Overview
Hello all.
For some time now, myself and r4m0n (who shall be posting here shortly) have been developing a game about science and exploration known as Science of the Spheres. Originally on Unity, followed by a brief stint under Panda3D (what were we thinking?), back to Unity, and now onto its hopefully-final home under Unreal 4, it’s been duke-nukem-forever-ing it up since about spring 2013 now, developed spottily when the motivation to do so surfaces. The goal of the game is simple: Explore.
Set in the 1970s, the player takes the role of the head of an off-the-radar organization conducting surveys and studies of a newly-discovered alternate universe with strange physical properties. This universe is similar to our own, but structured in a very different way. Matter and elements are laid out pretty much as they are here, but through mechanisms the player will discover in the course of the game, “planets” are extremely small and immobile, on the order of tens to hundreds of meters across, and consisting of jumbles of dirt, pebbles, and boulders piled together to create something superficially resembling the planets of our universe. Stars are similarly small, and equally immobile. Galaxies are comparable in size to the volume of space between the Earth and the moon.
As previously mentioned, the player is the head of an independent organization which has come into possession a portal device which enables the transfer of objects from our universe to this new one. The organization, known internally as the Multiversal Exploration Agency (and externally as Mulligan-Edwards Agriculture), designs, builds, and operates space probes from whatever material it can get its hands on, and uses them to conduct in-situ studies of the “microverse” as it’s become known, guided by the MEA’s internal science team. However, to keep the operations going, the MEA needs to make money. Luckily, there are valuable materials scattered around the microverse, ready to be extracted and returned to Earth for a tidy profit as byproducts of “Agricultural Experimentation” as they tell their customers. No super exotic materials, but valuable things such as gold, platinum, and similar.
The whole of the microverse will be procedurally generated based on a provided seed. Each galaxy, as far as the game is concerned, is an independent universe. Interstellar travel is possible, but not intergalactic travel. The player enters a “coordinate” (actually just used as a seed) into the portal device and it locks in near the center of the nearest galaxy to that coordinate. From there, the player is free to explore the galaxy as long as they have spacecraft with the capability to do so, or they can de-link the portal and enter a new coordinate. Thankfully for the nearby town of St. Whalenson, Utah, the portal only drains lots of power when it’s first activated, meaning the worst they get is a second or two of brownout conditions.
A key point in this game is incorporating real science and engineering. That is to say, using actual scientific methods explore and understand how the microverse works. Conducting experiments will allow your science team to begin drawing conclusions as to how the microverse functions, as well as open up new lines of investigation for the player to follow. Over time and many iterations, a solid picture of the theoretical structure of the microverse can be developed just as one has been developed for our universe. I plan to consult some actual planetary scientists to gain insight on what the best ways would be to study the environments presented to the player. Spacecraft will be made to function close to the real thing, with many systems to keep track of, and utilizing real data and equations where possible to achieve as much plausibility as possible. I’m trying to have as few elements of handwavium in the game as possible. So far, the portal device and the gravitation of the planets are the only big ones.
There’s a lot more to cover that’s planned, but I work better writing answers to questions than just writing about it on the spot. So please, feel free to ask anything!
Media
To start, here are a few pictures of the current visual state of the game in-engine, in various stages of progress:
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Testbed planet 1
Testbed planet 2
Testbed solar system
Very WIP headquarters scene + portal device
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Also below are several items of concept art, to demonstrate the intended look and feel of the final game.
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A new lander is stalked by several native creatures while a comet passes by
Portal device viewed from the other side (obsolete design)
A biosphere-ruining asteroid impact (or maybe just a mining accident)
Enveloped in nebulous dust and gas, a probe inspects an outgassing planet
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Early gameplay prototype video:
Early Unity prototype available here (Frequently ugly)
Thanks for taking the time to read.