PKM Battle Arena Announcement

Disclaimer

This is a fan made project based on a prior mod. We do not own any of the models created, engines used, or names and assets provided. All Pokemon likenesses and names are owned by the The Pokémon Company. Any models are from Vex’s Pokemon Collection, and are merely references of the Pokemon from their respected games. We have no intention of selling our mod for Warcraft 3, and DotA 2 will be experiencing MASSIVE overhauls to avoid any copyright problems with The Pokémon Company’s IP if we choose to set up Patreon-esque services.

Introduction

Hello! Our names are Austin and Marshall, and we’re extremely excited fans of Warcraft 3, the DotA series and obviously Pokemon. We had played a game mode for Warcraft 3 a couple months back titled “Pokemon Arena,” which had the concept of putting some of your favourite childhood Pokemon against each other in an arena format to see who could come out on top and win as a team. This is a very niche area, and outside of the gaming world, DotA 2 is only known for its insane prize pots, and Warcraft 3 is only known due to it having Warcraft in its title, with most thinking of World of Warcraft instead. So if this does not interest you than that is not a problem, this is for those people that have the same nostalgia as we do for the classic Warcraft 3 custom game community, as well as the people who want something more from DotA 2. Below are full descriptions of what the Arena game mode is, what our current and end goals are, our schedules and time allocation, and a road map of blog posts on this site. Thank you for reading this far if you’re not interested and we hope that someone you know may be, but if you are interested, keep on reading to get lots of in-depth information on what the plans are. Thank you again!

What is an Arena Game Mode

With the current state of video games, the title “Battle Arena” may make you think Battle Royale instead. We are NOT a PUBG, Fortnite, Realm Royale, or anything of the sort. An arena game mode consists of a team of players (in our case 6), choosing a character to play as, starting from level one. The character they have chosen has a certain amount of abilities, and points they can put in to those abilities to make them stronger. The player has 6 item slots that can be filled with things that increase the general power of your character, speed, defense, regeneration, and tons more. Those slots can also hold consumables, giving you an instant effect upon use such as shortly increasing the power of your character, or instantly regenerating health, or allowing you to attack faster, and once again, tons more. Earlier I brought up how your character has a certain amount of abilities, and that you can increase their strength by putting points into them, well to do this you need levels, and to gain levels you need to kill things. Dotted around the map, there are packs of enemies ranging in sizes and levels to defeat to gain experience, to be able to enhance your characters abilities and stats. The higher the level, the more experience, the larger the pack of enemies, the more experience in that area there is to gain. Of course, the higher level and more enemies means a more difficult time to defeat them. The idea is to build your character up in power, to defeat the enemy team by killing their character over and over until a certain number has been reached, which when reached the game will end and whoever reaches the number first, obtains a victory. There is tons more to go in to: Bosses which are powerful enemies that drop specific items, hidden shops with less known but much needed items, character types and counters, min-maxing, etc. But these are all things that are much better taught and much more fun, when learned through playing.

Why Warcraft 3 and DotA 2

Very specific games yes, but we have this extreme nostalgia and love for Warcraft 3 and its custom game community. Marshall has played the campaigns multiple times, and has an intense enjoyment for the online mode. But we both have a great connection to the custom game mode scene, as it is one of the things that has really brought us together as friends. Anyone that plays or has experienced the WC3 custom game modes knows about things like Tree Tag, Troll and Elves, Battleships, Ant Colony, DotA All Stars, and more, and knows how much time you can sink into these, and the enjoyment you get out of them. One of our all time favourites, is Angel Arena. The hyper competitive nature of the game, forcing you to constantly evolve your character to defeat your opponents, the progression, items, unique characters, we love it. We really wanted to evolve off of this idea, but for awhile it was thought we would just copy it, until we played Pokemon Arena, and realized how much better we could make that. It was only fitting that we chose WC3 as the first spot, as it’s where we connected the most, and obviously found the mode we want to evolve from. As for DotA 2, I (Austin) love the technical side of it. The engine is so supportive for custom content, and the arena scene in DotA 2 is extremely prevalent right now. Game modes like OAA, AAR, Blackstar, all evolved from the original Angel Arena, and from what we’ve seen these game modes can do, we want to make our own twist and style of these types, in the same space. The custom game community extends much farther than just arena games in DotA 2, with even fully fleshed RPGs mixed in there. The creative power at our fingertips with the DotA 2 engine, is too appealing to avoid, and we can’t wait to play around with it.

What is our Twist

Pokemon! The whole point is that we are extremely inspired by Pokemon Arena, that we want to make it better. Everything in the game from map design, to items, to playable and non-playable characters, to buildings, to everything, has Pokemon inspired roots. We are NOT directly copying Pokemon, just using them as a reference. EVERYTHING used is of community creation, and heavily want to avoid any copyright problems with Pokemon. The names of the Pokemon are being used, as well as likenesses, but we sincerely hope that this does not force grounds for take down of the game mode from WC3. As for DotA 2, we are likely to HEAVILY change the idea. The core concepts will be the same, we just want no ties to The Pokémon Company as a whole, and are hoping to set up a Patreon account, for anyone that really appreciates our work. Names will be altered, and anything tied to how Pokemon look will be very minimal, mostly coming down to shape and colours. Whilst Pokemon is a huge draw for a lot of people, we really want to make the game the frontal figure, having players love what their playing, and have Pokemon as an experience having enhancement in DotA 2. IF The Pokémon Company allows us to use similar likenesses for items, and Pokemon models, we of course will use them, but generally Nintendo isn’t lenient on this stuff. Rest assured though, WC3 will be entirely focused on Pokemon as its visual direction.

Where are we at now

Currently, not far. We have a second draft of the base map, the amazing models from Vex’s Model Collection, and tons of ideas. This is merely an introduction of what we want to do, and our goals and aspirations heading forward, as well as explanations. Our schedules are extremely messy. Marshall has an intense work schedule as of time of posting, and Austin heads to college in September, moving from where he currently is to a new location. We have our personal time goals and allocations that we plan on meeting. Austin wants minimum 4 hours of personal time a week to work on it. And whilst that doesn’t sound like a lot of time, we do not want to be burned out from putting 20-30 hours a week into this, and live our normal lives as well. Either Friday or Saturday will always be blog post day, still undecided. Come next post, what’s likely to be posted is more about our personal goals, and some ideas and screenshots we would like to put forth. We currently want to stick as two people developing this. We are so early on that right now, we’re just throwing ideas and seeing what sticks. Also next week will be some character concept posts. Right now, it’s all WC3, and nothing in DotA 2. We’ve realized that DotA 2 would be the better place to start, more popular, better engine, but we can’t beat our nostalgia, and WC3 is where it started for us. You will need Reign of Chaos and Frozen Throne to play the mode.

Our Goals

As of this post, our very current goals are to create characters that have unique kits, set up Pokemon types and get them working, creating areas unique to specific types (fire zone, water zone, etc), and just playing around with the map editor and engine provided, learning as we go. This is the first time either of us has done something like this. Austin tends to play around in Blender and 3DS Max some, as well as Photoshop, and Marshall enjoys the visual and design of things, shaping something into his way preferred way, and it tends to be the way we both want it. Right now, Austin is working on backend, and making sure the game works, doing everything behind the scenes. Marshall is working on the visuals, getting custom tilesets, making the map and zones, being creative. We both plan on balancing and making the moves for characters. As for the future, we want an alpha build come September/October. We will host the game, and want people to join us. The alpha will come out when we feel our core concepts and basic ideas are in the game and not just on paper. Eventually, we will start making beta builds more frequently, with some possibly just having minor changes in between them. Our long term goals for WC3, are to get the game we like out in playable hands as an open source game mode, allowing anyone to tweak it after we like where it is. As for DotA 2, well we aren’t close to done with WC3, but it will be an extreme evolution of what we like from WC3, everything multiplied not in scale, but depth, and character.

Conclusion

To some, this may seem like a rather small project. We aren’t building the engine, or creating a game as a whole, we’re using assets from previously released titles, and taking a concept developed since the 90s. But we really want to make it extremely polished, balanced, and fun. Austin is a perfectionist, and really loves seeing a finished product enjoyed by everyone but him. Marshall is a sap lord that tends to not give input unless it benefits others more. This is ambitious for us as this is the first time either of us has done something like this, and we want to get it right in every way. Thank you for reading this post, and check out next week to see where we stand!