their sketchbook. Contributing artwork to the Kung Fu Kingdom project will increase the exposure you get while you work on a fun project with interesting subject matter and style.
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If you want to see what tasks we have available for volunteers, visit our task board.
If you are interested in more than casual contribution, or need to speak with us for any other reason, contact me at:
