Behind the Screams: Concepts

[Black Hand Smith]

Location:

Whenever I come up with a Concept I try to make it as unique as possible. Even when it's a location that seems really cliche like a small town I try to do what I can with it. Either by using new enemies or trying to come up with a trap that can actually be linked with what is going on around. Changing the weather around is good. In Historia I actually really liked the whole underground society thing from (Dare I say his name?) Benn Down's descension. However I also wanted to give it my own spin and my own story so I did what I could with the location. I covered New York in a Nuclear Winter and made sure the ice played a Big role in the map. Perks such as Slip N Slide, The Frost Zombies, and the fact that the entire Bunker is devoid of people besides one Person ( Schuster). I pretty much changed everything about the map except for one thing. The premise about going underground and discovering a Bunker of some sort. Another inspiration of Mine was for Legacy of the Damned.

 

 

I took one Look at the picture of the Tranzit crew fighting pirates and I said to myself " I want to do a Map about Pirates. Which is when I heard the Song No Room in Hell,

 

 

which gave me the idea about putting in the Psychic Siren from the lyrics " Girl you got to be Psychic, If you think that I'm Crazy" Even the song title, No room in hell, Alludes to the fact that the characters are dead. I love the whole digging for treasure to find coins and perks and gems to activate the pack a Punch. Another Map based on a Song is Galactic Zombies Attack which is Named and based off Lifeseeker- Galactic Zombies Attack. If you listen to the lyrics you will see that many of the things in the song are in the map. 

 

 

 

Story:

From personal experience I tend not to use the Original characters in any of my concepts unless I make a remake. Revisited maps. This is because I like to make my stories from the ground up instead of expanding the already existing lore. Sometimes when I look back on some of these concepts of mine which I included things such as The original characters or characters that already exist but not as playable characters, I tend to look back and not really like what I did. or just feel like the story was really bad and the characters were pointless to the actual story. I feel like using the original characters is a cheap cop out. I like to use new things such as coming up with a new reason as to why the dead are rising. You can come up with so many things such as a Chemical leak, or radiation from space, Afterlife Demons, or hell, even Langoliers that appear due to a time travel experiment gone wrong ( Don't watch the movie). if there is ONE thing I do like putting into my maps or would at least consider using is the Rift. Because personally I like the Idea of the Rift and I like to expand on what it is. Maybe the rift is what keeps dimensions and realities separated and when it breaks things leak through or perhaps it's leaking demons or monsters ( Denizens, stalkers, Golems, etc). I think pretty much any story can use the Rift as a Plotpoint as to why zombies are appearing in this universe. The zombies are leaking into the new zombieless universe and pretty much spreading around over time. I think in my Vampire map, the Zombies are servants to the Vampire who lives in a castle on a Ledge.

 

So to stop the zombies the vampire needs to be Killed. This concept and story I want to do in One map. Because I don't like doing Sequels or series. Whenever I do a Series such as Alpha-Omega I like to create it as if I were making a One Shot Story. Over time if I do a 5 Map story I tend to have good premises but by the time the 5th map rolls around I am tired of everything and I get lazy. So i need to come up with something fresh and something new to keep me interested. Which is why One shots for me are the best or at least a series that I treat as a series of One shot Stories that connect to each other in some way or another.

 

Characters

 

I love making characters. I think so far my favorite characters have been of course...Clancey from Legacy of the Damned and a Second character from an upcoming map concept which I like to call Vincent ( A vampire Hunter ) V for Vincent, V for Vampire. Sometimes when coming up with quotes I like to roleplay the character I am working on. I might go about my day and in my mind react to real world things while in character. Eating something? I will think ( In the characters voice and personality) what it tastes like. Would this character say this? Yes...I like that...this character hates Crosses and loves crossbows. Lets see ...in Vincent's Personality ( Drinking Sprite ) 

" Hell! THIS IS WORSE THAN DRINKING HOLY WATER! Maybe we can just douse the Vampire in this and hope it melts!". As for character designs I don't normally come up with designs unless it's a Map which I consider premium. In which I will put many months of work into and try to get everything perfect. I think so far I have only posted 2 maps which I consider Premium. Legacy of course and Historia. Every other Map I consider Standard map. Which is not bad but I put less work into them than I did Historia and Legacy which I worked alot on. 

 

So I guess this is the end of this post. I'll probably regret posting this later on for some reason but To be Honest I just felt like talking a bit about map concepts. Also...damn what a cliche title. Could I not come up with smething better? Behind the Screams...Lol...