Battle Royale Meets Half Life 2!

Synthos

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Battle Royale Meets Half Life 2!​
This is to announce the official launching of the Half Life 2 modification based off the film “Battle Royale” directed by Kinji Fukasaku. (see http://imdb.com/title/tt0266308/ ) This film, made in Japan and released in 2000, is about a classroom of high school students who are unwillingly thrust into the government “Battle Royale Act”. This act places the students on an uninhabited island approximately 11 Km around. They are given limited food, water, a map and a random weapon. If in 3 days all but one student is not dead, the remaining are all automatically killed. The students must grapple with themselves and with each other to survive. They have to kill their best friends to make it out alive. You are one of those students, and somehow you must make it out alive.

This mod is a realistic RPG-action game in optional 3rd or 1st person mode. Initially we’re focusing on the single-player aspect but later I’ll touch on multiplayer possibilities. Just like the movie, it emphasizes the relationships between the players and the pain it causes when you are forced to break them. This mod will feature and incredibly interactive and dynamic AI, one that is believable and reactive. The style you play it will be completely up to yourself. Whether you choose to go it solo, team up with some of your AI friends, it’s your choice. The weapon you receive in the beginning of the game is completely random. You could get anything from a paper fan to an uzi. Most of the weapons in the game are not firearms. Most are melee, close-ranged and some are hardly weapons at all. The game will be very realistic. You must eat food and drink water to keep your energy and stamina up. If you get shot, chances are you will die. The HUD will be very minimal. There is no magic radar (unless you get a GPS as a weapon), there is no magic round counter (count them yourself!) and there is no magic health bar (you’re probably be only shot once anyways). You’ll need to know you character and his/her limits very well to survive in the game.

In the multi-player element, we’re considering doing a Battle Royale 2 (see http://imdb.com/title/tt0338763/ ) style of multiplayer, as it is more fast-paced and allows for some variety. However, we are not going to do any work for this until the single-player is ready to be released.

Major development on this project will not begin until the SDK is released. (or at least the source) However, we would like to get all planning and design done before hand so that we know what we’re doing when we actually put it all together. We are looking for some help in the modeling and/or skinning and we’d appreciated any talent committed to the project. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to have a few models done before HL2 is released. Models will mostly be characters, foliage and some weapons. We are aware of the other Battle Royale mod that was attempted and we are trying to contact them.(a merge might be possible) We did not steal this idea from Zero Hour Interactive, we decided that we would make a Battle Royale mod and that Half Life 2 was the best engine to put it on. Our current team is simply myself (Peter McLean aka Synthos) and Cory Turner aka wizard_ct. We are both talented programmers and I have had some experience modeling, texturing and general mod-making for Neverwinter Nights. wizard_ct is a proficient web developer and has had experience creating the mod “Neoshock” for Unreal Tournament and Half Life 1 engine.

We hope that you’re now interested in this coming mod. We are certainly not planning for this to be another run and gun copy mod, nor a mod that was too ambitious and got sucked down the tube. We’d like your suggestions/comments.
Check out our site at BRHL2.There we may post some updates as progress goes along. However, don’t expect waves and waves of renders or concept art. It’s something you’ll check every 2 weeks.

Note: you may think that there are legal problems preventing this mod from being created because of breach in intellectual property laws. That is not the case, this movie was never and most likely will never be distributed or licensed in North America.

Contact Information:
AIM: SynthosX or wizardcgt
Email:
[email protected]
[email protected]

Here’s something for you at least, this a logo (It of course borrows from HL2 logo and the BR logo, but I’m no artist… So I’m proud of it :D): HighResLogo
 
Synthos said:
Note: you may think that there are legal problems preventing this mod from being created because of breach in intellectual property laws. That is not the case, this movie was never and most likely will never be distributed or licensed in North America.

yes we have.
 
Synthos said:
Note: you may think that there are legal problems preventing this mod from being created because of breach in intellectual property laws. That is not the case, this movie was never and most likely will never be distributed or licensed in North America.

Ok, there's all kinds of things wrong with what you just said.
 
Synthos said:
speak on then
Well for a start your entirely wrong. That should be quite obvious to you.

Secondly, going by your laws in your own head, you immediately prevent anyone outside of North America playing or even looking at the game without breaking the law.. do you see the flaw in your claim now?

Not to mention Battle Royale is quite available in North America. Which blows your theory out of the water anyway.

Fact is, Battle Royale isn't yours, you have no claim to it, you don't own any rights to it, you can't use it without permission. End of story.
 
I agree, Battle Royale is not mine and we will look at asking for permission. I'd like to point you to this page: http://www.battleroyalefilm.net/movie/banned.html it's not distrobuted. As far as I know "Battle Royale has yet to see an official American release, leading many to believe (erroneously) that it's been banned in America." (quote from http://battleroyalefilm.net/video/) that is the quote from "battleroyalefilm.net" site. It is very up-to-date and valid in it's information. The ones that you are seeing in North America are imports.

Thanks for letting me know of some of the holes, we'll try to patch them up or shift the game to simply a "surviving" game.. we'll see. We'll ask permission and see what happens.
 
Synthos said:
I agree, Battle Royale is not mine and we will look at asking for permission. I'd like to point you to this page: http://www.battleroyalefilm.net/movie/banned.html it's not distrobuted. As far as I know "Battle Royale has yet to see an official American release, leading many to believe (erroneously) that it's been banned in America." (quote from http://battleroyalefilm.net/video/) that is the quote from "battleroyalefilm.net" site. It is very up-to-date and valid in it's information.

Thanks for letting me know of some of the holes, we'll try to patch them up or shift the game to simply a "surviving" game.. we'll see. We'll ask permission and see what happens.
Still though, your thoery holds no water. Just because its not distributed in a country, doesn't mean its not protected by copyright. The USA has strong copyright laws, so do most of the other civilised countries. There's no way around it unless you live in Russia or a country with similar copyright laws, but then you limit your audience to ONLY those in the same country.

You'd be better off coming up with a unique idea. Much like you asked for in one of your first posts.

Infact, you said this aswell

And don't feel concerned that some company is gonna come knocking on your door. They can't. It's a free mod made in your free time, so they can't charge you. They could charge Valve if valve bought the rights to the mod from you, but they won't. If anything they'll support it, because it's free advertising.

Please don't promote illegal activites on this forum. If you research this, you'll find your entirely wrong and companies HAVE and continue TO prosecute those using copyrighted material illegally. Don't for a second assume they wont notice, they will notice and they will act on it.
 
very true, I had actually posted that before I read the copyright infringement notice in the General Editing forum. I'll edit my post to exclude that bit.

edit:
unfortunately this forum has no ability to edit posts, so i can't do that
 
Synthos said:
very true, I had actually posted that before I read the copyright infringement notice in the General Editing forum. I'll edit my post to exclude that bit.

edit:
unfortunately this forum has no ability to edit posts, so i can't do that
Yes, thats to prevent people editing their posts after they've been replied to, in an attempt to change things they've said for various reasons, Never good ones. Edited posts will sometimes show a timestamp also.
 
well, you're a moderator, you have my permission to delete parts / most of that post.
 
Synthos said:
well, you're a moderator, you have my permission to delete parts / most of that post.
To do that now at this point would open the flood gates for everyone to think they can have their old posts changed or deleted. Defeating the point of post edit time-limits.

I also don't require permission to edit posts, and will do as in accordance to the rules laid out for this forum.

Just don't do it again :p
 
It's unlikely that if you make a HL-2 MOD based on a movie anyone will try an pursue legal action over it. First of all, in order to get any money out of you they'd have to provide evidence to suggest they'd been financially damaged by the MOD, how you would prove this with a HL-2 modification I have no idea (especially when the Movie doesn't have an "official" game to its name). Secondly they'd have to provide a sum as to how much the Copyright holds them to in terms of revenue gained from the Project. If you are giving the MOD away free, then there is no revenue gained.

There are a number of other legal statutes that they could possibly pursue, but it'd be way too much hassle, with virtually nothing to gain.
 
We're still going to ask permission from the Toei or whoever owns the rights to the theme and setting. I don't see any reason why they would refuse.
 
mortiz said:
It's unlikely that if you make a HL-2 MOD based on a movie anyone will try an pursue legal action over it.

It takes a single phone call to a lawyer for a cease-and-desist letter to be sent. These are usually sent by registered mail, which makes them official legal action.

If you dont stop after that, then they sue you.

mortiz said:
First of all, in order to get any money out of you they'd have to provide evidence to suggest they'd been financially damaged by the MOD

No, to get damages from you they'd have to prove that your diluting thier copyright, which this mod most certainly is.

mortiz said:
how you would prove this with a HL-2 modification I have no idea (especially when the Movie doesn't have an "official" game to its name).

It dosent matter if there is a game or not. You are using thier IP for your purposes without thier permission. Ergo, you are diluting thier copyright and they are therefore entitled to damages.
 
If you don't want any trouble just change it slighlty.

Who sais your characters need to wear the neck bands that explode in "danger zones" and after the 3 days. (I've seen the movie 700mb avi)

But as said earlier alot of people (besides Blizzard) don't care if you use their intellectual property, just aslong as you don't make any money doing it, this includes donations.
 
Can you make binoculars, headbands, potlids, and rubber hammers weapons?
 
So its a good idea to persue permission even if all you are doing is basing a game on someone elses universe (With Universe meaning story)

For a start its just polite!
 
neozero, yes our goal is to have all the original weapons from the book/movie in our game, plus more as we go along. Weapons and AI skeletons are one thing that we will be updating continuously to allow for replayability.
 
If you get legal permission, it should turn out to be a great mod =D. BR is one of my favorite movies, and I hope that this turns out good.
 
tell me how, for example, you will impliment the non-combat "weapons"? magnifying glass and pot lid for example. say someone got a gps device, how would they win? it wasn't all about combat in BR.
 
Well, it's up to you how you can use your weapon. The GPS is an awesome weapon. You can bring it up and find a an old friend of yours (hopefully he has a good weapon) and you can fight it out with him, picking up weapons of your own as you go along. In the end either you or him has to die.... or maybe not, there may be ways to win without killing everyone, you'll just have to wait and see... :naughty:

You say "it wasn't all about combat in BR." It's not all about combat in the BR mod, your relationships with the AIs is just as important as what weapon you get.
 
Synthos said:
or maybe not, there may be ways to win without killing everyone, you'll just have to wait and see... :naughty:


/me watches film again

Oh damn, spoilt your surprise :p
 
that won't be the only way, we're thinking about adding more....
for instance, say kiriyama never showed up and spoiled the bomb-plan...

whatever we do, it won't be something easily accomplished
 
This COULD be a great mod but i don't think a single player game would work, but a multiplayer game could work, i myself being a fan of the film have thought about ideas for a mod, a single player RPG game i don't think would work and also you would be copying the BR film too much, instead you could be creative and make a multiplayer Deathmatch type game, Class deathmatch were you can have two different classes throwing into a map that have to kill each other, there would be a time limit and if one team doesn't kill the other one quick enough then all the neckbands will explode and no one wins, you could also do this in a survival type game same basic idea but no teams, everyone on everyone. Could be great fun, everyone could spawn with a random weapon, could be a firearm or some find of close combat weapon. I also to get round the whole getting permision thing could could rename it a bit, called it 'Royale Arena' or something like that. Damn i love BR to much lol!
 
the problem with that is that there is no incentive for people to team up and trust each other. It will just turn out like every other deathmatch game with a little twist in it.

the singleplayer will work, that's our primary goal. The AI we're planning to have in singleplayer will be very interactive and beleivable.

We will eventually add a multiplayer element with some twists to it. Some scenarios like you say or maybe even a BR2 style multiplayer. However, we aren't doing any work or planning on multiplayer until singleplayer is finished.
 
Well the class would have to trust each other, the faster they kill the other class the more chance of they have of surviving. The combat could be very intence, i know it wouldn't be huge change in mutiplayer but would be different, seeing everyones necks exploding if they don't kill each in time would look so kewl.
 
Sounds interesting. You got my moddb Modwatch.

*edit*
It's VERY doubtful anyone will send a cease and desist letter. If it's a good mod they'd be stupid to shut it down. It means free advertising for the company.
 
Yeah, i think they would allow it to get more people interested in the film.
 
Kyo said:
But as said earlier alot of people (besides Blizzard)
So right, so right. I remember my attempt at making a Warcraft mod for Civ3.
Me: Humdidum *working away*
Blizzard: WTFuxors!? j0 4r3 nOT 1337 enough to workZorZ on th15 m0d! j0 are t3h sucky!
Well, that's not their exact words. But you get the picture :stare:
 
Those who say its all ok to do, and that they wont issue a cease and desist or warning. Your basing this on OTHERS and what they would do. Dont assume just because blipblop Ltd. didn't follow up someone making a mod based on their game. That abigcompany ltd. will turn a blind eye too.

Different companies

Different people

Different countries

Different lawyers

Different amounts invested and at risk of losing

If you want to be sure, don't do it. Don't waste months of your life doing something you'll likely never get out into the public. Also don't assume you'll be free and safe if you "accidently" leak it out after being told not to. You can get in serious trouble then, and I will put everything I own on the fact that some mod team wont stand a chance against a company, of any size.

Besides all that. There's nothing impressive about someone making a mod using someone elses idea's. It's pretty piss poor to be honest, the sign of someone lacking in their own idea's, who will likely make a terrible mod because of it.

Sorry to come across like that, but I think the joke has gone on for long enough. It ain't yours, don't use it. Be told etc. etc. etc.
 
now listen fenric....
we're not really making this mod because we like playing games. that's a big point.

we're making this mod for mostly:
- primarily our own education and enjoyment in making the mod

- we love the Battle Royale movies and beleive that that concept could be made into an awesome game.

- we use the goal of making a popular mod to push ourselves to learn new things and gain valuable experiences. PLUS the ability to show to an employer we coded a really amazing game with say, a wicked AI-system (as an example)

If someone shuts us down (and i've said twice now that we're asking permission, thanks) then it's not a big deal for us, because we learned alot and we have something to show for it.

And also, by your logic, all WW1, WW2, Vietnam and Korean war games/mods as "piss-poor" because they didn't use a unique idea. They're using the same ideas that all the movie makers made. infact, you know... all the deathmatch style games are piss-poor because they all ripped off Doom!

Damn! I've been piss-poor games all along!

you can't say no game is not influenced by any movie or another game... all invention is based upon others invention.
The idea is not to f.uck around with the basic concept of the game. We want to code an incredibly reactive AI and very realistic gameplay. We borrow a few ideas from someone else to make sure we're focusing on making the game good, rather than coming up with shifty ideas on what our game is based upon.

In conclusion (and for you people that can't stand reading), I've already said we're asking permission. Our mod will not be piss-poor. And fenric you're a grumpy, grumpy person. (and so am I at the moment.. I'm a little pissed right now. nothing to do with you guys i'm just tired.)
 
Synthos said:
now listen fenric....
we're not really making this mod because we like playing games. that's a big point.

So we shouldn't expect to see any decent gameplay then?

we're making this mod for mostly:
- primarily our own education and enjoyment in making the mod

Do something original then, or don't you want to learn about that

- we love the Battle Royale movies and beleive that that concept could be made into an awesome game.

Same here, but I think it would be better in the hands of those that know what they are doing, in an engine built specifically for it

- we use the goal of making a popular mod to push ourselves to learn new things and gain valuable experiences. PLUS the ability to show to an employer we coded a really amazing game with say, a wicked AI-system (as an example)

Your mod is hardly popular, you've nothing to show for it. And how will showing an employer you could take someone elses idea and make a game anyone could make from someone elses idea going to amaze them? No really, tell me, tell someone who's made games commercially for a living how you expect to amaze an employer. As for the AI system, I believe it was Valve who created that, and the engine, and the code base. So they'll get the credit, not you

If someone shuts us down (and i've said twice now that we're asking permission, thanks) then it's not a big deal for us, because we learned alot and we have something to show for it.

You learnt how to get shut down, yes very good.

And also, by your logic, all WW1, WW2, Vietnam and Korean war games/mods as "piss-poor" because they didn't use a unique idea. They're using the same ideas that all the movie makers made. infact, you know... all the deathmatch style games are piss-poor because they all ripped off Doom!

No, the WWI, WWII, War CLONES are piss-poor because they offer nothing of interest that hasn't been done countless times before. As for your argument that all DM style games are piss poor cause they were all ripped off Doom shows how little you know about gaming history. Each decent DM game brought something new to the formula, they didn't simply copy it. Those that did have long since been forgotton, Those, for example Unreal, tried new things

Damn! I've been piss-poor games all along!

Your words, not mine

you can't say no game is not influenced by any movie or another game... all invention is based upon others invention.

Yours isn't though, you picked a film at random and decided to make a mod of it, geez anyone could do that, every "new" mod idea I see its the same old same old. Go read all the mod idea threads, the help wanted ones. Come back and honestly tell me you don't see a patten there.

The idea is not to f.uck around with the basic concept of the game. We want to code an incredibly reactive AI and very realistic gameplay.

Yeah you and almost all the other mods, what makes yours any different to the rest? Apart from you using someone elses idea's

We borrow a few ideas from someone else to make sure we're focusing on making the game good, rather than coming up with shifty ideas on what our game is based upon.

Yet your taking the idea's of a FILM and putting them into a game, if you were a true fan of Battle Royale you'd see the fighting isn't even an important part of the story, the story is about friendship and how situations effect it. You simply indend to make a standard DM game thats in no way different from the original Doom DM, making your above claims a little stupid

In conclusion (and for you people that can't stand reading), I've already said we're asking permission.

Got a reply back yet, you've been saying your asking for permission for quite some time. And what if you never hear from them, will you still go ahead and do it, knowing you don't have permission to, or will you go and come up with something original and exciting? Or will you just make a post saying we're nasty on this site for telling the truth and run of somewhere else where the people never say anything negative and just tell you what you want to hear?

Our mod will not be piss-poor.

Prove it.

And fenric you're a grumpy, grumpy person.

Thats as maybe, but I'm right.

(and so am I at the moment.. I'm a little pissed right now. nothing to do with you guys i'm just tired.)

Shouldn't post when your tired
 
would you read my whole damn post before you reply... you end up contradicting yourself!
 
Fenric said:
So we shouldn't expect to see any decent gameplay then?
That's not implied, if you had READ FURTHER, you would have seen that we're setting creating a popular mod as a goal to push us to learn. (if you haven't guessed already, i don't like repeating myself)

Fenric said:
Same here, but I think it would be better in the hands of those that know what they are doing, in an engine built specifically for it
As I said, this is not just because we like to play games
we're looking to learn

Fenric said:
Your mod is hardly popular, you've nothing to show for it. And how will showing an employer you could take someone elses idea and make a game anyone could make from someone elses idea going to amaze them? No really, tell me, tell someone who's made games commercially for a living how you expect to amaze an employer. As for the AI system, I believe it was Valve who created that, and the engine, and the code base. So they'll get the credit, not you
We're probably overhauling most of the AI, we don't give a rat's ass about valve's ai code. The only thing we're using is maybe some of their combat code. The rest will be about reactivity and emotional relationships.... I thought i had fricking mentioned that enough times.
Fenric said:
No, the WWI, WWII, War CLONES are piss-poor because they offer nothing of interest that hasn't been done countless times before. As for your argument that all DM style games are piss poor cause they were all ripped off Doom shows how little you know about gaming history. Each decent DM game brought something new to the formula, they didn't simply copy it. Those that did have long since been forgotton, Those, for example Unreal, tried new things
as i said... inventions built upon inventions. ours is built upon a movie, and you seem to have a big problem with that.

Fenric said:
Yours isn't though, you picked a film at random and decided to make a mod of it, geez anyone could do that, every "new" mod idea I see its the same old same old. Go read all the mod idea threads, the help wanted ones. Come back and honestly tell me you don't see a patten there.
At random eh?
jesus. I don't think you realize what we're trying to do.

Fenric said:
Yeah you and almost all the other mods, what makes yours any different to the rest? Apart from you using someone elses idea's
That's up to you to decide. We're making ours how we want and think it should be. I'll mention one thing, I don't know of any mod that's trying hard to get the user very emotionally involved with their games.

Fenric said:
Yet your taking the idea's of a FILM and putting them into a game, if you were a true fan of Battle Royale you'd see the fighting isn't even an important part of the story, the story is about friendship and how situations effect it. You simply indend to make a standard DM game thats in no way different from the original Doom DM, making your above claims a little stupid
If you knew anything about our mod and tried to understand what we were doing before posting, you would understand that we're NOT JUST FOCUSING ON FIGHTING. I've mentioned before (see above) about the AI and if you read anything on the website and the original thread post you'd know that. Relationships are just if not more important than fighting.

Fenric said:
Got a reply back yet, you've been saying your asking for permission for quite some time. And what if you never hear from them, will you still go ahead and do it, knowing you don't have permission to, or will you go and come up with something original and exciting? Or will you just make a post saying we're nasty on this site for telling the truth and run of somewhere else where the people never say anything negative and just tell you what you want to hear?
No, (this is the only one i'm not annoyed about) we're trying to get contact information for the original author of the Battle Royale book (we're going to get permission from him, much easier in our opinion) We've sent an email to Viz (the distrobuter for the book in NA) and waiting for a reply with contact info.

Fenric said:
Prove it.
We'll prove it when the game's out. It's hard enough to convince you to read than to convince you a mod is going to be good without the SDK or game being out the develop on. You want some renders or something? Go away, we're (I'm talking about the co-founders) coders not artists.
Side note: We do model and are talented in other aspects, what I mean is that we're not GOOD artists, just good coders)

Fenric said:
Thats as maybe, but I'm right.
cause you know, you're always right.

Fenric said:
Shouldn't post when your tired
probably, i can get pretty pissed off when people don't read.
 
I don't think you guys should be getting so mad at each other. Battles of wit never really solve anything.

To Fenric: Lots of people want to make a mod. Basing it on a movie is a popular way to go, because its already popular, its already a cool idea, and people just like making mods. Maybe thats annoying, I suppose, but there are many games that I know of that are based upon movies yet are still very fun, creative, and original. Of course, thats always expanding on the ideas of the movie, not completely duplicating it. (The perfect example I am thinking of is Alien vs. Predator 2) While it is probably safe to assume that anyone basing a mod off of a movie is unimaginitive and worthless, I personally don't think its always correct. They just need permission, and they just need to do it right.

To Synthos: You definately need permission before going anywhere, man. If you didn't have permission, you have no respect from me and many others, and you are just as good as a thief. Don't rely on "oh, they won't care;" that would just be annoying and a big waste of time. Its their property, they thought it up, they made it, you need permission. But other than that, I have no problems and would probably try out this mod.

Guess I'll have to see this movie, huh? :)
 
It'll be an interesting mod if you can design it, Synthos, but I agree that you have to check with the company first before you use their ideas.

...and you two stop quarreling.
 
synth said:
It'll be an interesting mod if you can design it, Synthos, but I agree that you have to check with the company first before you use their ideas.

...and you two stop quarreling.


Hey look, you summed up my post in two sentences! Yay!
 
yes. I can be a little cranky when I get home from work.

Fenric, you never contradicted yourself as I said in that one-liner post, for that I apologize. However, there are some points you make which are countered by the original text you are examining.

We are asking permission.

I don't know if many realize, but this mod is not going to be a straight copy of the movie. Far from it. The elements of the book/movie that we will be using is actually fairly limited. We're taking the basic plot (school kids get handed weapons), and creating a dynamic gameplay that will change everytime.

The characters in the movie/novel are not the only ones we're going to have. Those characters will be optional if you wanted to play against nanahara or kiryama.
What I think will be really neat, is that if you don't opt to play with the original characters, you're given a random set of characters in your class, all with different pseudo-personalities. They will react in different ways and fight in different ways. So (in example) a pacifist would probably fight pretty badly. But a psycho-path would fight like there's no tommorow.

In reality, we're only taking several things from the book/movie:
- A class of children is kidnapped
- They have collars put on them (or we may use another form of "kill each other or you die" but I think the collars are very threatening)
- They are given a random weapon (btw, we will add weapons apart from the original ones in the movie)
- They are forced to kill each other
- Character names and personalities for that "optional mode"

The rest is up to the user and the mod code we're doing.
We're not using the same lines as in the book/movie. The setting, character development, character plot, lines are all up to us and how you play the game.

And Yes, we are asking permission. (thought i'd mention it again if no one read it the first 3 times)
 
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