Video

Here you can find several videos hosted by Youtube. Videos were captured using the freeware video capture software CamStudio and edited with VirtualDub.

Scaldar's Soul Power

Scaldar's special ability in a short demonstration.

Nargul's Mind Control

A gameplay mechanic where you can lose by succumbing to the Dreadlord's mind control. Normally you lose by your life dropping to zero, but here you can also lose by having your life reach maximum. The Dreadlord is busy healing you; embracing full health represents you losing your mind to him.

Summoner Duel

A short mini-game using the Dialogue interface. The duel requires a random creature or spell drawn rather than summoning a creature directly-- it is described as similar to rolling dice. The pools of monsters each summoner can draw upon varies from as small as five to as large as eight, but only three can appear in one game-- therefore the chance of playing the same game twice is small.

The opposing summoner is named after Guo Jia, a man from the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history. He was an adviser to Cao Cao, one of the prominent warlords of the time and eventual patriarch of one of the Three Kingdoms. Reportedly after Guo Jia's death, Cao Cao lamented his presence could have averted a great military disaster; this idea is often debated, but it is also played out as a deciding scenario in the game Dynasty Tactics.

Tether Rifle Demonstration

A gameplay element introduced late in Book 4 of the campaign. The Tether Rifle is essentially similar to the existing Blink spell in Warcraft III, but in a more controlled environment. This proved helpful because I could control just where the player could move the hero where Blink's only restriction is Fog of War. In this level the Harpoon Posts are arranged to expedite speedy evacuation of the crater.

Book 6 Character Selection Demonstration

A direct demonstration of a feature in Book 6 of the campaign. Character selection is an option that is not initially unlocked, but becomes available as more characters complete the story mode. When all three main characters complete their story modes, Free Mode becomes available.

Character selection offers the option to complete story modes with a different hero and skill set.

Book 6 Changeable Armor System Demonstration

An experiment introduced in Book 6 of the campaign. The Changeable Armor System was introduced as a proof of concept for an in-game method of altering the player character's appearance. The system as implemented is cumbersome and not entirely portable, but it does exactly what it was meant to do.

True Hero of the Three Kingdoms

This stage is the culmination of a story arc for one character where one man-- or in this case, a woman-- can make a difference. The direct inspiration for such is the Dynasty Warriors series of games, a 3D beat-em-up where you could possibly fight and defeat thousands of enemy troops if you so desired.

While not formally a 'boss battle' it serves as a sort of alternative to one-- the goal in this portion of the fight is to kill 1,000 enemy troops before either your hero falls in battle or the gates of the city are breached. As Warcraft III becomes resource-intensive the more units and graphics appear on-screen, it becomes important to recycle troops quickly, therefore it was decided that all enemy troops can be felled with only a small number of attacks.

Lord Gunther Boss Battle

A boss battle against a champion of light. Both heroes are significantly powered-up by their respective powers, but Gunther himself gains several more abilities in addition to his usual Judgment Ultimate and Holy Nova. First, Gunther has a charge, which increases his movement speed and does damage. Second, Gunther can summon spirits in which to aid him in battle. The spirits constantly reappear as they are destroyed. Third, Gunther summons a wave of flying blades, which can be avoided. Finally, Gunther uses the 'Bubblehearth' ability, obviously inspired by a tactic in World of Warcraft where a paladin uses their Divine Shield as a cover for an escape.

Zule Whitemane Boss Battle

This boss battle relies exclusively on abilities which Zule Whitemane demonstrated across the entire campaign and amplifies them to fantastic levels in order to create this encounter. Zule's Corpse Explosion spell is changed to Corpse Explosion Wave, which does not require corpses and fires in three different directions. While Zule retains his normal stun attack, he gains a second version which drops Stasis Traps all around the battlefield-- which either must be destroyed or triggered. Third, Zule can summon his Chaos Legion armors to fight for him when the fight reaches certain phases. Zule retains both his Orb of Destruction Ultimate and his Fire Nova.

Dalles Boss Battle

A late game boss battle, which, as described in game terms, is a damage race. Dalles is a throwback to a boss battle I created in my Starcraft mod, Vision of the Future, with more modern sensibilities. The entire first third of the fight was the entirety of the Starcraft version of the battle, while the third portion combines the first and second portions and adds several Flame Strikes and Death and Decay fields for good measure. The battle itself is fairly straightforward, but Dalles can destroy his enemies quickly and without warning if you don't keep your life at least above 50%.

Nara the Shadowpath Boss Battle

Inspired by the Ys: Origins encounter with the witch Zava-- this is my interpretation of the battle as done in the Warcraft III engine. If I had planned to do this when I started working on the campaign the boss would be named Zava, too.

The battle flow initially starts difficult and becomes easier as time goes on. Nara and her two beholders will all attack you at once until you bring Nara down to a certain amount of life, whereupon she merges essence with one of the beholders. That beholder gains two extra abilities until it is slain, and when that happens Nara loses her link and becomes attackable again. She repeats this with the second beholder as well until both beholders are dead.

When both beholders are dead Nara is supposed to start summoning more creatures to aid her, but in this case she never got the chance.

Garm the Sniper Boss Battle

A rather simplistic fight in two stages. The first stage you need to hid behind cover so Garm won't shoot at you with his sniper rifle. This can be avoided by using a summoned unit to 'eat' the shot so you can move out of cover while he reloads. The second stage is a more conventional tank-and-spank affair.

Garm gains new abilities depending on what level your hero is when the fight starts. At level 10 he summons a lot of extra units to help him, but you also can summon a lot of units yourself by that point.

Mekani Boss Battle

After a fairly lengthy level is a relatively easy boss fight. This battle droid, as explained by the character who unleashes it, is only meant to slow you down. The droid only has a few attacks: a missile strike, an artillery laser, and a beam laser. It can also summon smaller droids, or a worker unit to repair itself. Finally, it also possesses an AOE tractor beam, which draws its enemies to itself. While this is not very apparent with two melee heroes, toward the end of the fight I left one outside melee range so you can see the effect.