As part of my series of introductory devlogs, I think it would be great to give an overview of our story, and the events leading up to start of the game. Apologies for the following text wall, but I wanted you to all see how serious we are about creating a universe for our game to be set within.

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The game takes place on the Carpathian, an interstellar starship built on 23/7/2251 EST (earth standard time). The ship was developed and built by the European space agency, alongside co-operation from the US and Chinese space agencies to terraform a mineral rich planet discovered in Epsilon Eridani. The starship, named after the Agency directors love of the Carpathian mountain range in Europe, was designed to travel with a minimal crew of engineers and scientists in order to setup the first ever large scale terraforming operation outside of our Solar System, and provide a new planet for the human race to eventually colonise. This journey was only made possible after the US space agency built and successfully tested the first interstellar jump drive in 2230. The technology allowed faster than light travel, and for the first time in humanities history, bridged the gap between our solar system and the universe.

Realising the opportunities that this gave humanity, scientists and engineers began work designing a ship that could take a crew beyond our stars, and with the advancements made in terraforming projects on Mars and Jupiter over the last 100 years, establish a colony outside of our solar system. The Carpathian took nearly 10 years to construct, needing vast supplies of rare minerals and anti matter for the ships engines. The ship was built to house a full engineering section, workshops and warehousing, laboratories for genetics, bio engineering and botany and full medical facilities. The ship could perform a planetary landing and provide a full base of operations for the 15 year terraforming project.

The ship left earth orbit on 15/01/2252 EST with the crew in deep stasis, to survive the 50 year journey to EE/LMP1 (Later to be renamed Genesis). The ship made the journey successfully and the crew made contact with Earth on 21/08/2304 EST and work began on the terraforming project. The world was united in awe of the achievement human kind had made and for a long while, there was a constant focus of attention on this crews amazing journey and the work they were undertaking.

On 07/02/2309 EST, the now known ESA (Earth Space Agency) made a public announcement that the Carpathian and its crew had been destroyed after a natural disaster on Genesis. An earthquake of cataclysmic proportions had occurred at the base site and the ship and its crew had been lost. The world was united in mourning for the loss of the pioneering heroes of the Carpathian, and the ESA had not yet spoken of plans for another journey, as the next time a crew could reach Genesis, it would be at least another 50 years. Over time, people forgot and the world moved on.

The year is now 2335, The protagonist (A salvage hunter from one of the colonies on Mars) is scanning deep space after picking up a faint ping on long range scanners. It’s unlikely any ships would be out that far, but as an opportunist, it was worth the fuel creds to make the journey. Upon arriving at the signal location, you discover the Carpathian, floating dead in deep space. A quick scan of the historical databases, shows that this ship was supposed to have been destroyed in an earthquake, so what is it doing out here? You know that the data core of the ships central AI, will be worth a fortune to the right buyer and could set you up for life. There are no life signs, no breathable air and traces of an unknown toxin in ships atmosphere. You know its worth the risk, so you put on your hazard suit and dock with the ship in Engineering, to begin the long journey to the ships data core.

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Discovering a log file on a terminal in Engineering

The way the story will unfold as you play will be from the various terminals, log files, emails, memos and research notes that you find along the way, with the story told from the crew’s perspective. You will slowly uncover what happened on the mission, see the interaction between the various crew members and learn as the story unfolds, what eventually happened to the mission and its crew. I don’t want to give away anything for obvious spoiler reasons, but suffice to say that there is enough there to please the sci-fi fan, with many sub stories and plots along the way, which form the basis of our Anthology of books to accompany the game. We are proud to say that we go beyond the normal “dangers on a ship story”, but delve into the psyche of the crew and their individual goals, some of which are not all in the interests of the mission and the personal interplay during the course of events. We also look at the political powerplay of the governments involved, and weave their own influence into the story of the fated ship. The story is not centered around you, but rather the role you play in a much larger tale, and your impact in the outcome.

Story is very important to us, but I also appreciate that not everyone wants to read a ton of dialog when playing games, so I have designed it so that only the absolute minimum needed is given to the player… in fact, you can even skip all the dialog without reading it, and all the codes, passwords etc you need are auto stored in your datalog, if that’s how you would prefer to play. This way, we can make the game as inclusive as possible for all players, giving each of you the experience just how you want it.

The key challenge we have is to craft the player journey to match the story reveal. It’s a balancing act of not giving too much away so you can predict the story, and not giving too little so that it makes no sense. We want the players journey to match to specific story milestones, all helping to guide you along our narrative journey and draw you into our universe.

Let me know in the comments your thoughts on the story, are you a fan of deep story telling in games?

Kind Regards,

James.

Xenosis: Alien Infection is being crowdfunded on Fig, visit the campaign here: http://www.fig.co/Xenosis