Warcraft III

Taennval's current version is designated as 1.4 and features cinematics, quests, mob respawn, and an original story. French readers can find the changelog here.

The development of the map has been rather slow, having taken dozens, maybe a hundred hours. But after hearing the comments and suggestions of the people who had beaten the game, I felt more than ever compelled to take the development as far as possible, just to craft something I would be really proud of. The 1.4 version is available and I will not have time to implement fixes before a while (but it is very stable). If you want to give it a try (which I recommend!), just remember not to attack the guards (triggering would fail), and not to hit Escape during the cinematics. As well, know that you can wake the mule up at night by right-clicking it (you'll understand when you spend your first night out, hahaha).

English version / French version

With Taennval, I tried to answer a question that emerged recently: if scenario and / or universe are just game design bricks - please send me a mail if you don't agree - then what about immersion? Is it a side effect (created by the universe or the mechanics), a game design brick (this would be correct, since it's part of what makes the experience, but still), or a game mechanic (as it may be required for the player to be immerged in the game to achieve victory, see the FBI interrogatory in Condemned 2)? What can we do with immersion? This may sound weird, but as a roleplayer, immersion is very, very important to me and I believe that I can turn it into an game mechanic.

So I tried to see how to generate it and what level of immersion I could achieve with simple graphics and RTS vision (no first or third person). Since I wouldn't change the graphics - personal choice, I like Blizzard's art, plus I needed it for my experiment - I spent much work working on texts, item descriptions and character's remarks in order to create an atmosphere through the character's perception and temper. In the end I think I have achieved immersion into the character's personality - because his remarks are coherent with the universe - and the game, which takes around three hours to complete, is fun to play, but I don't know if I have managed to immerse the player into the universe I have designed. So I'm glad, but unsatisfied!

Regarding the level design, it's very classic and, I think, yet quite efficient. The map is divided into several zones through which the player will have to fight their way; then, when they're done, they can accomplish certain actions to open new routes to make their life easier, following a logic of exploration - victory - zone appropriation (as later quests will be made easier by previous victories). See X360's Viking for an example of this (although Taennval's zones will never be cleared of enemies, only access is made easier by level design and character's level).

Regarding rhythm, it is provided in the first zone of the game by tutoriel runes and fights, following an attempt to create somewhat of a peek & trough logic (fight - rune - fight - rune), but as it is the first part of the game and needs to be the base of the dramatic curve, it is very basic. The others zones are a social one - the village of Taennval - and several "hot" zones with constant fight, since the player can come back to the social zone anytime he likes. What is fascinating in RPGs is that zones that were "hot" before, because of the character's level, can become "rest" zones since the mobs' level does not pose any more threats (although it will not necessarily become "social" zones). Rhythm in Taennval rather comes from the decisions of the player (hot zone for a quest - social zone to get some rest and restock - hot zone for a quest - etc) than from their course through the level, because of Warcraft III's - and, by extension, RTS's - global scale. Which didn't stop me from trying, though.

So please give it a try and let me know what you think... and remember: you can always wake up your mule by right-clicking it!

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