Apophis announced

by Bryan_See on 06/27/2007 20:43, 8 messages, last message: 06/28/2007 05:15, 2224 views, last view: 04/11/2024 19:57, closed on 06/28/2007 07:55

I'm proud to announce that I'll be making an open-source sci-fi first-person shooter game built on the Sauerbraten engine called Apophis.

Originally developed in 2002 under the tentative title, Humanoid Aliens!: Into Evolution, it suffered extensive delays due to technical reasons, as well as engine switches, and finally scrapped in 2005. Now, it has been reborn under the new title of Apophis. This title refers to the Egyptian demon of darkness and chaos, Apep.

I strongly believe it will be the first of many open-source games to make an approach to photorealism like the upcoming game Crysis, since Sauerbraten's simple engine framework and in-game map editing (with its what you see is what you play functionality) make it stand out, and it will push its interactivity into unprecedented levels (not only on organic matter, but also on man made objects). I also believe Apophis will be a fully open-ended game with many ways to achieve objectives.

Apophis will set in 2029, where players play as Rick Madsen, a United States Delta Force soldier. Madsen and his team are sent in to investigate the unusual UFO phenomenon in much of Peninsular Malaysia, which lead to the eventual terrorist-like attacks that involving crashing the UFOs into buildings in Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

As its story unfolds, you (the player) are faced with four environments or "acts" as these are also referred to as:

Env/Act 0 (Prelude):
The UFOs crashes into one of the buildings in Kuala Lumpur, causing the Malaysians to investigate. As a Delta Force soldier, you HALO jump onto Peninsular Malaysia to see what you can find out, as well as helping the Malaysians. During this phase of the game, you'll play in a tropical environment complete with beaches, jungles, tropical villages, towns, and cities.

Env/Act 1:
The crashed UFOs send a distress signal. But there is no alien threat and so both parties continue to cooperate each other in their ongoing investigations. The player's main goal is now to defend Malaysia and its people from what could be an alien invasion. Shortly after, both the Malaysian and U.S. governments realizes that these UFOs that crashed into Malaysia are actually alien ships, and therefore decide to join forces to fend off the invasion. This phase consists of defending the crowded places as well as on your own battleships and aircraft carriers which are located off the coast. The aliens, who are not yet revealed in the story, launch their assault against the Malaysian and U.S. military, who forms their invasion fleet to battle the aliens. The aliens cause the global weather system off balance and causes all kinds of natural disasters including high winds, severe thunderstorms and snowstorms.

Env/Act 2:
Earth's invasion fleet is formed and is preparing to launch a full-scale assault on the alien bases on the Moon. This phase consists of fighting on the Moon, as well as in orbit around it. The latter proves difficult due to the lack of gravity. The recoil of your weapons combined with the zero-gravity environment propel you backwards while leaving your shell casings floating beside you. The player will only be suspended in zero-g for about 1 hour during the game.

Env/Act 3:
As you and your squad enter the planet from which the aliens originated, you'll will not only find yourself in total darkness, but fighting against the actual aliens. The aliens themselves will not be revealed until this part of the game, because it gives them a certain degree of suspense.

The entire single-player campaign/story will last somewhere between 48 and 52 hours. This game will be very replayable and will give the player the tools they need to be very creative with the way they choose to play.

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#1: ..

by HashBox on 06/27/2007 21:00

Sounds wicked =) be sure to keep the thread up to date with progress and screenshots :D

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#2: ..

by makkE on 06/27/2007 22:07

Just a tip: Don´t announce ;)

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#3: spank me now and call me a fish

by baby rabbit on 06/27/2007 22:27

rather than post here, better to set up a website and blog your progress to the entire world.

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#4: ..

by sinsky on 06/27/2007 23:06

Ultimately who is invader.. Are the aliens invading us, or we invade them.

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#5: ..

by Julius on 06/27/2007 23:59

Maybe a bit overambitious, but good luck with the project!

Oh and yeah, announcements should have at least *some* screenshots to proof it isn't total vapourware :)

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#6: ..

by slider on 06/28/2007 01:49

this sounds awesome.....great synopsis

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#7: ...

by CNORkirk13377 on 06/28/2007 04:18

Yes, don't talk about what you are going to do, talk about what you have done.

Thats why none of you have heard about my sauerbraten engine mod ;)

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#8: Re: ..

by theW4, finally can post again on 06/28/2007 05:15, refers to #5

having no screenshot is ok. On my "dark forces source" mod, i put ip screen shot but then took them back down again as they showed nothing except like game dynamics and features. People like to see nice looking screen shot and altough all of the ones i had demonstated player models, and other features, everyone got really upset. The fact is that most of the time, you dont build a game around a map, but rather you build the map around the game.

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