The Mars Initiative

[Recluse]

CURRENT PROGRESS:

Version Number - ALPHA v0.06

• Graphics - 80%
  
• Storyboarding - 70%
  
• Scripting - 20%
  
• Music/Sound - 5%
  
• Programming - 10%
  

STORYLINE:

"The Earth is dying, and we don't know why. We speculate that the decay of the moon's orbit, combined with the cooling of the Earth's core has caused the recent catastrophes. Daily Earthquakes rock cities along the Pacific; Hurricanes pummel the coast of the Atlantic. A gigantic volcanic mountain range has risen up in the Pacific Ocean. Sea levels are rising, sending most of Earth's coastal population toward higher land, where tornadoes wreak havoc. At this point in history, there are two major world alliances. The Elected Imperium and The World's Union. Within the last fifty years both have poured all their resources into constructing biodomes on Mars for Earth's remaining population. In a massive international effort called “The Mars Initiative” both have created and maintained a space station designed for monitoring the construction of the biodomes. By 2524, the biodome capacity is two billion, only a fifth of the population of Earth. Lotteries are held on Earth to determine who will be able to populate a habitable Mars."

You are an Imperial scientist on board the International Space Station "Hope" working on The Mars Initiative. Tensions between The Elected Imperium and The World's Union have come to a head. The Elected Imperium has declared war on The World's Union. Caught in a moral conflict, the Imperials are expected to cope with the suspicious death of their captain while caring for the victim of a near-fatal radioactive accident involving one of their supposed enemies.

CURRENT FEATURES:

• Four playable avatars!
  
• Choose your character's occupation and attributes to affect the way you play!
  
• Explore a twenty-sixth century space station!
  
• Interact with stimulating characters!
  
• Uncover Conspiracies!
  
• Play through many possible endings!
  

SCREENSHOTS:


Opening Splash Screen for the Demo.


The Chem Lab. (With NEW shading by Cinfa)


The Meeting Room, during a riveting scene.


The Engineering Station, with pretty colors and lights.


CURRENT PROJECT MEMBERS:

Recluse - Project Manager, Lead Programmer, Lead Writer, Musician
ShadeJackrabbit - Programmer, Writer, Lead Sound Effects
Cinfa - Lead Artist


DEV JOURNAL:

August 6th 2007
As of right now The Mars Initiative is in Alpha. We are currently working on completing all necessary backgrounds and character animations to release a working demo. Programming is coming along smoothly, and we expect that the demo will be released some time in after September, barring any serious problems.


August 13th 2007
We are almost through with all the backgrounds (Only 1 Left!). The character animations are also completed to the point that all the characters can be created and displayed walking around. Now all that's left is to finish the programming (hard part) and get this demo ready to go!

August 19th 2007
Decided to go back in and work on some of the backgrounds some more, fixing perspective, that sort of thing. One of the first encounters is completed, about six more (along with a few cut scenes) and day 1 will be completed. After day 1 and the first part of day 2 are complete the demo should be ready. I'm on vacation this week, so I should be able to get a LOT of stuff done for the game.

September 7th 2007
We are currently looking for a talented Artist who would enjoy working on this project. WE ARE looking for someone with experience, though their style doesn't necessarily have to be complex or realistic. We are looking to keep the graphics for this game relatively simple and "old" looking. Any applicants need to be willing to take this project all the way through to completion, and enjoy doing it.

In other news, production is coming along smoothly, we may not make the September release date, but that's okay, because I would like for the demo to be as complete a picture of the way the finished product will look as possible.

September 19th 2007
We've got our artist, Cinfa. So we now officially have an Italian, a Texan, and a Canadian working on this game. (Sounds like a bad joke, right?). Cinfa is proving to be amazing, he's already completed several full 3d animations for cutscenes, which will DEFINITELY make it into the final product. I'm absolutely thrilled with his involvement. Right now we're working on finishing the graphics stage of production, after which we'll plow right into the programming stage. I've got the storyboard almost completely done, all that's left is some minor details on the very last scene. Other than that, things are working out beautifully.

And a demo won't probably be ready until sometime next year. But this is turning out to be a high quality game, and I plan on keeping it that way. School is bogging all of us down, but that's expected, pretty much all of our free time is devoted to the project, so rest assured, we're going as fast as we can.

[ShadeJackrabbit]

Wow! Sounds cool! Need any help?

[Recluse]

I could use some help from willing participants who don't mind deferring to my judgment regarding the story. If anyone else wishes to offer their assistance please post here and I'll PM you with the details.

I already PM'd you Shade... check yer mail. 

[Chicky]

I like the graphics style, reminds me of Rode Kill.

[Indie Boy]

very nice looking and sounding game I hope you all the best

[fovmester]

I really like the story! Has always been a sucker for apocalyptic sci-fi!

Really nice thing to be able to play four different characters. A great idea which should add a lot to the gameplay if it is well done.

Good luck!

[Recluse]

It's not exactly four separate characters.. let me explain further:

The four station occupations: Doctor, Chemist, Biologist, and Engineer, affect your abilities in game, and how you solve most of the puzzles. All are the same "character" in that they all share portions of the main dialogue, and all are really controlled mainly by the player.

The five attributes: (currently) Security Clearance, Languages, Unfazeable, Intimidating and Danger Sense, affect the options you have to approach a given situation. Languages basically allows you to understand Modern Unioner, giving you more information on what the Unioners are saying.

The four separate avatars only affect the character's gender and appearance, they have no gameplay effects.

It's options like these that I hope will give this game more replay value than the conventional adventure game.

[Ghost]

Nevertheless, I have a soft spot for any designer who walks the extra mile to shove replayability into their game. Especially if that means that puzzles have multiple solutions. This surely sounds promising, and the story has potential. And I'd definitely go for multiple endings- since you already seem willing to put in the effort, why not go all the way? Luck on yer!

[ginanubismon]

Sounds like a pretty interesting game, I particually(sp?) like the graphic style and the story.

[CosmoQueen]

This looks very promising! What kind of help do you need?

[dunnoson]

I OFFER MY SERVICES!!

[ShadeJackrabbit]

I hope Recluse won't mind this, but I though since you guys are so supportive, you deserve to be treated to another screenshot:



The text at the bottom scrolls, and the graph at the top moves.

[Recluse]

This looks very promising! What kind of help do you need?

At the moment we're working on the storyline and a playable demo. Eventually we will need play testers, and a musician that is particularly proficient in 80s techno or anything in the same style of the Hitchhiker's Guide theme (Journey of the Sorcerer, by The Eagles). If you are particularly good at graphics/animations, and wish to work on the characters, send me a PM.

If you want to be on the playtest/beta list, please PM me, I'm looking for experienced players, and possible game makers as well.

I'm not looking to voice this one... except for the on board computer, which will be computer generated (of course).

[Recluse]

Updated the first post with extra screenshots and a DevJournal. We are now officially in Alpha testing and are currently plowing ahead towards a fully function demo of the first "day" in the game. At the rate we're going it should be released sometime after September.

[Stee]

I might be able to do some music work, if its not needed urgently as I have a through things to finish off for university. I might be able to throw together a quick intro theme in the next few days on the guitar if needed?

[Recluse]

UPDATES:

August 13th 2007
We are almost through with all the backgrounds (Only 1 Left!). The character animations are also completed to the point that all the characters can be created and displayed walking around. Now all that's left is to finish the programming (hard part) and get this demo ready to go!

• Graphics - 60%
  
• Storyboarding - 50%
  
• Scripting - 10%
  
• Music/Sound - 9%
  
• Programming - 15%
  

[Terrorcell]

might I make 1 suggestion, you need to make the floor patterns look like thay are going the same way as the walls.

Apart from that, great game

[Recluse]

might I make 1 suggestion, you need to make the floor patterns look like thay are going the same way as the walls.

Apart from that, great game

I am in the process of fixing this, actually. I'll post new backgrounds once I get the chance.

As far as an update goes:

August 19th 2007
Decided to go back in and work on some of the backgrounds some more, fixing perspective, that sort of thing. One of the first encounters is completed, about six more (along with a few cut scenes) and day 1 will be completed. After day 1 and the first part of day 2 are complete the demo should be ready. I'm on vacation this week, so I should be able to get a LOT of stuff done for the game.

• Graphics - 60%
  
• Storyboarding - 50%
  
• Scripting - 10%
  
• Music/Sound - 9%
  
• Programming - 17%
  

[Terrorcell]

can you give us your website link?

[Recluse]

At the moment I don't have a public website. Only a development website which I use to communicate with the other developers. For the moment THIS is my website. Once the game has passed the demo stage I will create a full blown website on which I'll host the demo and other resources.