By

Brad Wardell
Executive Producer

May 2017

[NON-DISCLOSURE IN EFFECT]

Seriously, NDA. There’s stuff in this issue that people would kill for (well, not kill but possibly maim).

AND SO IT BEGINS…

Last month we got Galactic Civilizations III: Crusade out the door. With an 88 metacritic score, it’s safe to say we’re
pretty happy with it.

It didn’t quite kill me to get it out there but it was pretty tough. With Crusade done, much of the GalCiv III team
joins us on Star Control: Origins.

So let’s talk about where we are and where we are going.

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 WELCOME TO THE NEXT PHASE OF STAR CONTROL…

This is going to be lengthy so bear with me…

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 EVOLUTION OF THE STAR CONTROL: ORIGINS DESIGN

The pressure to get Star Control: Origins is higher than any other game I’ve ever worked on. Besides it being a Star
Control game, we are very aware that because the game won’t include the original cast of aliens, any flaw in the
game is going to be greatly amplified by those who feel no Star Control game should come out unless it has the
Spathi, Ur-Quan, Orz, etc.

This pressure to get it just right has been very hard on the designers involved. This Winter, it was decided that I
would take on the lead design role. Naturally, I have my own ideas on what Star Control should be.

Super
Melee

Ship Alien
Design Dialog

Star Control

Quest
Navigation
System

Planet
Exploration

Let’s walk through each of these components

STAR CONTROL: WHAT IT IS AND ISN’T

In the very center you have Star Control. What is Star Control? There have been a lot of passionate debates on this
subject and there will be a lot more in the future.

Here is my definition:

• Star Control is an action adventure game in which the player takes on the role of the captain of a ship that explores the
galaxy, interacts with aliens, fights space battles, visits alien planets all encompassed as part of a larger story for the player
to engage in.

Here is what Star Control is NOT:

• Star Control is an action adventure game that tells the story of how the Earthlings of the 22nd century fought against the
sinister forces of the Ur-Quan Hierarchy in an effort to free the galaxy from tyranny.

As someone who knows the lore of Star Control 1 and 2 inside and out and who loves it, I also strongly believe that
a fixed lore like this can limit the longevity of a game. Consider the most famous Star Control reimagining: Mass
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Effect.
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 For those who weren’t aware, Mass Effect is Star Control 2 with a very large budget and tweaked lore. I won’t go
into detail here but for those interested in learning more click here: http://www.vidgama.com/2009/04/head-to-
head-mass-effect-vs-star-control-ii/ or https://www.giantbomb.com/profile/mento/blog/old-vs-new-star-control-
ii-vs-mass-effect-ii/75395/ (there are many different such articles).

The point being, if the series (including sequels) is reliant on a single, canon, universe, each sequel or expansion
gets increasingly harrowing. Mass Effect: Andromeda, effectively has to throw away their own lore in order to get
a fresh start.

Before someone argues that I don’t care about story, I absolutely do. The Star Control: Origins story has enough
lore now to write a book (and we might actually do that as author Chris Bucholz has spent the better part of 3
years on Star Control: Origins).

What I am saying, however, is that the game itself should be created in a way so that it can service multiple story
arcs.

Let’s use Star Control 2 as an example. At the end of Star Control 2 we get this:

When someone asks why Star Control: Origins won’t just continue where this left off, my answer is: Star Control 3.

Star Control 3 didn’t include Paul Reiche or Fred Ford, the men behind the first two. Clearly, Star Control 3 didn’t
follow the intended story arc that Star Control 2 had set up. But it still happened.

This is where the multiverse concept comes in. Star Control: Origins is, as the name implies, the Origin for the Star
Control multiverse in which Star Control 1 and 2 exist in one universe (Ur-Quan) and Star Control 3 exists in
another.
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 Thus, Star Control: Origins is a gateway to multiple universes starting with, naturally, the Origins which will, not
surprisingly, deal with the multiverse and act as a launch point to many many adventures.

Thus, if all goes well, shortly after release, a player will be able to subscribe to many other universes made by other
people with tools so easy to use that the quality of the universe will be less based on technical ability and more on
creative talent.

That is, you’ll literally press a button and be able to download ships, aliens, planets and of course universes.

Sector
Ships Aliens Quests
Map

Universe
Origins is a universe with its own ships, aliens, quests and of course map. It has a 250,000 year long history.

But it also includes tools to create the 4 core elements needed for others to create their own.

Therefore, to me, Star Control is about gameplay and that gameplay focus is what I’m bringing to the table.
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 ORIGINS UNIVERSE

Without getting into spoiler territory, let’s talk about Origins.

The Origins universe is our universe. The one we live in today. This is a universe that didn’t have a nuclear war in
2015 (Ur-Quan universe). You’re welcome.

It is a universe that has been busy for the past 200,000 years. We humans have been unaware of it.

We will be hitting on this a lot because sci-fi games and movies tend to make light of how big the universe is.

In the above picture, the yellow dot is how far our radio waves have traveled thus far. So when someone asks,
“Why haven’t we heard from aliens” the answer is, unless they are very very close by, you won’t hear from them.

The good news is that in the year 2035 someone does notice them but keeps it to themselves. The bad news is that
someone in 2080 also detects our radio signals. This is not good for us.
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This is how big a sector is. And as you can imagine, it’s huge. Origins takes place in a single galactic sector.
 GALACTIC RAMIFICATIONS

We plan as part of our “marketing” to do a lot of work explaining how big space is. We have a lot of work ahead of
us because everyone (including Galactic Civilizations) makes light on how big the galaxy is.

But Star Control doesn’t make light of how big the galaxy is. It never did.
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 The Hyperspace Starmap in Star Control 2 is a sector. It has approximately 600 stars (which is a lot).

The Origins sector is the same size except, thanks for 2017 technology, able to use the actual map of our sector.

This is just our local neighborhood. BTW, don’t get too excited, these aren’t the names for most of the stars in
Origins. Why? Because they were named by others a long time ago and already have names. It’s not like we get to
call Nippon by some weird name just because we want to…

THE CAST

The Star Control 2 universe was run as..literally, a hierarchy. Our universe is a little bit more chaotic. It’s run more
like the mafia with different groups having control of their own territories with a single big boss above them all.

There is good out there but don’t let the light hearted humor in the game fool you for a second, there is some
extreme evil as well. There are beings out there that are “not funny” evil. The point being, while there is a lot of
Cracked.com style humor (quite literally since Bucholz is a Cracked.com columnist), the humor also can come from
a very very dark place.
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 SUPER MELEE

This was ultimately the area that put me in the position I am today. If the game is successful, it will because of the
team. If it’s hated, it will be my fault.

As the original buyer of the Star Control IP from Atari/Accolade, there were certain things about Star Control that I
considered untouchable. One of them was Super Melee. While I was at the auction, besides messing with
Wargaming.net, I discussed with my colleagues just how amazing Super Melee was.

Thus, I have insisted that Super Melee be true to the Star Control 1 and 2 gameplay.
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 But we have introduced our own innovation to it. Ship Design.

So yea, not only will you be able to battle with the canon ships from the story but you will be able to download and
battle (or create your own) ships to play with.
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Ideally, not every MP super melee battle will be an Enterprise vs. Enterprise. Please don’t do that.
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 Ok, now you’re just trolling me.

Anyway, ship design is crucial not just because it’ll make Super Melee reach its logical conclusion but so that
players can create their own universes with their own ships.

Nevertheless, it is still 1 v 1. You only control 1 ship and you have to be able to control it with a gamepad. And I
expect two people to be able to play it locally.
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 ALIEN DIALOG

We’ve been listening.

For some of you, it’s probably obvious by now why we have a Founders program and why you are so important.

The fact is, and I think we all can agree on this, is that there are no do-overs. Our 1.0 has to be the equivalent of a
1.5 for other games or we’re going to get killed.

You guys are going to be playing 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 and then we’ll rebrand 1.5 as 1.0 and release that.

Right now, we’re at 0.60. Which means that the underlying engine is in pretty decent shape but the game is about
as fun as watching paint dry (and I don’t mean that fancy paint either, I’m talking about that paint that dries and
it’s a little flaky and if you’re not careful you have to use sandpaper on it and do it all over again).

The dialog of the game is important and we need it to be very readable as well. Ths above screenshot is the layout
we’re going for. The text will be bigger than this but you get the idea. Each race will have its own font.

OTHER UNIVERSE ALIENS

Now, our aliens (or in this case the Commander) will have fully procedural, Civ V/VI style leaders with full lip
syncing and the works.

Obviously, this isn’t really doable for modders so we will support .MP4 files to be placed here in its place so that
people can render up their own aliens in mods.
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 NAVIGATION

When you leave a star system, you will be given the galactic map along with what star systems you know of.

There’s no phase lanes or such. You can go wherever you want provided you have the fuel.

However, I murdered this:

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 This was a tough call since it was already done. But it adds nothing to the gameplay but frustration. It’s just…not
fun. Seriously, go back and play Star Control 2 and try it. Not the funnest part of the game.

Good game design means focusing on a few things really well. I’d rather spend that energy on the planet
exploration than trying to salvage fun from flying through hyperspace.
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 PLANET EXPLORATION

The purpose of planet exploration remains the same. It is a place to gather resources and find quests.
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But the gameplay has changed. With the addition of a third dimension, we have a lot of new knobs in terms of
gameplay.
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 We don’t have to wall off a certain planet because it’s not time to get there. We can, instead, make the planet
hard or easy to deal with based on what creatures and environments it has when compared to how good your
landers are.

This lets us have an open universe sandbox game without someone being able to speed-run it because they read
an internet post.
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 QUEST SYSTEM

This is the most technical part of the underlying game. This part of the game is done other than editing and
iterating.

If all goes well, we hope that some of you will be ready to start creating your own test universes. Our beta will
include a slightly alternative universe for testing purposes (fixing engine level bugs).
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 SHIP DESIGN

This will one of the additions to the game that we hope those who would say “it’s not a Star Control game without
the Spathi” will be willing to buy into our vision.

Now, there are two elements to ship design:

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 First, you have the part of ship design that lets you customize your flag ship. While you can greatly modify what
your ship looks like in game, you won’t be able to just free form make it whatever because what parts you have
depends on what you’ve found during the game.

If you play long enough then yes, sure, you can probably have your flagship be whatever you want. But in the
course of Origins, you’ll unlikely be able to turn your ship into Serenity or the Millennium falcon. You’ll find parts
on planets (both useful and cosmetic).

The goal, however, is that everyone’s play through of the game will be a little different because what your ship
looks like and can do depends on what you find.

Also, there are two broad strategies:

1. Make your ship super tough

2. Make your fleet super tough

For much of the game, your ship is…well, a piece of crap. No offense to the amazing engineers who built the
Normandy but in 2082, it just doesn’t compare very well at first. Over time, however, through many adventures
you will be able to either beef it up or be able to afford to have a grand fleet but not both.
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 THE SCHEDULE

The talent on Star Control is the best we’ve ever been able to assemble here. I have had the honor to put together
the dream team.

The ship date is “when it’s done”. You guys will know before us I suspect.

Here are the things we are working on as I write this:

1. Finishing the first pass of main game UI

2. Finishing the tools so that we (and you) can create planets without driving artists insane..er
3. Designing up the end-game boss and the battle (no, you’re getting no clues on this)
4. Planetary critters being put onto the planets
5. Animating the remainder of the aliens
6. Editing the story and script in preparation for voice acting.
7. New Navigation system for different stars
8. Sector map editor
9. Solar System Camera controls
10. Cleaner animation system
11. Ship Designer system
12. Vulkan support
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 GETTING BETAS TO YOU

One of the questions we’re dealing with internally is how to get beta copies out to everyone.

There’s been a lot of changes in the game industry since we started. The biggest, by far, has been the evolution of
Steam.

When we created the Founder’s program, the plan was for every founder to get a Steam key to test the game with
us. However, Steam changed it so that we can only hand out around 1,000 keys. Far fewer than the number of
Founders.

Worse, they also changed it so that none of your reviews will count towards the score on Steam. This has been
something of a disaster for us since our most loyal fans join our Founders programs and thus, can’t vote. That’s
how our games like Galactic Civilizations and Ashes end up with “mostly positive” scores on Steam rather than
overwhelmingly positive. When there’s only a few hundred people reviewing, you can imagine what 500 founder
reviews would do for the score.

Right now, we are not sure what we should do. What we want is for all of you to get beta keys and for all of you to
have your reviews of the game count. We’ll keep you update to date.

Those of you who were with us with Crusade know how painful that was. I was reduced to handing out individual
steam keys. And with Star Control, it’s been much the same. That’s no way to run a beta program.

We’ll keep you up to date. In the meantime, any thoughts or suggestions you have on any of this are welcome in
the Star Control founder’s Starbase (www.starcontrol.com).
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 SHORT TERM FOCUS

This is the part of the game we’re focusing on the most. We really want to nail down the camera behavior.

Until next time!

-brad
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 GALLERY
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