[HERO CONCEPT] Jackie Reel, The Head (and only) Projectionist of the Obsidian Frame Picture House

[Yobbit]

I realized the likelihood this ever actually makes it into the game is so miniscule that I didn’t bother figuring out the numbers. If that's something you like and are good at, be my guest.
I also couldn't figure out how to make those ability cards you see in some of the designs here. Would love to know how y'all figured that one out.​

View attachment convos.jpg
Since writing is my speciality, I couldn't help but make up a few conversations. I just love the characters in this game so much.

WEAPON:
The Auteur
A mystic camera that shoots razor sharp spectral film frames. Takes a moment to crank up
(like Bebop and McGinnis).

The Auteur can keep shooting for a little while into the negatives, but each bullet costs
souls, so you best reload.

Alt fire switches lenses:
- Telephoto gives you more range but less damage
- Macro gives you more damage but less range
- Fisheye gives you larger bullets, but is harder to aim.

*I think alt fires are still criminally underutilized. I love them
because I can't aim to save my life anyway, so I never zoom in anyway.*

PASSIVE:
Essence Drain
"Those under the gaze of the Auteur feel themselves
lose a little more than just privacy."
Using the Auteur and its skills on enemies drains them of small amounts of soul.
If enough time passes without an enemy getting hit, the Auteur turns on its
master and begins to drain Jackie.

Loading animation
Over time, the camera begins to jam and the film reel
must be stuffed back in.
The more that's been shot, the more pops out. (Like how Rem's candle
dims the more you shoot.)

The camera eats souls to create footage, like how light is printed into film to capture a moment in time.
It captures soul particles rather than light

*The idea of being able to suck out souls becomes very broken very fast, so I thought
it should be something that isn't very effective, more of a narrative thing.
Better early game than late. I'm not sure about the details, but I love the idea.*

Melee:
Hits people with his camera, since it's indestructible.

​

Reticle idea. Like a viewfinder. Pretty basic.

EXTRA THINGS
MVP lines
(if the game ends before 30 minutes) "Wait, credits already? We didn't even reach the third act."

"I knew I should've brought popcorn."

"Hold still...THERE! *snaps picture* ...Aww dammit, it came out all blurry..."

"And just when I ran out of film."

"That's a wrap, everyone."



Killing Lines

Haze:
"She wasn't after me, was she? Well, doesn't matter anymore."

Infernus:
I hope they don't think I'm with the Friends of Humanity because of that..."

McGinnis:
"You...didn't make this camera, did you?"

Victor:
"I hope he stays down this time. Maybe I shouldn't turn my back."
*
"He didn't need an apple box, that's for sure."
*
"The makeup department did a fantastic job. Those stitches looked almost real."

Billy:
"That goat head prop was immaculate work. I should've asked who made it."
*
"He sounded deceptively similar to William. I wonder how the oldboy is doing…"

Bebop:
"Okay, whoever was puppeteering that, you can come out now."

Apollo:
"There is no way this won't lead to a political catastrophe..."

Mina:
"I could've made her a star. Though she did try to shoot me."

Paige:
"See, Jackie, this is why girls hate you..."

Vyper:
"Give me back my camera!"

Ivy:
"Oh no... No no no, did i really just shoot the hero of Spanish Harlem? You're the worst, Jackie..."

Calico:
"Poor kitty..."

Celeste:
"How on earth did she bend like that?"
*
"The glue they put that horn on with must've been the expensive sort."

Graves:
"Ugh, theater kids. You can smell them from a mile away..."

Drifter:
"First time it felt easy to point this thing at someone."

Dynamo:
"I swear I've seen that man somewhere..."

Doorman:
"Yikes, his laugh sent shivers up my feet."

Lash:
"What a schmuck."

Kelvin:
"Brrr, I can barely move my fingers."

Paradox:
"All that wealth and she wasted it on stealing art rather than funding it."

Mo & Krill:
"They seemed like honorable fellows. Shame."

Mirage:
"STOP THROWING BUGS AT ME!"

Pocket:
"What an inconspicuous fellow. Would've made for a perfect extra."

Sinclair:
"No magic like screen magic."

Silver:
"That werewolf costume was top notch."

Shiv:
"Did he get me? Am I bleeding anywhere?"

Seven:
"Jackie Reel, the hero who took down the Butcher of Lost Whisper... Does have a ring to it."

Rem:
"Suddenly, I don't feel so tired anymore."

Venator:
"And I thought Heston made for a good Moses."

Wraith:
"I considered getting a loan to fund my debut production, but now I'm having second thoughts."

Yamato:
(terrible pronounciation) 私は黒澤明が大好きです.

Vindicta:
"Hope she finds peace."

Viscous:
"Eww, it's everywhere."

MISC & TRIVIA

What it says on steam:
Filming in the hideout
Projecting in the hideout

Rem about Jackie:
"He smelled like popcorn!"

The Doorman seems wary of the camera.

"That wasn’t worth the silver nitrate it cost to shoot him…"

Random casting lines:
"Quiet in the theater!"

"Spoiler alert: you die at the end."

"That one's getting left on the cutting room floor."

(Post-Process) "I'll just fix it in post."

(Take Two) "You were better a moment ago."

(Take Two) "That wasn’t your best take."

"Wait how many frames is that in seconds?"

"Pictures is an expensive business."

"Hope this covers pre-production."




Ability ideas I didn't use:
Poor Man's Process
Practical Effects
Silver Screen

​

AI SLOP WARNING
I wanted a higher quality render of the character and since I can't draw, I used ChatGPT. This is what I had in mind, but couldn't visualize properly, but I still think my first image came close enough. I guess I like the face on this one a bit better, idk.

 

[come219]

sickkkk

 

[marlon.jakob]

LOVE the Idea!

 

[atomiccheeseball5]

a character with abilities coming from looking thru a camera sounds sick

 

[nathanieljbrill]

Okay I have lots of notes.

1. Lore is cool in that it lends itself to an interesting design space with the drawbacks.
2. Ability 1. As described is the strongest ability in the game by a large margin. It allows you to surround the space someone was at then teleport them back to that space after they've spent time and resources getting away. It also has a lot of saving and escape potential. In order to make this plausible it would need some reworking. I'll put that in the suggestions portion of this comment.
On the flip side, even though from a teamwork perspective this ability is crazy busted, he doesn't have a way of taking advantage of pulling the person back at the moment.
3. Ability 2. Doesn't seem that useful outside of team fight contexts, so probably needs reworked based off that, and this is in your survival ability slot. If ability 1 is going to have a self cast then it will probably be your escape option, so Ability 1 would be out in the 2 slot.
4. Ability 3. I think is too early in the conceptual stage to critique. How he buffs and what buffs he gives will be relevant.
5. Ability 4. This chaos will probably be a bother for players on both teams. I don't think this is set up in a way that it is something you actually want to cast, except to mess up a fight you don't want to take.

6. The 3 altfires will be too much as each one doesn't get its chance to shine. Larger bullets but harder to aim also counters itself, since the advantage of larger bullets is easier aim.
7. The passive would need to be in an ability slot. There are some passive traits that aren't in ability slots, like Celeste's lower gravity, but that's a universal stat being changed, not a character specific effect.
8. The passive shouldn't affect soul amounts that's going to be pretty game breaking. If it was limited to unsecured souls it would be less game breaking, but it would probably be better just being damage. That gets to note 9...
9. He needs some way of dealing damage reliably. Even the likes of Paige and Rem have damage specific abilities, because every character needs to be able to damage on their own. As formulated this character doesn't have any damage specific abilities.

Suggestions:
1. Altfire
Make the primary fire be either the close range high damage or the far range low damage, and the secondary fire switches between them.
2. Make the passive the ability 3: When an enemy is affected by one of your abilities they take spirit damage. If you go too long without damaging an enemy hero you take spirit damage.
3. Make the 2 the Ult. You cast a beam of light shining down from heaven on someone. Here are some options for effects that could be applied: The enemy takes a portion of all damage dealt in a radius around him, the enemy gains all the debuffs applied in a radius around him, the enemy has lower debuff resist (can go negative) and bullet and Spirit resist, bullets that enter the beam of light home in on the enemy,etc.
4. Make the 1 the 2. When cast on an ally or self, only your position is changed. When cast on an enemy, they gain any stamina or other non-health resources they've lost since the first capture moment. The return takes 3 seconds to activate so that it can be cancelled with abilities or items that remove debuffs or block effects.
5. Make the new 1 a damage specific ability,. preferably one that can be set up for when he returns someone to an old position. His total damage would be dealt with his new 1, passive, and gun.

Would love to hear your response to my notes.

 

[ReportingBugs]

I wonder if you can incoprorate more of the zoom/shakey first person FOV. Perhaps when he casts limelight onto himself, he can gain damage reduction, damage amp and faster movement speed and even faster sprint speed. And he's now perma first person during limelight buff.

Like the ability functions differently on a self cast, to make it for a cinematic Jackass/horror film style chase away or towards them. Perhaps he can give the team extra perma buffs if he is able to do crazy stunts/feats during this special self cast?

Things like stealing rejuv, doing 360 spins after a vent, corner boosting, getting away to safety, zipline momentum conservation, moving very fast, doing an absurd amount of damage, being in combat for a long time, getting a finishing melee blow, assisting someone at the brink of death (and them surviving at the end of self limelight), parrying people, being in the air for longer than 9 seconds, hiding in the shadow room for longer than 4, bolding going into a team of 3+ by yourself (increases with more people on a given engage), heoric sacrificing (cheat death/rejuv death counts), teabagging/weird dancing movements (head banging, etc). Taking an objective during a siege whilst being under manned, objective surviving at the end of footage during a overman siege.

So it should be possible to do all of them in a given "watch this" cinematic moment.

And perhaps many more...
Update: Oh! And getting high up into the rooftops, using 3 active items, killing people, getting a team wipe. Bursting someone from 90%+ to proper death within 2 seconds.

 

[Yobbit]

Okay I have lots of notes.

1. Lore is cool in that it lends itself to an interesting design space with the drawbacks.
2. Ability 1. As described is the strongest ability in the game by a large margin. It allows you to surround the space someone was at then teleport them back to that space after they've spent time and resources getting away. It also has a lot of saving and escape potential. In order to make this plausible it would need some reworking. I'll put that in the suggestions portion of this comment.
On the flip side, even though from a teamwork perspective this ability is crazy busted, he doesn't have a way of taking advantage of pulling the person back at the moment.
3. Ability 2. Doesn't seem that useful outside of team fight contexts, so probably needs reworked based off that, and this is in your survival ability slot. If ability 1 is going to have a self cast then it will probably be your escape option, so Ability 1 would be out in the 2 slot.
4. Ability 3. I think is too early in the conceptual stage to critique. How he buffs and what buffs he gives will be relevant.
5. Ability 4. This chaos will probably be a bother for players on both teams. I don't think this is set up in a way that it is something you actually want to cast, except to mess up a fight you don't want to take.

6. The 3 altfires will be too much as each one doesn't get its chance to shine. Larger bullets but harder to aim also counters itself, since the advantage of larger bullets is easier aim.
7. The passive would need to be in an ability slot. There are some passive traits that aren't in ability slots, like Celeste's lower gravity, but that's a universal stat being changed, not a character specific effect.
8. The passive shouldn't affect soul amounts that's going to be pretty game breaking. If it was limited to unsecured souls it would be less game breaking, but it would probably be better just being damage. That gets to note 9...
9. He needs some way of dealing damage reliably. Even the likes of Paige and Rem have damage specific abilities, because every character needs to be able to damage on their own. As formulated this character doesn't have any damage specific abilities.

Suggestions:
1. Altfire
Make the primary fire be either the close range high damage or the far range low damage, and the secondary fire switches between them.
2. Make the passive the ability 3: When an enemy is affected by one of your abilities they take spirit damage. If you go too long without damaging an enemy hero you take spirit damage.
3. Make the 2 the Ult. You cast a beam of light shining down from heaven on someone. Here are some options for effects that could be applied: The enemy takes a portion of all damage dealt in a radius around him, the enemy gains all the debuffs applied in a radius around him, the enemy has lower debuff resist (can go negative) and bullet and Spirit resist, bullets that enter the beam of light home in on the enemy,etc.
4. Make the 1 the 2. When cast on an ally or self, only your position is changed. When cast on an enemy, they gain any stamina or other non-health resources they've lost since the first capture moment. The return takes 3 seconds to activate so that it can be cancelled with abilities or items that remove debuffs or block effects.
5. Make the new 1 a damage specific ability,. preferably one that can be set up for when he returns someone to an old position. His total damage would be dealt with his new 1, passive, and gun.

Would love to hear your response to my notes.

it's almost hilarious how much i liekd these ideas when i made them, and now reading this i realize how dumb most of it is.

i always imagined him as more of a support, because i liked playing support and i think deadlock is sorely lacking any proper pos 5s at the moment. also i happen to love characters with a very high skill ceiling and complex kits, like invoker. gods i love invoker

okay, new damage ability idea:
Overexposed
shoot a cone of light in front of you. enemies in the cone build exposure stacks. at max stacks, they 'burn out' and take burst damage, like djinn's mark, or love bites, but instead of passive bullets, it's an ability.
maybe the damage triggers twice if they're Take Two'd during, idk
are both of these attacks ridiculously broken? yes. does this lead to an influx of people buying dispel magic? also yes. will i buy stocks in dispel magic inc to war profiteer from my invention? most absodefinitely


your take on take two (haha) is a really good one. it working differently based on friends and enemies (like how paige's ult heals allies and damages enemies) really does help with a lot of the issues it might have in the 'broken as fuck' department.

the alt fire idea is cool, i just want them to be clearly different, not in the way that everyone only uses one, but that both have their place in the game as equally useful parts of the kit

and for ult, either limelight, or maybe, it could still be final cut, by name, but a different ability
like since final cut means that the film is no longer touched, maybe he freezes time in that area.
no wait writing this down i just realized that's just vyper's petrify. fuck. never mind.
maybe it could be like mars's ult from dota? creates a movie set no one can escape for the duration. forces a teamfight. i really liked that ability, though i dont know how it would work since there's so much z-axis in deadlock.

another ability idea: silver screen
jackie places a screen on the ground (holding it down, so he can't move during this ability), and anything shot into it (bullets, abilities, etc) are sucked in. the next time he places it down, it shoots them back out. so basically like a super parry, but not instant (like riposte...). sounds broken, yes, but pocket can also dodge every ability ever. plus bebop is a bitch and i'd LOVE to hit him with his own laser
is this pure power fantasy? yes.
.
.
.
i don't have much else to say about that



the camera could feed on unsecured souls, from both you and the enemy, but if you dont have unsecured souls, that's when you start taking damage, bit by bit. very little so you don't just die in base. maybe you can reset it by healing in base.


ps: how did you make those ability slots i see in your designs? the ones that look exactly like deadlock? is there like a website, or does everyone else know how to use photoshop better than i do?

 

[Yobbit]

I wonder if you can incoprorate more of the zoom/shakey first person FOV. Perhaps when he casts limelight onto himself, he can gain damage reduction, damage amp and faster movement speed and even faster sprint speed. And he's now perma first person during limelight buff.

Like the ability functions differently on a self cast, to make it for a cinematic Jackass/horror film style chase away or towards them. Perhaps he can give the team extra perma buffs if he is able to do crazy stunts/feats during this special self cast?

Things like stealing rejuv, doing 360 spins after a vent, corner boosting, getting away to safety, zipline momentum conservation, moving very fast, doing an absurd amount of damage, being in combat for a long time, getting a finishing melee blow, assisting someone at the brink of death (and them surviving at the end of self limelight), parrying people, being in the air for longer than 9 seconds, hiding in the shadow room for longer than 4, bolding going into a team of 3+ by yourself (increases with more people on a given engage), heoric sacrificing (cheat death/rejuv death counts), teabagging/weird dancing movements (head banging, etc). Taking an objective during a siege whilst being under manned, objective surviving at the end of footage during a overman siege.

So it should be possible to do all of them in a given "watch this" cinematic moment.

And perhaps many more...
Update: Oh! And getting high up into the rooftops, using 3 active items, killing people, getting a team wipe. Bursting someone from 90%+ to proper death within 2 seconds.

these are really cool, but i feel like these would work on another character. i had this idea for either a radio announcer, or like a cabaret singer. some performer. i feel like as cinematic as these are, jackie would be too timid to actually pull off anything in front of a camera.
the coolest thing would be that you could zoom in with the camera, and every trick like this you film, the person gets buffs based on it, but the issue is that people would just farm the shit out of that if it didnt have limits, and how would you code something that complicated into a game? i know it's valve, but i cant even imagine. but i do love your ideas, thanks a lot for them!

 

[nathanieljbrill]

it's almost hilarious how much i liekd these ideas when i made them, and now reading this i realize how dumb most of it is.

i always imagined him as more of a support, because i liked playing support and i think deadlock is sorely lacking any proper pos 5s at the moment. also i happen to love characters with a very high skill ceiling and complex kits, like invoker. gods i love invoker

okay, new damage ability idea:
Overexposed
shoot a cone of light in front of you. enemies in the cone build exposure stacks. at max stacks, they 'burn out' and take burst damage, like djinn's mark, or love bites, but instead of passive bullets, it's an ability.
maybe the damage triggers twice if they're Take Two'd during, idk
are both of these attacks ridiculously broken? yes. does this lead to an influx of people buying dispel magic? also yes. will i buy stocks in dispel magic inc to war profiteer from my invention? most absodefinitely


your take on take two (haha) is a really good one. it working differently based on friends and enemies (like how paige's ult heals allies and damages enemies) really does help with a lot of the issues it might have in the 'broken as fuck' department.

the alt fire idea is cool, i just want them to be clearly different, not in the way that everyone only uses one, but that both have their place in the game as equally useful parts of the kit

and for ult, either limelight, or maybe, it could still be final cut, by name, but a different ability
like since final cut means that the film is no longer touched, maybe he freezes time in that area.
no wait writing this down i just realized that's just vyper's petrify. fuck. never mind.
maybe it could be like mars's ult from dota? creates a movie set no one can escape for the duration. forces a teamfight. i really liked that ability, though i dont know how it would work since there's so much z-axis in deadlock.

another ability idea: silver screen
jackie places a screen on the ground (holding it down, so he can't move during this ability), and anything shot into it (bullets, abilities, etc) are sucked in. the next time he places it down, it shoots them back out. so basically like a super parry, but not instant (like riposte...). sounds broken, yes, but pocket can also dodge every ability ever. plus bebop is a bitch and i'd LOVE to hit him with his own laser
is this pure power fantasy? yes.
.
.
.
i don't have much else to say about that



the camera could feed on unsecured souls, from both you and the enemy, but if you dont have unsecured souls, that's when you start taking damage, bit by bit. very little so you don't just die in base. maybe you can reset it by healing in base.


ps: how did you make those ability slots i see in your designs? the ones that look exactly like deadlock? is there like a website, or does everyone else know how to use photoshop better than i do?

T

Thread 'Deadmock - create mock tooltips for your item and ability ideas'

Dec 10, 2024

Available at https://tryneus.github.io/deadmock/
Github repo at https://github.com/tryneus/deadmock/

I put together this WYSIWYG editor so that people could make their suggestions look more professional, and hopefully get a better idea of how their mechanics might be communicated to players. It's not designed for mobile because several elements rely on hover interactions - it still works okay on my phone but YMMV. Generally, if you want to change something, you can click on it.

You can export to a png, and create links to your item/ability in the editor. It keeps a history...

• Tryneus
• Replies: 46
• Forum: Community Hero Ideas

• 
• 

This is the website. You can find one for making items in the items thread for a different website.

 

[Yobbit]

T

Thread 'Deadmock - create mock tooltips for your item and ability ideas'

Dec 10, 2024

Available at https://tryneus.github.io/deadmock/
Github repo at https://github.com/tryneus/deadmock/

I put together this WYSIWYG editor so that people could make their suggestions look more professional, and hopefully get a better idea of how their mechanics might be communicated to players. It's not designed for mobile because several elements rely on hover interactions - it still works okay on my phone but YMMV. Generally, if you want to change something, you can click on it.

You can export to a png, and create links to your item/ability in the editor. It keeps a history...

• Tryneus
• Replies: 46
• Forum: Community Hero Ideas

• 
• 

This is the website. You can find one for making items in the items thread for a different website.

i was supposed to try it out a little before going to sleep, but lo and behold, of course that didn't happen and now i'll be sleep deprived for the rest of the week.
i don't know if it's the tiredness or my inability to understand numbers, but this was much harder than i thought. i need to reference these with existing characters later, but this is a start.