KNIGHT MOVES.(Product Support)

Players do battle in an on-line promo for A Knight's Tale

Do you have the strength, dexterity, and endurance to become a knight? Find out by pitting your medieval battle skills against those of a friend or foe by playing the Web-hosted computer game A Knight's Tale Tournament, created by WildTangent for Sony Pictures Entertainment to advertise its newly released feature film A Knight's Tale.

To participate in game tournaments, a player first creates a customized knight by choosing from various physical attributes and armor on the game site (www.aknightstale.com). The player then "trains" the character by participating in matches that enable the knight to accumulate gold (points), which can be cashed in for additional strength, intelligence, speed, training, or weapons. "The more you play, the better your knight should become," notes Marsh Lefler, developer.

Before issuing a challenge, a player chooses a game strategy--aggressive or defensive--that the knight will follow. A random selection of moves from that style of play is then programmed into the character's animation cycle. Through e-mail, the player summons a friend to a battle. If the friend accepts, he or she similarly customizes a knight and chooses a strategy. The action then ensues. An electronic message is automatically sent to the challenger when a fight is accepted and also when a "turn" has been completed, giving each player the opportunity to watch the action. A battle is completed once the knights dual for five rounds.

"The advantage to this game is that both players don't have to be on the site at the same time, allowing them to play at their convenience," says Jeff Buccellato, producer. "And because it is played on Sony Pictures' Web site instead of through e-mail attachments, there's no risk of contracting a computer virus, as you might with other games of this style."

Making a Scene

Enabling players to customize and strengthen their knights gives them a certain amount of ownership in the character and game. But it also presented a modeling challenge for artist John Moore. "We have various types of armor and weapons that players can buy or swap," he says. "And I was concerned about the short development period. I knew I had to be as efficient as possible in terms of creating the geometry." So rather than make hundreds of warriors of all sizes, shapes, and modes of dress, the WildTangent team decided to create pieces of armor that players can choose from to assemble or reassemble their own characters.