Foundations of Hope - Dream Games Contest Entry

Working Title: The Foundations of Hope Online
Technology: TGE or TGEA + MoM Kit
Genre: Christian Fantasy MMORPG
Current Team Members: Leathel Grody
Game Website: Foundations of Hope
Company Website: Lethal Games Corporation
Blog: The Foundations of Hope Blog

Background:
The Foundations of Hope Online is the online game based on my Christian Young Adult Fantasy book series and is being marketed as a Christian Fantasy MMORPG.

The game was originally started with RealmCrafter but has been delayed for six months due to the writing book two of the series. Now I am back to the game but have decided to use the upcoming MoM Kit for the game instead. The server scalability and single player mode won me over. I have alot of parents that are interested in a Christian game, but are not yet ready to let their kids play online. So this provides a win-win situation.

So pretty much I am starting from scratch using and learning Torque. I have to recreate all my models to use the MoM-based material system instead of the RC armor mount system. Torque also uses a different animation system, so I have to recreate the models because of that as well.

Storyline Intro:
From the back page of Book One: Faith of the Unforgotten
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Four hundred years into the future, after the Great Pulse Storms began, the civilizations on Earth have managed to stay alive and cope with the changes that were dealt to them. The Great Pulse Storms have made it impossible for electricity to exist, and the ionic atmosphere from the Storms ignites nearly all explosive substances. Overnight, the Storms had set the civilizations back to a medieval-like time, and only the strong and knowledgeable survived. But the potential for humans to remain alive and free on the planet will once again be tested.

Dragons have returned from a time of old, and an intelligent lizard species from within the Earth is waging war upon the upper land-dwelling humans in an effort to take their lands and take the humans as slaves. The merciless enemy is stronger, quicker and more intelligent than humans, and all looks to be lost for the descendants of the Heroes of Sorms.

Rebekah Ann Smith, a spirited, fifteen-year-old innkeeper's daughter, has been placed at the forefront of the battle for the existence of their lands and lives. Rebekah and a small, scattered group are all that stand as a chisel against a mountain that is ready to fall. All they have left is hope that their faith can move that mountain, and hope that the Gifts given to them by their God can cut through the falling boulders of human desolation.
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Game Intro:
The Foundations of Hope Online game will place a player in the middle of the Saurian(lizard creatures) and Human battle. The storyline of the game will run along side the storyline of the series. Players will not play characters from the book, but who knows, the characters from the book may pop up every now and then(GMs). FoHO will be half Realm vs Realm and the other half PvE. Players will choose to be either a Human, Saurian, or a dragon. The game will take place in a future medieval North America and will have many zones taking place in areas such as Lansing, Detroit, Chicago and New York. North America will be divided into two realms. The Saurians control the southern half and the humans control the north. Each of these realms will be split into either PvP or PvE zones. PvE players may have to cross into another realm's PvE zones, but they will not be forced into PvP action.

During the physical battles, there is another battle going on alongside that only the human class of Paladins are aware of. The Paladins, Warriors of God, will have to fight in both the physical battles but undertake huge Spiritual Warfare battles. The Christian aspect of the game will be the strongest in the Paladin class. For those players not interested in a Christian game, it is clearly stated, stay away from the Paladin class. All other classes are not Christian-based, just Christian-acceptable. My goal for the game is to not make a 'preachy' game, but acceptable to mainstream and Christian-gamers. It is a very very thin line, but I have done it with my books, and I am confident I can do it with the game. I personally would never play a preachy game, so I stay far away from that. For example, the human 'magic' is replaced by Gifts given by God. They still will have abilities of swords of fire, lightning strikes, 'fire from heaven', etc. Is that overly preachy to a gamer? No. Is it Christian-acceptable? Yes. Everybody wins.

In order to let more people get an idea of the world the game is based on, I have decided to offer the full eBook version of Book One: Faith of the Unforgotten for free for a little while. If interested you can download it Here

The file includes the PDF, Mobipocket, Palm, and Microsoft Reader version. I suggest the PDF version because it has the color illustrations. Enjoy!
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Marketing:
The new Trade Paper versions of book one and two are released May 1, 2007. Provided are the covers showing how the game is being marketed in the bookstores.

Book One: Faith of the Unforgotten

Book Two: Into the Darkness

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Intended Features Include:
-5 human classes: male and female
-5 Saurian classes: male and female
-1 Dragon mesh(5 color choices)

-Mounted combat(fight from air or ground)
-PvPvE
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Note: Current screenshots at the website are from RealmCrafter. They will be replaced as the new Torque versions are completed.

Next post will include some new models using the MoM material system.