u/Organic-Reason8196

Kinship Games, LLC, a small independent studio in Austin. I'm a 25 year industry veteran with shipped credits across Halo, Call of Duty, and Doom. This is paid contract work. No rev-share.

The game

Bitside is a 2D metroidvania where you explore a world layered by console generations. The surface is modern. Descend and you pass through 8-bit, then the Atari era, then raw black and white. Every layer down is a different era of games.

Here's a post I made in r/metroidvania with gameplay video and a fuller description:
https://www.reddit.com/r/metroidvania/comments/1vi18ey/bitside_a_metroidvania_celebrating_gaming_history/

The demo is in active playtesting through itch.io. Happy to hand out a key to anyone who wants to see it firsthand.

Scope

Main capsule (1232×706) plus a title treatment / logo lockup that works at capsule sizes. Both included in this commission.

The full Steam asset set (small capsule, vertical, header, library hero, page background) is available afterward to the right fit.

What I'm looking for

Someone who can build one strong, readable focal image that survives being shrunk to thumbnail size. Selling the era shift is the core of the assignment. The capsule needs to make that hook land instantly on a store page, and I'm open on how you get there stylistically.

Budget

$500 to $600 for the main capsule, with the full asset set available to the right fit. Looking to have this wrapped by mid-October.

Terms

Standard independent contractor agreement, Texas governing law. Work for hire, I own the delivered assets. No generative AI anywhere in the pipeline. This is a contract clause, not a preference. NDA available if you want one before seeing unreleased material.

To apply

Reply here or DM with:

1. Portfolio, capsule or key art work especially
2. Your rate for the scope above
3. Current availability and turnaround

Discord: alloch. Email: collab@kinship-games.com

To date, I have spent my entire career in the AAA space, mostly working on FPS games (Halo, CoD, Doom). As has been well documented, that industry is imploding, and I have recently decided to try my hand at indie development, focusing on a fun idea I have in mind for a 2d metroidvania.

Having now spent some time developing and looking into this side of the industry, here is a quick list of what I think I know, starting with metroidvania specific...

• The metroidvania genre demands great visuals and polish. Even though I thought I was escaping high end production values, it seems like I have not! Everything I have seen says you can be successful in the metroidvania genre but your game needs to look great and be very polished. 
• Metroidvanias live and die by the map. As a longtime fan of the genre, I suppose I knew this intuitively, but it has become clear to me how hard it is to make an interesting map that players want to explore as I have started building my own. I am learning a lot here.
• Metroidvania players want a cool world and fun characters, but not too much story. This was something that surprised me as I researched more - a lot of people who play these types of games are in it for the combat & exploration and can be turned off if you get too wordy. Don't get me wrong, they want a story, but you need to be careful about how much dialogue gets in the way of combat/exploration.

Other, more generalized lessons I have found...

• Marketing seems to be 90% of the battle. Discoverability is even more of a problem in indie than it is in AAA, and focusing on building your fan base early and consistently is key as you develop your game. I am still learning up on strategies behind this and have been reading through howtomarketagame.com, but am still getting up to speed here.
• Publishing deals are hard to come by and some question their value. Publishers, understandably, are trying to derisk what they commit to and, for the most part, want to see games that are well along in their development cycle (at least a demo) with a proven audience. Even once you get a deal, I have seen some people say they have found value in publishers, others say they have not.

I am still getting up to speed in both the indie and metroidvania spaces and would love to hear further thoughts on things I should know, or if you think I have missed or misunderstood anything major above.

Thank you !

I only have limited time this week and am curious if anyone has found anything new worth checking out?