Campaign Creations

I hope I'm not too late. I'd like to enter the competition with the mini-campaign Dark Swarm (working title). I've been doing some related work lately, and I'm excited about doing a Zerg campaign. Now for the official information.

Campaign title: Dark Swarm (currently)
Race: Zerg

Brief information:
The campaign is set before the original Starcraft, and deals with the Zerg invading Argus IV. There will some new characters and it will be fully voiced.

-Legion

Neat! Your voice quality is always top notch. Do post updates.

Nice, a Zerg campaign underway. I really think we have some exciting ideas in this mini campaign contest... I'm really ooking forward to playing this one. Your unit voices were always top-notch, back in the day. Keep us updated, please. 

Falchion wrote: That is until SC2 shows up.  

Heh. Yeah, like THAT's ever going to happen! 

Okay, update.

"Philosophy" and ideas

So, this is a sort of designer journal / update thing, detailing some of the things I've been working on. The first thing I'll be dealing with is the reason I chose to do a Zerg campaign.

There are A LOT, and let me say that one more time, A LOT of Starcraft campaigns out there. Most of them are Terran-based, a lot of them are Protoss-based and only a few campaigns are Zerg campaigns. When I started thinking about this project, the first thing that came to mind was Varanus' Resurgence campaign. That was interesting. He did well on the story, I loved it, and his overall campaign design made it a very attractive Zerg campaign.

I wanted to do that: make a Zerg campaign. Now there are a lot of people out there who'll expect Kerrigan to be there, because she's practically the main protagonist / monologist of the Zerg right now. Well,  I intended to make a campaign in the spirit of SC Episode II, where the player is a Cerebrate and serves some higher Cerebrates and they deal with Zerg matters. Infested Kerrigan is the one character in the SC universe I don't like. She -for me- makes it somewhat unrealistic. I also didn't like the way Blizzard got rid of this Overmind concept in Brood War -- giving it to the Terrans and having it disposed of again. Then there's Metzen comment about all the Cerebrates being gone. The tragedy.

In this mini-campaign, the player assumes the role of a junior Cerebrate assisting a senior Cerebrate who's in turn been assigned by the Overmind (Yay for Zerg hierarchy, man) to 'enrich' the Swarm. That's basically the backdrop of my campaign, because things change, things turn around and what have you. So, to wrap things up -- you'll be back in a time when Cerebrates were very much important.

Zerg trickiness
When it comes to Zerg, there is one thing that Blizzard didn't do, and that's having them talk. The only ones that talk are the Cerebrates and infested humans. My Ultralisk talks, and possibly my Overlord and Mutalisk too. It took me quite a while to decide to go with 'talking regulars' because it *is* rather unrealistic (...but I would like to hear your thoughts on it). The way I explained it to myself (you'll find yourself doing crazy stuff, believe me) was that the Zerg don't talk at all and speak telepathically, even Cerebrates and Kerrigan. That way, any strain of Zerg could talk to the Cerebrate. Voila!

Then there's the voices. Some of you may know I've always been busy with doing Protoss voices. I never made anything outstanding like Auspex, but I do them well. I can't mod, I'm a horrible triggerer, but I do Protoss voices nicely. I found that doing Zerg is a whole different story than Protoss. So far, I've got the main voices worked out, though, and they sound... ok.

The next update will contain something to look at and probably something to listen to. I'll also tell you something about the story.

Happy Christmas.

legion um will it be different from the sc1zerg campaign?

Yes, because I am not able to create such a good story. 

Seriously, though, yes, it will be.

Due to technical problems, I've decided to alter the storyline of my campaign and change it into something I've been wanting to do for a long time.

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The story in a nutshell
Dark Swarm is set before Starcraft, approximately a month before the events of Episode I. The Overmind has begun its journey and, being the being that he is, has already assimilated many species into his Swarm in order to invade Aiur. Now he's come across the Terrans, on the planet of Chau Sara.

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In the attachment you'll find a screenshot of the first two levels.

Okay, so far I've got three missions completely finished, moving on to the fourth.

I'll update you some more.

Like I said, the missions take place shortly before the events of Starcraft, and deal with the Zerg discovering Terrans on the planet Chau Sara. The Overmind learns more about the Terrans, but decides to kill them nonetheless. He brings a large portion of the Swarm to Chau Sara and wreaks havoc.

Throughout the campaign, you'll be guided by the Overmind and it should be noted that the Cerebrate in Dark Swarm is NOT the Cerebrate you play in Starcraft.

All will be revealed. Shouldn't be long now.

THREAD PURGED OF OFF-TOPIC POSTS.

CONTESTANT IS APPROVED- SUFFICIENT UPDATES.

Update 01-10-2008

I'm currently finishing the penultimate mission, and will be moving on to the last one soon. I've started rewriting most of my dialogue to bring the overall style up to the same level (you know how it is...) and will begin recording.
So far, the Overmind takes the cake in the dialogue, and that's probably not going to change! The campaign focuses on the Swarm during the time of their discovery of the Terran Sector. The missions are fairly simple, I tried to keep them in the style of Rebel Yell and Loomings, because a) it works for the story and b) I'm not that good at making elaborate maps. 

Triggering has so far taken me not as much time as I'd expected. My triggers are fairly simple, so that's probably got something to do with it. I've paid a lot of attention to terrain. I don't like maps that are just large patches of the same tiles with no doodads. I am a Doodad freak, but I'll be sure not to overdo it.

I'm planning on getting the sound recording done very fast since that's always the part I don't like. However, I'm not rushing things, since I still want you guys to have something to listen to that's worth your time! Most of my samples are done in 3/4 takes; I am really dedicated to each and every sample. I've got the voices worked out, the Overmind was tricky, but I like what I have, so it shouldn't take me such a long time anyway. I'm hoping to release the campaign by this weekend, but this is a rough estimate. One thing happens and I won't be able to make it.

Hope you guys are still looking forward to a straightforward, precursor-like Zerg campaign!

I am intrigued. I remember a while back I tried to recreate the overmind effect and it was a quite complicated effect. I am wondering how your's will sound.

Not better than yours, no doubt. I'll post a sample on here later today if you want.

Please do, I am. Can't say I would be able to reproduce the overmind on a whim anyways.

As promised, a sound sample from my mini-campaign.

It's my attempt at impersonating the Overmind.

A bit too fast, but Blizzard's will envy you.  Congrats, Legion, you've just copied the Overmind.  All you need to do is to talk a bit slower.