Broken Alliance Effect (2005)

Broken Alliance Effect was the first website I ever had hosted. It was hosted on a web free host, brokenalliance.websiteallies.com. I did not need to buy the domain; it was a subdomain of the webhost.

This version is actually version 2.0. I remember the first version was slightly different, but it is represented here. I used a big table for the layout, which is a big "no, no" today. Actually, it was frowned upon back then, too. I tried my best to recreate it using css now. Javascript was used to do the "hover" image swap for the navigation. I updated it with CSS. The page headings and the navigation headings all used a "Starcraft" font... which is not installed on most systems. I left that out.

What is Broken Alliance Effect? In high school, I thought my friends and I could be the next Rooster Teeth. I jumped on the machinima band wagon using Starcraft. I called it “Broken Alliance Effect,” because it is a cool name. I named the group “Blizzard Monkies,” because it is, also, a cool name. Yes, I am aware that is not how "Monkeys" is spelt. It is misspelt on purpose, because I am edgy.

This website was cutting edge. The links change color when you hover over them. I had a Flash landing page. I also created a teaser trailer and a full-length trailer for the series. Because Flash is dead, I was able convert them to video format. I put the trailers under the video section. I kept the main landing page, but just embedded a video demonstrating how it worked. There is no audio in any of the videos.

I had a lot of fun with the series. I made Starcraft maps growing up. For the episodes, I would write a script, rig everything in the Starcraft map editor, play the map, record it, and dub audio over the video. I rigged the trailer, and a few character intros. I think I may have also rigged the first episode. Over the years, I have lost the Broken Alliance maps, so I cannot say for sure.

One of the character intros was cool. For Chuck, he climbs into a siege tank and turns on the radio. Good Charlotte's I Just Wanna Live starts playing. He drives along a path, running over various animals and Zerg creatures. He stops to the end of the road, and one of the other characters is standing there. You are meant to think he is going to run the other character over. A few seconds pass, and he starts "dancing" to the song. The "dancing" was just the siege tank sprite being flipped. Good stuff.

The free webhost died, and I lost interest. Mainly, I wanted to pivot from a specific concept, like a machinima show, to something more general. It leads to the birth of Royfuss.