The Last Guardian - Book-to-Campaign-Project

[OutsiderXE]

The Last Guardian – Book to Campaign

(Example of a Loading Screen)

Personal Prologue
The initial plan was to not return to Warcraft 3 mapping after “Day of the Dragon” because it was so exhausting after some time. But in December 2007 I started getting pretty bored so I started working on a small map that included Medivh’s Tower Karazhan.



After two projects I believe I know now how demanding a project like this can be so I thought of ways to finish “The Last Guardian” as quickly as possible. It helps that the storyline takes place inside this one tower so often, so I can reuse this map and many others more than once, without compromising the story. I also tried to focus on the core-gamplay (more about that later) as much as possible without distractions like optional side quests you last saw in “Day of the Dragon”. I didn’t want to do anything too complex or fancy, just concentrate on the main idea (adventure!) and get this one done right.

Now, the thing with this presentation is that I tried to gather as much of the important information that I could that I had scattere over german forums over the last year, so feel free to ask or suggest anything on your mind. It’s not complete. I will add many more screenshots and much more detailed information as long as you keep interested.

Story
Following the book’s storyline, written by Jeff Grubb, you play as Khadgar, a young student who was sent by the Kirin Tor to assist the great mage Medivh. As you get to know him better you realize what secrets are hidden within Karazhan and what ultimate role Medivh plays. The timeline is set during WarCraft 1 and you’ll see other famous characters fro the WC-lore, like Sir Anduin Lothar or the Half-Orc Garona.
My campaign will stay faithful to the events of the book as long as it works with the gameplay. The book has a lot of text and much of it will be skipped, new dialogues and new characters will be introduced to aid the quests I’ll have build in.

Features
Adventure-gameplay with riddles, dialogs and minimal combat.
Original Warcraft-lore.
A fixed camera.
Imported art that supports that the original WC3 graphics and ambience (no Real-textures or funny music). The campaign currently weighs 60MB.
A Backpack-system to let the player carry more items.
Four new skills.
Ten maps.

Gameplay
The Last Guardian will be an Adventure in the sense of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle and so on. Riddles (combination of items, partner riddles, guessing games, use of skills to pass strong enemies, and more) will take up a large portion of the campaign.
The camera will stay fixed throughout the campaign and the perspective will automatically change as Khadgar moves towards the edge of the screen. Picture the old Resident Evil games or Adventures of course.
Because there is a lot of text to support the storyline, there will be some multiple-choice dialogs to give the player some imaginary freedom in how to approach the story.
There is limited combat to bring some variety into the riddles of the games. Those will mostly be in closed spaces with runes to help. The hero can die but there are Resurrection Stones so you can never lose.

Example of riddle
I would like to show you on the Stormwind-map an example of the gameplay presented in the campaign.

(Khadgar and Medivh fly leisurely into Stormwind)

(In the book Lothar is directly there. In the campaign you will have to find him first)

(There is a fight infront of a bar you have to enter. There is also a golden tooth that will be important later.)

(Distract the audience by hitting a child! The entrance to the bar is free)

(Lothar is in the bar. Drunk. He has to become sober)

(The barkeeper tells you of the ingredients to make Lothar sober, but you'll have to fidn them first)

(You can find the first item in the garden (not visible here). At the well you can create the second of four items)

(A chest releavels the third item, with the correct Left/Right-combination of your arrow keys)

(You could have bought the fourth item at this shop if you had enough money...)

(There is a gambler where you could win enough money to buy the item. Unfortunately you lose every time...)

(A boring old man tells you stories of his sea-adventures, and that he colelcts ancient artifacts. He gives you his lucky coin in turn for the golden tooth)

(Finally you win the game with your lucky coin)

(You mastered Alchemy in one of the previous levels which you use to create the Wake-Up-Juice for Lothar)

(Lothar is sober again and can help solve a mystery murder)

To be continued... (not in the Forum, ingame! :D)

Hero Abilities
All the abilities (except Attribute Bonus) support specific riddles/situations. These are the ones Khadgar and Garona can master.
Flame Strike, the classic combat skill that lets Khadgar also get past some obstacles like trees.
Attribute Bonus, makes the Hero stronger.
Alchemy, used to create helpful potions that boast stats and help solve riddles.
Realm of Time, pauses enemy and neutral units.
Portal, creates a portal between two specific spots.
Steal, steals items from enemy units.
Wind Walk, this classic turns invisible and makes the hero faster.


Campaign Set-Up
Introvideo – The Violet City: Khadgar gets the assignment to aid Medivh.

(Khadgar entering the discussion of the Kirin Tor)

Chapter One – Karazhan: Khadgar gets mugged on his way to the Tower and needs to complete various tasks in order to get in.

(Khagar solving a puzzle)

Chapter Two – Interview with the Magus: Khadgar is introduced to Medivh and gets his first assignments.

(Khadgar in the Botanic Garden in Karazhan)

(Khadgar on his way to the kitchen)

(The Library)

Chapter Three – Battle and Aftermath: Khadgar crash-lands in the swamps and helps Lothar fighting off orcs.

(Human camp)


(Questgiver and a chest that must be opened).



Interludium - : Khadgar activates a vision about Medivh’s mother.

(Medivh's room)

Chapter Four – Stormwind: Khadgar helps solving a mystery murder in Stormwind.

(Stormwind Harbour)

(Stormwind Housing Area)

Chapter Five – The Second Shadow: …

(The Chapel)

(Khadgar's room)


(The Museum)


(Kitchen)

Chapter Six – Flight: …

(Garona enters a human village that was overrun by orcs. She can blend better than Khadgar into the orc horde because she is a half-orc)


(While Khadgar tries to picklock a chest Garona steals two vials from the nearby warlocks which...)


(...Khadgar uses to create potions...)


(...of Water Walking)


(Not only orcs are a threat. Humans have to be avoided, without a fight, too).

Chapter Seven - …

(Medivh's secret room)

Outrovideo – Full Circle: …


Status
All maps are Alpha-Complete. Which means all the heavy terraining and triggering is done, so they are fully playable. I’m currently in the early stages of ironing out all the bugs I can find and as soon as this is done I will do external beta-testing (Most likely I will watch friends of mine playing the campaign live, but I’m sure I will also hand out the campaign to selected online people). When I’m happy with the results of the beta I will translate the campaign into the german language (more time to kill minor bugs). After some testing the campaign will hopefully be released by the end of summer. Though, I will be happy enough if I bring it out before StarCraft II is released.

Chapter 3 Screenshots:
http://img21.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=77440_B1ume_122_780lo.jpg&loc=loc780#
http://img42.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=77446_Eingang_122_1113lo.jpg
http://img242.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=77452_KeeperStatue_122_127lo.jpg
http://img24.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=77454_Kreuzung_122_618lo.jpg#
http://img125.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=77462_Orklager_122_660lo.jpg
http://img171.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=77469_Weg_122_783lo.jpg

Chapter 4 Screenshots:
http://img139.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=88380_TLGScreen018_122_1170lo.jpg
http://img25.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=88382_TLGScreen019_122_709lo.JPG
http://img170.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=88388_TLGScreen020_122_617lo.JPG
http://home.arcor.de/outsiderxe/TLGScreen038.JPG
http://home.arcor.de/outsiderxe/TLGScreen039.JPG
http://home.arcor.de/outsiderxe/TLGScreen040.JPG

 

[krisserz]

Hmmm as I see from screenshots nice terrain. Keep working

 

[Linaze]

Awesome to see you're working on a new campaign, good luck I say, I'll surely play this when it comes out!

 

[OutsiderXE]

I've added a "few" screenshots to the presentation...

 

[arthas_king]

Pwnage

 

[Mechanical Man]

It looks nice. Although I would prefer more RTS gameplay.

 

[HyperActive]

I've been lurking around your blog for a while now. Your previous two campaigns are nothing short of awesome, so I know this will be pawnage. Can't wait man! Nice work so far.

 

[OutsiderXE]

It looks nice. Although I would prefer more RTS gameplay.

The problem with those book-to-campaign-ideas is that in books you usually have a limited amount of characters and TLG is a very extreme case. At best I could have created RTS-like maps for the visions that happen to Khadgar during the campaign (siege at the dark portal, Llane/Lothar/Medivh defend themselves against trolls, siege at Stormwind, Aegwynn and the dragons against demons and so on) but ultimately I felt that it would have been too distracting from the main plot.

You know, when you already have a book that has a complete storyline for you it's not that hard to come up with ideas. The bigger problem is how to cut down this storyline to make it fit into a project of around 10 maps (if I go any bigger I'd probably lose overview and motivation or distract myself too much from RL-obligations).


TLG is being created with two clear ideas in mind:
1. create something that seperates itself from my other projects and possibly other people's projects. (yes, I'm always a little afraid that people who enjoyed DotD and LotC might not like it and see it as the 'letdown'. but then again, I make maps mostly with myself in mind and I guess if I like it then other people might too.)
2. not to go too big, as I don't have the time I used to. (I picked up school again and DotD and LotC got me an internship as a level designer within a german company.)

The TLG-book was the perfect basis for those ideas.
1. There a few chacracters with lots of interaction with their environment and each other.
2. The story is set in the same environment (mostly Karazhan) so I get to reuse maps.

 

[saphiree]

It looks nice. Although I would prefer more RTS gameplay.

I think this is just fine. In the other campaigns it went quite boring to run around with one or two heroes and kill creeps. If this is going to be like the goblin island quest in DotD then it's just fine Cus thats the best map i ever tried in a campaign.

 

[WraithSeeker]

Very awesome screenshots, I'm looking forward to this.

 

[Zelda.Alex]

Place the screenshots in hidden tags. After that I will be able to read this. Due to them this page takes too long for me to load.

 

[OutsiderXE]

I would like to, but how?

 

[Linaze]

[hidden=blabla]hidden stuff[/hidden]

blabla

hidden stuff

 

[arthas_king]

Erm OutsiderXE may i ask you something?You told us that you didnt wanted to make another Campaing but in the meanwhile you were terraining TLG?Or you made it at your free time?

 

[OutsiderXE]

Erm OutsiderXE may i ask you something?You told us that you didnt wanted to make another Campaing but in the meanwhile you were terraining TLG?Or you made it at your free time?

Yes, and back then I promised myself that I would prefer to cut my hands off than start a new project... But it didn't work out. December 2007 I felt so bored that i startet doing some terrain-testing with a tower that looked like Karatzhan from WoW. From there on everything went automatically...

Now I know that this will be my last campaign for quite some time because I'll sure as hell not be bored in the coming time.

 

[arthas_king]

Yes, and back then I promised myself that I would prefer to cut my hands off than start a new project... But it didn't work out. December 2007 I felt so bored that i startet doing some terrain-testing with a tower that looked like Karatzhan from WoW. From there on everything went automatically...

Now I know that this will be my last campaign for quite some time because I'll sure as hell not be bored in the coming time.

Screw Starcraft II ^^.At least this will be you last and best Warcraft 3 prokect ^^,hope to see you worfking at SC2.

 

[saphiree]

Yeah i cant wait to see you make some awesomeness in SC2 I guess you're gonna make a campaign over a SC2 book then?

 

[arthas_king]

Yeah i cant wait to see you make some awesomeness in SC2 I guess you're gonna make a campaign over a SC2 book then?

Lol SC2 book that would be cool if it has a model editor so we could use some custom ones or a good triggering system ;D

 

[OutsiderXE]

Yeah i cant wait to see you make some awesomeness in SC2 I guess you're gonna make a campaign over a SC2 book then?

We'll see. As things go at the moment I'll probably not be doing any more fan-campaigns for some time but you never know what future (or the far far away galaxy) holds in store.

Shadow of the Xel'Naga looked interesting though.

 

[saphiree]

Yeah, that might be a prop :S Before new skins/models comes, we need firstly to wait for some model programs. Then we need for the modellers to actually MAKE the models/skins. So outsider. Will your SC2 camp be from enterely SC2 normal models, or will we have to wait, and then get a more epic campaign?

 

[arthas_king]

Erhm he said that after it will stop till SC2 so just let him take a rest.He made the most epic WC3 book trilogy into an epic fan-campaing trilogy ^^

 

[OutsiderXE]

Erhm he said that after it will stop till SC2 so just let him take a rest.He made the most epic WC3 book trilogy into an epic fan-campaing trilogy ^^

Hey, not released yet (but pretty damn close ).

We don't know what type of model-programs there will be for SC2, maybeBlzizard already included them. From what i've heard SC2 will have all the SC1 models and much more stuff that we haven't been shown yet. So it sounds good enough.

My approach to making a campaign is to depend as little as possible on imported material. Let it just be a bonus. I've see so many projects fail because people were going for the models first but forgot about the foundation of their projects: which in my opinion are the maps and the gameplay you create for them. I'm sure whenever you get those done people become more than willing to help you finalize your project with additional eye-candy.

Now, of course TLG wouldn't have been possible if there weren't so many things you could donwload and import (look at the Karazhan-interior-screenshots), so I think I wouldn't have made it it with basic models... but there is other stuff that isn't even in yet: You see Khadgar? It's a basic priest model/skin which I only requested a few days ago to get worked on.
Also, look at Lord of the Clans. It's 30MB but it would have been less if I had known how to use Campaign Import then. In the early stages almost all the units/heroes used a standard model (Thrall being a grunt for example the whole time).


So if you asked me: yes, please use imported stuff but don't make it the main feature. Don't create the next Elder Scrolls. The only good thing that will come out of that is a jaw-dropping presentation on wc3-forums, but not a project.

 

[HFR]

Hey, another Campaign based in a book! I already played the previous 2, and I have to say, I fully support you in this third!

To start, as I can see, the terrain is well made, but, if you're using the UTM, maybe replacing the Stormwind towers by the second one, in the "Castle" group.

Again, if you're using the UTM, there's some custom house models that are 100* better than the Blizzard ones.

Also, I'm not sure, but I didn't knew that there were Griphons during the First War...

To finish, I'm really waiting for it's release. It can take 1 year, but I'll be waiting!

 

[OutsiderXE]

Hey, another Campaign based in a book! I already played the previous 2, and I have to say, I fully support you in this third!

To start, as I can see, the terrain is well made, but, if you're using the UTM, maybe replacing the Stormwind towers by the second one, in the "Castle" group.

Again, if you're using the UTM, there's some custom house models that are 100* better than the Blizzard ones.

Also, I'm not sure, but I didn't knew that there were Griphons during the First War...

To finish, I'm really waiting for it's release. It can take 1 year, but I'll be waiting!

It's true, I use UTS. I also true that I'm often a little lazy with the terrain. I'll see about the houses. I'm not entirely happy myself with the standard-models but the express some variety to the other districts inside Stormwind. Same goes for the towers.

Gryphons: I know WC1 was only about orcs and humans but according to TLG-lore gryphons were the main system of transportatin during that time. Khadgar and Medivh use them wherever they go.

 

[HFR]

Transport? Ok, if the book says so, then it's true. I'm talking about the towers because they textures doesn't fit. There's one with a similar texture, that works better.

 

[arthas_king]

Mayi ask somethingwhat does RTS means?

 

[Linaze]

Real time strategy, like Warcraft 1, 2 and 3, Age of Empires etc.

 

[SanKakU]

hey that's cool, man, that was a good book.

 

[Bwathke]

Yes, and back then I promised myself that I would prefer to cut my hands off than start a new project...

I felt the same but now its so much fun!

 

[supertoinkz]

Hey summer is near to the word E-N-D

 

[OutsiderXE]

A small status report:

Since I don't have any school this week (I still have work ) I have some timeto continue fixing the bugs.

The first run had around 214 bugs (actually a very small number, but considering the linearity and the small size of the project it should make sense). I'm currently playing the campaign for a second time and it looks like I'll get just under 200 bugs this time. Now why again this "high" number you may ask, didn't he fix all of the previous bugs after the last playthrough?

Here are some reasons why bugs keep appearing over and over and why I think I'll need at least ten playthroughs to get the campaign into beta-status:
- When you fix something, something else may break which was dependant on the the broken bug you had before, even though you never noticed.
- In the beginning you look for the bigger, more noticable bugs, and when those are fixed your eyes start noticing the little stuff like visual ("oh, this doodad could be 2cm to the left") smaller balance issues or speed of transmissions.
- Some bugs really appear again and again and you try out many different solutions to fix them after each run. But after some time you realize you have to focus on exactly those to get rid of them once and for all.
- Sometimes bugs force you stop stop playing a map (in the first run I couldn't complete 3 of 10 maps) so you never get to notice the bugs that you would have if you had continued playin the map.

Be assured, (as was the case with LotC and DotD), the campaign feels better and better with each playthrough

I've attached some new screenshots. One of them shows the new skin for Khadgar based on the WoW-version. Made by Rondo.gr

Mind you that visually there isn't much I'll be able to surprise you any more when playing the campaign. I've more or less shown you what I have to offer (except for some changes that may be made). But overall I think this is a good imrovement over LotC and DotD.

 

[Mechmap]

I serisusly like your terrain.

 

[saphiree]

Ohh, i cant wait to play this But seriously, 200 bugs sounds like a lot to me XD But ive never really done anything BIG. So i guess it's just me

 

[OutsiderXE]

Bugreport:
Alpha 1 had 214 Bugs.
Alpha 2 has 173 Bugs, which I'll fix within the coming days.
If Alpha 3 has less than 150 Bugs it will be really nice.

Slowly I'm making up dates in my head...*

In 4-6 weeks time I would like to hit beta where external people can playtest. I'would like to have 3 people from a german website (inwarcraft.de) and two people from TheHive who are very good at english (no need to message me about it yet, just wanted to announce it) and two real-life friends.

Beta should last 2-3 weeks and translation into german another 2-3 weeks+final fixes.

So I'd like to release in 8 - 12 weeks.

*No guarantee given.

 

[saphiree]

Outsider. Can i ask you something?
How the hell do you keep track of all the bugs in your map? I write mine down in a wordpad document, but 200 is seriously alot of bugs....

 

[OutsiderXE]

Outsider. Can i ask you something?
How the hell do you keep track of all the bugs in your map? I write mine down in a wordpad document, but 200 is seriously alot of bugs....

I do the same, but remember: It's not one huge map, it's ten small to medium sized and I have one document for each map. And the current version of each map has approximately 15-30 bugs (cinematic maps can have 5, some bigger maps with bigger issues can have 60 or so. DotD had map-versions with over 100 bugs).



Eample for Chapter 1 ---- (translated from german)

Beta 03 – 16
Done:
„Now I can go through" comes too early.
2 Rogues too strong without FS.
Make trees invulnerable.
Candle-Guard too strong.
Candle-Guard must drop health.
Captain wakes up shortly. Everybody at the camp should thenalways stay awake.
Golems too strong.

Not done:
Renegade Camera one inch out.
The fourth page is „damaged“??? and Page Four. It’s „damaged“.
Unable to collect third Garg essence.
Fix Graveyard/backyard Cameraborders.
Play Item Sound when you get gold at the renegage.
Mines too close.
Puff-Effect not at Specter.
Shipyard on CoP.
Gargoyles fly too early.


I know this all reads like complete nonsense to you, but 99% of all time I know what I mean. The few times I don't know what I mean may be, because for instance, I can't exactly remember where the transmission is where a grammar mistake is supposed to be. Sometimes fixes are deemed unnecessary because I cannot exactly remember the overall impact they had, so they are removed from the list, even though they shouldn't have.

 

[saphiree]

ooh. This actually does make some sence to me I just though 200 bus sounded like A LOT. But i guess its not

 

[OutsiderXE]

The bugt-coutn of the third run has been decreased to about 43. But I'll be takign a break for this week.

Another 3 - 5 weeks, then we'll (hopefully) hit beta.

More: Whenenever I post screenshots I try to avoid most of the time...:

1.screenshots from the editor. Everything should be ingame.
2.screenshots of visions.

The first rule will be broken today (again).



(Redridge Pass aka Deadwind Pass)


(Dalaran)


(Karazhan)


(Swamp of Sorrows)


(Unknown Village)

 

[saphiree]

I just realy LOVE the 3rd 4th and 5th. The others looks so good too. But they look too Warcraftish. Here im talking about the cliffs and no custom models really.
I guess i can live with you dint use that many custom models. But Those cliffs are really ugly.
Now i know you're not gonna make more campaigns than this. But if you was, i would love to see you use a tool like Jass NewGen for the cliffs.
I like the fog tho. Fog is almost always a big plus, and its really really good you dint use Blizzard trees

 

[arthas_king]

swamp terrain is one word
:EMO srly good job ^^

 

[saphiree]

Another note. Cant you upload pictures directly to hive? That homepage you link to is really fucked :/
I get porn adds, and i cant watch the picture right away but need to wait. The worst part is the adds that keep popping up.

 

[arthas_king]

Another note. Cant you upload pictures directly to hive? That homepage you link to is really fucked :/
I get porn adds, and i cant watch the picture right away but need to wait. The worst part is the adds that keep popping up.

Was that webside made by him? oO

 

[saphiree]

I dont think so. I just say i would like him to upload the pictures directly to THW.

 

[arthas_king]

Better for us. ^^

 

[Gummifrog]

I think this campain will be pretty good

 

[Felborn]

It wont be pretty good...It will be za best!

 

[saphiree]

Cant wait. Around 5 weeks, and we can play this AWESOME camp :O

 

[Felborn]

Hopefully we will play this camp sooner than we expect...

 

[OutsiderXE]

Whoah wait a minute guys... The countdown for the bug-hunting doesn't mean that it will be released after that (107 bugs to kill in current run 4 btw), it merely means that the project will get to the next phase, which will be a closed beta test that might last two weeks and another two weeks for the translation into the german language plus some additional days to kill some last bugs.

It did some more time-estimation yesterday and by that the campaign will come out in the first ten days of August. But absolutely nothing is written in stone, there is still so much to do.

 

[DanThanh]

wow
I prefer Blood and Honor to The Last Guardian..is you are about to bring this novel into a campaign it would be a large project...good luck to you !