Exclusive Sword of the Stars Developer Diary – Part 8

“Plans for the future are always a risk but we here at Kerberos are doing everything we can to hedge our bets”

Space may not be the final frontier when it comes to the video game genre, but a well crafted space game is certainly a thing of joy.

Sword of the Stars, a PC title, is planned for an early summer release and looks to be counted among the well-crafted space games, opening vistas to the imagination while giving players an entertaining and challenging gaming experience.

Features include:

• 4 races - Human, Hiver, Tarkas and Liir - each with technology advantages and disadvantages.

• Each race has a unique mode of transport between star systems, creating very different styles of play, depending on what race you choose to control.

• Slider bar controls and simplified interface to avoid the confusion of other games without sacrificing depth of gameplay.

• Over 150 distinct technologies to research on a dynamic tech tree that changes from game to game. While the core technology of the tree is consistent, certain offshoots are random from game to game. There is no perfect path up the tech tree to memorize and exploit, because the path keeps changing!

• New technology reflected in detailed ship models, weapons and combat effects. Over 40 weapons from six different weapon classes, in various size classes, from point defense, turrets, and massive spinal mounts!

• Players can design and build ships from three size classes - Destroyer, Cruiser, and Dreadnought - by mixing and matching ship sections (command, mission, and engines), then outfitting them with armor and weapons to suit their preference.

• Up to 8 players can play against the AI and one another over LAN or online.

• Choose from a variety of scenario campaigns to play alone or with friends, each adding more color and depth to the Sword of the Stars universe.

But to truly understand the game from the inside, it is better to go inside and what better way to do that than with the developers chronicling what they are bringing to the game, as well as detailing the state of the development.

In this exclusive GameZone feature, we turn to the Kerberos team for an up close look at the making of Sword of the Starts. For a look at early entries in this diary, please see Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3, Entry 4, Entry 5, Entry 6, and Entry 7

Kerberos Productions Development Diary
Sword of the Stars – Entry 8

“Where do we go from here?”
By Martin E. Cirulis, CEO/Lead Designer of Kerberos Productions

As I write this, the finishing touches that turn a project into a released game are going into Sword of the Stars. Boxes are being mocked up. Ad posters put together. Demo being readied. It is a rewarding and exciting end to a long and sometimes very difficult race to the finish line. But as a bright future full of candy-coated SotS goodness approaches from a summer dawn so bright we have to wear shades, an inquisitive fan might ask, “but what is next for SotS?”

 “What next?” indeed.

A very good question that usually gets a standard industry answer. “Release game, check sales, commit tentatively to expansions, work towards a conservative sequel.” Basically it boils down to seeing if anyone likes what you gave them and just give them more of the same thing at standard intervals.

Not a bad idea I suppose. It certainly works well for a lot of franchises. But as you may have noticed from the previous entries in this series, Kerberos wasn’t formed just to do things the same old way. We like to make games but we also like to tell stories. And the SotS universe is just filled with them.

While there will be expansions for SotS, (the first is already in pre-production as I speak) they won’t just be about a few goodies, maps and game upgrades. Oh, that stuff will be there in spades, but the expansions will also evolve the SotS universe and bring to light more secrets and reveal new mysteries of how and why things are they way they are in SotS. A new race will enter the fray with every expansion and bring with them yet another diverse FTL drive system. And once again it won’t be just any race thrown in to look cool, they will be integral to the SotS universe as a whole.

When you plunk down your hard-earned dollars for a SotS expansion or sequel we don’t want you just to be thinking about more of the same but instead to be excited about what new things are in that box. What you are going to find out. And how it results in cool new things to play with.

And we are not just talking about strict increments of the SotS gameplay model itself.  SotS is merely the first room in a mansion full of games and stories set in the same universe.

One of the things I really enjoy about the Japanese attitude towards anime franchises is their willingness to explore tangents. Here in North America, after 30 years, we are JUST getting around to thinking about a TV series set in the Star Wars universe. Someone go and count the number of Gundam series and side-stories. Take your time. It will take a while. When it comes down to gaming, only the largest franchises have titles that cross genres and even that is basically just a checklist of what is the most popular game types. Fluffy Brothers platformer? Check! Fluffy Brothers Racing Game? Check! Fluffy Brothers Golf? Check!  Fluffy Brothers BF42 rip off? Check!

Not exactly an inspiring, plot-driven motivation, is it?

Well when it comes to the Sword of the Stars universe it will all come down to the stories we want to tell. Is there a ground combat game hiding on one of those planets? That might be cool. A traditional plot-driven space RTS? Hmm could think of a few things to be revealed about the SotS universe there. A SotS space-flight sim? Can think a whole mess of cool things about the career of a SofForce pilot. A SotS topless tennis game?! Wellllllll, maybe that is a bridge too far.

But you folks get the idea.

While everyone likes the idea of an ever-spreading franchise universe, sadly most attempts at it get bogged down in multi-year projects and bloated budgets. Personally, I like to think there is a wonderful alternate reality where there have been 10 GOOD X-Com universe games over the past 13-odd years.

And, of course, there is the matter of sequel philosophy. While anything resembling SotS2 is a long way off, I can tell you one thing for certain. No matter how much and how many of you love SotS, its sequel will NOT be the exact same game with just more junk thrown in. It will be something grown on the foundation of what we have worked so hard to bring you today and the result will be an evolution not only of story and content but also of design itself. Nothing pains us more than a sequel to a great strat game that returns the player exactly back to square one to go through the exact same motions. What we like to call “Ghostbusters 2” syndrome.

Plans for the future are always a risk but we here at Kerberos are doing everything we can to hedge our bets. We created a game that we wanted to play with you, the fan base. (In fact, you can already find most of the dev team on X-fire at any given moment.) We developed an engine designed to grow and evolve with our needs and your demands. And finally we stocked a universe with enough details and ideas for 10 games. We want to bring you games and stories from the SotS universe because we are dying to find out where it all goes ourselves. We have the advantage of having read a few chapters ahead but there is still stuff that comes up that surprises even us. Kerberos Productions will make all kinds of game over the coming years, some based in the SotS universe and some not, but SotS will always be our first home and love.

What will the future bring? No one can say. But what we can say is where we will try to go from here. Onward, upward and outward.

“Per Ardua, Ad Astra”

del.icio.us | Digg This | Glink It

---