I already found a lot of animated cutscenes that inspire me greatly - but I only recently found this one again - the Cinematic StarCraft II Trailer....
I had forgotten all about this, maybe because it's 3D, maybe because I haven't played StarCraft... But still this trailer gives me the shivers. I find the anatomy and impossibility of the design choices a bit laughable, but the bad-guy diehard message is absolutely clear - and not laughable at all - it's awesome. This convicted murderer is being welded and screwed tight into his space armor: he will most surely never come out of this suit again. And with the huge gun he is ready to take down the enemies one by one.
So, back to my own project. I am planning to do a retake on an older project of mine: 'the Last of the Monks'. In the (original) story, a small church in a futuristic metropolis is trying to defend itself against the jungle of technology that is trying to crush them. The five monks fight off crews of bulldozers and workmen that are trying to demolish the church.
In my own graduation project, I am allowed to take a (fictional) game and make an intro cinematic/trailer for it. So, I chose to make the Last of the Monks a fictional game. I will punch up the graphics, choose a different feel (less cartoony), and make it a bit more hardcore.
The first mockup-screenshot can be seen below; I edited game-footage with some photo-reference and created this shot. This is the last church, almost being crushed by the enormous metropolis around it.
I then began writing some game premises, all based on different kinds of gameplay.
Many examples I had found were based on Real-Time-Strategy games, where you build an army/base against evil forces. You send out teams/squads of people and place them strategically around the battlefield.
I finally came with an interesting (first?) premise for an RTS game.
‘A monk was condemned to Hell for killing the demons that attacked his church. Now that he’s in Hell he can finally kill them all.’
You play as a faction of monks that will build their sacred base inside the deepest ditches of Hell, to rebel against the Devil himself. You build squads and sanctuaries to protect your life and conquer the forces that have destroyed your church on earth.
Sounds a teeny bit too dark for me, now that I write it like this, but I am trying to take it a bit more humorous and lightly, more of a parody (of StarCraft). I made a quick storyboard for a trailer, where you see the monk being condemned to hell after having killed a demon. Little do they know, that by sending him to hell, he can get closer to his enemies... When the gates of Hell close behind his back, his hands reach for the wooden cross around his neck - which transforms into an epic gun.
'Heaven it's about time.'
