Synopsis
From the underground, another professional wrestling title crawls its way to the surface. As one of the first titles being produced from upstart, Arizona-based GBA Studios,
Dragons Den Pro Wrestling hopes to bring a new gaming experience to wrestling fans everywhere. This game is actually designed by a former professional wrestler, with a video-gaming degree, with the wrestling fan in mind. So WHAT happened??It was the fall of 2009. I was compiling some new footage together of my newest level... one of my most extensive ones that had several stages associated to it. From street lights to bleachers, I modeled, unwrapped, textured and painted EVERY asset in this level... a very tedious process for anybody familiar with 3D.I originally had this level placed in the game as an unlockable level, but chose to change it to the level I would offer in the demo. I also incorporated a stipulation to this match never before seen in a game, my anticipated Scaffold Match, which was an unlockable within the demo to give the player some replay value. 2 characters were chosen, Black Venom and Sol De Oriente (b), to which each character's movements were to be motion captured. These decisions were instrumental in helping me understand everything that I would need to do, to produce my desired effect for the game mechanics. It was the solid foundation I needed to "build my house" upon. The 3rd presentation was geared towards investors to draw much needed funding to the project. Uncertain of the price and time needed to complete a full game, the focus was shifted into creating an extraordinary demo. If the funding for such a game could not be raised in its entirety, then this demo would've served as the legacy I wanted to leave… one still shaping the landscape of what video-games in this genre could and should become. I then began rendering several scenes to create my 3rd presentation for You-tube.
Public ReactionsThe first two presentations were used to showcase some of the ideas that were going to be incorporated within the game, such as the "G-Method" technology... the use of video on a character's face to show emotion (something 3D games had not fully experimented with during those years). I labeled these videos as "rough drafts," although a few criticized it for being poorly animated (something that didn't matter anyway because of the movements being motion captured in the future). The videos created a buzz, even having people question if this was produced by a group of individuals, or just one.The 3rd presentation was 60% completed, and I was thrilled with the direction. That's when misfortune struck. 
Murphy StrikesBefore I could purchase an external hard-drive for all of my hard work, my PC died. The hard drive containing ALL of my files decided to stop working and would require over $1000 to fix.So you couldn't earn $1000 in a few years time? Not when your mother gets laid-off a few months later. With a depleting income, college loans, moving expenses and a girlfriend, I couldn't save enough money for the fix. I also lost my job that following winter. It was then that I began work on the movie "Blocked" to try and earn some money. Due to all of this happening within a year's time, "Dragons Den Pro Wrestling" was temporarily put on hold. The idea to go to Kickstarter.com was then tossed to me. It seemed like a great idea and some of my saved movies still existed from the hard-drive. I decided to edit a movie for Kickstarter.com when disaster hit close to home. On the morning of January 8th, 2011, I was set to pick up my director and our audio-guy to head to Phoenix for a day of shooting our film. I was running late and turned on the television to see a "Breaking News" disturbance coming from a supermarket literally right up the road from where I was headed. The headline read across the screen: "BREAKING NEWS: Congresswoman Giffords Shot." My jaw dropped. The world's attention was placed on Tucson, AZ for a violent mass shooting leaving many innocent people dead, including a little 9 year-old girl, who coincidentally, was born on the tragedy of 9-11-2001, only to die in the "Tragedy of Tucson." This shelved the "Dragons Den Pro Wrestling" efforts once again. Because of these unfortunate circumstances, there was no way, in sound mind and good conscience, that I could promote an extremely violent wrestling game, with direct roots from Tucson AZ. Following this, it seemed as though Arizona was on the national news all the time for all of the wrong reasons: - Governor sticks her finger in the President's face. - Proposition SB-1070, allows the police to racially profile Hispanics. - Tucson Unified School District makes teaching "Ethnic Studies" unconstitutional. - Arizona publically sues the United States Government. The State of Arizona was going politically mad. Representing Tucson at this time would be career suicide. It would be several years before I would dust off this project and try again. The Second Time AroundBefore I could move forward, I had to create the proper platform. After 7 years, my website finally got a completely new design. Screen resolutions had changed so much since 2006 and 2009, I needed to upgrade terribly. New logos, new levels, new characters... we're evolving again. The Playstation 2 was the "in" thing when I first started... now we're 2 consoles advanced and the technology has gotten much better. Fortunately, my ideas are still fresh after all these years as well. I'm still gonna produce this game, and once I do, you'll see what I wanted to bring you years ahead of its time. It's worth the risk.Read More about "Dragons Den Pro Wrestling" at: "History of Dragons Den Pro Wrestling" "Black Venom Bio" |
(a) "Dragons Den" Logo and Image "Many doubted me. DDPW sounds like such an ambitious project, it just couldn't be real.
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