From The Archives: Early Concept Ideas

In a post from last year, we wrote about how Stellar Jockeys began as a company and what eventually led to Brigador. This time let’s look at concepts for a prototype of the game that dates from around late 2013 to early 2014. At this stage in development, the ability to make 2D sprites with dynamic lighting had been established, but the overall gameplay loop and plot had not yet been settled on.

An early prototype of Brigador was inspired by the gameplay of a very old game called Choplifter! for the Apple II from 1982. The idea was the player and their units would emerge from a space elevator and attack a central station somewhere on a map.

The menu flow for this prototype was mocked up like this.

[Ed: “Matador” was the original early title before being renamed to Brigador]

Before launching into a mission, the player would go through loadout selection. One variant of this was also mocked up. Players who know what the loadout screens for Campaign and Freelance mode look like may notice some similarities.

The prototype’s idea would be that crew choices would affect aspects of the vehicle such as how accurate certain weapon types are, reload speeds, vehicle turning speed and so on. Had we gone down this route, once you loaded into a level you would be presented with a scene like this.

The pips around the selected captain for the vehicle in the lower left were in the style of Wing Commander’s shield/hull integrity readout, which would show you from what direction you had taken damage.

This crew system and hull UI didn’t survive past concepting – but directional damage did. In Brigador, damage to the side or rear of a vehicle in most cases is much more effective than hitting the front.

Anyone who has played World of Tanks might be raising their hand right now – ultimately Brigador does not seek to be a simulative experience. Instead it was made to be something you’d want to get straight into and play rather than fret over your choices in a menu. The loadout screen for Freelance mode was eventually pared down to the following:

• Pilot, which decides enemy spawn difficulty and payout

• Vehicle, which affects payout and what weapons can be equipped

• Weapon hardpoints, assigned to left and right mouse button

• Special, which are things like the EMP, audio-kinetic pulse, smoke or active camouflage

While Campaign mode reduced all of these down even further to a choice of up to four different preset loadouts, which roughly align to different proposed playstyles (hit and run, sneak and peek, just smash everything, etc.).

“WELCOME…HOME”?

The game’s opening slogan came after various iterations of the game’s plot. Initially the player took the role of the “Captain” and one idea was to have a screen like this as an opener, which may seem familiar to those who have played the first level “Awake On Foreign Shores”.

It might not be as snappy or as impactful as a pitch-shifted Dr Sbaitso informing you that GREAT LEADER IS DEAD, the point is that it takes a while to eventually land on a line like WELCOME BRIGADOR.

(VERY) EARLY FOOTAGE & MAKEUP AND VANITY SET

Around October 2013, prior to the game going into a closed early access period, the game looked something like this.

In February 2014, the game was revealed publicly with the following trailer.

In May of 2014, Brigador was successfully greenlit