Show And Tell: Recruits


Welcome to Show and Tell, a regular feature where we talk to indie devs and students about the cool projects they’re working on or have just finished. To welcome in the new year we’re profiling Robert Dukes, a QANTM graduate and the founder of Recruits.

Can you introduce yourself and tell me a little bit about your studio/team?
Hey, I’m Robert Dukes, I’m the founder of Recruits. The core team consists of three people: myself as lead artist and project manager, and two programmers, Andrew and Jason. From time to time we have others that help out with programming, and our score composer, Tom. We are a small team who have given up our free time over the past six months and worked very hard to produce some really great results with the Unreal Development Kit. UDK is one of the leading software packages in today’s industry for developing games and using it for Recruits has been a wonderful way to bring our ideas to life.

What game are you working on at the moment?
We are in the middle of the development of Recruits, a single-player and co-op top down tactical shooter for PC.

The game is all about the hardships of war, the men that are lost in action, and the decisions that are made on the battlefield. Recruits is fast paced, full of action, and also allows you to command your squad mates, giving you the ability to fight tactically as well. As you progress through the game, whether it be in single-player or multi-player mode, you can gain ranks and unlock abilities and perks (air strikes, mortar barrages, supply drops etc) and skill up your team to better fight the enemy forces. Simple controls, lots of weapons and plenty of levels are all things you can expect from our final release. You can see full details here and on our IndieDB page.

Where and when can we play?
We don’t have a specific date for release as of yet, but we are going to release a demo as soon as our co-pp play function is ready as it is one of the highlights of the game. Being able to fight alongside your friends is one thing we want people to experience right from the get go. Our timeline puts this demo release into the first half of the new year, so keep a look out for us then; its not far away!

What’s next for your team — any big plans?
We have recently been voted among the top 100 games for 2011 on IndieDB and hope to be awarded Upcoming Indie Game of the Year. As for the future, we are taking it one game at a time. Recruits is our priority now, and we are working long hours getting it to the level of quality we have envisioned. We would love to start another game as soon as Recruits is finished. We all started making games because of our love and passion for them, so there is no reason for us not to deliver more games after Recruits.


Any words of advice for those who want to get into the games industry?
You need to work hard and put 100% into anything and everything you do. Make sure you spend lots of time perfecting your skills. Get on forums, interact with people, make industry friends and really get yourself into the gaming community. That’s the way to go with the games industry these days. Especially in Australia, where the industry is in a bad place right now, you need to get your name out there and really put all your effort into your work.

Can you tell us about what it’s like studying at the QANTM?
I did my Bachelor of Interactive Entertainment at QANTM, Brisbane a few years ago. It was a great course that teaches you all you need to know about the industry to get you started and on track for a career in games. It was the perfect foundation for my career and really set me up for the future of my learning. The best part of the course was the final project, a start to finish game which really prepares you for the workflow of any games you may work on in the future.

Are you an indie developer or student with a cool project to show off? Whether your game is still in development or is already released, we want to hear about it! Send us an email with the subject line SHOW AND TELL and let us know about your game.


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