Knights of the Black Gate - Work-In-Progress ;)

[vvalkingman]

looks like I finally have a chance to post what I am working on hehe Tell me what you think forum, I'm also recruiting for the project but I'll post a thread about that in it's proper place momentarily. Well, I am going to present the story to you in two parts, the part that I am selling the game as and the part where I rock your world

What is the game?: ShowHide

The game revolves around thirteen knights that are apart of a failing country's elite assassination group, Black Gate. Their ailing King, Lord Ainsley, orders these men to take back the former lands of this great nation by slaughtering all of those in the neighboring countries that have encroached upon them. Lord Ainsley has unleashed hell upon these lands and you are his demons, his gods of death. You are the knights of the Black Gate.

The Creed
We are fear.
We are destruction.
We are death.

The whispers among the townspeople
Thirteen warriors, clad in minacing black armor, come and go in the shadows.
Their eyes glow with a ghastly blue. Their armor smokes from the fires of hell itself.
Their weapons, carved from brimstone, are embedded with dark runes of unnatural power.
They say that when they are near you can hear the very souls of the dead cry out as if to warn the living.
They kill without mercy, emotion, or reason. They come and go, leaving only death and destruction in their wake.

Characters
1.Leon "The Eye"; Younger brother of Alexander and the "main character". He is quiet and speaks only when necessary. The "Eye" of the group, which means that he has a supernaturally high sensing ability which allows him to watch the backs of the group, see how strong the opponents are, and understand the nature of magical artifacts or traps. As the main character, he is more of, as his name implies, the "eye". He watches what all the others do unbiased, for he feels no emotion. He only wants to know what is going on at all times. A paranoid guy, but he has every reason to be. When asked why he slaughters, he replied "You never know what someone might do. I would rather kill them then trust my back to them."

2.Alexander of the Black Lightning; The de facto leader of the group. He is calm, decisive, and always seems to be one step ahead. His power is that of legends and is the "face" of the knights. When asked why he slaughters, he replied "It is the will of Lord Ainsley".

3.Richard; Alexander's right hand man. Quick to take charge and show that his way is superior to Alexander's. He fought with Alexander once for the "position" of leader and was soundly defeated. Longs only to prove himself. Despises Leon, because he sees him as creepy and feels like he is always watching him. When asked why he slaughters, he replied "I can't have Alexander killing more then me. I will prove to him, Lord Ainsley, and to my countrymen that I am a legendary warrior!"

4.Waldron; extremely gifted in magic. Once a high mage in the prestigeous Halls of Magic, he was banished due to his obsession with fire which scorch a forth of Halls of Magic killing several hundred mages and students in the process. When asked why he slaughters, he replied "There are those that just want to watch this world burn. I'll admit...I am a tad partial to the sight myself."

5.Renfred; the healer of the group and the only knight to usually refrain from the slaughter or is as far back as possible. After watching his brothers in arms come to him time and time again stained with blood, he begins to question their purpose and has tendences to sympathize. When asked why he slaughters, he replied "There is peace in the silence that follows death".

6.Otto; A genius with everything from magic to science. His past is a mystery, though it is believed that he once served as a lead weapons developer for a powerful empire but was dismissed because he attempted to mix science with magic. When asked why he slaughters, he replied "Finding ways to kill people is what I am good at. At least, this way I can be as 'creative' as I want."

7.Julian; He is tall, medium down hair, and built like a sprinter, carries a large sword and takes pride in not allowing any stragglers to escape. Julian never gives away too much emotion, mainly a straight face quiet killer. Normally pairs off with Emmett, though not as "energetic" as his counterpart Julian enjoys the way that Emmett works as he always gets himself in the "best situations". When asked why he slaughters, he replied "...to test my limits"

8.Grimaldo; The shield bearer. His purpose is be an insurmountable wall. They say he cannot feel pain anymore and that he longs to once again feel it's sensation. When asked why he slaughters, he replied "They failed to interest me".  

9.Emmett; A berserker who lives for battle and battle alone. His lust for blood has driven him insane and nothing will stop him from viciously getting what he lusts for. When asked why he slaughters, he replied "I want to see it. I want to see it bad. I want to see it more then you can comprehend! The color of your blood."

10.Douglas; The only knight to wield two swords. Douglas is skitzophrenic and is constantly in an argument with himself. The two personalities are both quite dominant yet exhibit two very different fighting styles which he uses to his advantage in combat. One is extremely eratic like a wild animal while the other is very refined as though he were trained in a dojo. When asked why he slaughters, he replied "We are one in battle."

11.Edric; Aristocratic, elegant, and charismatic. Edric uses a slightly thinner sword and is quite the fencer. To him, there is a beauty that can only be seen in the eyes of those that are departing for the black gate(dying). He longs for a beautiful death, where he can see the beauty of the black gate. Has a superiority complex. When asked why he slaughters, he replied "I want my beautiful self to be the last that they see. That moment when man sees the black gate...I want them to compare our beauty. Though as beautiful as I am...I can't help but feel a tad jealous of the possible greater beauty that they are beholding."

12.Ewald; Follows orders exactly. He is appalled at what they other empires have done to the country that he serves. Kicking around a smaller kingdom, stealing it's land, and turning it's people into slaves. Viewing himself as a revolutionary and an avenger of the people, he slaughters. When asked why he slaughters, he replied "For my country, for my King, and for almighty Justice I will show no mercy."

13.Aziz the all powerful; Twice the size of a normal man he is a mute and ruthless to a fault. He is the "sweeper" of the group. The one called in only when the enemy is very fierce or very many. He listens only to Alexander or Lord Ainsley himself. When asked why he slaughters, he continued to.

Gameplay: ShowHide

World
This game will have two views, a world view and an area view. The player will be able to walk on the world view map and once they reach a village, city, or garrison then a scenario(or a battle) will commence. The area view is the view the player will have when walking through a scenario(normal mapset).

Battle System
When the player launches into a scenario a screen with pop up allowing the player to divide up his pool of thirteen knights to suite the situation. This is similar to how the warfare battlesystem of final fantasy 3(6) was where you divided your pool of characters into three teams. Once the teams have been decided the groups will be sent to their starting positions on the map and will then be forced to carry out the conditions for victory(which is anything from set explosives to slaughtering the entire village. The player will also have to switch between the groups and can do so while out of battle. The fighting itself will be done via the standard menu based battle system.

Allocating Points
For those of you who read the spoiler, characters will die in this game(like die within the storyline) and I chose to not have the player level certain characters only to have them die and wasted all that time. So what I have devised is a point system, where the player gains blood points for killing individual people, completing storyline scenarios, and destroying areas. These blood points will accumulate in a pool which can be used to allocate points to the entire team. Skills will be gained and upgraded this way as well. When a character dies all of the points that were allocated to him will be refunded back to the pool to be divided out amongst the other characters.

Progression & Rewards System
The storyline will tell the player to go to certain places and destroy them. I wanted the give the player the option to go above and beyond by allowing them access to destroy the surrounding area first if they so desired before starting the scenario in the area that pushes the story. I also want to reward players for going the extra mile by having a system in place that allows the player, after so many villages have been destroyed, to view the pasts of the thirteen knights as well as some other extra surprises.

I hope I at least peeked your interest Questions, Comments, Critiques, Jokes?

[Hellfire Dragon]

First off, in my opinion, that red box in the banner totally ruins the banner and the text could be a bit easier to read, besides for that, story sounds okay but have you made any progress with the actual game? If so, some screenshots would be nice, also what sort of battle system do you plan using for the game?

[Kett Shee]

It sounds good, but I shouldn't have clicked on the spoiler clearly labeled 'SPOILER'.

[vvalkingman]

@Hellfire Dragon: Yea that banner was my first attempt at a promo banner haha the name of the studio is Dreamer Studios inc. so i need to change the banner anyway <.< I have written out the storyboard and I am working the maps at this point. I'll edit the post and talk gameplay now

@Cait Sith: Thanks haha btw I don't normally write games this dark, I was just in a phase where all I was listening to 5FDP and Slipknot lol this game is a byproduct of that next project will be the opposite spectrum I assure you

[vvalkingman]

Took away the spoiler "SPOILER" because it really was me just ruining the surprise because I couldn't keep it in lol I'll throw down some concept art once I can get to the scanner. This game project is just getting started so feel free to hit up http://forum.chaos-project.com/index.php/topic,6144.0.html if you are interested in helping out

[vvalkingman]

Just gained a very enthusiastic artist who has begun working on some concept art of the knights themselves. Actually within a two day period she already sketched out 10 of them O_O of course we are talking a rough sketchwork and only chest up but she was spot on with 7 out of 10 for what I was looking for. Once there is something to show I will definently post about it Just keeping everyone up to date! Oh and the battle system is coming...slowly...but it's getting there haha After that I'll have to hit up the windows and such for the blood point system. I'll throw in screenshots once they are available as well