2. Introduction
• Gamer for 14 years
• Streaming: Shooters, MOBA’s & MMORPGS
• Full time developer for financial applications
• Aspiring game designer / community
management
• This started as a presentation for regulars:
“Hey let’s post it on Reddit what could go
wrong!?”
www.kalbuir.com
3. The current team
• tr4st (@tr4st)
• Kalbuir (@defianceKal)
• Mephistonx – Art
• Suage – Art
• And you! (Stream Community)
4. Origin of the Mod
• Community & Interaction heavy stream
• Motivations for streaming
• Love for Arma 3
• Lack of interaction with viewers
• Can only play with 2/3 viewers at a time
www.kalbuir.com
5. Design Goals
• Support a larger amount of viewers per game
• Game with clear start and end
• Rotation of new players / viewers
• Competition among friends and the community
• Action oriented, less running simulation
• Scalable solution
• Eventually replace art (weapons) with our own
• Coded from scratch
www.kalbuir.com
6. Challenges of the project
• Arma III beta stage, API still heavily evolving
and improving.
• Our code is breaking out under us at times
• Main reason we want to code from scratch, as
we know exactly where we can optimize
based on new API features
• Code is our own and we know it well, so
adding future features becomes easier. (i.e.
Food)
www.kalbuir.com
8. The setting
• You’ve been chosen to participate in the
biggest blood sport event ever created
• Players are dropped by helicopter into the
arena which is blocked off by a dome.
• 20 players enter (currently), only one leaves
• Survivor is picked up by helicopter
www.kalbuir.com
9. The Basics
- Battles are played in rounds
- Currently 20 players per round
- Each round starts with a "circle of death"
- Player faced with 2 options: Loot or Run (Risk vs Reward)
- Scavenge to survive
- Melee & ranged combat
- Last man standing wins
- No 3rd person camera
- Realistic jumping
www.kalbuir.com
10. The Basics
- Direct communication (VON) enabled
- Chat disabled
- No Death messages in chat, UI indicates amount of
players left
www.kalbuir.com
11. The start of the round
www.kalbuir.com
- Players spawn with a small selection of loot at their feet
- Faster you pick it up, the faster you can grab a weapon at the middle
12. Play the game or die!
www.kalbuir.com
• Players don’t know which area to expect
• Actively hunt other players, or wait it out
• Camping isn’t really possible, more on this later
• Team up with players, or play lone wolf
• But at the end only 1 survives
13. www.kalbuir.com
• Current size: 1000m x 1000m.
• We can move it around freely, to any map or
area.
• Providing two key things:
– A dynamic and non static experience.
– A way newer players aren’t overwhelmed by the
amount of terrain.
The arena
16. The Loot
www.kalbuir.com
- Guns, attachments and ammo come separate
- Different weapon types
- Different throw able objects
- Different types of food
- Medicine to counter different conditions
- Clothing, armor & protection
- Range of traps
- Range of tools (implemented later)
17. Weapons
• Gun
– Attachments fully working.
– Arma 3 Base Weapons.
– Custom weapons and attachments.
• Melee Weapons
– Knife
– Machete
– Katana
– Hatchet
• Bows and Crossbows
www.kalbuir.com
19. Guns & Modern Gear
• Considered leaving modern gear out
• Essential part of Arma 3 gameplay
• Currently using R3F ARMES (team-r3f.org) &
RH Pistol pack
• Use pre-existing community made art to
jumpstart our development process
www.kalbuir.com
20. Melee Combat
• Everyone loves melee combat!
• Easy to swap to melee, independent of gun
setup.
• Challenges: “Knife to a gunfight”
• Silent take downs
• Solution: Additional weapon slots!
• “Gentlemen’s way” / Dueling
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22. Key Features #1 “The usual suspects”
• Food & water is sparse: hunting, scavenging or
stealing
• Health: Stay healthy, medicine are a rare
commodity. However a stranger might help
you out! (hint)
• But most of all, you have to stay warm!
www.kalbuir.com
Hunger, Thirst, Heat & Health
23. Key Features #1 “The usual suspects”
• Not moving decreases your body temperature
• When hypothermia sets in you take damage
• There is a point of no return, only meds can save
you then
• Other means of staying warm besides moving:
– Buildings and shelter
– Clothing
– Items
– Fire
www.kalbuir.com
Staying warm
24. Key Features #2: Armor
• Not just cosmetically
• Armor points
• Better survival chances
• Better protection against environment
• Carrying more has consequences
www.kalbuir.com
Gear matters
Meet Charlie!
25. Key Features #3: UI
• Arma 3 offers amazing new possibilities for UI
development
• Streamline gameplay experience by offering other
means of interaction besides the scroll wheel
www.kalbuir.com
New UI / Action Menu
27. Key Features #5 “Sneaking”
Sneak peak through doors
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28. Key Features #6 Trapping
• Traps can found and set in the world
• Traps have different effects: bleeding, poison
or slowing their prey
• Traps can be detected by other players
• Traps can be disarmed
www.kalbuir.com
29. Key Feature #7: Spectating
• When a player dies he/she can choose to
spectate the rest of the game
• Multiple camera options, follow person, free
control & specific locations
• Spectate cheating not an issue, more on this
later
www.kalbuir.com
30. That was the boring stuff
What we will work on after the basics
www.kalbuir.com
31. Wildlife
• Passive and active wildlife
• Wildlife can be as much of a threat as other
players
• A means of food, or indication where players
are
www.kalbuir.com
32. Viewer Score
• Currently already in beta on channel, gain
points by watching stream and participating in
chat
• Kalbuir points
• Impact what games we will be streaming.
• What we do in games (MOBA Hero’s
/Champions)
www.kalbuir.com
33. Tournament
• Hunger Battle isn’t just one round, we want to
make certain aspects besides gear persist
• Gain points for winning and rise in the
ranking, automatically gaining another invite
www.kalbuir.com
34. Complete website Integration
• Gain entree into a Hunger Battle through
points. (obtained through viewer score)
• Spectate players on an interactive map while
rounds are being played
• Inspect their gear, health situation
• Support your favorite with care packages
• Leader boards & ranking
www.kalbuir.com
35. Viewer Score directly impact Hunger
Battles
• Buy care-packages (food, water, medicine,
ammo)
• Bet on the outcome and gain more points
www.kalbuir.com
37. Cheating
• Hot topic in Arma
• Hunger Battles are invite only or obtained
through viewer points
• This makes blacklisting easier
• Track players movement and record it for
review
• This allows us to not fear stream sniping and
spectator abuse.
www.kalbuir.com
39. A small list
• Fishing for food
• Crafting (arrows, food, traps, etc.)
• Persistent experience, make your character
more powerful
• A video feed for each of the 21 players, tied
directly into the interactive map
www.kalbuir.com
41. Milestones
• Closed invite only alpha tests (starts this
week)
• After a few successful Alpha playtests closed
beta, featured on Stream (Timeframe
undecided)
• Open beta any viewer can get in (Timeframe
undecided)
www.kalbuir.com
42. What is next!
• We aim to have video footage up next week
• Open Development, we welcome your
suggestions change logs freely available.
• Give us your feedback on our forums at
www.kalbuir.com
• Q&A Session coming up!
www.kalbuir.com
