Hello and thanks for your interest in applying for Team GoldenEye: Source! GE:S is a fan made game and as such survives entirely off of a team of dedicated volunteers. If you're interested in becoming one of the people who make this game as great as it is, you're in the right place!
Working on GE:SMost roles on the team involve working independently on your own projects and showing them to the team each week during a testing session to receive input and feedback. The team as a whole will decide exactly what we want done for each release and who will be responsible for what, but as long as development is proceeding smoothly and the quality/style of your work is on-par with the rest of the game, you will have a respectable degree of autonomy in how you produce it. We want your time on the project to be as enjoyable for everyone as it can be!
That being said, with any large project there is a need for consistency and quality. If the team feels your work is not yet up to par, you will be expected to improve it and take suggestions into account until it's at the level it needs to be. For this reason your ability to process and take advantage of feedback is critical! Larger tasks and assets can require many iterations and changes, so any good team needs its members to be able to communicate and implement new ideas or strategies. The weekly testing sessions are where this feedback will usually happen, with plenty of input and ideas flying around.
Who We're Looking ForWe're primarily interested in people who are willing to produce work of similar quality to what is already in the game. This doesn't mean you have to be at that level right now, but rather are confident in your ability to reach it. One of the big incentives to work on a project of this nature is to have a chance to develop your skills, and we're more than happy to help you with that!
A very important aspect of this is your ability to give, listen to, and take advantage of feedback. Most contributions to the project aren't perfect on their first few iterations, and one of the benefits of a team is the different perspectives and expertise each member brings. Having long discussions on fairly minor details isn't entirely uncommon, and being able to contribute to these discussions and accept a given consensus when it doesn't necessarily match your own is an essential quality that we look for.
It's also important that you're able to dedicate at least a few hours of time each week to attending tests and working on your projects. As a volunteer project it would be silly to have concrete contribution or time requirements, but you should be ready to make a real effort to maintain a presence on the team and keep up with the current state of development. We're very understanding of scheduling difficulties or other responsibilities that may come up, as these affect all of us from time to time, but if it would be difficult for you to keep up with the project from week to week then it might be best to apply at another time when your schedule isn't as packed.
What We're Currently Looking ForWe keep an up-to-date listing of our open positions on our website, here:
https://www.geshl2.com/join-us/Our PR needs are mostly covered, and Tester/QA positions are hand picked based on current testing needs, but if there are any other roles not listed here that you think you would be a good fit for, just let us know! Be ready to make a solid case for the contributions you could make in that role, however, as if it's not listed here we don't currently have something in mind for it. Just because we're not currently looking for your expertise doesn't mean we wouldn't benefit from it!
Joining the TeamThere are only two parts to joining the GE:S team, making an application and passing a trial. The application lets us know a little about you and what you're interested in doing, and the trial is for us to gauge your skills and see what it's like to work with you. The whole process can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months; the pace is decided by you.
Making an ApplicationYour application should take the form of a post in this forum and can in whatever format or style you wish. However, it should be very clear as to which position you're applying for, why you want to join the team, and whatever skills you have relevant to your chosen position. Multiple roles/specialties are common on the team, and if you wish to do multiple things once you're on-board that's awesome, but for the purpose of the application procedure and as a general starting point it's important to pick the one you're the most interested in. Including extra info about yourself, especially a portfolio or examples of past work, is also very important as we need to see that you've got the potential to be a good fit for the team. The work you show doesn't necessarily need to be of the same quality as what's currently in the game, but your application should be able to make a solid case for your ability to improve and meet it in the future.
Ultimately the purpose of your application is to open up dialog between us and determine if you're ready for a trial. If for whatever reason we're not yet comfortable giving you a trial, we'll do our best to explain why and you will be free to apply again at a later time. If we feel your application is solid and shows potential, we'll start to move on to the next phase.
Trial ProcedureOnce we've decided to give you a trial, you will be given a trial overseer who will organize and provide directions for your trial. Though you are free to talk with any member of the team during your trial, and many will provide additional feedback on your progress, the overseer is the only one who will give you instructions on what to do. They will decide on a task or series of tasks relevant to your chosen role designed to show us how you handle the different obstacles and responsibilities of that role, with a heavy emphasis on taking feedback and interacting with the team. After you've completed these tasks, the trial will end and we will make our final decision as to onboard you or not. These tasks will take roughly 2 weeks to meet at a fair pace, though you may take longer if needed. However, the trial period can at most last 2 months after which it will automatically end. You are also free to end the trial at any time if you decide you are no longer interested in the position.
During the trial, you will be provided with a private text channel in Discord to ask questions and provide progress updates. Some roles like Level Design will involve weekly playtesting sessions to check your progress, while others like Game Artist can be done entirely through discord. We want to give you a workflow as close to the standard one as possible, so that you can see what it's like to be on the team and we can see what it's like to have you in this role.
I hope this post gives you a very solid idea of what to expect when applying for the GE:S team, but of course if you have any lingering questions feel free to PM me or include them in your application post. This process is just as much about you learning about us as it is the other way around, so don't hesitate to take advantage of it!
Good luck!
