Now Hiring...

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Published on Monday, 06 August 2012 21:36

Written by Matthew Santana

...well sort of. It's hard for a company that doesn't make money to truly "hire" someone but we are looking for help. Our game and books sizes have grown faster than we have. The workload is also quite out of hand for only two people by the time we've created, wrote, playtested, drawn, edited, edited, edited, laid out, and published a book, well, its a big process.

tl;dr: At Hand Worx needs two new partners to help collaborate during game creation. In addition one if these people needs to be a writer and the other needs to be an artist. 

Q: So where do you need help?
A: Our more dire need is in writing and art creation though ultimately it extends beyond that. With the loss of co-founder Joseph Sensing, a much larger hole has been left. Its really hard to describe what he brought to the table. In no short order, insipiration and movtivation via excitement and enthusiasm which were the hallmarks of his personality. There is no lack for inspiration for ideas but its different when it bounces between a few heads instead of just one. There is a level of refinement that exists in that kind of process. Inspiration is turned into concrete ideas and directions. I fed off of his enthusiasm as much as he fed off of mine. We were each other's batteries so to speak. Because I was motivated he was too and vice versa. Without him the circuit is broken. We still are pushing forward but not quite at the same klip we started at.

Q: So what would I be doing then?
A: We are looking for both limited help and someone to step into a greater role in At Hand Worx. It really depends on your potential level of dedication. We have a future "catalog" that includes almost 6 "primary" titles and 7 "secondary" titles and even a few others beyond that. In order to get these items complete we need a self-starter that is willing to embrace what we already have. Enthusiasm is key. We would want you to collaborate with us on the items we have so far and help to push them forward. You would need to help develop ideas as well as write down your ideas. We don't need someone who just thinks they have good ideas but is unwilling to do any work to support them. We do NOT expect you to do all of the work or carry all of the burdeon. I am a writer myself and am more than willing to do even most of the writing. I also edit anything you would write and would hope that you would be willing to edit mine in exchange.

Q: Wow, anything else?
A: Well, technically yes. Anything that removes stress off of one facet of the creation process opens us up for other parts. However, that being said, there are facets of the creation process that need more assistance than others, see above. However, other things that need to be managed are, well, outreach programs to say the least. Managing the Facebook page and Twitter, helping with website updates, page layout and design for books, editing the writing, finding and working with "outside contractors", etc. There's a ton of work to be done.

Q: What level of involvement can I expect to have?
A: It depends really. This is a difficult question to answer, not because there isn't an answer but because it doesn't sound super friendly. The short answer is moderate to work horse. The long answer is a growing involvement. We are an established group with established ideas and an established plan for the future. We don't need someone to turn this company around we just need a little help with the heavy lifting. That does not mean that will be all that you could ever acheive. As we are still a young company any person who impresses us can be added in as a "partner" or some other equivelant. If you help us succeed there is a reasonable expectation that you will be allowed to share in the rewards of that success. That being said we are also looking for someone to jump into the role as a "partner". We do need, at least one, dedicated member who will join for the long haul. I could even see adding a second as a kind of public relations and advertising position but one thing at a time. Ultimately its up to you how involved you want to be. We can always discuss details later.

Q: Well, that doesn't exactly encourage me to "apply".
A: We understand. Its a very unfortunate situation. Applying is really a gamble of faith and trust, for both of us. We do have a privacy/non-disclosure agreement that would need to be signed so that protects us but what about you? We understand how big of a gamble that could be. We can't afford to pay you, at least you know that up front, but likewise we also can't afford a lawsuit. If we could we would be able to pay you, and in that case we might as well. But, such as things are, neither is do-able. At some point our desire to avoid bad blood and potentially damaging legal action should be assurance enough that we hold up our end of the bargain.

Q: If you are so established how have you only released one game?
A: That is a very good question. While At Hand Worx has only been around for roughly 3.5 years (since June of 2009) the idea has existed since 2003. You have to understand that in 2003 we had just graduated high school and were still trying to figure out what we were going to do with our lives. AHW was an idea but we wanted to be realistic and go for something more reliable and mundane, play it safe. After a few years we all learned one big lesson: anything worth having is worth working for and so we returned to the idea. This decision was not arrived at lightly. Our current project list consists of games we feel, after a lot of research, are unique enough to meet our criteria yet also offer enough to players to be marketable or attractive to consumers. We have spent a long time refining the list and are loathe to deviate from it without an extremely good reason.

Q: If you want to be successful you should just release another D&D clone and I have tons of ideas for that!
A: Right, because that has worked out so well for so many other companies. Call us idealistic but yes we want to be successful but we want to be successful by enriching the market not just stealing a little market share from an already extremely competitive niche. We want to earn it. We also realize that doing something that literally no one else has done yet in this market is extremely unrealistic. We aren't looking to invent the wheel but instead hash out facets that have seen less love. Simply because we are different people the products we produce will be different. The most important thing is that we want to be inspired to create games that will inspire players.

Q: You know, there isn't a lot of money in RPGs, you should do something else.
A: The goal is to eventually diversify. As stated earlier, we do have a plan. RPGs are a passion and we feel we have something to offer the market but we do not feel that this is the only market we can impact. It would be awesome to have a team of artists on hand and be able to double up as a "creative firm" of sorts. Maybe we'll even make movies. We might even hire people just to do a dedicated general "geeking" podcast under our "umbrella". Maybe we might even get into video games and comic books. We want to eventually branch out into as many related fields as we can feasibly fit under one roof. We believe diversification = security.

Q: How do I sign up?
A: After all that you are still interested? Well then! In all seriousness though if you would like to look over our work before tossing your hate into the arena then we would be glad to give you a digital copy of American Deadvolution. We want to give you a chance to familiarize yourself with us ahead of time. All that aside you can get ahold of us several ways:

1) At the bottom of this page there is a "Contact Us" link. Click that and fill out the form.*
2) E-mail us at AtHandWorx at gmail.com
3) Make a post on the forums.*
4) On RPG.net there is a forum post dedicated to this very topic. You can reply to that.

*Please note that in order to use the Contact Us form or make a post on our forums you must register/create anaccount first.

On behalf of At Hand Worx I would like to thank you for at least reading as far as you did. Your interest is appreciated.

Why Choose AHW

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Published on Tuesday, 28 February 2012 16:54

Written by Matthew Santana

What makes us awesome? Why should you play our games? Two words, super powers. We have come up with some pretty inventive powers that are designed to stretch your imagination. Let's face it, if you can do it in real life, why do it in an RPG? The fun is in the fantasy. I don't mean super hero powers either, I mean everything from mundane magic to god-hood.

Don't get the wrong impression. Super powers are awesome and we have painstakingly imagined some fun ones but the settings you get to use them in are really what makes the games shine. We won't promise the most original time periods, though I don't think you will find many other American Revolution games, much less with zombies. What we do promise is a fresh take. Real inspiration and development of the idea. We don't just brain vomit on a page.