Strategy Computer Game
Published By: Accolade Games
Description: “Multi-Player, City-Building, Land Exploring, Alien Busting Fun” – Strategy Plus
Wikipedia Article: Deadlock:Planetary Conquest
Fansite: Gallius IV
Read a Review: Gamespot
What I Did: When we lived in California, I was a creative writer for computer games. As a member of the Deadlock: Planetary Conquest design team, my role was to write the game fiction and dialogue, and I also co-directed the voice acting. Deadlock was one of the first major games playable over the Internet.
You play one of seven alien races fighting for control over Gallius IV, a prize planet. Accolade’s motto was Games with Personality, so my job was to create those personalities. The Uva Mosk loved nature, the Cyth were sinister, the Tarth were big brutes – we created characters that would appeal to different player personalities as well. Each game is a play performed “on the fly”, as the players can send animated insults, threats, bragging, and complaints dialogue back and forth to each other.
I also wrote the screenplay and co-directed the voice acting for the opening movie. This movie shows all the things players do during the game. Computer animation was still pretty new, so I didn’t know what was and wasn’t easy to animate. What turned out to be the most difficult was not the explosions or the character movements. Nope, the hardest scene to animate was the bead of sweat dripping down the Human captain’s face! The game still has fans.
