Open call for creative professionals to support the co-production of a serious game about Underwater Cultural Heritage

Deadline: 15 July 2023

About the Serious Game

The CREAMARE project will involve marine archaeologists, ocean scientists, and creative industry experts, such as graphic designers, 3D artists, level designers, and sound designers. Together, they will co-produce a Serious Game focused on Underwater Cultural Heritage and Ocean Literacy.

This game will allow players to explore highly realistic 3D digital models of eight underwater cultural sites.

Players will visit these sites to solve riddles and face challenges related to cultural heritage and environmental threats, such as oil spills from shipwrecks and ghost nets damaging marine life.

The game story takes place in a dystopian future, where scientists, while attempting to combat marine pollution, inadvertently created a mutated creature that now threatens the deep sea and its hidden treasures. To protect UCH, players must fight the source of pollution by resolving some ecological issues and bringing back historical artifacts to their belonging sites. Selected candidates will receive the detailed storyboard after signing a cooperation agreement.

To whom this call is addressed

This call is aimed to select six creative professionals, which are:

  • 3D artists – 2 persons
  • Unity level designers – 3 persons
  • Sound designer – 1 person

They will support the CREAMARE project by joining all partners in the co-production of the Serious Game.

Required skills

General skills:

  • High English level (at least working level)
  • Interest in the development of products linked to underwater cultural heritage.
  • Previous works and co-works
  • Experience in working with other disciplines
  • Experience in the development of products relating to underwater cultural or natural heritage
  • Motivation
  • Willingness/ability to travel

 

Specific skills:

  • 3D artist:
    • 3D production experience of at least 2 years
    • Experience in PRB texturing
    • Experience in optimization techniques from high-res to low-res
    • It is not a requirement, but knowledge of Blender, Character design (human and non-human characters), Animation skills, Rigging skills, Low-poly modeling, Hard-surface modeling, Unity integration, Sculpting, and 3D photogrammetry would be an asset.
  • Level designer:
    • At least 3 years of experience in UNITY
    • Experience in environment design
    • Experience in level and performance optimization techniques
    • Experience in lighting management in Unity (incl. Lightmaps and optimization)
    • Experience in post-processing and VFX management in Unity
    • Not a requirement but knowledge of Unity Render Pipelines (Built-in, URP, HDRP), Animation management in Unity, In-game cinematic (cut scenes) design and management, and Unity Cinemachine would be an asset.
  • Sound designer:
    • At least 3 years of experience in music production
    • At least 3 years of experience in sound design production
    • Not a requirement but previous experience in music/sound for video games, multimedia applications, etc., would be an asset.

Benefits

The main benefits offered by the cooperation with the CREAMARE project are:

  • Training about cooperation work in digital technologies;
  • Cooperation with experts and researchers;
  • Participating in an international project focused on developing a Serious Game.

CREAMARE offers a unique opportunity for the selected creative professionals to acquire experience working in Serious Game development within a framework of an international cooperation.

The Municipality of Cosenza will support participation in a one-week physical Residency program in Italy.

Honorarium: 5000 EUR (Gross amount)

CREAMARE consortium will cover travel and accommodation for the residency programme in Italy.

What we ask participants

Participation:selected creatives will participate in all planned CREAMARE events, including an on-site residency (1 week) and online co-working period (remote to co-design and co-production):

  1. Participate in a 1-week residency program in Cosenza (Italy) during the the first weeks of October (exact dates to be communicated): workshops, brainstorming, design thinking sessions, discussions, etc. (mandatory).
  1. Remote co-design and co-production program through web platforms: technological experts, game developers, creative professionals and researchers will cooperate to produce the requested material under the technical and artistic direction of CREAMARE project’s partners (by the end of February 2024). (mandatory)
    NOTE: weekly and on-demand online sessions will be defined through a shared calendar.

Expected results for each creative professional:

    1. Sound designer:
      • At least 3 original multiple instruments soundtracks to represent the moods of the different phases of the game. The 3 soundtracks should have some small variations in relation to the underwater sites.
      • Characterization of at least 1 non-human character through sounds (minimum 20 different original sound effects).
      • At least 30 sound effects for terrestrial and underwater scenes.
    2. 3D Artist / Character Artist:
      • Concepts, 3D models and animations of at least 3 different non-human characters (both organic and mechanical) with color/shape variants.
      • Concepts, 3D models and animations of at least 3 human characters (rigged).
    3. 3D Artist / General Artist:
      • 3D models and props of at least 2 environments (e.g. a modern museum, a futuristic lab);
      • 3D models, animations, and props of marine and underwater sites objects (Mediterranean flora and fauna, boats, rocks, reefs, etc.)
      • 3D models, animations and props related to environmental threats (marine litter, platforms, cleaning tools, remoted operated vehicles, etc.)
    4. Level designer / Environment Artist:
      • Level design of no. 6 underwater sites, integrating underwater (3d model of the shipwrecks/structures) and terrestrial assets (coastal area, boats, etc.), including visual effects, flora and fauna.
        NOTE: Each underwater site will have two different moods.
      • Management of lights, lightmaps, VFX, performance optimization.
    5. Level designer / Environment Artist:
      • Level design of no. 3 underwater sites, integrating underwater (3d model of the shipwrecks/structures (and terrestrial assets (coastal area, boats, etc.), including visual effects, flora and fauna.
        NOTE: Each underwater site will have two different moods.
      • Level design of the museum scenario.
        NOTE: Some rooms of the museum will have two different moods.
      • Management of lights, lightmaps, VFX, performance optimization.
    6. Level designer / Environment Artist / Animator:
      • Level design of the futuristic scenario.
      • Management of lights, lightmaps, VFX, performance optimization
      • At least no. 6 cut-scenes, settled in the museum, in the futuristic scenario and in the marine/underwater environment.

The Expected Results are only indicative and may vary slightly over the project course. They allow candidates to assess the effort required.

Attendance: The selected creatives have to attend online meetings, interviews, webinars, consultancy sessions, and progress reviews and contribute to the project reporting.

Engagement: As success depends on the activation and engagement of European audiences, creatives are encouraged to support CREAMARE’s communication and objectives by using their personal and professional communication channels and networks.

Commitment: A contract with the CREAMARE Consortium will define the terms and conditions for the intellectual property rights of digital works. In any case, participants will be asked to grant all necessary rights for work dissemination in all the project’s activities.

How to apply

The candidates need to register on the Project Application Portal with a CV and Portfolio and then fill in the relevant form (3D artist or level designer or sound designer) ‘Application Form 1 – 3D artist’ or ‘Application Form 2 – level designer’ or ‘Application Form 3 – sound designer’ and upload all the documents in pdf format through the Application Portal.

Application Portal
Frequently Asked Questions

Timeline and application process

The evaluation criteria fall into three major categories: skills, motivation, and diversity. These have equal weight and a maximum score of 5 each (the total score is 15).

Evaluation Committee could contact applicants to clarify some aspects of their applications.

CREAMARE Evaluation Committee will complete the evaluation of the applicants’ proposals by 30th July 2023. Then, CREAMARE Secretariat will directly contact the selected creative professionals.

The results of the selection will be available by 5th August 2023 at https://creamare.eu/news/.

Related documents
Open call for cultural institutions to support the co-production of a serious game about underwater cultural heritage

Open House

On 6th July 2023, from 15:00 to 16:30 CET time, we will present the project outline at an online Open House event and provide an opportunity for potential applicants to meet with the project team, learn more about the Serious Game, and ask questions. If you can’t attend, we highly recommend viewing a recording of this event on the CREAMARE website. We will announce more details about Open House event on the project website and social media channels.

Contact Information

For further questions and clarifications please check the Q&A section at the following link:

https://platform.creamare.eu/open-call-for-creative-professionals-faq/

or contact the CREAMARE Secretariat at support@creamare.eu.

ANNEX 1 – List of eligible countries of the applicants

European Union member states (EU27)

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden.

Countries associated with the Horizon Europe Programme:

Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Ukraine.

The list is based on the official eligibility document for the Horizon Europe:
https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/common/guidance/list-3rd-country-participation_horizon-euratom_en.pdf

List of North Africa Countries

Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and Western Sahara.