Howdy folks, and welcome to this week’s developer’s diary entry for my new mod! I’ve been working on another diverse set of TMNT characters this week, and I’ve got a good deal to show off, with a little more still waiting in the wings. Every time I think I’ve reached the end of my Turtles list, I get the delightful surprise that even more characters have been created, so our cast continues to grow by leaps and bounds! This update features a wide variety of characters, mostly from the classic sources, but a few from more modern versions of the Turtles. And once again, I’m thrilled that several of this week’s additions have been on my wishlist for ages and ages! As usual, I’ll provide some background on the characters themselves and walk you through the design process for each of them. I’ve also got a new teaser video, which I’ll share at the bottom of this post!
Character Backgrounds
Wingnut: The bonkers bat-like alien with a tragic past is a chaotic but heroic high-flying member of the Mutanimals, and he is a life-long favorite of mine! I’ve loved Wingnut’s wonderfully weird look ever since I got his action figure, oh so many years ago, and he was near the very top of my Dream Team list. I really came to enjoy the character in his all-too-brief run with the Mighty Mutanimals, before they met their untimely fate. In the classic Archie comics, he was revealed to be the last survivor of a race of bat-like aliens from the world of Huanu in Dimension X (the name is a joke; say it aloud and think of bats).
It turned out that his people had actually been exterminated by Krang, which both explained Wingnut’s erratic behavior and made him a sympathetic figure, while massively upping Krang’s threat level at the same time. Wingnut was accompanied by another survivor of his world, a mosquito-like alien named Screwloose, and the two shared a symbiotic bond and a deep friendship. The characters proved fairly popular, appearing in pretty much all of the Turtles incarnations since then, but always in very different fashions. I was particularly disappointed with the IDW version, which took the idea of the partners’ symbiotic relationship to a creepy extreme, actually combining the two beings. Sadly, the classic version has never really come back, which makes me all the more delighted to have him in the mod!
Slash: This fierce, turtle-like alien turned unstable ally, with unmatched strength and a fiery temper, is a fan-favorite character who remains popular throughout the various TMNT incarnations. He’s another who showed up in the toyline, the cartoon, and has continued to reappear in each version of the Turtles. There are some constants across his incarnations, as he is always possessed by rage and is a whirlwind of violence and destruction. My favorite version is the classic anti-heroic Archie one, where he was an alien from a tropical world that had been devastated by deforestation (the Archie book was super environmental). Arriving on Earth, he worked with Krang and the villains for a time, but he was really just misunderstood, wanting little more than to be left alone, like the Hulk. He eventually came to be an ally of Mutanimals, and he actually met a tragic but heroic end avenging their deaths and saving the Earth in one of the series’ most memorable stories.
Mutagen Man: This grotesque mutant with exposed organs is a tragic figure, suddenly thrust into a world he never made and trying to hold on to his humanity in the face of an inhuman fate. Unquestionably, the most compelling version of this character is the rather heart-breaking IDW one, but the classic cartoon and toy version(s) are memorable and fun. It’s amazing how many of these characters stick in the zeitgeist despite very limited original exposure, returning again and again in Turtles media. For Mutagen Man, his story changes in the specifics, but he’s usually the victim of exposure to an unstable form of mutagen, which has the fairly horrific results you see in his portrait, rendering him little more than a collection of organs in a jar. Interestingly, the cartoon version had the power to temporarily alter his appearance because the mutagen remained active.
The Fugiotid: The brilliant scientist Professor Honeycutt was one of the greatest minds in his sector of space, but he became trapped in an advanced robot body, and, thanks to his knowledge of the “transmat” device, or teleportation technology, he also became a fugitive…or fugitoid, if you will. This memorable and lovable supporting character from the original Turtles comics has appeared in several incarnations, notably the 2003 series and the IDW books, but he’s remained surprisingly consistent in the different universes. That’s probably because his story is so simple yet so engaging. It just works, and works well. He even got a toy back in the day, despite never appearing in the classic cartoon, which really seems like a missed opportunity.
Alopex: The highly skilled mutant fox, trained as a ninja by the Foot Clan, eventually became an ally of the Turtles and a romantic partner for Raphael. Alopex was introduced in the IDW comics and quickly grew into a compelling and worthwhile character. Created and raised by the Shredder, she had an interesting and complicated relationship to the Turtles and their foes. Interestingly, she was clearly based on the Archie Comics character, Ninjara, who had a similar arc, from enemy to ally, and also was romantically linked to Raphael. They’re both humanoid foxes, though Ninjara was actually from a hidden race of fox folk, rather than a mutant. For her part, Alopex was used very well in the IDW run, and she makes a great addition to the Turtles mythos. While I don’t want to add all the characters from the IDW series into the mod, she’s one I’m glad to have.
Karai: The fierce, cunning warrior with a complex relationship with the Turtles, is often an ambiguous antagonist, trying to balance ambition and honor. She has also appeared across a variety of Turtle incarnations, but I think her treatment by IDW has been the best. She’s had a fascinating arc, both enemy and ally, and her descent into the dark has been moving and memorable. In all of her incarnations, she is a leader in the Foot Clan, often serving Shredder, willingly or unwillingly. Her IDW version is a descendant of the ancient Shredder and begins as his loyal follower, but she eventually grows into a complicated and dangerous antagonist chasing her own agenda. She makes a nice addition to the Turtles mythos, giving the Heroes in a Halfshell another human Foot opponent and a source of conflict within the enemy organization.
Scumbug: This macabre insectoid exterminator was mutated into the very vermin he was trying to wipe out, and the result is one of the creepier foes of the TMNT. He had a very memorable (and mildly horrifying) debut in the Archie series, along with the weird and vile Wyrm. The pair battled to see who would get to eat the TMNT, and despite their apparent deaths, they returned, much later, in another memorable and creepy tale that riffed on the Alien and Predator movies. Scumbug also received an action figure with a design that took full advantage of the gross-out culture of the day. Notably, he appeared in one of the fan-favorite episodes of the classic cartoon, Night of the Rogues, which featured Shredder building a team out of some of the best of the Turtles’ foes. Interestingly, although the episode treats him like an established character, this was actually his first and only appearance.
Design Process
This was an interesting batch of characters to design. Several of them were pretty straightforward, but many of them required a fairly creative approach, either because of limitations in source materials or because they weren’t necessarily the most combat-focused of characters. I’m pretty happy with the end results, and I think they make a great addition to the roster of Turtles characters in the mod, as well as giving me some fun possibilities for campaigns.
Wingnut, despite being a character that I’ve been dreaming about getting into FF for years, proved surprisingly challenging. I had long thought about how I’d build him, but you never know exactly how a character will come together until you see the mesh and animations you’re dealing with. Fortunately, Deanjo2000’s amazing skope and skin gave me a lot of options. The trouble was, Wingnut didn’t really get a chance to do all that much in the Archie series, where I most knew him from. His go-to moves were throwing rocks, which felt a little anticlimactic for a giant anthropomorphic bat, and dive-bombing his foes. The dive-bombing works well with a flying melee attack to represent it, but I wanted for Wingnut to have a bit more variety and interest in his build.
I decided to design him as an intentional contrast to Ace Duck. Where Ace was fast and agile but fragile, while carrying a lot of hardware, an air-superiority fighter with duck wings and a bomb jacket, I thought of Wingnut as a gunship, heavier, slower, but tougher and stronger. It makes sense, too; with his metal wings, he probably wouldn’t be the fastest, but he would be able to take a beating. I also drew some inspiration from his toy, giving him a utility belt and some bombs and projectiles (bat-arangs!), which gives him some options in the air. Finally, it occurred to me that I hadn’t been thinking about his animal of origin, and I decided to give him a sonic attack, like a bat’s sonar, and I made it cone mental blank attack.
Slash was pretty straightforward. I knew exactly what I wanted from him, a heavier, stronger, slower, and crazier version of Raphael. He’s basically the most violent of the Turtles turned up to 11. So, I built Slash as an absolute melee monster, with a range of attacks, Grim Resolve, Claws, and other attributes to make him tougher. I even gave him a custom attribute so I could give him a little extra. Of course, he had to have Hot Tempered and Berzerker, which makes him a danger to pretty much anyone in a fight, friend or foe alike. And many of his attacks hit an arc, allowing him to rip through minions like a spike-covered blender of death. I also gave him a single knife throw, just to give him some option at range.
Mutagen Man proved the biggest challenge of the bunch. In most of his incarnations, we don’t really get to see him do much. However, I watched his classic cartoon episode looking for some inspiration, and that incredibly creative show came through in silly spades. In it, his mutation is unstable, as well as generally gross, so he can shape shift, and I thought, what if that constant shifting mutation could have some other effects as well? So, I built the metaphoric marvel with that as the premise. He has an interesting set of attributes, including Adaptive, so his resistances change to protect him against the last damage he took, and Disguise, allowing him to take on the appearance of another. The real center of his build, though, is Mutator, which means he develops random powers that change every few minutes. This makes him really wild and chaotic in game.
The Fugitoid presented his own challenge, mostly because he’s not exactly a fighter. Despite his tough robot body, he’s no warrior, and he’s often in need of protection. Thus, I build him as primarily a support character. He’s got a solid punch with his metal fist and a medium-range laser torch, but that’s about it for his offensive options. The rest of his powers are focused on support, whether it be supercharging an ally with an experimental power source, giving them unstable energy in the process, or outwitting a foe’s defenses and reversing their resistances. This makes him a useful character, even if he’s not the best in a straight fight.
The Former Foot fox, Alopex was pretty easy to build, in contrast. She is a fast and agile ninja, with lots of melee attacks that do good stun. She’s not all that tough, but she’s pretty hard to hit. I also gave her a few shuriken attacks for some ranged options and a smoke bomb to help her get in close. I think she’ll fit in well with the Turtles and work as a good ally for any of them.
Karai was pretty easy as well. I built her in a similar fashion, but with more balance. She has a bow for solid ranged attacks, including a few trick arrows that blind or explode. She also has Combat Skill (Expert), making her a real menace in melee, where she has a range of attacks with her swords. In addition, many of her attacks hit an arc, so she’s particularly dangerous against groups. She’s not as tough as Shredder, but she is more mobile and can do more damage at range.
I had a pretty clear-cut concept for Scumbug, but I ended up running out of steam and struggling to fully flesh-out his HF. He was on my Dream Team list, unusually, not because I have a strong attachment to him, but because I thought he’d make an interesting foe for the Turtles, and I think that has paid off. His basic build is straightforward, tough and hardy, with good physical resistances because of his exoskeleton, as well as Neutralize, given his poison-soaked origin, which protects him against the toxins he wields. He has a few solid melee powers, not fast but strong, and he has a poison gun, which allows him to spray toxins, doing acid damage. He’s also got a few chances to inflict acid burn, including a “bug bomb” grenade. The end result is a pretty dangerous foe for the Turtles, one that is hard to hurt and can dish out some solid damage.
And that wraps up this behind-the-scenes feature, with a new set of characters ready to be added to the roster! I hope y’all enjoyed this post, and as always, I’d love to hear from y’all with any feedback or ideas. You can check out one of my tests with all of these characters in the video here below, as well as a peak at a new map featuring the Technodrome! Look for more developer’s diaries coming soon!
The Greylands 