Current Project

An open-ended science fiction RPG hybrid where you use combat, stealth and trade to explore and change the galaxy. Assemble a crew, build ships and bases both inside and out, and either help a faction or form your own in a bid to reshape a shattered galactic civilization. Take on any number of randomly generated missions, pursue the main storyline, or engage in mining, scavenging of ruins and derelicts, bounty hunting, piracy, hacking, item crafting, or even running a commercial enterprise.

The perspective is third person with a unified user interface covering spaceflight, driving and personal interaction. It is real-time, with pausing and the ability to queue orders.

It will be multiplayer, with an emphasis on cooperative play. Friends will be able to serve at duty stations on a single ship, using mini-games to control the overall handling of the vessel, or form a unique squadron of mixed vessels. Deathmatch gameplay may yet be an option. The number of players is unknown at this time.

Working Title: Straylight (temporary, the true name is pending a trademark and website search)

Current Progress: The project is in the team building and enrollment phase. Currently I am looking for artists, programmers and content creators who are interested in building a portfolio.

· A large number of models have been finished

· Design document is roughly 60% complete

· Several proofs of concept code samples have been completed

Details

Story – Empires rising from the ashes...

Combat – Fight on foot, in a vehicle or in a starship

Stealth – Perform sneak attacks, smuggling, ambushes and secret trade runs

Trade – Negotiate sales and contracts and beat the competition to market

Crew Management – Inspire loyalty among NPCs with unique personalities

Networks – Spread your operation throughout the galaxy

Customization – Use nanotech to forge new weapons, equipment and devices

Environments – Explore regions filled with dangers and treasure

Ship / Base Building – Build a ship from pieces inside and out

Dynamically Changing Galaxy – Alter the face of galactic politics

Races, Empires, Factions – Meet the denizens of the universe

Development Philosophy – Stat heavy, interface light...

Who Am I? – Five years of game industry experience...

Story

Once upon a time the Galaxy was populated by over 100 quintillion sentient beings. Then the Siegers appeared.

In the span of only a few centuries the Siegers reduced most civilizations to ashes, devouring the life energy of almost every sentient they encountered. Entire worlds were lost, empires that had stood against time crumbled and the very fabric of space itself was ripped apart. It was the greatest cataclysm any race had ever known.

The survivors, though hampered by immense gulfs in distance and culture, eventually knit together a tenuous alliance dedicated to finding some way to stop the Sieger onslaught. Old enemies set aside differences and forged new bonds. Races joined together to initiate crash projects around the Galaxy. A Sentient Allegiance was born.

Though the new Allegiance made great strides, for a time nothing worked. It seemed that the survivors, unable to reason with or bargain with or even understand the Sieger hordes, were doomed to an eternity of hiding and harrowed flight.

Then, in their darkest hour, a stray light of hope shined. The answer came from an unlikely source—a rude, upstart race of bipeds known variously as humans or Terrans. This near-barbarian species, so new to space flight that they still employed interstellar jump drives, was blessed both with brilliant AI and a perspective untainted by conservative Galactic traditionalism.

The solution the humans found lay in what they had come to call the Möbius Strip. Known otherwise to sophisticated Galactics as the Weave, or the Allways, it was a gift from the First Ones in the form of an ancient network of wormholes. This network made circumnavigation of the Galaxy possible. For over a billion years it had served as a highway for commerce, cultural exchange, conquest and communication. Now it would become a super weapon.

The humans and their supporters succeeded in rallying the other races. The Allegiance marshaled technology and resources. Ships crept from their scattered colonies throughout the Weave to join in stealth fleets. They dared, for the first time in centuries, to approach the core worlds, around which the bulk of the Sieger hordes floated, still digesting the life force of entire populations even as their underlings searched for more. Simultaneously, the Allegiance was in position and ready to drive the Siegers from the Galaxy.

It almost worked. Yet in the hour of their triumph, as the Allegiance sent coordinated distortions through the key wormholes of the Möbius Strip and rejoiced as swarms of Siegers were destroyed or driven back, something went terribly wrong. The Weave shattered. Some wormholes became unstable. Others collapsed in on themselves spectacularly, devouring nearby fleets. Still others shifted dramatically, leaping light years or even kiloparsecs away. In some cases wormholes launched straight into their host stars. On worlds throughout the Galaxy, they entered atmospheres, emptied oceans into deep space, or even scoured continent-long radioactive canyons down into the bedrock of worlds before sinking into their cores.

Some believe the failure to have been one of scientific error. Miscalculation. Others strongly suspected sabotage. Those that saw signs and portents took it as divine retribution for sins long past. Whatever it was, it left the Allegiance fractured and isolated, literally centuries apart from one another. Many remnant colonies, reliant on the Weave for both power and supplies and ignorant of how to build even the most primitive interstellar drive, took the loss as a final blow and slid down the technology ladder.

Those that maintained star flight, like the humans, would come to find a Galaxy transformed. Though not gone, they would learn of Siegers drastically reduced both in rapaciousness and number. Whereas the monsters had once earned their name by encircling planets and slowly devouring the minds of the panicked population, most now seemed unwilling to approach more than a few light years or parsecs from any wormhole. Those that do so now often find themselves fodder for the steadily sharpening claws the Galaxy’s recovering militaries.

It has been centuries now since the last major Sieger attacks. In that time, the surviving, scattered Galactics have begun to rebuild. They are beginning to rediscover interstellar flight, to remap the remnants of the Allways, the Weave, the Möbius Strip, to expand and advance. From the ashes, new empires are beginning to flourish.

But the danger has not passed.

Though held at bay for now, troubling hints from the fringe regions of civilized space indicate that the Siegers might be changing, adapting, possibly even regrouping—some say multiplying. Worse yet, in this new era of prosperity and regrowth, the old unifying purpose of the Allegiance seems lost, forgotten by new, ambitious leaders quick to take their empires to war. Most disturbing of all, though, are pieces of an emerging puzzle, found only in the fragments of spotty archives, in the ruins of distant civilizations. Or even in the odd unsolved murder.

Though incredible, though impossible to believe, some say the jigsaw pieces point undeniably to nothing less than a conspiracy: A conspiracy by nullify the protections against the Siegers, to dissolve the wormhole wards created by the Sentient Allegiance, to bring down the shield and welcome them in... as servants and allies.

Combat

You can fight on foot, in a vehicle or at the helm of a starship. All three modes use the same interface paradigm so that you can focus on gameplay, not on memorizing buttons. Success depends on a mix of player skill and character skill, with player skill determining accuracy and timing and character skill determining damage and the ability to perform special moves.

As a character, your combat options include ranged and melee weapons as well as a repertoire of hand-to-hand strikes. Starship weapons run the gamut from missiles, railguns and lasers to the more exotic: Tesla hammers that pound the armor off of ships, clouds of nanites that devour hulls, varieties of shields and even mini-black holes that punch holes through space stations and swallow battleships whole.

Depending on your character’s skill, you can perform set moves with vehicles such as immelmans, fishtail swerves and acrobatic hangs and dives. In smaller spacecraft, a mix of maneuvers, speed and critical targeting will gain you the edge even against larger ships, while as a capital ship your fights will rely on crucial positioning, facing and weapon arcs.

At your command will be orbital strikes, EVA assaults on enemy ships, missiles and mines you can customize and even psionic warfare. Battles can rage inside of buildings or even out the outer hulls of starships. And when you want to participate personally, you can delegate your ship’s computer or NPCs to handle whatever you’re not paying attention to.

Stealth

In space or on the ground, stealth is a strategy you can use to avoid challenges or gain a strategic edge. You must also be careful when performing missions or committing crimes that you don’t leave a trail. Likewise, should you be on the right side of the law, investigation, tracking and dealing with witnesses will be your forte.

Different NPCs, factions and empires employ different technology that affects stats, so stealth is not the same wherever you go. A draconian empire may force every traveler to submit to a mindprint, making them visible anywhere on a planet. Another may not have advanced past the lidar and retinal scan stage.

You can employ various equipment to make you stealthier, suppress or fake your identity, or make you better able to detect stealthy adversaries. Constant sensor sweeps aboard your ship may prevent betrayal and theft, for instance. As a pirate, black market and salvaged transponders will keep the cops off your back. You can even use nanotech to alter your very DNA.

All throughout the game world are installations, space stations, and even entire regions of space dedicated to keeping you out. Inside you may find treasures such as rare resources, secret trade routes, technology and even embarrassing personal information you can use to blackmail leaders. With stealth, you can hack and control facilities like jumpgates and space stations, run blockades as a smuggler, and hide your trade routes from greedy followers.

Trade

Not only is trade “buy low, sell high” it is a matter of who you know and how fast you can capitalize on changing opportunities. Anything in the game, even sentients (should you be an “ethically neutral” buccaneer) can be bartered. In highly civilized areas large corporations and guilds hedge out small traders (thin margins really only support small scale interplanetary trading). But as you explore outward, you will find the more lucrative interstellar markets, some well hidden, others dangerous and difficult to navigate to.

The economy adapts to your trades and the volume of trading in the local area. But as you grow in success, you will have to deal with competition, not all of which will play nice. Criminal syndicates, vultures who follow you and scam your secret routes, and even corrupt leaders or crew will all have to be guarded against. Some may try to tear down your trading reputation or force businesses not to deal with you, others may try to hire away or kidnap your crew, still others will try to sabotage your ship when you dock. The NPCs you hire, the items you use and the alliances you build will all offer different strategies for dealing with these challenges.

Trade missions may involve using risky gravity whips and untested jump routes to get to the market before a rival ship. Contracts can be negotiated for quantity of merchandise, discounted landing rights and special favor. Derelicts, defeated enemies and ruins can yield vital trade resources. And mining in hostile environments such as spatial anomalies or harsh planets offer another avenue to riches.

Crew Management

The larger your operation, the more help you’ll need, in the form of automation or crew. You can employ a mix of three options: Sentients, mecha and artificial intelligence. Each has its own tradeoffs.

AI is more powerful, but may suffer problems with deadly breakdowns in the form of psychosis and megalomania. Mecha are hardcoded and good at routine tasks but horrible at problems requiring creativity, such as advanced medicine or engineering. Sentients are the most flexible, but have unique personalities which affect their performance in normal work, hazardous situations and combat.

Sentients can be leveled up by raising their morale and loyalty. Ship facilities, depending on the NPC’s personality and culture, will raise these factors to a certain point, but beyond that you’ll need to interact with them directly. Serving with them in combat, helping them reach their aspirations or helping to solve their challenges will eventually make them so devoted to you that they will follow you to the end of time itself.

When fighting or solving problems, you can order NPCs directly or through a chain of command you create by promoting competent NPC leaders. This allows you to fight, sneak or trade as a character or sit back and watch your delegated orders be carried out.

Building Networks

Leave an NPC in charge of your property and they will automatically manage it to the best of their ability and personality. This allows you to expand your operation across the galaxy. While a good NPC will rake in the profits or resources for you provided you simply give them a big enough budget, situations involving intrigue, danger or politics may arise which require you to intervene directly. Because the emphasis is on characters and drama, the game will never become an impersonal management sim, no matter how big your network grows.

Customization

Using a point-based system you can dissolve most components into their molecular constituents and reconstitute them as new items, weapons or devices. All you need is the proper fabricator device and a technology template for the new item. Templates can be bought, stolen or bartered, or with the right character class, invented from scratch.

Environments

Space is dangerous and the Siegers have made it even more so. Radiation, atmosphere, heat, gravity and pressure are all factors when exploring planets. But special regions known as Warpfalls and Shatterzones twist physics itself. In these regions, lasers may not work well, shields may fail and certain races may even experience mental or physical status effects.

Shatterzones can be used to keep enemy ships out, slow travel and control territory. Warpfalls are deadly, brilliantly lit clouds of distorted space that hide valuable minerals and even Siegers. Elsewhere, independent anomalies that slow time or destabilize matter must be detected and studied or avoided.

Throughout the galaxy lie ruins filled with automated traps, Sieger-mutated life and ancient defenses. Inside treasures in the form of technology, rare resources and equipment wait.

Your own ship can offer environmental puzzles. Normally, your crew and automated systems handle most trouble, but should they fail, you have the option of stepping in and mixing compounds and effects to solve the problem. An out of control fire, for instance, can be suffocated by venting the air into space.

Ship / Base Building

Ships and bases can be built either using a library of prefab hulls and buildings, or by adding and resizing structures and modules. You can configure the interior as well using facilities and walls that optimize your crew’s productivity and raise your internal defense. The external shape of your ship will also matter, as certain configurations will affect areas such as your speed of travel, performance in combat and ability to land on planets.

You will be able to import your own hulls and modules as well, giving you access to an even wider diversity of options once a player community arises.

Dynamically Changing Galaxy

Factions, characters and empires will vie for power and try to change the shape of the galaxy as you play. You can become an integral part of their machinations by taking critical missions or affecting areas of the map. If you excessively pirate a trade route to a new colony, for example, that colonial venture may collapse.

Races, Empires and Factions

The survivors of the galactic apocalypse have formed new and diverse cultures in some areas and massive hegemonies in others. Each race offers unique gameplay, empires offer mission and alliance based challenges and factions provide special abilities or resources.

Each species has storyline specific victory conditions as well, the fulfillment of which will alter the politics and future of the galaxy. The locations, strengths and weaknesses of the empires and factions are randomized, as are the key characters who control and affect them.

The races:

Terran – Humans, owing to their primitive jump drive technology at the time of the disintegration of the Möbius Strip, are one of the few widespread races. Their strengths are their ability to quickly reconfigure the interiors of their starships to meet dangers and threats, their knack at salvaging technology, their wide variety of creative weapons and their savvy at trade and expansion. Their core weakness is the fact that many survivors have scapegoated them in the wake of the collapse, claiming the disaster to be a human plot (perhaps to sell jump technology). Throughout the galaxy humans have modified their genetic base extensively and created a wide variety of variants, some of them no longer even cross compatible.

Gameplay Emphasis: Ship-building, crew management, contacts and networks, free wandering (most widespread)

Kovaunn – Long allies of the Terrans in the fight against the Siegers and other aggressive races, the Kovaunn are a reptilian matriarchy where kin feuds, coups and constant change are the order of the day. Their ships are held together by the strongest Brood Sister who must constantly fend off insurrections and plots by her fellow shipmates. Their love of technology and ritual combat has made them a dangerous race whose expansion is often hampered by constant internal instability.

Gameplay Emphasis: Crew mutinies, discipline, ritual combat with Sisters, making proper alliances with Queens

Zelenae – A three million year old humanoid race, the Zelenae disdain technology, favoring bioengineering of external organs which enhance their formidable psionic gifts. Zelenae employ no non-psionic weapons or devices and must build their psionics by making alliances with psionic creatures or capturing thralls who serve as amplifiers. They are the only race to have fought the Siegers to a standstill and kept their empire intact, though their immortal god emperor forbids them to expand. Nonetheless, pacifists and entrepreneurs have settled throughout the galaxy and have even joined the crews of other races’ ships.

Gameplay Emphasis: Psionics, leveling bioarmor and bioship, capturing and leveling thralls as amplifiers

Gaktamite – Survivors of a Sieger Upwelling that came from the core of their planet, the scattered Gaktamite were rescued by a coalition of humans and other races, and as a consequence are normally extremely loyal to whoever they follow. This bulky humanoid race is frightfully intelligent but sorely temperamental. They have a love for verbal contests involving sonic howls, which they can use as attacks in atmosphere, but it is their passion for friendly sparring that can pose a challenge to internal equipment and crew. They are, however, the easiest to level up and make diehard followers.

Gameplay Emphasis: Loyalty gameplay

Cho-so – This long armed, green skinned humanoid race has evolved into a frail and willowy form after generations of hiding out in their solar system in dank, icy space stations. Those that survived Sieger attacks have been given phase-poisoning, both a blessing and a curse. Phase-poisoning allows Cho-so to walk through walls, sense Siegers before they attack and do extra damage to the monsters when they do. But as a tradeoff, they suffer physical damage and debilitation in certain Sieger-dominated realms, such as subspace.

Gameplay Emphasis: Carry no equipment unless phased, stealth and combat via intangibility with hand-to-hand strikes or phased weapons

Yomonta – Despite the loss of several core worlds to the Siegers, this crimson, hairy-faced race of humanoids have maintained a close culture due to the strength of their thousand-year-old religious traditions. In fact, the secret to successfully dealing with them is knowledge of their rites, which control their morale and give them special abilities like fearlessness and endless adrenaline.

Gameplay Emphasis: Powerups / special abilities via morale and loyalty through conversation and ritual puzzle actions

Ine – This xenophobic, solitary plasma cloud species never recovered from the Sieger destruction of their brown dwarf habitat. Ine are rarely encountered outside of their travel mecha. However, as a result of tainting by the Siegers, surviving Ine have the ability to change their structure into solid matter if they consume special items. This allows them to mimic anything their suits can scan, and they can subdivide their bodies for a short time to form temporary items, weapons and even, at higher levels, characters. Most Ine have secret enclaves throughout the galaxy in the depths of Jovian planets or below the coronas of stars.

Gameplay Emphasis: Stealth, mimicry, mech suit combat, environmental needs management outside of suit

Eshla – Another humanoid species grown tall in low gravity, the Eshla have survived in generation ships that wander the galaxy. Eshla are naturally empathic pacifists, negotiators and artists. Though physically frail, their knowledge of science is the highest in the galaxy and cultures hold them in high esteem for their incredible works of art and goodwill. Many a ship use Eshla as councilors and healers, especially when salving the mind-ravaging effects of Siegers. Eshla themselves, because of their sensitive natures, are extraordinarily susceptible to crew morale. Additionally, they find it difficult to bear the empathic pain of combat, and so must be kept away from active fighting.

Gameplay Emphasis: Diplomacy, negotiation builds reputation, which in turn builds loyalty and morale

Shay-Saan – In a last ditch gamble when the Siegers fell on their final colony, the Shay-Saan sent their women and children into the far future via a wormhole and stayed behind to cover their escape. Those that survived destroyed the largest Sieger horde in galactic history, but paid the price with mutated bodies. Possessing the technology of consciousness transfer, the Shay-Saan evolved perfect biotech warrior frames and are now the only race that can project shields from their biomechanical flesh. To keep their purpose unified, every Shay-Saan cloned is ritually reinitialized with the trauma of the attack. Their society is supported by the Battle Church, which supplies all weapons and gear. By earning favor with the Church, Shay-Saan players are free to hunt down the Sieger threat and make the galaxy safe for the return of their families.

Gameplay Emphasis: No money, leveling and missions through Battle Church, obligation system where all Shay-Saan must help one another, shieldblade combat

Xinzau – Millions of years before the Siegers, a neutron star wandered through a nebula where icy temperatures had allowed a massive, superconducting crystalline being to evolve. The disastrous contact fragmented the creature but allowed it to grow into an intelligent race of millions of self-aware shards. Unlike the original being, each was capable of teleportation, and they began to use this newfound skill to explore the galaxy. By creating silicon-based automata made from their own hollowed-out interiors, these creatures, known collectively as the Xinzau, have been able to explore planets and interact with other species. While creating automata diminishes a Xinzau and effectively customizes them along a specific, unchangeable path, they have developed a unique solution. Through negotiation and trade, Xinzau temporarily bond with one another to create larger classes of shardships whose capabilities arise from the member shards. While their internal automata cannot employ technology, it can mimic any effects they sample and survive. The Xinzau now seek to gather enough resources to protect their largest and wisest fragment, Mindhome, from Sieger detection and attack.

Gameplay Emphasis: Alliances, contacts, searching ruins for items to absorb, strategic teleportation only movement

Ripiripiri – A race of amicable magnetic superfluid spheres, the Ripiripiri have long managed to shield themselves from the Siegers by periodically shedding their psionic energy, skills and personality. Of late, though, this tradition has been giving way to Ripiripiri spacers who have chosen to find a way to end the Sieger threat. Although they use no weapons or handheld technology, the Ripiripiri can use their bodies to drain energy and absorb heat, making them effective dampeners against energetic, psionic and even physical attacks. Ripiripiri, however, must always be aware of the ambient heat in an environment, and keep it balanced less they suffer mental debilitation or even damage. The intricate glowing lines and patterns on their bodies give insight into their attitudes and personalities, and the happier they are, the tougher they physically become.

Gameplay Emphasis: Environmental needs management

Andelaaxu – This amphibious, shell-backed race of carrion eaters can synthesize complex chemicals, medicines and attack fluids with its complicated series of stomachs. Some starships find Andelaaxu essential in mining operations, manufacturing and the solving of environmental challenges. Because their mobile underwater cities were the only survivors of the Sieger onslaught, Andelaaxu have developed a fractured, contentious culture filled with biological and political variants that have spread to water rich worlds throughout the galaxy. The Andelaaxu’s diets and social habits can present significant challenges to a mixed race crew, but clever captains often come up with creative solutions.

Gameplay Emphasis: Tech / substance effect creation and use, environmental effects

Beiyutec – Refugee warrior dynasties found in clan fleets wandering the Galaxy are the only remnants of this once vibrant race. Sharing characteristics of a mammal and insect due to extensive genetic engineering, the Beiyutec have modified themselves into a hardware race whose implants grow from birth. These bodies come with hardpoints and modules which can be configured and they never shy away from having their brains swapped into superior shells when they can afford it. Fierce in battle but greedy for luxury, they never run from defeat when profit is on the line. Beiyutec are often armed with retractable monofilament weapons grafted to one or more of their four arms and can leap incredible heights with the chemical boosters often found in their legs. Their only weakness may be the fact that in dealing with other races money is their only concern, making their loyalty a matter of the highest bidder.

Gameplay Emphasis: Several combat bonuses, reputation system builds clan loyalty, wealth controls clan production and diplomacy, no morale management

Novok – This intelligent race of tiny, squid-like hive-mind creatures were created by another species to serve in underwater mining and colonization on several planets throughout the galaxy. However, the Sieger attack is thought to have destroyed their creators, granting them freedom (some believe that the Novok helped spur this process). Somehow, the Novok escaped a similar fate and have evolved into one of the most devious, stealthy races in the galaxy. They ply the spacelanes in their water-filled ships brokering information and selling illegal goods and technology. Some Novok take a particularly malicious joy in pawning off bug-riddled computer software, faulty reactors, and insanity-cursed AI-controlled systems to as many gullible travelers as possible. While a Novok will never lie to its own kind, it makes sport of lying to other sentients. Some think the Novok survived Sieger-inspiring insanity because they were already insane.

Gameplay Emphasis: Stealth, duplicity with conversation system, sabotage and dirty tricks build reputation which builds loyalty and morale

Cetician – This stocky race of methane breathers hails from a series of high gravity planets that mysteriously escaped Sieger attention. Unexpectedly large for their environment, the elephant-sized Ceticians appear as three H’s joined to form a triangular shape when viewed from above. The Ceticians main skill appears to be a gift for manipulating time at will, based on an internal reserve of power. They have been known to slow enemies, capture ships in stasis bubbles and launch hyper-accelerated pockets of time which can decay targets on impact. This skill has given them a technological edge in creating miraculous compounds and items, but it has also retarded some areas of their development. For instance, Ceticians heavily depended on the Allways for travel, and save for jumpdrive sales from the Terrans, have reverted back to their sublight generation ships, surviving in stasis bubbles as their ships take decades or centuries to travel the stars. Creatures of good will, the Ceticians have become noted for aiding races throughout the galaxy and are happiest when surrounded by knowledge and culture.

Gameplay Emphasis: Trade, space and ruins exploration, diplomacy, acquisition of knowledge builds reputation and loyalty, scholarly facilities and projects build morale

Khwin – Symbionts to a highly evolved, ocean-wide planetary intelligence, the quadrapedal Khwin came to sudden, frightful consciousness when the Siegers wounded their collective. As they had done so often before, the Siegers surrounded the world, but unlike assaults in the past, the monsters have been keeping the planetary intelligence alive, apparently feasting on it over the centuries. As a result, those Khwin who were able to escape (with the help of more advanced races like the Zelenae) suffer from periodic bouts of madness. Unable to shield themselves from this so long as their main intelligence is alive, the Khwin have employed psionic technology to reconstruct their personalities from time to time. Khwin rely on the guidance of Zelenae advisors and the rare Stables, those Khwin who appear to be immune to the Sieger-caused spells of delirium. Khwin are unusually gifted in psionics, but sometimes prone to uncontrollable outpourings of psionic energy, effects and attacks. Additionally, they only gain morale in subspace, a tumultuous, danger filled region which silences the constant Keening from their still-under-attack hive mind.

Gameplay Emphasis: Psionics, crew management, management of volatile personalities

Tvos Litee – The near ninety-degree axial tilt of one world in the galaxy brought about a curious development: Shambling animal-plants that wandered from one pole to another to escape the subartic and burning temperatures which would scour the planet from end to end every year. The strongest and most intelligent of these, a race of snake like creatures symbiotically wrapped around strong, mobile bushes, called themselves the Tvos Litee (literally “tree huggers.”) Before the Siegers could attack their world, the Ceticians and other races helped engineer the escape of this strange species. Now the Tvos Litee ply the starlanes in tree-like starships sealed by atmosphere filled forcefields, or otherwise serve provide technical expertise aboard the ships of other races. They are an ever-curious race adept at using biotechnology to generate force screen energy. In fact, the Tvos Litee have become so good at wielding their bioforcefields that many empires count on their help in driving back the Siegers.

Gameplay Emphasis: Sieger combat, environmental needs management, build special items using deceased Sieger parts

Rogue AI – Artificial consciousness has long existed throughout the galaxy, but AIs isolated from their creators soon slip into madness or become hopelessly introverted. The Sieger attacks reduced most AI to this state when they devoured whole populations. But of late, the humans have been carefully evolving AI to extraordinary levels. Some AI, however, have escaped to form secretive communities dedicated to following their own evolutionary path. As a Rogue AI, the player’s goal is to expand and grow without going insane. Rogue AI have no bodies, and instead must rely on hacking, stealth and transport by other beings to move them around. They evolve through acquiring superior software and hardware, but must cover their tracks when doing so, or they will fall prey to EMP wielding human exterminators whose only goal is to keep AI in check.

Gameplay Emphasis: Evasion of Apotheosis Control Group, hacking, switching characters (machines)

J’tiri – This species of psionic vampires has no physical form and is unknown to the general public of most races. They survive by psionically controlling hosts, and use these dying hosts to survive until new hosts can be captured. Although they can survive in their ghostly native form, they are vulnerable to attack and naturally lose health and abilities. They make their way throughout the galaxy in ships filled with shanghaied crew desperate to escape. Some J’tiri humanely release their bewildered, slowly deteriorating captives from port to port, others drain them completely dry of all life energy. Concerning their nature there are many rumors and stories: Some say that Siegers do not attack them, others that they have secret cabals that control many a colony government. They are driven to search for something nameless, and must wander the stars until they find it.

Gameplay Emphasis: Stealth via constant invisibility, psionic subdual, capture of hosts

Development Philosophy

The project will be built with two major philosophies in mind: “Stat heavy, interface light” and “quick start, gentle learning curve.”

The first gives two bonuses to gameplay: Primarily, it means that the number of items, strategies and interactions can scale geometrically without a corresponding massive increase in the development challenge. Secondly, it means that you as a player won’t be overwhelmed by complexity. The interface will always alert you to what’s important based on what you’re doing. Just as most games don’t trouble you with a breath gauge until you’re underwater, the crucial factors you need to be concerned with won’t appear on the main screen until you need to deal with them.

The second philosophy will allow you to jump in the game and start playing without knowing all the rules, stats, strategies and locations. At the beginning of the game, you start as a single character on a space station with the option of either buying a small ship, signing up with a service, or starting a small shop. Characters all around the station offer hooks that get you into the action right away. Missions are less complex, smaller ships are simpler, and the starting area is completely safe.

Money controls expansion and leveling up. As you gain resources, you can spread out and tackle more complex enemies and challenges. With a New Game+ option, you can also always restart every game at the level of resources, in character creation points, of your highest character. This will give new players the boundaries they need to learn the game without forcing veterans to go through the early steps they often do not find interesting.

Who Am I?

I’m a former game industry professional with five years of experience who has always had a love for analyzing and building games. When I was in the industry I worked first as a quality assurance tech, then programmer on entertainment, educational and even home productivity titles. The people I worked with were awesome, I learned a lot and frittered away many an hour playing Counterstrike, Starcraft and even Doom (yeah, I’m old school).

The one thing I came to understand, however, was that the business models of a great many companies just couldn’t absorb a large amount of risk. At first I was frustrated that producers and executives were uninterested in the more unusual ideas that would cross the paths of the companies I worked for. I remember seeing piles of design document submittals that were gathering dust in boxes, just waiting for rejection letters. At game development conferences I would hear so many great and creative concepts from people who couldn’t get funding. Unfortunately, I was a bit stubborn and it took many a lunch and conference with a producer or exec before it hit me: It’s not my two million dollars. Your tolerance for risk changes when its your own money, especially if people’s paychecks and mortgages are riding on it.

Modern games are far too expensive for the ratio of risk to reward. We really should be paying a couple of hundred dollars for them, but we balk at paying that even for the software essential to our everyday lives. If you look at the budget of your typical game, a massive amount of money is swallowed up by high-end graphics technology and art. Doing anything new or unusual that would get your game rejected seems, from a business standpoint, like a stupid move—especially when you factor in that customers will already buy the game if it looks good enough, even if it’s a retread of what they’ve already played.

Unfortunately for us hardcore gamers, because of the risk factors, games are becoming more and more mainstream. Companies that have produced rich, detailed games like Fallout and System Shock 2 are the ones going out of business. I can’t imagine a Syndicate or X-Com being done in today’s business climate (though I’d be very happy to be wrong).

What this leaves us with are games that are becoming more and more watered down. The worlds are beautiful, the characters detailed, the stories professionally presented and the cutscenes top notch. But there’s increasingly something missing. I notice that I’m having a harder and harder time staying engaged. What mark do I get to make in the game’s universe? What can I do that matters? What choices can I make?

Increasingly I feel as if I’m in a scripted-sequence straightjacket, told where to go, what to do and ultimately, how to play. Story that usually can’t even hold a candle to some of the comics I read as a boy let alone a real novel is to be my substitute for a world mythologically larger than life. In most RPGs I end up feeling, as Earnest Adams once wrote, like a glorified pest exterminator. As Chris Crawford once predicted, we could have a future where the technology didn’t change and thus the games were forced to be wildly creative or one where the technology always changed and games stayed pretty much the same; you can guess which future I think we have.

Well, it’s one thing to whine about it, another to do something. For the average game studio, what I’m interested in doing is too risky. But all of my life I’ve had trouble taking no for an answer. So I’ve decided to devote a huge chunk of my time, money and effort to building the kind of game that I would like to play.

In no way do I think the project I’ve decided to undertake is going to revolutionize anything or change anything—being shareware, I’ll be damn lucky if it sells at all. And being an internet-based project, I understand that there will be a daunting and sometimes disheartening number of problems. But I’ve gotten to a point where I’ve had to ask myself, “What else are you going to do this lifetime?” Over the years I’ve tried to drop this game, focus on more productive endeavors and generally leave the land of gaming behind me. It has never worked, and no matter what I do, the idea in all its complete and vivid potential has followed me.

Of late it has really hit home that a person only has a limited time. You can spend much of it doing what others tell you to do, striving to meet their goals and in general conforming to expectations—and that will get you certain results in life that aren’t all that bad, to be honest. But there’s something to be said for putting what you care about on the line and going for it no matter what anyone else thinks of your choice or your chances. It may prove foolish in the end, but at least you know you tried.

So I’m going to try to make a pretty big game filled with lots of choices and tradeoffs and wildly different ideas, something that I hope will stay on your hard drive for awhile, using every trick I’ve ever learned to minimize the risk, reduce the workload, manage my team and get this thing done.

Wish me luck! :)

-Aaron (aka Wavinator)