This is the design document for the space station management and RPG game, Spectra. Our intention, with this document, is to layout the overall vision of the project and how we might go about getting there.
This section should give the reader the over-all concepts by which the project has been devised.
The motivations and thought process that drives the spirit of the project.
All too often projects get overwhelmed with the number of features and goodies that they want to deliver. Many also try to deliver these features all at once which often makes for a confused and disorderly project. In order to release sound software, it's often best to have discreet goals that, once fulfilled, allows for usable versions that others can experience.
We intend to lay the game out into separate Campaigns that will implement key features and technologies that will be carried forward into future Campaigns. These Campaigns will be, themselves, broken down into Milestones that will be implemented through Projects. While this document lays out the overall vision of the project, there will be separate (though similar) design documents for each Campaign.
One of the more disturbing trends with the game industry is the prevalence of entities who appear to be solely profit minded. These entities will seemingly do anything to make a profit: turn their players into unpaid employees, require full payment for half finished games, rely on a mod community to bolster their game but then spend little to no resources on making it stable and convenient. Once it was discovered that the game market would buy products sight-unseen; it has been a virtual bonanza with the players being the ones to pay the highest dividends.
We firmly believe that there must be some projects that are not profit minded. Where the voices of the community are heard but not filtered through the colored lens of the profits required for a large corporation. That some things should be done simply for the love of doing them and if you make money in the process; even better. When profit, however, becomes the highest authority only but a few will get the reward.
Below are some questions we feel a reasonable person might have in regards to this project. If you have questions not presented here, please feel free to contact someone or open a question issue.
Spectra is a mixed genre game set in the near future that allows groups of players to manage a space station in a remote region of space. Players will need to keep their station in operation in the face of resources and personnel needs. Additionally, players will be able to explore the region of space in which they occupy as well as meeting new and interesting simulants based on their amenities and prior relationships.
There's no traditional reason to create this game, other than to satisfy some needs each of the developers have on a personal level. This game is being created to provide a fun, technically challenging, task to do while potentially providing a foundation that other games like it can build upon for even better, commercially independent, games.
Due to the modifiable nature of Spectra, this could be anywhere or anytime but the initial mod will take place in a galaxy surprisingly similar to ours with far future technology.
The number of characters controlled is up to the player. As more tasks need to be done the player can recruit player or non-player characters to fulfill those roles. As such there is no upper bound set outside of resource limitations.
The focus and spirit of the project is what we think sets it apart: giving players a unique combination of activities, focusing on modification support and stability, and having no outside influence other than the community itself.