War of The
Worlds
A couple of years ago I
began work on a 3D first person shooter game called "War of the
Worlds". I based it on the novel by H.G. Wells, and took careful notes
while reading the book. I made sketches of what I thought the machines
and martians might look like, as described by Wells. I built beta
models, with both walking and dying animation, and put a simple game
together. You can download this beta here.
The player has a shotgun with 12 shells, and also 6 grenades. It takes
several shots, or two close grenades, to take down a Martian Tripod.
When the Tripod is killed, the second part of it's animation plays.
This shows them falling down slowly, and coming apart. I chose to
include both the walking and dying animations in each model, rather
than loading a new dying model on death. I felt it was more seamless,
and kept the game size smaller.
After the
test/beta, I began working on an actual 3 level game.
Sometime last year I heard the news that there was going to be a WOTW
movie, with of all people, Tom Cruise (gag). Well needless to say, if
you make a movie these days, there is almost certainly a game right
behind... and this took the wind out of my sails. I have not done any
work on it in over a year. Not that I was planning to market my little
hobby/game anyway, but just the thought that EA or some other talented
firm was going to sink millions of $$$ and dozens of highly skilled
modelers, gamers and programmers into the same concept as I had... It
somehow made it seem sort of pointless. But I am still curious how
close the movie's... and whatever game developer's.... concept is to
mine. Here is a shot from my level one:
Tripod coming over the rise. In Level One, the countryside is still
fairly green, and most of the buildings are intact.
Wells stated the two legs in front first, then the single rear
leg. Makes for a sort of "graceful lope".
In Level Two, the Martians
have taken a toll on the landscape:
There is smoking wreckage everywhere... and the Tripods are more
numerous. In addition, I have "pits", as described in the book, with
stationary heat rays which have more range than the Tripod's rays. By
the way, the compass graphic is an actual 19th century brass hand
bearing unit I scanned, then used the RAD compass to make it functional.
Maybe there are some first aid kits scattered by that ruined hospitol?
In Level 3, the goal has changed from survival, to exterminating
the Martians. Those familiar with the Wells' story may know that it was
bacteria that did the Martians in. So you have made it through the
Level 2 Safety tunnel? You find yourself outside a biological facility,
and need to skirt mini-tripods, climb three levels in the building, and
smash the bottles of toxic bacteria to kill the Martians:
Mini-Tripod in foreground. I only put two or three in the level for
testing purposes... in the finished game I intended on copying about 30
of the buggers. I was also going to make pulsating Martians sitting by
small heat rays, ready to surprise you from various rooms and nests in
the building.
You can just see the toxic bacteria bottles (green) in the cabinet at
the end of the platform at top.
And there is the final goal... if you have a shell or grenade left, you
break the bottles, and you win. I was going to make a win animation of
the Tripods collapsing all over the countryside.
I had also toyed with the idea of a bonus Level 4... in which you would
find yourself (after a scrollling explanation) on the surface of the
Red Planet itself... operating a Tripod, and annihilating the machines on thier
home planet. Spielberg, you heard it here first! No Tom Cruise please,
though.
I wanted to at least put up
a site of the work I had done, before the actual opening day of the
movie... which is tomorrow. So much for small goals. But while playing
with the levels I had done, I thought I may finish the game anyway. A
few more graphics, a few more hours, and I could have a working three
level game.
