Hegemuffin
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The Lost Island
What is the Lost Island?
What is it about?
What are some of the features?
How is it unique?
So when can I play it?
Show me the goods! (Screenies)
Please give suggestions, ask questions, or just lend your support. I welcome it all.
Update (05/26/08): Screenshots now available!
A Warcraft III Adventure Campaign by
The Hegemuffin
What is the Lost Island?
The Lost Island is a unique Single Player Campaign that does what few Warcraft III campaigns before it have done... and then more. It is inspired largely by the puzzle-adventure genre of game (for any of you who played them, think of the Monkey Island games or some of the old Sierra releases). However, as the puzzle-adventure is a nowadays rarely implemented (and even more rarely successful) genre of game, The Lost Island ends up being more of a hybrid between a puzzle-adventure and an action-adventure (think "Legend of Zelda" - a lot more mainstream, right?). In other words, you have the usual creep battles and some of the action from your standard Warcraft III campaign (plus a few boss battles as well), but, for the most part, both the plot and your progress in the game are driven by puzzles that you need to solve. These puzzles are mainly inventory or environment based, but they are certainly not limited to these two aspects of gameplay.
As a campaign itself, the Lost Island is in much the same format as the Orc Bonus Campaign, but with only one main level. There is currently one planned "overmap" (at least 192*192 in size) and anywhere from 3-5 "instances." Your main character is an Orc Blademaster (Grom Hellscream model), but the majority of the NPC interactions are with Trolls and Humans, the two main races inhabiting the island. If anything, then, the Lost Island is a "Troll Bonus Campaign," though it is only loosely set in the Warcraft III universe, and most of the plot is extraneous to known Warcraft III lore.
As a campaign itself, the Lost Island is in much the same format as the Orc Bonus Campaign, but with only one main level. There is currently one planned "overmap" (at least 192*192 in size) and anywhere from 3-5 "instances." Your main character is an Orc Blademaster (Grom Hellscream model), but the majority of the NPC interactions are with Trolls and Humans, the two main races inhabiting the island. If anything, then, the Lost Island is a "Troll Bonus Campaign," though it is only loosely set in the Warcraft III universe, and most of the plot is extraneous to known Warcraft III lore.
What is it about?
Here's the backstory (set directly following the events of the Orc Bonus Campaign):
You control Gokee, an Elite Blademaster who finds himself stranded on a Lost Island from the past. Gokee, as the Horde's official witness to an Alliance project under the new Horde / Alliance truce, had been sent to accompany the Archmage Verivin on what was to be a revolutionary experiment. For some years, now, Verivin had been conducting research into the fabric of time itself and claimed to have discovered a means of warping it. If this was indeed true, a time spell of that nature could allow the Alliance to prevent entirely the Scourge's arrival in Lordaeron. However, it was important to Verivin that the actual test of his theory be done in the middle of the ocean, and for two reasons. First and foremost, he did not wish to alter the course of history himself; rather, he would leave it to Jaina to sort out exactly when and where to intervene so as to neutralize the Scourge without the risk of causing a time paradox. The ocean would be perfect for this due to the exceedingly low probability of encountering human life, and Verivin would still be able to determine from astronomical calculations whether or not his ship had in fact traveled back in time. Secondly, the amount of energy required for his spell would be enormous, and he would need to harness the power of the maelstrom - the storm Thrall had encountered and which seemed to be curiously fixed in the middle of the ocean - to adequately fuel his magic.
Unfortunately, this plan, though it worked in theory, resulted in the complete destruction of their ship in the storm, which had proved particularly violent. Verivin did harness enough energy to perform the spell. He, however, was killed in the process, and the sole survivor was Gokee, stranded in a time so far back that he found himself washed up on the shore of an island that hadn't even existed in the present. And so begins our tale.
You control Gokee, an Elite Blademaster who finds himself stranded on a Lost Island from the past. Gokee, as the Horde's official witness to an Alliance project under the new Horde / Alliance truce, had been sent to accompany the Archmage Verivin on what was to be a revolutionary experiment. For some years, now, Verivin had been conducting research into the fabric of time itself and claimed to have discovered a means of warping it. If this was indeed true, a time spell of that nature could allow the Alliance to prevent entirely the Scourge's arrival in Lordaeron. However, it was important to Verivin that the actual test of his theory be done in the middle of the ocean, and for two reasons. First and foremost, he did not wish to alter the course of history himself; rather, he would leave it to Jaina to sort out exactly when and where to intervene so as to neutralize the Scourge without the risk of causing a time paradox. The ocean would be perfect for this due to the exceedingly low probability of encountering human life, and Verivin would still be able to determine from astronomical calculations whether or not his ship had in fact traveled back in time. Secondly, the amount of energy required for his spell would be enormous, and he would need to harness the power of the maelstrom - the storm Thrall had encountered and which seemed to be curiously fixed in the middle of the ocean - to adequately fuel his magic.
Unfortunately, this plan, though it worked in theory, resulted in the complete destruction of their ship in the storm, which had proved particularly violent. Verivin did harness enough energy to perform the spell. He, however, was killed in the process, and the sole survivor was Gokee, stranded in a time so far back that he found himself washed up on the shore of an island that hadn't even existed in the present. And so begins our tale.
What are some of the features?
I'm not really interested in listing things here like "AWE-INSPIRING CINEMATICS" or "NEVER BEFORE SEEN SPELLS" because, generally speaking, the more superlatives used in a description, the less likely the map is to come close to meeting any expectations whatsoever, let alone those. What I can give you, though, is the gist of it.
-An impressive terrain, nothing to ooh and aah about but also nothing boring or ugly, well planned out, well detailed, extremely large, and perfectly functional for the purposes of the map.
-An excellent story: Here is the one area, if any, in which I can boast a little. The storyline is coherent, intriguing, detailed, and professional. If anything, this should be what keeps you playing. Essentially, you might think of the campaign as a quality fanfic (yes, I'm aware of the generally negative connotations of that word, but I stress here "quality") that you get to play out.
-A number of cinematic sequences, whose worth you can probably extrapolate as some average of the terrain and the story.
-A wide range of puzzles, which span from challenging to infuriating. I will stress, once again, that this campaign is extremely puzzle driven. If you don't particularly enjoy puzzles or if you lean more toward the "shoot 'em up" side of things, then this probably isn't the map for you. If you do like puzzles, however, then you will most certainly get your money's worth: This is probably the one area in which you will not be "given a break."
-Engaging boss fights: True, the action is not a dominant function of this campaign, but the boss fights are far from a letdown. In line with the "puzzle" element, most bosses are not the type where "you hit them until they're dead." Generally, there is some tactic you have to arrive at to defeat them, but it is often incorporated into the hack-and-slash so that fights are never boring.
-And just to throw a bone to the World Editor hounds, the campaign is completely leak-free and incorporates a kick-ass extended inventory system, though I consider the mechanics of a map, particularly a single player one, to be irrelevant so long as it plays properly and looks good to the gamer.
-An impressive terrain, nothing to ooh and aah about but also nothing boring or ugly, well planned out, well detailed, extremely large, and perfectly functional for the purposes of the map.
-An excellent story: Here is the one area, if any, in which I can boast a little. The storyline is coherent, intriguing, detailed, and professional. If anything, this should be what keeps you playing. Essentially, you might think of the campaign as a quality fanfic (yes, I'm aware of the generally negative connotations of that word, but I stress here "quality") that you get to play out.
-A number of cinematic sequences, whose worth you can probably extrapolate as some average of the terrain and the story.
-A wide range of puzzles, which span from challenging to infuriating. I will stress, once again, that this campaign is extremely puzzle driven. If you don't particularly enjoy puzzles or if you lean more toward the "shoot 'em up" side of things, then this probably isn't the map for you. If you do like puzzles, however, then you will most certainly get your money's worth: This is probably the one area in which you will not be "given a break."
-Engaging boss fights: True, the action is not a dominant function of this campaign, but the boss fights are far from a letdown. In line with the "puzzle" element, most bosses are not the type where "you hit them until they're dead." Generally, there is some tactic you have to arrive at to defeat them, but it is often incorporated into the hack-and-slash so that fights are never boring.
-And just to throw a bone to the World Editor hounds, the campaign is completely leak-free and incorporates a kick-ass extended inventory system, though I consider the mechanics of a map, particularly a single player one, to be irrelevant so long as it plays properly and looks good to the gamer.
How is it unique?
First of all, I'm not trying to do everything here, so, as with the features, I'm not about to list 10 ways in which this map is completely revolutionary only to see all of them fail. However, I think it's safe to say that it attempts a lot in properly balancing the puzzle and action elements to make for an integrated gaming experience. It also makes effective use of the Orc Bonus Campaign "overmap" style of doing things, which I think is notable. Finally, though tons of people are coming out with campaigns, RPGs, ORPGs, etc., I think the story for this is truly exceptional, so you should definitely give it a try.
So when can I play it?
The current release date is set for August 2008. I intend to work on it for most of the summer, or at least while I'm home. As to the current progress (having been working for approximately one week), I would put it at
Story: 50%
Puzzles: 25%
Terrain: 25%
Object Data, Triggers, Implementation, Etc.: 10%
So I'd say I'm making fairly good progress.
Story: 50%
Puzzles: 25%
Terrain: 25%
Object Data, Triggers, Implementation, Etc.: 10%
So I'd say I'm making fairly good progress.
Show me the goods! (Screenies)
Just a few terrain screenies to keep the dogs from barking (nothing of the gameplay yet):
Whee, a lake!
Now a volcano! >.<
Volcano round 2
Whee, a lake!
Now a volcano! >.<
Volcano round 2
Please give suggestions, ask questions, or just lend your support. I welcome it all.
Update (05/26/08): Screenshots now available!
yes. i had a boner for about 2 seconds when i read ur ideas 
