Introduction: Slammed! and its Author

Choice of Games games
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Hi!

Couldn’t decide on an appropriate sub-forum for this, so figured I’d play it safe. You may have heard of a pro wrestling Choicescript game called “Slammed!” in the “Upcoming Releases” thread – I’m Paolo, the author, and I thought I’d introduce myself on the forums before the game comes out. (I’ve been poking around for a while, but haven’t had much to say.)

I just submitted the first complete draft to Adam & Jason, which means that Slammed! is not anywhere near its final form yet, I thought I’d start a post where anyone curious about the game can ask about it, so you have a better idea as to whether or not it’ll be your type of game.

So, some facts about Slammed! (as it currently stands) to start things off:

*Slammed traces the arc of your career from your start in the independent scene to (if you manage to avoid premature endings) your first appearance in the universe’s version of Wrestlemania.

* It’s not primarily about matches/combat – something that probably shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with pro wrestling. There’s a lot of talking, and interacting with different personalities, both on-camera and off.

*This is not to say that the matches aren’t important – much of the verbal interaction and inter-character conflict is meant to build up to those big matches. The most difficult parts of the game for me to write involved the final two fights (and by two I mean four, since the final match differs depending on your opponent.)

* I don’t treat pro wrestling as “real” in the sense of a competitive sport – the tension between reality and “kayfabe” is an important element of the game – but in the universe of Slammed!, the leading wrestling federation has integrated “shoot” (real) fights into their product. Whether or not your character thinks that’s a good thing is another story…

*There are stats/variables – quite a lot of them – but this is a narrative driven game, as opposed to one which tries to simulate the life of a wrestler. That being said, I tried to make sure that your choices matter – your opponent in the final match can change, and the epilogue will be affected by non-wrestling priorities, such as the presence of a significant other, and whether you chose the path that resulted in your family making an appearance in the story.

As for me, personally:

* I’m a writer from the Philippines, with most of my experience coming from short stories and comics.

* I was a huge fan of wrestling growing up, but I stopped before the Attitude Era and made a return to the fold in 2010. I’ve been playing catch up ever since.

*While I love it to pieces, I don’t have encyclopedic knowledge of wrestling. My wrestling diet is still primarily WWE (that’s the only wrestling show readily available here), but I’ve researched and enjoyed shows from the more prominent independent promotions, in the U.S. and Japan, and I’ve read up a lot on pre-WWE wrestling (such as the scene in Britain during the World of Sport era) – although not much made it in to the actual game.

Favorite wrestler: CM Punk, if we’re talking all around. Antonio Cesaro and Daniel Bryan (maybe Ricochet, from the little I’ve seen of him) if it’s a matter of watching a wrestling match without the context of a storyline.

Well, that’s it for now. Happy to be here!

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@Anitero

I remember you! it’s nice to see your going through with your idea. I really like the name and it sounds interesting.

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Oh, I could’ve sworn this was my first post here - though it’s entirely possible I’ve just forgotten. I think there was another forum member doing a wrestling game, but that wasn’t me :slight_smile:

But I’m glad the game interests you! (And that you like the name - I wanted to go with Headlocked at first, but realized there was a wrestling comic with that name… )

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Seems interesting, looking forward to playing the game when it’s available.

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@anitero
Thanks for making the introduction! It’s always nice to be able to speak with authors!

Anyway, I’ve a question.
I’m not very knowledgeable about wrestling at all, and in fact, have never even watched it. Does your game assume any prior knowledge, or can just anyone pick up on what’s going on?

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@Xt1000305 - thanks!

@cs_closet - I try to ease unfamiliar readers into the world in the opening chapters: explaining terms, describing moves in detail (instead of using the common names of the moves as a shorthand). As you move forward in the story, the training wheels come off gradually, and by about Chapter 9 they come off, insofar as the in ring action is concerned. Out of the ring, being unfamiliar with wrestling shouldn’t be a problem, except for certain elements of “wrestling logic” that go into traditionl tropes (such as contract signings always ending in violence, wrestlers addressing their rivals via jumbotron, etc.), but if you think of wrestling as an alternate world (which isn’t far from the truth) requiring a certain level of suspension of disbelief, you’ll be fine :slight_smile:

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FYI: Slammed! is a “Choice of…” Game.

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I would never have thought I could be excited by the possibility of a wrestling game. I know so little about wrestling. The previous wrestling game I played was for my Amiga computer and I seem to recall being thrown out of the ring and having to hit someone with a chair. That was the beginning and end of my introduction to wrestling. :slight_smile:

However you actually make it sound like an interesting premise, with the focus on personality and people and story and not on mashing a key over and over again.

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@anitero I too grew up on pro wrestling. Saturday mornings were spent watching WWF primarily. Welcome (back) to the forums. Had you not posted, I may not have checked out your game, but now that you have, I will definitely be downloading it.

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I will definitely be keeping an eye out for this in the market.

I’m wondering though if we have the option of having a specific wrestling style.

For example, creating a wrestler who depends on high flying moves or specializes in reversing other wrestlers moves.

Either way I’m excited for this game.

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@anitero

Sorry, I could of sworn I seen your name somewhere else, but Im wrong. but still very interesting.

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@anitero (First I used to be a pretty big smark, but haven’t payed attention to the scene in years, so this is actually a pretty awesome title to see.)

If you don’t mind us asking questions, I’ve got one. Is the player going to be playing as the wrestler, the wrestler’s character, or is it gonna be some mashup of the two in a sort of ‘wrestling is real’ kind of setting? (ie Are we going to be playing Mark Calaway, the Undertaker, or are we going to be playing in a world where Mark actually is the Undertaker and doesn’t just play him on TV.) What you posted makes me think it’s probably the first, which makes me really excited.

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@FairyGodfeather – Haha, as far as introductions to pro wrestling go, a chairshot isn’t a bad way to go! (The most scholarly book I ever read about wrestling actually has the title “Steel Chair to the Head”)

@JimD – Great to meet another early fan :slight_smile: And thanks for the interest!

@AiEmMe – Thanks :slight_smile: Eventually you can choose one of four general styles – in general, the level of customization possible for your character grows as you progress in your career. There will be a high flying style, but no specific counter-based style… but you do get more counter/reversal opportunities if you have a high Technique (which is not a style, but a more general stat).

@2Ton – Heh, like I said, I may have just forgotten posting before – no worries 2Ton :slight_smile: And thanks!

@Reaperoa – Well, you’ll be happy to learn that you do play as the person “behind the mask”, so to speak (good ol’ Mark, in your example). Considering that anyone looking for the visceral impact of wrestling can find that in the official WWE games, I wanted to do a game that did something that WWE would probably never do, which is one that also focuses on what happens backstage.

It also allows me to play with the element of how closely your character out of the ring resembles your character inside the ring. You can be basically the same person, or you can be completely different (although still based on reality – the GWA in Slammed!, as with the WWE at present, has moved away from Undertaker/Kane type characters).

Of course, given that the character out of the ring is a character that you in turn are playing in a game… Layers! :smiley:

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Can we use Sledge Hammers on people? I sometimes dream about being a wrestler(its not a life goal or anything, I just wonder about it sometimes) for some reason but yah if I was a wrestler I would throw sledge hammers at people dont ask me why, idk why.
but I think people wouldnt be eager to fight a guy who is notorious for throwing sledge hammers at people.

and will we get to experience all types of wrestling matches? like from royal rumbles, to like tag-team, to steel cage, til like inferno matches and those weird matches where they just put like 20 people in a ring for no good reason and see what happens? or even a backstage match or money in the bank stuff like that, or even a sledge hammer match XD

Oh! and you should probably even throw in an entire new type of match for the game, since alot of wrestling type matches seem a bit random already, like that one match between CM Punk and Chavo where the objective was to start in the ring I believe… then fight(all the way out of the wrestling building) and then continue fighting entire mile and throw your opponent into a river? I think that was pretty random match but people seemed to love the idea.

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Can we have our own ‘battle cry’ we scream before the match?

Mine would be: NACHOOoOOooooOoOoO!

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Sledge Hammer matches still sound cool…

I used to be a Wrestler like you. Then I took a sledgehammer to the knee.

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@2Ton - No sledge hammers, alas – like the WWE, the main federation is Slammed! has veered away from the more hardcore weapons. That being said, while wrestling for an independent promotion in… Chapter 4, I believe, you have the option of participating in a Home-Weapons match, where fans bring objects found around the household for the wrestlers to use. (The less obviously deadly a weapon is, the more fun it is to use I think.)

@trollhunterthethird - Not a battle cry, no – it’s more common for the wrestler’s entrance theme to be used in place of that, and you do get a chance to customize your entrance to an extent (when you’re a big enough star).

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@anitero

You mention romance, will this be with a fellow wrestler, your manager, a fan, or maybe even someone that you are told your wrestler will “be with” as part of the show?

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@Nocturnal_Stillness That’s a bit tough to answer, as one possible romantic interest can be considered manager, fan, and fellow wrestler… One route does have a potential love interest who falls squarely in the last category you mentioned though, but only for certain characters.

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Thanks for replying. It does sound interesting. You can put me in the catagory of old-school wrestling fans, I started watching in the mid eighties and grew up watching the likes of Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate warrior etc, then continued watching through the Attitude era. I stopped watching when the whole wwe v ecw v wcw started to happen as I thought it got a bit boring.