Post 01: The Hyperion Project

What is it?
The Hyperion Project is a flash-based simulation game in which the player manages a manned space flight to the Moons of Saturn.

Project Description
In The Hyperion Project, the player manages a five-man expedition to the moons of Saturn. At the start, they must pick a profession (such as Soldier or Engineer) and purchase supplies. During the main part of the game, they will have to carefully manage the fuel and supply consumption while dealing with semi-random events such as meteoroid collisions, crew injuries, or engine malfunctions. They will also be able to stop at colonies on Mars and the Jovian moons to refuel, trade, and get advice. The game will also include optional asteroid mining and ship landing minigames. At the end, the player will receive a letter rank based on their overall performance.

Detailed Description
In The Hyperion Trail, the player is put in charge of planning and overseeing a five-man space flight to the Saturnian moon of Titan. The general gameplay is derived from the old Oregon Trail games, where the majority of the game is automated, with player interaction centered mostly on buying and managing resources and supplies. At the beginning, the player will get to name their ship, along with 5 crewmembers. They will also get to pick a main profession for themselves, which determines their starting inventory and money, along with a unique gameplay perk. (For example, choosing the Medic profession will make it less likely for crewmembers to become sick or injured.) They will also have to buy things like fuel, rations, and extra space suits, as well as things such as better ship engines, or defensive weaponry. Once the expedition has started, the player will be able to manage the ship’s speed (Going faster consumes more fuel, for example.) alongside managing rations and research projects. They will also be able to mine meteorites for materials by playing an asteroids-like minigame, similar to The Oregon Trail’s hunting scenes. Events and challenges will also come up semi-randomly over the course of the journey, such as meteoroid impacts damaging the ship, or hostile encounters with space raiders. There will be several stops at colonies on Mars, Ceres, and Europa along the way that provide trading, medial, and escort services along with NPC characters that give helpful advice. Once the player reaches Titan, they will have the option of playing a ship-landing minigame as a final challenge.

What I’m going to develop
Part of the reason I’m doing a simulation game is that it will be easier to develop, as opposed to an action-based game. Due to the mostly-automated nature of the game, the majority of my work will be around making the graphics, such as spaceships, event scenes, and NPC characters. While it’s unlikely that I will be able to fully finish the project by the end of the term, I want to at have the game playable from beginning to end by then. This would mean that a lot of behind-the-scenes content (such as the effects of crew injuries, or damage to the ship) will not be functional, or exist as placeholders, though the game itself will still show events and notifications as a “proof of concept”.

Visual/Written research for the project
Due to the sci-fi nature of my project, I am definitely going to research the math and statistics behind potential space travel and colonization. This would mean having each of the planetary landmarks having accurate distances between each other, and having traveling speeds that would be able to cover them without feeling tedious from a gameplay perspective. I will also try to incorporate stock images into the space-scenes, such as graphics for the moons and planets. I will also look up theories on possible ship and colony designs to go with the sci-fi theme of the game.