Blood & Beaks

Blood & Beaks was a project I worked on with a friend. I created the artwork and all of the design documentation for it. We have a running version of the game that can be shown.


Introduction

Blood & Beaks is a strategy game for the PC that throws the player into the visceral war betwixt the ancient Dwarves and the terrible penguins of the future.

Description

You watch as your Dwarves cautiously advance through the veil of night. The monastery ahead holds the Majyck vital to running your army. As they approach the sound of musket fire erupts from the night air. The sturdy Dwarven armor and shields absorb much of the onslaught, and the wounds that they do receive are but flesh wounds to their hardy bodies. With fierce yells your Dwarven warriors charge towards the attackers; they are closer than usual because of the darkness, and they shoot only one more salvo before the Dwarves are upon them.

With one of their brothers dead, the Dwarves hack madly at the blubbery hides of the penguin arquebusiers. Flippers fly and beaks stab wildly in defense, and soon the foes lay vanquished, painting the snow red.

The remaining Dwarven warriors make a dash for the monastery and claim it for you, imbuing you with its Majyckal essence. As you regroup your forces for a new assault, a bloody moon rises; there shall be more death before the morrow!

Key Features

  • Fun AI: B&B will have AI that is challenging but never cheats, and allow for varying difficulty for the most hardcore players or the first-time strategy player.
  • Humorous Game World: Archaic dwarves use magic to fight time-traveling penguins, creating outlandish and comical unit types, while still being serious enough to draw the player into the game world.
  • Exciting, fast-paced gameplay: In this game, you must kill or be killed. With a focus on aggressive forward movement, this is a game of strategic skill and quick thinking to stay on top using a control point system.

    Core Gameplay

    Blood & Beaks will be a fast-paced real-time strategy game. The player will play from an overview mode where they can see several hundred feet in either direction.

    The focus will be on capturing monasteries that provide Majyck Power, which provide the power for creating more units. The build system will be based off of timers, and players can build units until their Power cap has been reached. The Power cap can be raised by capturing more monasteries. When a player loses monasteries their Power cap is dropped, and unit production will be halted until more power is gained.

    Power will be used immediately when a unit is chosen to be constructed, so a player cannot queue up units that they don’t have power for. Units can be sacrificed to add back to the pool of power.


    There will always be a focus on:

  • Forward movement to capture more monasteries
  • Exciting combat that looks visceral and is engaging
  • Keeping the player on their toes; no “turtling”
  • Units will all be clearly different and useful

    Skirmish Mode

    When a game starts the player will have a few builder units and fighting units, as well as a base. Generally the player will want to immediately send out as many troops as possible to capture as many monasteries as possible. They will build a barracks to begin producing more fighting units. The gameplay is fast, focusing on capturing monasteries to build a big enough army to wipe out the enemy. A typical game should last 15-45 minutes.

    The player will select their fighting units and move them to monasteries. Only certain units can capture monasteries, but these will be the basic fighting units. To capture a monastery the units simply have to be near it for a few seconds without any enemies in the vicinity.

    The player can select builder units and command them to build in any territory owned by them. Territories are taken when a monastery is captured, and they will be clearly marked.

    Once a barracks has been built the player can select the barracks and choose unit types to produce. Once a unit type is selected it will begin building. A unit or building will only begin production if there is enough power to produce it. Units in production when power is lost will finish production.

    Units


    A more detailed units chart (Excel format)
    All numerical values are on a 1-10 scale:

    Dwarves
    Infantry
    Gnomish Builders

  • Build and repair structures
    Warrior
  • Can capture monasteries and set up forts
    Head Thrower
  • Can capture monasteries
    Berserker
  • Can capture monasteries
    Keg Thrower
  • Can capture monasteries
    Bean-Eater
  • Can capture monasteries
  • Farts do low Area of Effect damage; high % chance to kill vehicle drivers
  • Moves by farting
    Hobo Summoner
  • Casts spells and has a MP bar
    Warlord
  • Can capture enemy buildings & monasteries

    Vehicles
    Beer Barrel Roller
  • Unit gets into giant barrel and walks around like a hamster wheel, turning it into a steamroller
  • Allows an infantry unit to move faster
  • Melee: 8 (Rolling over) Ranged: N/A
    Ram
  • As in the animal; specifically don't have riders initially, but can be controlled
  • Allows an infantry unit to move faster
    Trojan Rabbit
  • Allows several infantry units to move faster with protection
    Bombardiers
  • Four dwarves carrying a cannon
    Yeti Bombard
  • Has a huge cannon strapped to its back
    Dwarven King
  • Huge Dwarf-Lord with hobos crawling all over his back; devastating melee attacks, and throws huge exploding beer barrels.


    Penguins
    Infantry
    Human Slave
  • Build and repair structures
    Warrior
  • Can capture monasteries
    Arquebusier
  • Can capture monasteries and set up pillboxes
    Turkish Raider
  • Turkey with scimitars
  • Can capture monasteries
    Rifleman
  • Can capture monasteries
    Sniper
  • Can capture monasteries
  • Possibility of killing units with headshots; high % of driver killshots
    Nano Technician
  • Casts spells and has a MP bar
    Arnie Penguin
  • Buff, mini-gun-toting penguin
  • Can capture enemy buildings & monasteries

    Vehicles
    Artillery
    Jeep
  • Don't have riders initially, but can be controlled without a driver
  • Allows an infantry unit to move faster
    APC
  • Allows several infantry units to move faster with protection
    Light Tank
    Heavy Tank
    Mecha Penguin


    Buildings

    Dwarves
    Fort
  • Weak structure set up to defend an area temporarily. Multiple units can be garrisoned inside, but only one fort per territory
    Barracks
  • Creates infantry units
    Workshop
  • Creates vehicles
    Cannon Outpost
  • Slow, high-damage post, produced with warrior as gunner
    Arcane Outpost
  • Fast, medium-damage post using majyckal energy weapon

    Test Models







    Last edited April 13, 2009.