Calling all Freelance Graphic Designers, Audio Composers and Programmers
Hi
I would like to invite all graphic designers, audio composers and programmers to join our dedicated freelance game developer community: www.GameLance.net
It is a free service that we hope will be beneficial to everyone and will provide our local South African freelancers with a wider scope to obtain new clients specifically in the game development industry. Also, if you are looking to join a team or start a studio then it should provide a great starting point to get in contact with the listed game developers that will fill your skills gap.
Hope to see all our South African game developers & freelancers on the GameLance!
I would like to invite all graphic designers, audio composers and programmers to join our dedicated freelance game developer community: www.GameLance.net
It is a free service that we hope will be beneficial to everyone and will provide our local South African freelancers with a wider scope to obtain new clients specifically in the game development industry. Also, if you are looking to join a team or start a studio then it should provide a great starting point to get in contact with the listed game developers that will fill your skills gap.
Hope to see all our South African game developers & freelancers on the GameLance!
Comments
Under "What does it cost?" you should add: a significant time investment. Why would someone want to spend time getting involved with your community when MGSA exists? What are the differentiating factors?
Luckily I do have equally good answers (I hope!): GameLance.net allows local developers to procure international work and are not limited to SA only. The international scene is much more active than our local scene and even though I support the local community in full, there really is not enough freelance client work available to go around. -For example compare how many discussions are on the MakeGamesSA in the jobs area for to developers wanting work versus developers/clients offering work.
In terms of time cost, it doesn't cost you more than 5 minutes to setup an account and be notified automatically when new freelance jobs are posted (or be approached directly by a client/developer/team). There is not a lengthy bio setup, it essentially comes down to selecting your skills and having references to back you up.
In terms of being related to the dev studio: we are independently operated and have no relations.
" GameLance provides freelance graphic designers, audio composers, content writers and programmers to obtain freelance jobs. Any project requests received directed at GameLance will be advertised here as an overview. Anyone who is interested should simply apply and provide a short description containing only key points or references as to why you are best suited to complete the required work. Once the cut-off date is reached, we will shortlisting & validating candidates while providing your profile to our client.. Depending on the agreement with the client, GameLance will either manage the project or handover control over the project in full for the client."
This indicates you will be managing projects in some cases? What experience do you have in this field? What are some projects you worked on or acted as a middleman? Will all of this happen for free or will you take a percentage of the payment? Do you have contracts in place for this work method and if so where could one access them to see the t & c's?
And lastly is your sited aimed at people who are posting jobs and getting the best deals or are you trying to help freelancers acquire work? There are many sites out there that are really just aimed at employers getting a good deal while the poor saps who sign up to them have a massive race to the bottom as they undercut each other in hopes of securing the work.
We have only launched a few days ago and wanted to gather up at least some developers listed before we open up the freelance job listing. In terms of what we have planned is, to specifically channel freelance jobs from our holding company clients to this network. Our holding company has been active in the local game development industry for the past 5 years and have some key accounts & brands (such as Vodacom) that we specifically want to use GameLance-listed freelancers for. On an average month we will be hoping to outsource at least R15 000-R25 000 to the gamelance community.
Additional to this we have set aside a budged for content creation (such as game dev articles & tutorials) which will provide as least a bit of income to freelancers.
GameLance is not promising extraordinary results but it really only takes a minute for anyone to be listed and have that possibility open to land new projects.
I mean, I'm filled up on freelance work until the end of the year, and I'm unlikely to want more freelance (I'd like to use that time to work on my own projects instead), but having the option to pick up freelance if the projects look interesting and pay well is nice.
This indicates you will be managing projects in some cases? - Yes, in some cases we do. Depending on the client's need. Firstly, they are free to browse the profiles and get in contact with any developers directly (skipping any GameLance involvement). Secondly, the client can contact the GameLance team with their requirements and then GameLance will point out a valid and capable team to approach in which case the client can either manage the project from there or, (thirdly) can ask GameLance to manage the team & project in full.
What experience do you have in this field? - Our holding company (INESSOFT) has been actively developing games in the South African sector for the past 5 years though it is mostly aimed at technical development. For our corporate work we generally make use of freelance artists & composers to improve game aesthetics.
What are some projects you worked on or acted as a middleman? - This is a new venture for us to act as a middleman as a primary service, I am sure there will be hiccups along the way but in terms of technical background, I don't think there are any problems or issues to be concerned about. If I may use an example: we have the skill-set to create 3D model animations but not the talent to create good animations. This puts us in a position to know whom the right person for the job is and to be able to manage work being done.
Will all of this happen for free or will you take a percentage of the payment? - From a freelancer point view, there are no costs or fees. Only if GameLance specifically needs to be part of the development process (such as forming the team or managing the team/project) are there client-side fees involved included in the project as a whole. Currently, GameLance acts mainly as contact-point but does not explicitly facilitate the procurement process. The job listings & applying to a job, for the moment, acts only as a method to show that you are interested in the project, from there you will either be in contact with the client directly or, if managed by GameLance, then GameLance directly. Though this is a flexible approach the downside is that the payment process is not managed and is left open for discussion between the client and the freelancer if GameLance is not opted to be involved in the project.
Do you have contracts in place for this work method and if so where could one access them to see the t & c's? -We currently do not have any standard contracts in place specifically for GameLance. There are no specific/standard bindings for freelancers (or clients) and would be dependent on the project/client.
And lastly is your sited aimed at people who are posting jobs and getting the best deals or are you trying to help freelancers acquire work? -There are many sites out there that are really just aimed at employers getting a good deal while the poor saps who sign up to them have a massive race to the bottom as they undercut each other in hopes of securing the work. - I agree with you fully and a pure bid-based system is not a fair one. The way we envisioned it is for freelancers to indicate their interest in a listed freelance project at an estimated set rate, which in turn would mean they would form part of a the shortlisted freelancers for client consideration, which in turn would lead to direct negotiation with the client. For the moment all job requests are manually vetted before being listed and there is no automatic way to post a job listing by a user. There is however functionality for users to start new public discussions (viewed by everyone) in which they can effectively post a freelance job or find a team. At the end of the day our aim is threefold: Primarily we want to create an area where people can go to find team members (such as an programmer looking for an artist or composer to work with). Secondary to this is, we ourselves want to leverage this community for our corporate work (we do not have any in-house artists or composers for example). Lastly, with this community in place, why not take the extra step open it up to the rest of the world and allow everyone involved to benefit from prospecting international clients (we will never force a client to have to deal with GameLance).
One more question, will the profiles have more details or links to portfolios or games made? Currently they are very sparse with no links to the people's work. How would a potential client know if that particular person is suited for the work they need?
My apologies, I see there are indeed still placeholders in the TA, this will be fixed and updated asap along with a separate privacy policy.
I can assure you that we have no intention of selling the information to possibly form part of unsolicited emails. Two things should be noted: the site is intended to serve as an advertisement for yourself and we try to make your profile as SEO-friendly as possible so that if someone is in search of a specific-skilled freelancer then it should be much easier to get to your profile. For example, we currently have just over 60 different tools & skills that you can list as part of your skill-set and, when selected in combination is what we hope will make your profile unique & stand out from other freelancers. The only thing that we are explicitly protecting from the public are the email addresses and only for the reason to avoid spam being sent to our users, otherwise we would have posted this information in public as well. We definitely are not planning to sell any information though we may go as far as directing people to your profile or letting you know about a possible lead to follow up on.
As a testament to the above,we/INESSOFT have well over a millions user accounts & registrations on various platforms and have never had any problems this far.
Lastly, Elyradine, I think the GameLance community will provide you value even, and especially, if you are booked full. The reason why I say that is because if you are approached for additional freelance jobs from your side then maybe you can find a GameLancer to outsource the work to instead of turning it away? -You do not have to involve GameLance as an organization and can simply approach someone with a capable profile to see if they fit the bill or, you can outsource it to GameLance to manage as a whole and in effect act as the client.
I don't know what the deal is, but the error page says I must enter a surname when I did. Maybe it doesn't like two characters as surname (mine is Tu), sooooo...
Either that or my password is non-compliant, but I don't see any restrictions on passwords.
So...