Pre-Giants: Spacemen, Pirates, and Kabuto

General comments and topics relating to Giants.

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Pepys
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Pre-Giants: Spacemen, Pirates, and Kabuto

Post by Pepys »

Hellooo! How are all of you cool geezers doing?
I have assumed the name of Pepys, after Samuel Pepys whose diary is read religiously by all the Smarties on the Island, and whose image is in every place of Smartish worship. I also liked some of the excerpts of read of Pepys diary, so the name is appropriate.
I am, like you all Meccs and Reapers, a fan of Giants: Citizen Kabuto. I am also a fan of the work of Shiny Entertainment, which of course the founders of Planet Moon used to be a part of, such as MDK, Earthworm Jim, and Sacrifice.
Right to the topic. While I was reading a retrospective editorial of GOG.com about the origin of Giants, the creators claimed that they came up with the ideas for the game while working on MDK. To paraphrase, they wondered what it would be like to make a game featuring spacemen, pirates, and giants, combining all the gameplay features that they love.
The editorial made me wonder what would have happened if they had managed to create Giants with the technology that they had already created with MDK. Since I like to think up expansion packs and mods for games that are interesting but may never get done, I had wondered: what if someone made a Pre-Giants styled mod for MDK, where you have British lego spacemen, Reaperish-like female pirates, and a Gunta-like Kabuto?
Since that idea involved modding for an engine that probably cannot be modded, and doing a cruder version of an already excellent game, it probably would suck. Still, what would Giants: Citizen Kabuto had been like if it was done with MDK's technology?

(For one, the Smarties would probably behave sillier and look uglier.)
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Nagadkcin
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Post by Nagadkcin »

We are currently working on an expansion for giants. If you have any ideas to put forth or somthing to contribute, please go here: http://www.giantswd.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2149
Pepys
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Post by Pepys »

Thanks again, [ION]Nagadkcin. :)

Back on topic, does anyone know if the engine for MDK is moddifiable, or has even been used by modders before?

I doubt that its open source, because it seems like a valuable piece of Shiny's technology.

It does make me wonder if the engine can hadnle creating the illusion of a vast sea or island environment, though it appears that it can.

Another interesting thing about MDK is that during a trailer for the game (where it starts out as an Earthworm Jim styled side scroller, then transforms into a CG rendered portrayal of the gameplay), after Kurt snipes a large robot in the eye, he switches to first person mode and tears apart a small annoying robot (who yells "Alert! Alert!") with his chain gun. It makes wonder if some of the developers were thinking of integrating a first person mode for MDK when they were still working for Shiny, and then carried that idea when they started working on Giants: Citizen Kabuto.

It also interesting that in the pre-patched Giants and MDK, all the enemies bled green blood when shot (I have since been treated to GOG's red blood
edition of Giants). It makes me wonder how renditions of the reaper guards would behave in that engine (considering the innovative things Shiny managed to do with its game AI).

Any MDK experts on Sorcha Island?
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Nagadkcin
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Post by Nagadkcin »

I belive There is such a man.. He lives high in the codpice hills. :D
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Post by Pepys »

Do I really have to give the man 20 pieces of fresh vimp meat and save his, um, "ravishing" wife in order to learn about MDK's technology? He thinks his dogs can harm Meccaryans! He's a menace! (But he is damn funny when he's hungry.)
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CrapHeap
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Post by CrapHeap »

Pepys wrote:Thanks again, [ION]Nagadkcin. :)

Back on topic, does anyone know if the engine for MDK is moddifiable, or has even been used by modders before?

I doubt that its open source, because it seems like a valuable piece of Shiny's technology.

It does make me wonder if the engine can hadnle creating the illusion of a vast sea or island environment, though it appears that it can.

Another interesting thing about MDK is that during a trailer for the game (where it starts out as an Earthworm Jim styled side scroller, then transforms into a CG rendered portrayal of the gameplay), after Kurt snipes a large robot in the eye, he switches to first person mode and tears apart a small annoying robot (who yells "Alert! Alert!") with his chain gun. It makes wonder if some of the developers were thinking of integrating a first person mode for MDK when they were still working for Shiny, and then carried that idea when they started working on Giants: Citizen Kabuto.

It also interesting that in the pre-patched Giants and MDK, all the enemies bled green blood when shot (I have since been treated to GOG's red blood
edition of Giants). It makes me wonder how renditions of the reaper guards would behave in that engine (considering the innovative things Shiny managed to do with its game AI).

Any MDK experts on Sorcha Island?
the first or the 2nd mdk?
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Post by Pepys »

The first MDK, CrapHeap. It was the first and only MDK game Shiny Entertainment developed. MDK 2 was done by BioWare.
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CrapHeap
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Post by CrapHeap »

I googled a bit, and it seems like no one ever tried to mod mdk, but every engine released so far is moddifiable, so you could try to make mod tools yourself.
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Nagadkcin
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Post by Nagadkcin »

If we were to apply the mdk engine to giants 2, I doubt we could reuse the modeles and tgas. :cry:
Pepys
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Post by Pepys »

My Pre-Giants MDK concept has nothing to do with Giants 2, rest assured, [ION]Nagadkcin. My ideas for how the game would play is different from the ideas I've contributed for the Giants 2 expansion. I'm just wondering how the concepts behind Giants: Citizen Kabuto would operate in MDK's software. Please, develop Giants 2 with Giants' own classic engine. My sketchy concept would serve as sort of a beta or alpha alternate reality of Giants: Citizen Kabuto (that is if I learn to be a modder).

I did do a funny drawing where my version of the Mecc is sort of a lego faced bald guy in a large bulky space suit with an enormous jet pack, and a classic laser ray handgun. Since Planet Moon originally thought of the Sea Reapers initially being pirates, my equivalent of Delphi would basically be a Sea Reaper in a pirate outfit with a deadly long saber (imagine slicing up enemies in that engine). As for Kabuto, as rather like that grey concept art piece of him in the development blog, with the six nipples, the absence of horned accessories, and the evil smile.

Anyway, it's just a fantasy concept.
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Nagadkcin
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Post by Nagadkcin »

Ahhhhhh, I shall finaly be able to sleep at night, thanks pepys. :D If you ever do come across to making that mdk version of giants please upload it to here! (yeah I know the file would be massive...)
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CrapHeap
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Post by CrapHeap »

It seems to me you just want a giants with mdk-ish models. If so, just edit some gck models and save them in a common format, I'll make sure you will be able to implement them in giants 2.

ps: I'm not using "Giants' own classic engine", wish I could :(
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Nagadkcin
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Post by Nagadkcin »

Why not? No, Source code?
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Post by CrapHeap »

that and the fact that the engine is outdated and doesn't support bsd and linux as far as I know
Pepys
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Post by Pepys »

It's been a long time coming.

Years ago, I did some drawings to show what I envisioned my retro-Giants idea to look like. Didn't know how to scan and post the pictures, until now.

Enjoy.

Image

I was proud the composition for this picture. Done in the style of a game box, I was trying to make it like it was follow-up installment for MDK 1. For the Meccs, I wanted them to look even more Lego like than before and have their space suits be very kitsch sci-fi. For Delphi, I wanted to her to go back her faction's pirate roots, and make it suggest that she is more of villain than a heroine, or more like an anti-heroine. For Kabuto, I used a picture of King Kong for inspiration. It would have been better if I replaced Spacemen, Pirates, and Giants with Spacemen, Pirates, and Kabuto in the title.

Image

My alternate take on the Mecc. That is a huge dark blue jet pack behind his helmet, not the outer casing of his helmet. Thought that since that his gear was all very big, then his retro-blaster should be also be large

Image

A little problem with the middle of the tri-corner hat, but other than that she looks deadly. I wanted her saber to look like it could really slice things up. I imagine sometimes what her slash attack would be like in MDK 1's engine, so an engine which imitates MDK 1's effects very well.

Image

What can I say? He's supposed to be a Smarty, albeit a cruder and stupider looking version of a Smarty. But he looks happy enough, don't you think?
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