Sunny - The Sun Wukong Hero

[ToastyGhostey]

Most of the text is on the image, but heres a copy of it below

A FATES TALE​

From a young age, Sunny was taught two things - that he had to work to live, and that anything else in his life was a distraction from work.

Sunny would find a middle-ground; he would simply work jobs that made him feel alive. Adrenaline and adventure was worth more to Sunny than the money he was given. This is what stopped Sunny from becoming like his father - a boring busy-body with little humor.

After arriving to America and helping build the Transcontinental Railroad, the work for Sunny had seemingly dried up. Lacking anything to do in a land strange to him, he would find himself hopping from odd job to odd job, back to the streets of New York where he started. It was a living, and had the rush Sunny liked, but something was missing still.

Perhaps its the feeling of never having lived for himself, or perhaps its just old age getting to him, but Sunny craves change.

"I have lived to work my entire life..." he mumbles to himself, staring at the sunset hundreds of feet in the sky while sitting on scaffolding "...and yet, have I ever truly lived?"

ABILITIES​

(1) Lay the Rail​

Sunny throws a metallic beam of rail and embeds it into a surface, making a thin platform and dealing spirit damage when hitting an enemy with a rail.

Sunny can hang off rails and attack or use abilities. Sunny can also swing off rails by dashing near or on while hanging on them, preserving forward momentum.

UPGRADE IDEAS (Not ranked on AP Cost, and not on the image)​

• Rail impacts ignite trails of black powder
• Swinging off rails refreshes Sunny's air dash
• Rail impacts leave a trail of black powder

(2) Standing Post​

Sunny stands on his pole. After a brief channel, Sunny may pounce from the pole and jump to a nearby location, dealing light spirit damage.

Jumping from the pole ignites powder left behind by Sunny

UPGRADE IDEAS (Not ranked on AP Cost, and not on the image)​

• Landing a pounce on an enemy throws them towards the direction you came from
• Wherever you land after a pounce has a circle of black powder
• Backflip instead of forward pounce as an option?

(3) Powder Monkey​

Sunny leaves behind a trail of black powder wherever he goes. Enemies that walk through black powder take more bullet damage for a short period of time.

This powder can be ignited by Sunny's abilities, which burns in a trail behind him, damaging and building ignite on targets who are caught in the burning black powder.

Unignited Black Powder vanishes after a while.

UPGRADE IDEAS (Not ranked on AP Cost, and not on the image)​

• Sunny's weapon can ignite black powder
• Sunny's melee can sweep black powder and move it around
• Black Powder (Unignited and/or ignited) lasts longer on the ground

(4) Nimbus Cluster​

Sunny takes TNT from his back and tosses a large bundle, scattering several sticks of dynamite in an area. The dynamite explodes after a short delay dealing spirit damage. Ignited Black Powder prematurely makes the dynamite detonate, dealing extra Spirit Damage

UPGRADE IDEAS (Not ranked on AP Cost, and not on the image)​

• Dynamite scattering zone can be tightened by holding down its cast button when casting (but not before throwing the dynamite)
• More dynamite thrown
• Enemies caught in initial zone have a bar of stamina removed

Closing Remarks​

Honestly, this was born off the one post that said "every MOBA except deadlock has Sun Wukong" and I felt like while the concept would fit, it would be fun to work the idea into the setting - when I thought Sun Wukong and Journey to the West, the parallel of Chinese immigrants and their literal journey to the west fully gripped me. Special thanks to the homies Akuma, Dodo, and Sip for helping me brainstorm on ability ideas, yall are gang.

 

[kannusclover]

he's poifect

 

[ToastyGhostey]

Oh also to comment on the actual artist design choices!

I think Sun Wukong is always depicted as young and spry - I wanted a much more older, worn-out version of the character. That was kinda the basis of Sunny.

The neutral color palette chosen was to resemble Rhesus Macaques, and their grey and brown colors. The pink skin as well working with that. His eyes, one being bloodshot and blind and the other yellow, is a reference to Sun Wukong's truth-seeing eyes: one is poor and gnarly, the other golden and perfect. Duality and double entendre! His hair is white to show age, and in spots to show stress and age has taken much of it.

His outfit is cross-referenced from a ton of pictures of Chinese Immigrants who worked the railroad, but with some changes made to accentuate the concept of "agile monkey". He has rolled up sleeves and slipper-like shoes for agilities sake, but wears very baggy clothes to give the illusion of a full body of fur, like a monkey or large ape. The derby / bowler hat was a decision I made to not give him a simple conical hat or straw hat so that he would now clash against characters like Seven (or potentially Yamato). I felt too that the style of hat gives him a more "down-to-earth", maybe his one big spend on himself that hes holding onto?

His pole is inspired by the Chinese Huochong, one of the first firearms ever. It is mounted on a pole as was the case in some accounts, but with some added flair being four of the five animals associated with Kung Fu on it (I imagine it to be a shotgun shooting Crane feather-like projectiles, adding in the fifth).

His standing post ability (and pose) is based on a pose done in Shaolin Monk practices, while his ultimate ability icon is several dynamite thrown into the air to loosely form the chinese character for cloud (云).

 

[mikro236]

Fantastic character design, great adaptation of the source material, and very fun sounding kit!

 

[photon]

I was skeptical at first, but this is dope!!

 

[koopie]

Really hope the devs notice this. Great work !!

 

[joiij]

+rep

 

[Rukir]

THANK YOU for posting this. I saw it on Twitter and I genuinely think this is top 5 designs/lore in the entire game even if it was just put in as-is. Valve should VERY seriously consider this. I could gush about it all day, but here's what I love about it so much;

-Most importantly, having a Transcontinental Railroad-based Chinese immigrant character is so unique and "American" that no game other than Deadlock can really have a character like this. It absolutely perfectly fits the setting. If nothing else, this fact would be such a waste if it wasn't added; Valve should absolutely consider adding a character with this core idea in the future, if Sunny doesn't make it.

-The design is very unique and stands out from the other characters in the game. It also stands out from many, many characters in other games; it is a great idea for diversity's sake to add a Chinese character who isn't just "Non-Chinese character dressed in Lunar New Year-based clothes as a cosmetic skin" or "A martial arts master".

-Wukong, being a mythological character, fits in perfectly with the cast of Vampires, Werewolves, "Zombies", etc. Of course, the silly little idea that every MOBA "has" to have a Wukong analogue is an adorable idea, but even amongst all the other Wukongs this one stands out by being a completely fresh take, which again, plays nicely with the other characters in the game (Abrams is a "normal" noir detective but he has a cursed tome; Victor is a "normal" interpretation of Frankenstein but he can't figure out who his creator is; Mina Ha is a "normal" vampire but there's actually an entire upper-class society of vampires; etc.).

-Hell, even the abilities are really cool, although those are obviously the most subject to change. Placing platforms wherever you like seems like a very cool and natural idea for the future direction of Deadlock. Once again, things like this are only really possible within Deadlock itself, so ideas like this not being added would be such a waste.

So yeah. I like the design. I really, really hope this gets added, especially considering that you've actually worked on Deadlock assets before; Valve surely has its eyes on you. Good luck and thank you so much again for posting this to the forums.

 

[pardydardy]

saw this on reddit first, but this fucking rules!! hits the 1930s/40s aesthetic perfectly, and isn't too on-the-nose about the themes (unlike the most recent batch of characters). i'd play the shit outta this guy!!!

 

[pikokino]

Yo this shit is sick as fuck bro!!!!

 

[Hieronyma]

No MOBA is complete without a Sun Wukong character and I'm so in for this.