GnosisMichael BennettKeith Francisco

Grady YarboroughChris McInnis

Anthony Grant

General information• Action/RPG hybrid

– Some NPCs react to player behavior– Various abilities to be gained during

play– Basic gameplay is action

• Over-the-shoulder shooter

Overall Setting• Distant future

– Humanity has colonized the nearby stars, but is fighting a losing war

• Multiple alien races– Some are hostile to humanity, some

are neutral, a few are friendly

Races• Humans

– Homeworld destroyed decades earlier

– Only a handful of star systems truly under their control

– Highly advanced, but lacking in population

Races• Shomaten

– The oldest and most powerful faction in the galaxy is mostly this race

– Slowly destroying humanity– Uses completely biological technology

•Everything, even ships, is alive•Had bad experience with machine-based

technology centuries ago– Breakaway faction seeks to harmonize

bio-based and machine-based technologies

Races• Shichi

– Very small race– Good at ‘tinkering’ with things,

always looking for various bits of tech

– Not widespread galactically• Ignored by both humans and the ‘evil

aliens’

Factions• Humans

– Main government• Controls nearly all the human star systems• Totalitarian• Highly advanced, but numerically weak• Believes that humans must stand or fall

alone– Peacemakers

• Seek assistance from other races, especially the breakaway Shomaten faction

• Non-violently opposed to main government

Factions• Shomaten

– Main government•Xenophobic & technophobic traditionalists•Seeks to destroy all humans•Relies exclusively on advanced biological

tech– Resistance

•Separate from the main government•Desires to integrate mechanical and

biological technology•Seeks more peaceful, less insular

relations with other races/factions

Protagonists• Player

– Experimental human cyborg– Abandoned in a remote tech facility

when the ‘evil aliens’ took over the system

– Activated by an inquisitive ‘good alien’• ‘Bizer’

– The Shichi who activates the player– Can upgrade player with tech– Has his own goals

Demo• Setting

– The remote facility where you were developed and abandoned

– Facility is deteriorated, but shows signs of very hurried departure; some tech may still work

Demo• Narrative

– Bizer activates you and the two of you start to explore

– Shortly thereafter, a covert team of human agents arrive with the goal of retrieving you and whatever else may be available• Possible to agree to go with them at this point

– Later in the facility, alien forces arrive to destroy the intrusion

– Ultimate goal: escape facility

Gameplay• Controllable with either Xbox 360

controller or keyboard/mouse• Energy restores health (via

nanobots) and powers all non-projectile weapons; regenerates at an improvable rate

• Line-of-sight stealth elements• Multiple interactions with NPCs

(not just kill/be killed)• Usable vehicles

Level Design

Technical info• System requirements

– Xbox 360– PC

• Video Card– Pixel shader model 2.0 compatible– 128MB (256MB recommended)

• DirectX 9.0• XNA redistributable• 512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)

• Intended ESRB rating: T

Content• Audio

– FX from the ‘web (not yet determined)

– Some voice work from team members

Game Engine• The game engine is developed by

Chris McInnis, in C#, using Microsoft’s XNA framework

• References include Programming A Multiplayer FPS in DirectX by Vaughan Young and Programming Role Playing Games with DirectX by Jim Adams

• Modular engine to facilitate OO approach

Game Engine Modules

•The biggest component will probably be the Screen Manager

Game Engine Modules

• The Frame Counter component will keep track of the game’s frames per second. This will be used for testing purposes - Completed

• The Keyboard component will handle all input information from the keyboard. The information will be dispatched by keyboard events – Completed in old engine

• The Mouse component will handle all input information from the mouse. The information will be dispatched by mouse events. This component is only available on the Windows game engine version. This limitation is due to the fact that a mouse cannot be used with the Xbox 360 - Completed in old engine

Game Engine Modules

• The Game Pads component will handle all input information from the Xbox 360 controllers. The information will be dispatched by Xbox 360 controller events – Completed in old engine

• The Data Manager component will handle any game data that will require loading and saving when the player starts the game or when he/she is finished playing

• The Script Manager component will handle executing any game scripts. Scripts will be used to remove game specific concepts from the code. The script manager will handle loading and properly disposing of these scripts as well

Screen Manager

Screen Manager• A game screen means anything

to be drawn in the game window. Screens will be managed using a stack approach. A screen can be pushed onto the stack and popped off of the stack, creating a state-based system

• For instance: the title screen can be pushed on first. When the player starts the game the game scene will be pushed on top of the title screen, then the graphical user interface pushed on top of the game scene

Screen Manager• Using the stack approach the

game screens will be drawn from bottom to top. Some screens can block screens that are underneath from updating or drawing. Drawing from bottom to top creates a clean way of separating different screens from each other. Since the graphical user interface will be pushed on top of the game scene the graphical user interface will be drawn after the game scene

Screen Manager• The User Interface screen separates any

graphical user interface controls from the rest of the screens. This screen will manage passing user input to the controls in order to update them and interact with them

• The Game Scene screen handles drawing three dimensional scenes, as well as collision detection and object culling to improve drawing performance

• Another screen needed is the HUD. This screen is used to display health and energy as well as current weapon and target reticule. This screen can also display interaction information

Timeline• Develop Story Mon 3/5/07• Game Engine Mon 3/26/07• Character Design Fri 3/9/07• Character Meshes Sun 4/1/07• Level Design Fri 3/9/07• Voice acting Fri 4/27/07• Sound FX Thu 4/26/07