Concept art for the Birdman and Powder Monkey

These are some of the first concepts for our characters the birdman and the Powder Monkey

Preliminary Characters/Classes

Very subject to change!!
These will gradually be extended on with more specific stats, phrases, demeanor, concept art etc etc

REMEMBER:: CLASSES == CHARACTER

TRYING TO MAKE CLASSES WORK TOGETHER – CREATE PLAYER TO PLAYER BOND

Spanish

Marksman
Ranged: Long Rifle - Big arse scope
Melee: Bag of Shot - pretty heavy
Aux: Grappling Hook/Rope - one use only, others can use? Or multiple use self only

Posh Nobility
Similar to: Stereotypical French. The Frenchman from Monty Pythons “Holy Grail”
Traits: Posh, abusive, tells a lot of puns

Powder Monkey
Ranged: Gunpowder grenade - fused, can delay throw
Melee: Gunpowder Canister
Aux: Supplies Canoneer so cannon can fire

Crazed bloodthirsty kid
Similar to: Jockey (L4d 2) Gunner from Full Metal Jacket
Traits: Loud, Crazy and Vicious

Canoneer
Ranged: Blunderbuss - shotgun style
Melee: Cannon - pretty heavy things
Aux: With powder monkey, can fire the cannon, AOE

Classic Pirate
Similar to: Jack Sparrow, Other pirates…
Traits: “Yarr”, belligerent and abusive

Priest
Ranged: Crossbow - really powerful, slow reload
Melee: Bible - A big Bible (and they’re heathens)
Aux: Heals by hitting friendlies with the Bible (and they’re not heathens)

Sociopathic Monotone Priest
Similar to: Dexter Morgan from “Dexter”, a robot.
Traits: Emotionless, Apathetic and unaffected

Inquisitor
Ranged: Dueling pistols - festooned with pistols
Melee : Torch - sets people on fire (purges them)
Aux: Starts each spawn cloaked, and when he attacks loses it, screams his line “NOBODY ESCAPES THE SPANISH INQUISITION”

Zealous witch hunter
Similar to: John Cleese
Traits: Arrogant, Rude and wrong

Aztecs

Artillery Specialist
Ranged: Shoulder mounted catapult - fires props
Melee: Big rock – It’s big and rocky
Aux: Fires Birdman into the air

Savant
Similar to: Steven Hawking, other savants
Traits: Socially inept, brilliant, loves numbers

Birdman
Ranged: Sling - Busted up goliath
Melee: Hatchet - It’s an axe
Aux: Can sort of glide off tall places and attempts to land on people (distances in air == damage on landing for enemy), has limited manoeuvrability when in the air. If he is near the Artillery Specialist, he can be launched on the catapult to great heights. If this is done can perform a “death leap” Nose dives down with AOE damage. Cool addition is to replace the model with a static which becomes a permanent ledge. Can’t shoot whilst air born.

Obsessed Aviary Fanatic
Similar to: Warcraft Peon, the Wright brothers
Traits: Mentally challenged, easily amused and obsessive

Witch Doctor
Ranged: Throws poisonous frogs - small AOE?
Melee: Sacrificial knife
Aux: Can poison panther warrior darts and Warriors arrows (DOT), heals by throwing frogs on friendlies.

Jamaican Rastafarian
Similar to: Bob Marley, Junkie, Reggae player (these are not one and the same!!)
Traits: Doped up, chilled, at peace


Panther Warrior
Ranged: Blow darts - silent, doesn’t tell player which direction damage is coming from
Melee: Two knives, fast attack (similar to the Alien claw attack from AVP)
Aux: Can wall run a limited distance; some form of cloaking if still then becomes partially invisible.

Superior and knows it
Similar to: James Bond, the Terminator
Traits: Cold, assertive, Arrogant

Warrior
Ranged: Bow
Melee: Big Club
Aux: Can climb walls - slowly?

Remorseful grunt
Similar to: pressed navy man,
Traits: Obedient, apologetic, really quite sorry

3rd Year Project – Executive Summary

Title
Golden Epoch (working title)

Genre
First Person Shooter - Team Deathmatch

Version
1.0 Preliminary Design

Platforms
PC and Xbox 360

The Big Idea
Players will choose to play as either the Spanish or the Aztecs and compete against the opposing teams in a point capture styled death match. Each team has five unique classes to choose from, every class has its own strengths and weaknesses and players must directly work together in order to win the match. The game features cell shaded graphics and hand painted texturing.

Licensing
Golden Epoch is based very loosely on real events, namely the invasion of South America by the Spanish. But as far as franchising is concerned I believe it would be fairly limited.

Play Mechanic
Once players enter the game they may choose either team or have the computer decide randomly. After this they are presented with the five classes available to them. Following this the player/s spawn in their own area and the game starts. They are automatically outfitted with their class weapons.
The objective may differ depending on the map but one team is always attacking and the other is always defending. Players may attack other players in order to kill them, forcing them to respawn back at their original starting location. The player may at this point change their character class (or at any point in the game but doing so will kill them if they’re not already dead). Once the objective is completed, or the timer runs out (which ever is first) the appropriate team wins and the game either restarts or changes map.
Every time a game starts a random allotment of debris will spawn on the map. This will be a varied collection of static props that may be used by the players as obstacles, blockades and even weapons (for some classes).
Players receive scores for killing other players and for certain class specific actions.

Technology
The creation of the mod will utilize Epic’s Unreal Development Kit (UDK). This is a development kit using the Unreal Engine 3. It has had new licensing created by Epic which allows developers to make games with the engine and legally sell the result for a minor upfront cost ($99US and 25% of all revenue after $5000 profit). This suits us ideally because if the mod is successful we will definitely consider this option.
ASS will also be created using Autodesk’s Maya and 3D Studio Max. Adobe’s Photoshop and Pixologic’s Zbrush. Other 3rd party programs may be utilized for such things as sound and compositing but these are yet to be decided.

Unique Selling Points (USP’s)
• Random static drops means a slightly different game every time you play
• Classes will complement each other directly creating new tactics and weapons
• Aztec and Spanish setting is not quite as overdone as something like WW2, fantasy or sci-fi
• Tongue-in-cheek humour and fun characters
• Unique personalities for all classes and hopefully voice acting and taunts

Demographic
Golden Epoch is being aimed towards any fan of the FPS team death match genre. The cartoon graphics will appeal to most people and the game should be easily picked up and played for thirty minutes to a couple of hours.


“So, it sounds like you’re making Team Fortress 2 with a new skin?”
Our team is very heavily influenced by TF2. We are taking a lot of their development procedures into consideration. We originally planned to do a different genre of game but given the workload and time constraints we have decided to do something tried and tested. Last years Bailter Ray is a prime example that just because something isn’t unique, doesn’t mean it isn’t fun (see the triple negative there). If our end product makes people say “Wow, this is like TF2, but different”, well we’d be happy with that.

“Can you feasibly finish this in the time allotted?”
We intend to develop this mod over the entire year. Although it’s early still, we should theoretically be able to finish a good deal of the game. The biggest hurdles we’re concerned with will be finishing the characters to a point that we’re happy with, balancing the game and some potential issues with coding several of the weapons.
We’re going to do our best to stop feature creep. We may outsource aspects of the game such as music and some animating depending on time constraints.
There are a lot of resources concerning the importing of assets into the UDK so we are hoping this will not be an issue. We may fail other classes…