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ROTT Original Design Spec |
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 As
some of you may or may not know, Rise of the Triad began it's life as
nothing more than an expansion pack for Wolfenstein 3D. The
original full title of the game was "Rise of the Triad:
Wolfenstein 3D Part II". It was to use the same game engine
code as Wolfenstein 3D, and have new levels, art, and
characters. As time went on, the Wolfenstein 3D name was
dropped, and the project became much much more than just an add-on for
Wolf 3D.
Recently, in an old file here at 3D
Realms, we found the original team design spec from Tom Hall in
September of 1993, which contained episode descriptions, an outline of
where the storyline was to go, and new features in the Wolfenstein
game engine. We now bring you this document, along with some
graphics from the game back then. You can see how Rise of
the Triad's early design spec carried through in several aeas to
the final product.
Some remarks about the game are
scattered through the document. These remarks are in bold
and italics, and are new remarks, they are not original design
remarks.
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EPISODE DESCRIPTIONS
Note: Each episode will have a name, but
advertising will only include "Rise of the Triad", and say
"Get Episode One" and "Get all four episodes in the
epic Rise of the Triad Adventure". This will avoid
confusion upon the buying customer, but keep the name for gamer's
talk.
Episode One: Serpent on the Mount
B.J. Blazkowicz, the Allies' one man
Strike team, is called to assault the
Triad's fortress. Atop a titanic mountain near Gotha, the Triad
has set up their operations in a legendary old monastery. The
way to the monastery is a difficult one, with a horrible labyrinth of
paths, caves, and tunnels. B.J. must battle his way to the
entrance.
Episode Two: The Secret Warring
Once inside, B.J. discovers massive doors
leading to the Triad's headquarters far below ground, built in the
necropolis below the monastery. He must search the castle for
the key to these forbidding crypts. The key is very well
guarded.
Episode Three: The Desecrated
Tomb
Much of the tomb remains, but the Triad
have women their operations facilities into the dark catacombs.
On his journey to the nexus of the
Triad, he encounters the three members of the Triad. After his
final battle, the final members reveals their plan of global
annihilation upon the fall of the Triad. A dead man's
switch had started their mechanical radio-computer,
the Sendenkener, on a countdown to word
holocaust.
Episode Four: The Final Solution
B.J. enters the depths of the Triad's
bunker, made of cement, steel, and deep natural caverns. His journey
to fine the Sendenkener ends either in his destruction of the timing
unit of the computer, or in the Triad's Final Solution.
A lot of this changed during the
game's development, but some of it survived.
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WALL GRAPHICS
Stone
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Gray
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Gray. older, cracked
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Brown, heavy brick
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Brown, heavy brick with pipes
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Stone with exhaust tube (fireballs will
fly out of it)
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Stone with burnt impact mark of
fireballs
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Bunker (fire anim shown in front of it)
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Destroyed bunker (hole blackened and
chipped by gunfire)
Metal
- Water tanke (Wasser) - Metal wall with
the word Wasser on it. Can blow away, leaves water.
- Oil Tank
- Battleship bolts with slide switches
and counters (lights of this time are still big)
- Wall switch (up/down)
Glass
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Stained glass of Triad symbol
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Stained glass of monastery images
(cross, saint, etc)
Part Four Added Walls
- Sendenkener (thought-sender) panels
- Sendenkener Time Unit
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ACTORS
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Guards - I think we've seen
these. Now they have purple uniforms, if we have palette
room.
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SS - Green uniforms
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Officers - Red uniforms
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Dogs - same
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Mutants (now necropolis denizens)
- Make 'em bony.
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Demon dogs - Add red eyes, make
'em twice as fast, twice as much damage, twice as many hit points.
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Smart officers - Redden their
faces, red uniforms with dark flak vests. One and a half
times as fast, more hit points, will seek out healing (even secret
healing)
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Blitzguard - Fast guards, more
damage. Appears in 1. Could use same graphics, or add
armband or helmet change.
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Triad Enforcers - Big as Hans,
with dark gray uniforms, helmets, but a little less hit points, so
they can be used constantly. Appears in Episode 2. A
cross between ninjas and Hans.
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Death Monks - Only have a four
stage floating animation. Like ghosts, drain if the touch
you. Colorize, and later Death monks shoot red bolts out of
their eyes (maybe with rotations!) The former appear in 2&3,
the latter in 3&4. Could have alternate version that
fall dormant after searching for a
while, resting in a sort of a pile until someone comes near.
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Triad Bosses - each has his own
style and way of being defeated.
As you can see, at this stage, most
of the actors were just the old Wolfenstein actors with new graphics -
although some of the final ROTT character ideas and names are here.
BOSSES
- Esau Guderian -
Keeps shooting at you over stuff. You must find out how to
get into his little cage. It requires touchplates or
switches.
- Heinrich Krist - Guards himself
with a thrown out circle of bombs. Push rollie charis over
bombs to get at him.
- Schwarzenmonch (Dark Monk) -
Only vulnerable when you make it cross over heat grate -- shot it
then. It changes color a bit when it crosses one.
- Oberroboter (Head Robot) -
Shoot, arms fall off, shoot, legs fall off, shoot head comes after
you. Big badass final boss before you destroy the Time unit.
- Sendenkener Robot Guards - Clunky
robots, with big arms, others with guns.
Important: For sprites and actors,
you cannot draw in the leftmost or rightmost columsn of the 64 x 64
area. They won't grab correctly.
As you can see here, most of the
bosses survived intact in concept from the original spec to the
released game. Some of the characteristics are mixed up for a
few of them, but overall, the bosses are largely unchanged throughout
the entire game's development history.
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PIX
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Title screen
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Menu screen (background
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Read this / help pix
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Cinematic
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Title plaques / bars for menus
FONTS
- Big font for menus (could just keep
it)
TEXT
- Edit screen
- Error screen
- Memory screen
IMPORTANT FACTS - PALETTE
- These are the important parts, but
numbers will change
- 0-DF: normal palette
- E0-E4: shadows for objects
- E5-7: red (3 shades) always pulsing
- E8-A: green (3) always pulsing
- EB: floor
- EC: ceiling
- ED: Lightning
- EE: Treasure Item Halo
- EF: Healing Item Halo
- F0: Gold Key Halo
- F1: Silver Key Halo
- F2: Iron Key Halo
- F3: Red Flashing
- F4: Green Flashing
- F5-FE: Menu bar colors (flesh, number
color, green marble)
- FF: Mask color
IDEAS
- Have level's light fade up and down,
or flash.
- Torch object?
- Light switch on level.
As you can see, all of these
"ideas" ended up in the final game, although not completely
in the form described here.
[
End of Document ]
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After
the fall of Hitler, the true powers behind him have drawn into seclusion,
planning their next strategy for world domination. Three large
corporations guided Hitler as a puppet, and now plan the subjugation of the
planet to their organization, the Triad.
