Game Concept Proposal By: Brian Schroeder

1. Game Concept ProposalBy: Brian Schroeder

2. Abstract of Game story • Setting: Distant star system/Outer Space • Genre: Political-intrigue/space shooter/mystery • Alternate Genre: Pure space shooter, possibly mission-based, arcade.

3. The premise of the game is that the player/main character was an elite space fighter pilot turned mercenary following a plasma-extraction accident that resulted in the death of his/her family and turned the main character against companies involved in this extraction. As the game unfolds (time permitting!) the main character slowly begins to realize that maybe the accident wasn't really an accident and that they have unwittingly been the pawn of their most frequent employer (generic heartless corporation hell-bent on monopolizing the local star system's most potent source for energy which could be, in crazy sci-fi fashion, a tachyon-rich plasma extracted from the dense cores of nearly-dead stars, through a series of shadowy acquisitions and smaller subsidiaries)

4. Comparison? • The game will be something like a combination between the Raiden series/the Apogee shareware game "Raptor: Call of the Shadows", spaced-based Star Wars games and Metal Gear Solid.

5. Appearance • 3-rd person perspective view of ship, 1st person is also an option. • Open screen space will be preferred over excessive HUD's. Player should only have to see the information that is important to their current goal. Basically, a small indicator of the ships status, a sensor display (can depend on purchased upgrades) and an unobtrusive (does not obstruct view while not in use) location for special (possibly not immediately important) icons.

6. Appearance • As far as the in-game visuals, the ship models should have a sort of mechanic-organic-symmetry, similar to insects, crabs, other mundane sea life combined with hard, angular cybernetics but colorful and decorative to reflect the economic strength of the star system. Space features will be typical planets, stars, multiple-tiered space stations, debris, asteroids, etc. • To focus more on the ‘active’ game content, cut scenes could consist of still images or simple text with decorative background.

7. Player Roles/Abilities • The player takes control of the main character and must (could, its optional, the missions could be open ended/dynamically created) get to the bottom of the unfolding intrigue that threatens the future prosperity of the star system. • The game will be designed for a single-player play. Multiplayer skirmishes would be time dependent.

8. Player Roles/Abilities • They player may begin with some training-type missions, salvage, hit-and-run, simple assassinations and move up to coordinated attacks on large targets, high profile assassinations, and anything the player would consider doing on their own as a result of story progression. • The game should play somewhat like a combat-oriented space/flight sim but with more combat. • As the main character is a mercenary, after successful missions or missions that are not complete failures (ship destroyed), the player can purchase repairs and/or upgrades for their ship. Upgrades could include such things as hull-plating upgrades which provide the ship with more hit points, a or different types of shields, cloaking devices, improved/more weapons, better sensors, etc.

9. Player Roles/Abilities • As time is a constraint, the progression of the story aspect can given less priority and the game made more ‘arcade style’ as opposed to story driven.

10. Strategies/Motivation • Generally, the main character and their ship's strengths will be stealth. The player will need to take advantage of being smaller than a lot of their targets and to take advantage of different technologies for different jobs.

11. Hardware used • The probable control setup will involve a combination of keyboard & mouse or joystick as a possible option. • Target systems will have 3d accelerators capable of performing transform & lightning in hardware. • support for shader model 2.0 would be preferred. • Other requirements will be determined later (CPU, RAM, etc) but should be fairly broad.

12. Software used • Visual Studio (6.0-2005?) • Torque game engine? • DirectX/OpenGL underneath • Maya for 3d modeling • Photoshop for texture processing • Sound recorder/ FL Studio for sound?

13. Algorithms • Preferably, ship models should be scaled appropriately, and planets/stars will be scaled down so that planet volumes are approximately 100,000 times the volume of the larger ships (as opposed to billions of times the volume). Space distances will also be scaled down but no numbers have been 'crunched' relating to this yet. • Ai: The NPC’s (non player characters) will mostly be passive until attacked, then single ships will either try to flee or will try to defeat the player through attrition (I’m bigger so I can last longer). Multiple opponents will try to coordinate attacking or fleeing or defending more important ships based on the progression of the game/difficulty. Players will not have to deal with NPC’s actively seeking them until later in the game (after they have uncovered a little bit too much of the evil plot.)