The Story So Far

So I thought I'd post a little about the storyline the game will follow, as I haven’t got much work on the game done lately. I was hoping to have the main character underway by now, but studying full time at Uni and working every night has slowed progress to nearly zero. (I guess a lot of the work will have to wait until holidays)

Anyway I've spent 6 or so months prototyping the storyline for Protostar (The plot is crucial). Its been something I've had in mind for many years, so its good to get it down on paper - many, many pages written so far, I'm slowly transferring them onto my laptop for easier editing.

You take the role of a deep space engineer (no name or gender yet, might be optional). You’re returning from a 'business trip' several thousand light years from Earth (more on the methods of space travel, business and game location later).
Throughout space there have been several 'midway' stations built, which are smallish space stations for long distance travellers to dock at every few weeks as they journey hundreds of light years though deep space. The midway stations provide a temporary place to rest, refuel, repair and possibly meet up with other crews.

The game will start out with our main character docking at a midway station, which is currently unoccupied, landing in the landing bay. Our characters ship is tended to by automatic machines, while our main character heads to a 'lounge' area for food and relaxation.

Shortly after arriving our character is interrupted by an urgent incoming transmission. Its an Admiral from a certain division of the military, requesting assistance with a situation. He explains to the character that one of his large research vessels has gone missing in the area, and he needs someone in the area to find the ship, scan the ship to determine its status and transmit the data for analysis. He explains that our character is the only one in the system, he has dispatched a crew of his own but they won’t arrive for a week or so, he fears for the immediate safety of the invaluable ship.

So our characters initial order is to find the ship, by searching a series of nearby star systems (pointed out by the Admiral as the star systems being examined by the research ship) until the it is located. Then the ship must be scanned, and our character must return to the midway station to relay the data back to the Admiral.

Its a pretty simple mission, with a large pay check if completed. Unfortunately for our character the ship is discovered near a massive Protostar, the crew is unresponsive, the data uncovered points out some even more alarming facts. The research vessel is a ghost ship, no signs of life or power. Its dead and drifting though space like an enormous lump of metal. The most alarming fact however is its decaying orbit, the nearby Protostar has caught it, in its gravitational pull, and slowly the large ship is being pulled towards its fiery centre.


Your new orders: Board the ship, activate its Nuclear power core, its main systems, its engines and pilot it away from the Protostar.


That’s about as much of the story as I'll be giving away. Clearly nothing is as it seems, there’s a detailed mystery to uncover, one that turns a simple mission into a horrific grasp for survival.

The Beginning - Protostar

'Protostar' is the current title of the game and every day it seems to sound better, so its probubly what ill stick to.
So what is a Protostar? The title certainly sounds space-like and somewhat mysterious (at least I hope so)

Putting it simply a Protostar is a star in its very early stages of development. It forms from a large interstellar cloud as the gases collapse inwards from strong gravitational forces. As the cloud gathers into a central point it begins to form a spinning sphere, the soon to be new star. The interstellar clouds swirls around this central sphere, until they are consumed by the new star or collected into orbiting lumps of rocks and gas (soon to become planets)

What does this have to do with my game?
Well the majority of the game will place aboard a large ship (named IcarusIV, of course), which is disabled and caught in the gravitational pull of the Protostar, with a strangely unresponsive crew. The scene would be spectacular, and a race against time to reach the ship, fire up its systems and propulsion drive, saving it from a fiery death. Easy right..?

But regardless, I find a huge developing star to be a unique and very interesting environment for a game like this, I originally thought to have a normal star, but that seemed far too cliche (and somewhat boring compared to a Protostar).

The final image below is an artists impression of a Protostar, certainly something you don't see every day. There's more information about Protostars on the Wiki.
So that's where the title of the game comes from, ill post some initial concept work and more plot details soon.