Schedule Alpha Week 1 Turn into experts: Become expert and teach the rest of the team how to do it (eg walk through basic steps.) Look for code on the net and read all documentation in SDK. Ask other people for help, establish lines of communication to other experts, compile lists of resources (forums, sites, - Modeling experts o Figure out how 3D Studio creates model o Figure out how 3D Studio animates model o Figure out how to compile and import - Character coding exp o Understand player class API o What can we change (easily!) o Change character, compile and import - Mapping exp o Worldcraft o Texturering o Compiling - Weapons & Powerups o Learn about current weapons and how to change them into our weapons with minimal recoding o Figure out weapon modeling and animation o Ideas for special weapons (cf Grappling hook) - CVS Expert o Find server o Set up CVS o Find clients and teach everyone how to use them o Write automatic compiling script, ftp o Arrange for back-ups - SDK expert (Explain rather than teach) o Learn about view code o Learn about menu system o Learn about character instantiation Week 2 - Characters o Have Homer and Spawn models ready eg get hold of 3D MAX files - Weapons & Powerups o As above for weapons o Artwork ideas for special weapons o First rough models of special weapons (grappling hook and plutonium grenade) o Start code for specials and assign old weapon code for new generics. - CVS o Server set up and ready for user uploads, all team should have client and know how to use it. - SDK o Basic third person o Start on character selection o Generic menu - Mapping o Find maps we can get original models for so we can add power ups - Testing o Try to compile and have whole team play together once - Website up and running o Include all presentations o Resource list o Artwork, screen-shots o Bug database Week 3 - Characters o Player classes modified and customized o Models finalized - Weapons & Powerups o Weapons classes modified and customized o Play balance testing o Sniper zoom working (hopefully) o Ugly but useable special models - CVS o Regular manual builds, work on auto script - Mapping o Custom map started, laid out on paper ( Simpsons residence?) o Generic maps modified for powerups and weapons - Testing o Nightly testing on dedicated server - SDK o Can choose characters o Continue to work on view Week 4 - Characters o First two characters finished o Next batch of characters listed with resources necessary - Weapons & Power ups o Animation for specials done o Powerup models done o Generic weapon models done - Mapping o Rough custom map (without textures, not playable) - SDK o View finished o Start on auto-aiming and cursor (snap to effect), 3D floating object - Testing o Debug, test as much as possible - CVS o Regular nightly builds Beta Week 5 Feature freeze Decide what we want/can do. (Models, characters, view, map, menu, special weapons) Characters o Develop more characters Weapons and powerups Develop more specials - CVS o Auto nightly builds - SDK o Bug squashing o Tuning view, work on auto aim - Testing o Open to limited friends & family testing Week 6 - Characters o Develop more characters - Weapons and powerups o Develop more specials - SDK o Finish auto aim, fine tune view subject to play testing Week 7 Code freeze No more characters or features Playtesting and bug squash, expand testing group Weapon models Character models Basic camera Basic weapon abilities, Special? Menu (character choice) Feature freeze Character freeze Weapon freeze Map freezeCharacters ========== Gameplay Dynamics ================= Deathmatch, FFA, join anytime (for now) Different characters with different abilities Fraglimit/timelimit (built-in) Goal: kill everything that moves; indiscriminate Keep stats: FPH, F/D ratio, streaks No streaks--too hard to balance Balance individual characters instead For the Beta version, the only gameplay type planned is Free For All Deathmatch. Project: Mayhem will feature individualized characters with differing strengths and weaknesses. Many of the characters will probably seem familiar to you. They have each been drawn (forcefully) out of their respective worlds for one reason and one reason alone: Total and Utter Mayhem. The game winner(s) will be decided in one of two ways. 1. Winner is first to get a certain number of kills. 2. Winner is the one with the most kills after a certain time has passed. Each player can join any game at any time. After dying, the player will be respawned in a random location to continue the killing. Power-ups, weapons and items will also randomly spawn in pre-set locations on the map to help assist in the mayhem. Incentives for players to do well would be to get the coveted 'titles', which are bestowed when a player goes on a killing streak. Killing streaks are rewarded by loud messages declaring the dominance of a particular player. Also included will be vocal taunts based on the character selected. As an additional incentive, statistics for players such as kills per hour, Kill-to-Death Ratio, and longest win streak will be kept and remembered. Future versions may include in-game rewards for killing streaks, such as a temporary power-up or something similar. Characters ========== The Alpha version of Project: Mayhem will feature two distinct characters: Homer Simpson and Spawn. Homer, being larger and heavier will not be able to move as fast as the quick and agile Spawn. Spawn, being smaller than Homer, will not be able to do as much damage with melee weapons as the hulking Homer. Planned characters for the beta include (but are not limited to): -Optimus Prime -The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man -The Smurfs -Austin Powers -Trinity ...And more! Spawn's unique weapon will be his Demon Chain, which can be used to either attack others or to act as a grappling hook and grant him access to locations that other characters may not be able to reach. Homer will use several plutonium rods he ‘liberated’ from around his office with explosive results. Weapons & Armor =============== Besides the personal weapons each character will have, there will be ‘generic’ weapons anyone can pick up off the ground and use with abandon on his or her enemies. These weapons will have set ammunition limits and thence become useless and dissappear after a certain number of hits. Need another gun? Go find it. Armor - Only one type of armor. Absorbs part of the damage of a weapon attack. Melee - short range weapons, but generally causes more damage than range weapons. 2x4 - Your basic piece of wood. The starting weapon for each character. The weakest melee weapon available. It has a nail stuck through one end of it for added poking fun. Baseball bat - Your deluxe piece of wood. Longer and a bit stronger than the 2x4. Sammy Sosa uses one. Mallet - Basically a giant hammer. Strong damage, but slowest melee weapon. Axe - A wooden handle with a metal blade attached to the top. Attack is a chopping motion. Moderate damage. Katana - Japanese single-edged sword. Slashing attack. Fast attack but less damage than an axe. Ranged - able to attack from a distance. Handgun - A basic pistol. Lots of ammo but relatively weak damage. Can only shoot single bullets. Sniper rifle - Long range weapon with zoom-in ability. Single-shot weapon with very slow reload. Can cause a lot of damage with a headshot. High accuracy. Machine gun/SMG - Can fire bursts of bullets. Fast attack, low accuracy. Bullets do the same damage as a pistol, but lots more of them. Rocket launcher - Large projectile weapon. Fires slow moving rockets. Rockets do large amounts of damage and includes splash damage. Anyone within 5 ft of impact gets damage. Very slow reload. Shotgun - Causes lots of damage to a close target and progressively less damage when target is farther away. Slow reload. Items and power-ups =================== Besides the standard weapons, there are items that affect the player in various ways. Each will have a different effect when touched by the player. A power-up will dissappear once touched. Powerups will spawn in random locations on the map. Planned power-ups include: -Special Ammunition (for character-specific moves and weapons) -Increased Damage -Increased Running Speed -Increased Jumping Ability -Flight -Health replenish -Armor Maps, Textures and Sounds ========== Maps: A modeling program called Worldcraft creates maps. The maps are very complex data structures that are defined by the basic object, vertices and faces between vertices. Maps also contain small amounts of executable files that allow special interactions and rule sets. Once a map is built it is compiled it into a BSP tree that is suitable for fast rendering. Textures: Folded into model and map files by means of a WAD file. Client side DLL: Contains the functions dealing with client side animation, user control, weapon effects, 2D GUI, firing & movement prediction, and camera control. Server DLL: Server and client DLL that deals with game rules, character interaction & movement, combat mediation, weapon and other entity behavior and animation controls. The event handler is a part of the Half-Life engine that defines the API between entities. The event handler generally provides access to all global and temporally variant data structures. Sounds are loaded by the DLL in standard wav format. All hardware interactions are handled by the Half-Life commercial game. Credits