Legal
Polar Paradise (c) Payneful Productions (Jonathan Hallier, Mark Timmins, et al), 2007
Polar Payne (c) Team Dinky (Steve Royer, Jonathan Hallier, et al) 2003
Full legal, IP & copyright info can be found at: Legal
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Tech Lead: Jonathan Hallier
Roles: Gameplay programming, gameplay mapping (AI scripting), Tools, Debugging
Polar Paradise offers some challenging, but feasable, technical demands. The bulk of the project - creating and implementing new characters, weapons, and level content are fairly low-risk but time consuming tasks, and the success of this will rely on the efficiency of our pipeline to get new assets into the game. There are also a few higher risk areas of development surrounding the uncertainty behind creating new character skeletons for the penguin characters, and developing a creative solution for the flying penguins.
Max Payne Details
Minimum (minimum graphical detail):
Recommended (medium graphical detail):
Generic Requirements
Supported Operating Systems:
| NOTE: Although Max Payne has been found to work on Windows XP, it has not been thoroughly tested and thus Windows XP is not officially supported. Additionally, Windows NT is not supported. -http://www.rockstargames.com/maxpayne/support/ |
N/A – Polar Paradise was always designed with intention of developing it as a modification.
The MAX-FX Engine (aka the Max Payne engine) is a dedicated third-person, action-shooter game engine, developed by Remedy Entertainment Ltd. for the PC Windows title Max Payne.
The MAX-FX engine includes several tools developed by Remedy:
Pros:
Cons:
Legal
License granted for the modification and redistribution of non-commercial works with other legal owners of the Max Payne game. We retain copyright over materials and original IP we create. Legal
What can be edited and the tools required
MaxFX is the game engine used to create the Max Payne game. The MaxFX tool kit used to edit and modify Max Payne include:
Tools
MaxED - the level editor (imports .lvl, exports .lbd)
ParticleFX - the particle effects editor (exports .rps)
ActorFX - used to weight skins (redundant - use Milkshape 3d)
Rasmaker - used to compile or extract .mpm and .ras files for releasing and editing mods (extracts/compiles .ras, .mpm, .mp2m)
Additional tools required include:
3DSMax 4 - Used to create and export all in-game models, animations, and camera effects (exports .kf2 format)
Milkshape 3d - Used to export characters (skins) and importing existing models for viewing/editing (import/exports .kf2 and .kfs)
Notepad - Used for editing game scripts (.txt, .h)
What can be modified:
Gameplay Critical:
Levels → MaxED, Photoshop, Notepad (or equivalent text editor)
Skins → 3DS Max, Milkshape3D, Photoshop
Animation → 3DS Max, Milkshape3D, Notepad
Weapons, Projectiles, Level Items (Pickups) → 3DS Max, Milkshape3D, Notepad
Particles → ParticleFX, Photoshop, Notepad
Audio (Music, Sound Effects, dialogue) → Cool Edit (or equivalent wav editor), Notepad
Menu → Photoshop, Notepad
HUD → Photoshop, Notepad
Coding & Developer Console → Notepad
Miscellaneous:
Camerapaths → 3DS Max, Notepad
Graphic Novel Pages → 3DS Max, Notepad
Decals (Blood splats, bulletholes, etc) → 3DS Max, Photoshop, Notepad
Skeletons → 3DS Max, Notepad
Worldspheres (skydome) → 3DS Max, Notepad
http://individual.utoronto.ca/ken_y/index.html
Max Payne: Kung Fu Edition 3 (aka Kung Fu 3) is an innovative and critically acclaimed modification for Max Payne developed by Kenneth Yeung. This modification complements Max Payne’s excellent shooting gameplay by allowing Max Payne to perform a wide range of ‘Kung Fu’ melee attacks and acrobatic feats such as carwheels, backflips, and wall running. Furthermore, it extends Max Payne’s shootdodge capability, allowing Max to perform 4 different shootdodge moves instead of just the one. It also improves the character physics system, to allow characters to slam into walls, etc.
Features:
A kung fu fighting system that includes:
Improved acrobatic skills that include:
Two additional shootdodging techniques - the "drunken style" shootdodge and the aerial shootdodge.
Improved impact physics that allows for juggling bodies and "slamming" bodies into walls and other enemies.
Legal:
License granted for the creation and redistribution of non-commercial derivative works with other legal owners of the Max Payne game. Legal
http://chumbalum.swissquake.ch/
Milkshape 3D is a flexible low-poly modelling program designed primarily for game mod developers. It supports over 70 file formats, including a large range of proprietary game formats, such as Half Life, Quake, Unreal, Max Payne, and many others. For this project it will be used primarily to rig models to the skeleton and export the character models into the game.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=5659302&siteID=123112
3ds Max is one of the leading industry 3d packages, and was used in the development of Max Payne for all non-level 3d assets (e.g. character and weapon models + animation). Plugins and example files for Remedy’s proprietary KF2 file format are provided for versions 3 and 4 of 3dsmax. For this project it will be used in combination with Milkshape3D to export weapons and custom character animations. It might also be used to create custom character skeletons.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=7635018
Maya is another leading industry 3d package, but was not used in the development of Max Payne. However, our lead character artist is more experienced with Maya than 3DS Max, so all 3D assets will be created in Maya first before being exported to either 3DS Max or Milkshape3d.
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/index.html
Adobe Photoshop is the leading graphics package for bitmap and image editing, and will be used for a variety of image editing functions, including but not limited to: textures, concepts, level design, screenshot and render postwork.
http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/studio/-/?
Daz Studio is a free of charge 3d rendering application, intended for hobby rendering. It comes with the RenderMan-compliant 3Delight renderer and supports ray-tracing. For this project it will be used for creating promotional renders of game characters and assets.
http://www.editpadpro.com/editpadlite.html
EditPad-Lite is a free text and source-code editor, with superior text editing functions than the standard Windows notepad application. For this project, it will be used for editing all game scripts
We will be using the Max Payne version of the MAX-FX engine, complemented with the ‘Kung Fu 3’ modification as our base template for Polar Paradise.
We have selected this engines for the following reasons:
Prior Technical Experience – Jonathan Hallier has worked with the Max-FX engine for 4 years, and has worked on several modification projects for it, such as Katana and the original Polar Payne and. He has also been praised by the original developers for helping other users develop their own mods. As result, it was considered a natural and logical choice for reducing risk and uncertainty in the project development.
Engine Flexibility, Reliability, Customisability – Although not as widely used as Half Life, Quake and Unreal engines, the Max Payne engine is extremely powerful, and highly customisable. Even without the source code or SDK, the tool-set provided (combined with middleware apps) are more than sufficient to develop this project. Furthermore, the engine is reliable and the pipeline for getting new assets into the game has long since been established. Even though the engine itself is fairly dated now, the actual development methodologies and design principals are no different from newer engines. The lack of multiplayer capability is not seen as an issue, since this project is designed to be a pure singleplayer experience.
Combat -- The Kung Fu 3 mod greatly improves upon the original game, without drastically changing the original content or code. As well as the new kung fu attacks, it improves the shooting gameplay by allowing the player to perform two different styles of shootdodge, as well as evasive dodges. Regarding the appropriateness of using this mod, we feel that giving our oversized polar bear character over-the-top kung fu powers adds to the comic and parody effect (in the original Polar Payne, Dinky performs the splits during a cutscene).
Therefore, we are confident that we have selected an appropriate engine to match the scope of the project.
Dinky the polar bear mesh – *.kfs & *.skd used from existing mod ‘Polar Payne’
Dinky the polar bear texture
Bad Guys
Evil Elf mesh - *.kfs & *.skd
Evil Elf texture 1 (red and green), 2 (blue & purple), 3 (all red)
Jumbo Elf mesh - *.kfs & *.skd
Evil Elf texture 1 (red and green), 2 (blue & purple), 3 (all red)
Exploding-penguin mesh - *.kfs & *.skd
Exploding-penguin texture
Bomber-penguin mesh - *.kfs & *.skd
Bomber-penguin texture
Factory worker penguin mesh - *.kfs & *.skd
Factory worker penguin texture
Weapon #1
Snowball – General Projectile Mesh - *.kf2
Snowball – General Projectile texture
(Projectile uses the same mesh)
Weapon #2
‘The Mincer’ – Mince pie automatic shotgun Mesh - *.kf2
‘The Mincer’ – Mince pie automatic shotgun texture
Mince Pie Projectile - mesh & texture
Weapon #2b
‘The Mincer’ Dual – Mince pie automatic shotgun Mesh - *.kf2
‘The Mincer’ Dual– Mince pie automatic shotgun texture
Mince Pie Projectile - mesh & texture
Weapon #3
Jingle Ball Launcher – Jingle Ball grenade launcher Mesh - *.kf2
Jingle Ball Launcher – Jingle Ball grenade launcher texture
Jingle Ball Projectile - mesh & texture
Weapon #4
Icicle Rifle – Sniper Rifle Mesh - *.kf2
Icicle Rifle – Sniper Rifle texture
Icicle Projectile - mesh & texture
Weapon #5
Turkey Blaster 6000™ – ‘Roast Turkey’ Launcher Mesh - *.kf2
Turkey Blaster 6000™ – ‘Roast Turkey’ Launcher texture
Turkey Projectile - mesh & texture
Weapon #6
Arctic Commando – Snowball Assault Rifle Mesh - *.kf2
Arctic Commando – Snowball Assault Rifle texture
Snowball Projectile - mesh & texture shared with snowball weapon
Weapon #7
Fun-Matic 2000™ Practical Candy Launcher ® – Submachine gun Mesh - *.kf2
Fun-Matic 2000™ Practical Candy Launcher ® – Submachine gun texture
Candy Projectile - mesh & texture
Weapon #8
Flame Thrower - From the original Polar Payne mod, made by Steve Royer - *.kf2
Flame is generated by fire particles
'Level Items' for all the above weapons share the same kf2 mesh & texture files.
Fish mesh & texture – used from the mod ‘Polar Payne’, made by Steve Royer - *.kf2
The animations for Polar Paradise will be taken from Max Payne, Max Payne: Kung Fu Edition 3, and Polar Payne
New animations will be created for the Penguins, specifically:
-Standing Idle - *.kf2 format
-Walking - *.kf2
-Running - *.kf2
-Dying - *.kf2
Code for selecting and loading the levels needs to be implemented.
Music for levels 1 and 2 need to be implemented, plus additional stings and events for cutscenes.
Sound effects for dialogue need to be implemented into the game
Elf Noise - Elf makes a noise, alerting the player
Elf Group Noise - A group of Elves talking
Elf Alert - Elf spots the player 'hey! it's Dinky!' etc
Elf Group Alert - A group of Elves spot the player
Elf Death - Elf dying grunt
Santa Alert - Santa spots player
Santa Taunt - Santa taunts player
Santa Death - Santa dies
Penguin Noise - Penguin makes noise
Penguin Alert - Penguin spots player
Penguin Death - Penguin dies
Scene specific
Santa Tour 1-15 - Various dialogue of Santa explaining what each room does.
Full development, scheduling, and risk analysis information can be found on the Development Plan page.
The producers will be responsibile for maintaining and backing up all onsite documentation, code, and other project and game assets. In addition, the producer will be responsible for making weekly build back-ups to CD.