I have been doing a lot of writing projects on my own and many of them have been within the StarCraft universe. Always interested to write some more, but would love some more information about your project.
At first glance it looks like any other puzzle. However, my impression of the map quickly changed upon my first playthrough. After I completed a couple of levels and learned the game's mechanics I felt the need to improve and run through all the levels again and try to achieve gold - This is where the Charges mechanic came in handy, because it allowed me to noob through the game at first and then come back later and play more strategically.
If a custom campaign contest is set in motion, perhaps the rules should be few in numbers and not limit the campaign makers. For example, if someone has read a StarCraft II book and gets the idea of translating the book into a mini-campaign they should be able to do so. This contest (if succesful) could inspire more people to start making their own campaign or joining up as teams to create sequels for previously succesful campaigns.
Who should host the contest and should the campaigns be judged by the community or handpicked by a "commitee"?
Btw, I like the idea of having awesome and creative people submitting a custom model or something like that as a prize, since that would eliminate the need for monetary rewards and shift the focus of winning the contest from collecting cash to getting useful resources to further improve ones custom maps.
I would definately love for Blizzard to set in motion a custom campaign contest. However, I do not believe that it will happen, at least not in the near future. At the moment they are not supporting custom campaigns and are mostly focusing on the Arcade.
I am not sure if the masses would appreciate custom campaigns, because some of which are often are filled with bugs and unskippable cinematics and no real hooks to keep the player interested, next to a quick and easy playthrough of a custom map, which can range anywhere from Tower Defense to RPG's.
Perhaps it is also due to the fact that there are far more people creating "Arcade" maps than there are people creating custom campaigns?
I believe there are several reasons we do not see a lot of custom campaigns out there in contrast to the vast amount of arcade maps: When you are creating a custom campaign, you have to not only write out a story with one or more characters, the missions have to flow in a linear fashion and possess certain hooks to keep the player entertained either in the form of interesting characters, gameplay or other elements. What I am trying to say is that even for the simplest of custom campaigns you need to plan a lot if you want to produce something of mediocre quality.
All the way up to Brood War the various Broods were controlled by Cerebrates, which served as "commanders" if you look at the Swarm's command structure from a human military perspective. After Brood War only a couple of Cerebrates still existed, since most of them were killed off by Kerrigan, since she did not need them to control the Swarm. According to lore Cerebrates are not made to rule by themselves, they serve a more powerful figure (previously the Overmind). If they are not ruled by such a figure they quickly die out, which was why many Cerebrates sacrifced themselves to create a new Overmind. After the Brood War Kerrigan, like the Overmind, created commanders in her own image, which would serve her and control the various Broods. She created the intelligent Brood Mothers to fill a role similar to the old Cerebrates. She was trying to ensure the Swarm could function even if she died, a change from her attitude during the Brood War. And now following the Heart of the Swarm some Brood Mothers have been improved upon and given more free will.
As of now I see four possibilities with how the Veikorth character could be played out. Firstly, as I mentioned above the "commanders" of the original Swarm were the Cerebrates, but it is unlikely that Kerrigan would employ these still, which would make it unlikely that this commander would be a Cerebrate and should instead be a Brood Mother, which would have the abiliy to break off from the Swarm. However, most Brood Mothers answer to the strongest and after a visit to Zerus Kerrigan became so much more powerful. I would highly doubt that any Brood Mother, even Zagara would cross her in the near future.
Secondly, Kerrigan has previously tried to create consorts in the form of Infested humans to serve as her consort, the first of which was Duran. Some of them were even given free will. If Veikorth was to be an infested human, it would make more sense for him to evade Kerrigan and try to create his own Swarm, if Kerrigan has indeed given him partial or total free will.
A third possibility would be to create something new in the form of Kerrigan creating a new creature, which would have the psionic capability to control units within the Swarm. However, that would seem unlikely since the Brood Mothers already fill this role.
At last, I would recommend renaming the campaign to "Brood of Hell," since I believe "of the Hell" is grammatically wrong and does not sound well.
Creating a custom campaign is fun but also an incredibly daunting task, that is if you want to produce something of at least mediocre quality. If you have not already, you should first sketch out the map (Trust me, it is such a pain when you have a fully terrained and scripted map and you find out that the gameplay aspect of it is not working properly), write out a plan for the storyline(s) and most importantly, the CHARACTERS (They are the backbone of your story and will likely be the main hook of your campaign, if they are interesting enough).
You should also make a plan for a small number of missions (around 2-4). Planning for a terrible lot will likely ensure that the overall quality of your maps is going to decrease along with other important aspects. Focus on your first few missions and ensure that they are of the highest quality you can supply. You can plan for a sequel to your first few missions, but you should not begin building them, before you are finished with the first ones.
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@ShadowDancer93: Go
I have been doing a lot of writing projects on my own and many of them have been within the StarCraft universe. Always interested to write some more, but would love some more information about your project.
0
@ScorpSCII: Go
At first glance it looks like any other puzzle. However, my impression of the map quickly changed upon my first playthrough. After I completed a couple of levels and learned the game's mechanics I felt the need to improve and run through all the levels again and try to achieve gold - This is where the Charges mechanic came in handy, because it allowed me to noob through the game at first and then come back later and play more strategically.
0
If a custom campaign contest is set in motion, perhaps the rules should be few in numbers and not limit the campaign makers. For example, if someone has read a StarCraft II book and gets the idea of translating the book into a mini-campaign they should be able to do so. This contest (if succesful) could inspire more people to start making their own campaign or joining up as teams to create sequels for previously succesful campaigns.
Who should host the contest and should the campaigns be judged by the community or handpicked by a "commitee"?
Btw, I like the idea of having awesome and creative people submitting a custom model or something like that as a prize, since that would eliminate the need for monetary rewards and shift the focus of winning the contest from collecting cash to getting useful resources to further improve ones custom maps.
0
@Hockleberry: Go
I would definately love for Blizzard to set in motion a custom campaign contest. However, I do not believe that it will happen, at least not in the near future. At the moment they are not supporting custom campaigns and are mostly focusing on the Arcade.
I am not sure if the masses would appreciate custom campaigns, because some of which are often are filled with bugs and unskippable cinematics and no real hooks to keep the player interested, next to a quick and easy playthrough of a custom map, which can range anywhere from Tower Defense to RPG's.
Perhaps it is also due to the fact that there are far more people creating "Arcade" maps than there are people creating custom campaigns?
I believe there are several reasons we do not see a lot of custom campaigns out there in contrast to the vast amount of arcade maps: When you are creating a custom campaign, you have to not only write out a story with one or more characters, the missions have to flow in a linear fashion and possess certain hooks to keep the player entertained either in the form of interesting characters, gameplay or other elements. What I am trying to say is that even for the simplest of custom campaigns you need to plan a lot if you want to produce something of mediocre quality.
0
@TheSC2Maniac: Go
All the way up to Brood War the various Broods were controlled by Cerebrates, which served as "commanders" if you look at the Swarm's command structure from a human military perspective. After Brood War only a couple of Cerebrates still existed, since most of them were killed off by Kerrigan, since she did not need them to control the Swarm. According to lore Cerebrates are not made to rule by themselves, they serve a more powerful figure (previously the Overmind). If they are not ruled by such a figure they quickly die out, which was why many Cerebrates sacrifced themselves to create a new Overmind. After the Brood War Kerrigan, like the Overmind, created commanders in her own image, which would serve her and control the various Broods. She created the intelligent Brood Mothers to fill a role similar to the old Cerebrates. She was trying to ensure the Swarm could function even if she died, a change from her attitude during the Brood War. And now following the Heart of the Swarm some Brood Mothers have been improved upon and given more free will.
As of now I see four possibilities with how the Veikorth character could be played out. Firstly, as I mentioned above the "commanders" of the original Swarm were the Cerebrates, but it is unlikely that Kerrigan would employ these still, which would make it unlikely that this commander would be a Cerebrate and should instead be a Brood Mother, which would have the abiliy to break off from the Swarm. However, most Brood Mothers answer to the strongest and after a visit to Zerus Kerrigan became so much more powerful. I would highly doubt that any Brood Mother, even Zagara would cross her in the near future.
Secondly, Kerrigan has previously tried to create consorts in the form of Infested humans to serve as her consort, the first of which was Duran. Some of them were even given free will. If Veikorth was to be an infested human, it would make more sense for him to evade Kerrigan and try to create his own Swarm, if Kerrigan has indeed given him partial or total free will.
A third possibility would be to create something new in the form of Kerrigan creating a new creature, which would have the psionic capability to control units within the Swarm. However, that would seem unlikely since the Brood Mothers already fill this role.
The last possibility I would be able to think of would be to create an exterior threat in the form of a cosmic creature, which would somehow stumble upon the Swarm. The cliché would obviously be for this cosmic threat to be of Xel'Naga origin, since you can spin this storyline however you want.
At last, I would recommend renaming the campaign to "Brood of Hell," since I believe "of the Hell" is grammatically wrong and does not sound well.
Creating a custom campaign is fun but also an incredibly daunting task, that is if you want to produce something of at least mediocre quality. If you have not already, you should first sketch out the map (Trust me, it is such a pain when you have a fully terrained and scripted map and you find out that the gameplay aspect of it is not working properly), write out a plan for the storyline(s) and most importantly, the CHARACTERS (They are the backbone of your story and will likely be the main hook of your campaign, if they are interesting enough).
You should also make a plan for a small number of missions (around 2-4). Planning for a terrible lot will likely ensure that the overall quality of your maps is going to decrease along with other important aspects. Focus on your first few missions and ensure that they are of the highest quality you can supply. You can plan for a sequel to your first few missions, but you should not begin building them, before you are finished with the first ones.