New Character: The Basilisk Spy
This one is based on the basilisk lizard, or Jesus lizard, as it’s popularly known, because of its ability to walk (or rather run) on top of water. That’s an unique ability this character will also have.
The Basilisk Spy mirrors the Commando Panther, specializing in sneaking behind enemy lines to do sabotage and silent assassinations. She does not share the Commando’s backstab ability - instead she petrifies her victims with a cloud of poison, and then finishes them off in safety while they’re helpless.
You can see a larger version of this concept on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CompanyofMammals
New Character: The Turtle Tank
The Turtle Tank is a chain smoking, war hardened veteran, and the second of the new reptile characters Luis has been making for us. Mechanically he is supposed to mirror the Armadillo.
Not surprisingly the turtle moves slowly, but his thick shell protects him well from damage. He does average damage with his shotgun. To be able to use his devastating cannon he has to halt and enter “shell hide mode”.
You can also visit Company of Mammals on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CompanyofMammals
New Character: The Chameleon
Luis Felipe has been drawing new playable reptile characters since February. Here is the first finished concept, approved and ready for production.
The Chameleon is mechanically mirroring the Sniper Lynx character: It is a squishy unit that tries to deliver devastating damage to the enemy from a hidden position. The way it does so is quite unique - we haven’t really seen this idea in any other game. It works like this:
To deliver damage the chameleon has to sneak close to the enemy target. When close enough it activates its radio signalling device to mark it. Doing so un-hides the chameleon. Few seconds later the enemy is bombarded by heavy out-of-screen artilley. Our guy has to get away from the area instantly, both to avoid damage and to avoid being hunted by the enemy.
We haven’t really come up with any military title for this character - the best we have is “spotter”. If you have suggestions for his title please feel welcome to come visit our Facebook page and give us your suggestion :)
New Buildings
Here are some more reptile building concepts - that we finished before deciding on the change to PvP, but they will still be usable in PvP maps.
Student project - “The Companion of Mammals”
- Roald Holst
- Mikael Mandt Barstad
- Geir Henning Fallang
- Håvard Wilsgaard
- Fredrik Reiersen Fossaa
- The split allows us to make one game at a time. If we have to we can delay the metagame - it doesn’t have to be shipped simultaneously with the main game. Economically this makes lots of sense for a small developer like us.
- We spread our product on more platforms. Company of Mammals will be suited to play in a browser or on pad. The metagame can be tailored more for play on smartphones (plus browser and pad). This allows players to influence and relate to the game also whenever using a browser or pad is inconvenient.
- Through so-called transgaming mechanims we can encourage players who test out one game to also try out the other game. It’s no secret that we want many players, and this has a change of increasing their numbers.
- Last, but not least, it adds more variation to the player’s gaming experience. This can only be a good thing.
Good changes
After we finished our prototype in late November we gathered feedback and evaluated our game design. Detailing our budgets, looking at the numbers and
the market, we realised we had to change the design. We made these changes:
- From coop to pvp: Instead of cooperative story missions the game will now
focus on player versus player matches.
- Limited storytelling: We will tell few stories other than what is needed to explain the world and its conflict - plus each character’s background story.
- Playable reptiles: You can now choose to either control a squad of mammals
or a squad of reptiles. The abilities of the squads mirror each other, yet plays differently, requiring different tactics.
- From many large, static levels to few and modular small levels: We focus on competitive combat between players in dynamic pvp levels. Levels will contain random modular elements that makes every match play differently.
- We plan to make the accompanying resource management system a specialized
standalone game, suited for mobile and browser, with trans-gaming mechanisms
(more about this later).
The above measurements will not only reduce cost, but it will also increase
the potential market for our game. Additionally the new design adds more
longevity to the product. We think the new design will be more fun to play than before.
The new Panther
When we started out with the avatar concepts, our Lynx sniper was female. The Panther was a male commando assassin and a suggestion that all the cats should be female was quietly ignored.
Recently we made a female version of our Panther as we realised having only one female avatar was not a bright idea. This is the end result and suddenly we all love her:
The Panther
Another avatar is ready. The Panther is a deadly commando, appearing suddenly to strike at unsuspecting enemies. This how he started out in the beginning
Emperor Zog leads the reptile empire with evil cunning and boundless brutality. And an unmatched sense of style.
Steady progress
We now have the first 3 models done with rigging and animation, both the Wolf and the Meerkat running around on our test level. The Reptile model is also done, but is somewhat buggy and will be placed right under the nose of our Lead programmer Jesper, when he returns from a weeks holiday.
More reptile models are in the pipeline, we will be mirroring the mammal avatars for later multiplayer capability where you will be able to match a Reptile team against a Mammal team.
