Game Information

[Harv]

Platform: PC Online
Genre: MMORPG
Developer: Runestone
Publisher: Runestone
Status: Alpha testing, Beta due February 1st, 2006
Release date: April 2nd, 2006.
Service Territory: U.S.A.
Official Website: http://www.seedthegame.com

To be human means reaching for the stars. Doing what it takes to get there. And never letting go.

Seed invites you to experience life as a marooned colonist on the planet Da Vinci, a green desert teeming with hostile, alien bacteria. The colony is in dire straits: Contact with Earth has been lost for decades. The terraforming has gone astray, and nobody understands why. The swelling numbers of the colony are still confined to the original settlement with little hope of more space. Resources are strained to the limit. Something has to be done - and soon - or the promised future will turn into a lost dream.

You must face the challenges of Da Vinci: Chronic overpopulation, lurking cabin fever, hidden conflicts and dwindling faith on the inside. Violent, unpredictable weather and alien bacteria hungry for human hosts outside. Your weapons are knowledge, cooperation and willpower. Your legacy is intelligence, humanism, ambition, science. Will you throw it away to survive?

Explore the human condition and decide the fate of Da Vinci through a multitude of roles, each with its own unique story line. Fight to keep the failing machinery running. Crack scientific riddles to unlock new knowledge. Keep the web of information flowing in the colony. Express yourself in art to remind fellow colonists why they carry on. Join the political struggle and make yourself heard. Or survive the fringes of society as a drop-out.

Seed features:

* Immersive roleplay in a persistent game world

* In-game free form dialogue. Talk to anyone, including NPCs, about anything in the game world.

* Believable NPCs with own personalities, goals, motivations and relationships.

* 3D graphics in unique graphic novel style.

* Mutable reality. Your actions impact and change the game world.

* Free-form interactive stories. No set stories or generic quests. Any
object, any person, any location can be the starting point of a new story line. Every story can interact with any other story line.

* Developer-supported community portal.

* New content released on a regular basis.

FAQ's

1. What is Seed?
Seed is an upcoming sci-fi MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) focusing on roleplaying and storymaking. The story is set in an ailing human settlement on the planet Da Vinci, far from Earth and a thousand years into the future. It is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2006.

2. What will Seed feature?

* Immersive roleplay in a persistent game world.
* In-game free form dialogues. Talk to anyone, including NPCs, about anything in the game world.
* Believable NPCs with own personalities, goals, motivations and relationships.
* 3D graphics in unique cartoon style.
* Mutable reality. Players can collaborate to change the game world.
* Free-form interactive stories. No set stories or generic quests. Any object, any person, any location can be he starting point of a new story line. Every story can interact with any other story line.
* Developer-supported community portal.
* New content released on a regular basis.


3. What is storymaking?
It is our way of describing a larger degree of freedom and freshness with regards to story than usually seen in CRPGS (Computer Role-playing Games). We do not use set quests or scripted dialogue, which means players can toy around with stories. Try out different outcomes. Play out a story with different actors. Try out different angles and variations of the same basic story. Storymaking means emphasizing the gaming aspect of stories, the playing around, rather than just experiencing or viewing a story.

4. What is the backstory?
In a near future Earth began launching huge, unmanned seed ships with the purpose of spreading humanity far and wide in the universe. The ships would wander from system to system, searching for a good fit for human colonies. The colony on Da Vinci is the result of such a seeding. Upon arrival, sophisticated robots and AIs set to work on terraforming the planet and constructing a home for the new humans waiting as sperm and eggs in cryostorage. In due time everything would be ready for the new settlers, who would be raised on a clean slate, free from old Earth bias.

But along the way something went wrong. First it was the planet itself. Increasingly weird weather and unpredictable native microbes forced an early awakening of the human element. The first to emerge was Fischer, planetary engineering scientist speed-grown and speed-trained to crack the complex riddle. Many more followed, but none had a ready answer. Then it was too many people crammed into too little space. A series of mysterious accidents in the float beds responsible for creating new humans threw population count way into the red zone, placing resources under chronic strain. A train-sized rock hurled by extreme winds took off the top of the tower habitat, reducing available space further. A concerned colonist tried to kill off the surplus humans at one point. Control over the colony AI was partially lost overnight. It just kept coming. The fledgling society suddenly had to deal with murder, with large-scale stress, with politics, with fading ideals versus harsh realities, on top of a multitude of baffling scientific riddles.

The future of the colony now hangs in the balance. Everybody will have to make their own choices, but they must commit as a society or die. Should they terraform or not? Enlarge the habitat underground? Decrease population? Attempt to get off the planet? Scrap the air purifiers to make room for more people? Grow tasty apples and take space from more nutritious food? Make filching equipment a crime to be punished? Stick to the rules, and see the next guy break them? It is hard to steer by consensus, hard to keep the path straight, and even harder not to let things slip under conditions like these. And time is running out.

5. What kind of sci-fi will Seed feature
We aim for hard sci-fi in the same vein as Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars-series, with a low-key, everyday feel to it. Seed stories focus on humans and how they handle things, rather than exotic technology, aliens or exploring galaxies.

6. What can I do in the game?
Overall, you will play the part of a colonist going about his or her life, with all that entails of goals, desires, dreams, feelings and the stories connected to it. The overall goal of the colony is to stay alive, to understand why the environment is acting up, and eventually to master the planet and claim the space and resources everybody crave. Your personal goals depends on the kind of person you are. You might decide to work for the colony, or against it. Or just for yourself and your friends.

You can focus on completing work tasks such as getting the aging heating processors up and running again. You can try to harness enough support to get an administrator bit, and get your hands on larger-scale resource management. You can also focus on crafting much-needed items, supplies and machines, or inventing new ones. You can go after the riddles and mysteries connected to the troubles the colony suffers, and perhaps change the situation for everybody. You can try to twist the native microbes for human use.

If your taste runs toward politics and socializing, you can work to influence the overall direction of the colony - for example trying to sway public opinion into abandoning the terraforming project. You can engage in social infight, build networks of contacts and influence, try to take your political opponents down in the public opinion.

7. How big is the game world?
We want it relatively small, compared to some other MMORPGs, but still big enough to stay interesting. We want a sense of crowding, because chronic overpopulation is an important part of the backstory and a major problem for the colonists to solve. Space (room) is a precious resource and finding a quiet spot in the colony can become a quest in itself.

The colony is crammed into a huge tower-like structure, with a pretty hostile planet hammering at its doors. From game launch we will focus on locations inside the tower. This should provide a crowded, but still large and interesting game world to move about in. If enough players put enough in-game resources and effort into it, even remote locations outside could be unlocked. There is a dead space station hanging in orbit overhead, for example, but access is blocked by a broken space elevator. If one fixed the elevator ...

8. What's the score on the graphics?
The graphic style draws inspiration from European graphic novels/comics such as "Linda and Valentine", and contrary to popular belief, they are not cell-shaded. We use a loose and "painted" style to make the overall impression of the game more organic and human. Shadows are more soft, and blend realistically with the textures. "Fogging" is used to give a more 3D and less "flat" experience than with cell shading. Highlights are kept at a minimum to avoid too much of a plastic 3D look. Characters and surroundings are given black outlines in various ways to tie up the overall graphic novel feel.

9. What about the balance between casual and hardcore gaming?
We expect to cater both to casual and hardcore gamers. There is no denying that the more time you put into the game, the more fun, challenging and complex it gets. Keeping track of all the different story threads, alliances, enemies and so on would be hard if you only log in once or twice a week, though we will provide tools for logging stuff and organizing knowledge.

But due to the way story templates and the work task system will work, it will still be fairly easy and intuitive to log in and grab something quick and fun to do, without having to commit to hours and hours of play. The various mini games and smaller stories still tie into the bigger picture and social game play, in case you get hooked on some more heavy action. The long term, time-intensive projects and larger story lines involving lots of other players will likely appeal more to hardcore gamers.

10. Will there be a playable tutorial?
There will likely be some form of tutorial to show you the basic ropes like how to use various machines, access your inventory, move about, talk to people and so on. What form it will take has not been decided yet. And yes, it will be skippable for experienced players.

11. How about power structures? Who rules the colony? How is it run?
The quick answer would be: Democracy rules. Almost any decision is reached by consensus voting, and players will be able to make both low and high-level decisions with regards to what the society as a whole should do.

The designers back on Earth wanted their own brand of direct democracy, where everybody would participate by voting on all levels. They figured it would work, since the voters would be bright, professional people trained to always keep the best interests of the colony in mind. Colony reality looks rather different, of course. Various affiliations are likely to skewer the system one way or the other.

All sorts of maintenance, repairs and production are handled by elected administrators. They are responsible for keeping their particular corner of the colony up and running, and achieve this by delegating jobs. Everybody is responsible for making sure the work actually gets done.

It is easy - sometimes all too easy - to remove or replace an administrator, if the current one performs badly in the public opinion. Bad or unpopular administrators will likely also have a harder time finding skilled hands.

Not all administrative positions will be open to players due to design constraints.

12. How much power will an in-game administrative position wield?
An administrative position wields considerable power, when it comes to deciding who gets what and how much. Whether that translates to actual influence, depends. The more sought-after the resource, the greater power and influence to the one controlling it. The level of power and responsibility also depends on the scope and nature of the administrative position.

13. What if I don't care about politics?
We are not trying to design a game for everybody, and that means we have made selections with regards to design and gameplay, for example putting heavy focus on roleplaying and stories. That said, we think our gameplay is pretty varied and can take many forms. You can easily avoid the elements you care less about, and focus on the ones you have fun with.

14. Do I have to cooperate, or can I play alone?
You are free to work on your own, but game mechanics will favor collaborative efforts.

15. What about the AI NPCs? How clever will they be?
The AI NPCs (Artificial Intelligence Non Player Characters) will use the same communication system, trading interface and items as players. You will be able to talk with them in restricted free-form, and they will have feelings, goals, memories, desires and allegiances just like PCs (Player Characters).

The NPCs serve two major purposes: As tools and as story helpers. Tools mean that players can get aid, advice and resources through NPCs, and that players can influence NPC opinion and use them as contacts and alliance partners. Story helpers means NPCs participate as supporting cast in running stories, rather than just being "quest dispensers". NPCs will also be able to gossip and spread information, which can be a useful tool for players interested in in-game politics.

16. How do I communicate in the game?
Communication in the game works through something called the infoton system. It basically works by representing all knowledge as objects, infotons. Just as you can trade items, you can trade infotons. Infotons can be strung together into sentences, essentially a crafting of knowledge, and passed on to both players and NPCs.

This means all words will automatically be "in-game". The game world will be peppered with its own jargon to help the atmosphere and mood along. We will likely also implement some form of "language skins" to give players the ability to customize how their character talks, for example based on personality or mood.

Of course there will be an off-game chat to rattle your box on as well.

17. Where do the stories enter the picture?
Stories are there to make your world and gameplay believable, coherent, interesting, alive and surprising. They basically exist on two levels: Personal and community.

The stories on the personal level come from hands-on gameplay such as trading and crafting. They follow you around, so to speak. If you dedicate your playing time to repairing oxygen pipelines, you might discover a mysterious attempt at sabotage, or you might suddenly find yourself in the middle of a dilemma involving hard decisions about stealing, lying and getting your best friend in trouble to get the spare parts you want. If you research microbes, an strain might behave oddly one day, and lead to the discovery of a hitherto hidden infestation eating away in somebody's bowels. If you spend time participating in the public debate, you might suddenly find yourself on the receiving end of information warfare or a shady offer of alliance.

Stories on the community level tie into the major backstories, and tell about the fate of the entire colony. Stories on the personal level have the potential to gain enough weight and move the backstories along. Solving the problem of chronic overpopulation would be an example of a story on the community level.

18. How do stories work?
Each story in Seed is made from the same building blocks, the story templates. Templates come in many sizes, but a fairly chunky example could be "Guy gets wronged, fights for his rights, and win the day" or "Girl meets mystery meets unexpected scientific breakthrough".

Larger stories consist of many smaller stories working together. That means we can throw together new variations over the same stories on the fly, and not have the same story occur precisely the same way ever. Without killing ourselves in the attempt to make unique content for 15.000+ players.

19. What are the major themes? What are themes used for?
The major themes in Seed center on the loss of control, external and internal pressure, and the human potential of overcoming hardship and defending ideals in spite of everything.

Themes along with mood determine how the world looks, feels and acts, from the color of coffee cups to how open spaces are perceived when we design the content. They also influence what kind of stories Seed offers. Not all stories are created equal.

20. Will you do several tellings like A Tale In The Desert?
We are not planning for multiple tellings at this point, but if we are wildly successful, we may start a second parallel server, which may develop differently.

21. What if I start a character at a later point - will I miss out some stories
Yes and no. You can miss the playing out of a concrete story, but the basic story itself - the template - can be played out over and over, with new participants, starting points, turns, twists and endings. No player will really miss the fun by starting later than the launching date, because new stories will keep cropping up and still tie into the larger backstories and various community efforts.

Ideally, this should also set the stage for truly player-generated stories and the mutable reality we aim for. New players can experience the past stories, being told about what has happened recently, and not so recently, either by other players or by NPCs. Some stories may thus have roots in the actions of other players, actions that may have taken place a long time ago.

22. Will there be skills?
Yes, though exactly what kind and what they will do, is under heavy development. What remains sure for now, is that you will start out with a basic package of skills depending on what your characters works with, and what he or she is specialized in. The higher your skill, the faster and better you can do a given task.

As you play, you can acquire new skills and even change work area entirely, for example by switching from scientist specializing in evolutionary leaps in native microbiology to designing polymer gels for the outer hull plates.

23. Will there be classes?
Not in the traditional sense. Seed does not restrict character development to classes. Instead we plan to use some form of professions to distinguish between who can do what. The actual implementation is still under discussion.

The game will feature many different tasks (jobs) in need of handling. As it looks now, there are no set jobs or positions to handle them, apart from the administrator bits. Instead all jobs will likely appear on a public list for anybody to grab. Variables such as skills, specializations, and certifications will likely influence or even decide what kind of jobs you can get.

24. Will I be able to customize my character?
Yes, both your appearance, skills and background will be customizable from a predefined collection.

25. Is there any PvP (Player Versus Player) action?
We will not implement a combat system as such, but there are other ways:information warfare, backstabbing politics, social engineering, cutting off or granting access to resources, intrigue, conspiracies and slandering. While you cannot outright smoke the other guy, you can play to make sure his reputation, standing, status, influence, power and alliances are left in smoking ruins. And since these things have great influence on what you can do and what you can get your hands on in the colony society, you can cripple your opponents severely this way. It is slower, can be countered and has a longer build-up, but will give more play to everybody.

26. Why is there no combat in Seed?
Leaving out combat is a deliberate design decision, and one we intend to stick to. While we love orc-bashing just as much as the next guy, we believe a combat system in Seed would steal focus from what we want to accomplish with this game.

27. How about PC injury or death?
That is still an area under discussion. But since there is no combat system in Seed, there is no immediate threat of PC death.

With regards to accidents, they will happen, but not with lethal consequences. Your character can catch nasty diseases if you are not careful, for example. This will cripple rather than kill him or her, and the penalties are reversible. Coming up with cures for diseases will be an important aspect of the game, and a likely source for becoming the local hero.

28. Will there be trading in Seed?
The colony does not operate with a formal monetary system, so there are no merchants and such. Instead, there is a economical system based on Access Points (APs), which is a measure on how valuable your doings are to the colony.

While all colonists can trade items or knowledge with each other, only Administrators and TAU, the colony AI, can grant APs. There are rumours of a black market bartering, though.

29. Will there be crafting in Seed?
Crafting plays an important part, both for engineers and scientists. You will be able to research new machines, technology and tools. You can research the native life and come up with new vaccines, cures and ways of bending the microbes to human use. You can research into methods and tools for mining the planet underground and so on.

Due to how information is exchanged in Seed, you will also be able to research and refine knowledge, such as a theory on how a certain virus behaves or an idea of what a certain colony administrator did at what time. You will be able to pass your "crafted" knowledge on to both players and NPCs alike, who can then further improve on it or change it.

30. Is there an economy in Seed?
The economy in Seed is based on Access Points (APs), which are described in question 28 above.

All resources are owned by society as a whole, and distributed after need.
Private ownership only applies to stuff as clothes, personal gadgets and customized tools. Maybe a more conventional economy will emerge after game launch, but it depends heavily on player interest and actions.

31. Will there be guilds in Seed? Factions?
No and yes. Seed does not feature guilds in the classical sense, such as those seen in many fantasy-themed MMORPGs, but the function is available in the shape of informal alliances.

The basic social unit in Seed is called a ring. They come in different sizes and with different purposes. E.g. members of a project ring are able to share ressources and combine their skills in an attempt to complete large scale research or production projects. Any character can be a member of several rings.

The colonists are raised to perceive themselves as part of one great venture. There are no family structures, and no formal political parties or factions. But at game launch the community is slowly fracturing as people with similar opinions tend to cluster. Different rings are often connected by favors, informal ties, agreements and cooperation, creating a vast and quiet network of alliances. Affiliated rings often vote similarly on similar issues, and in time they will likely resemble political parties with all that it entails.

Working together as a ring or a network of rings is always better than being alone, since game mechanics will favor collaboration.

32. Will there be private rooms or areas, like guild halls?
The physical layout of the colony tower favours public spaces, because an empty world is a boring world. Due to the limited space inside the colony tower private rooms are limited to float beds and a locker for personal stuff.

33. What's this about mutable reality thing?
It means that we design the game world to be changed by player actions. This is mainly due to three things:

* Player-spawned stories have the potential to become part of the general backstory, and be passed on to new players, especially through NPCs. Read more about this above.´
* The NPCs have personalities, emotions, goals, and opinions, and react in accordance with this to everything they encounter. You treat an NPC badly, he might trash you to his PC or NPC friends. You do something he likes, he might mention it to others. You vote against his buddy, he might vote against you at the next poll. You propose something he likes, he might help out with resources and so on.
* Players can invent new stuff and make community level decisions about what the colony should do. E.g. focus the research on re-establishing contact to a lost space station or building more towers to house more people. Community-level projects can influence future content, e.g. by making the development team work on the space station before the planet surface.


34. One server or sharding?
We are designing and implementing towards a single world server, and we believe we can overcome the technical challenges posed by this. We would prefer having all players play in the same world, e.g. have no shards. This is primarily a game design decision, based on the spread of information, and because we want our players to feel like they are part of a community, both in-game and off-game.

That said, having all players in one world gives some pretty ugly technical challenges. Nothing that cannot be handled, but we do run a risk that the game will lag, and nobody wants that. We may have to shard at some point. That also depends on the level of success we achieve. If we get the 30K customers we aim for, we should be able to keep it to one world.

35. What engine is Seed using?
Seed is being built for the Qube engine, which is free to use for commercial projects on the PC platform. You can read more on www.qubesoft.com.

36. When will Seed be released?
The safe answer is always "When it's done" - MMORPGs by their very nature usually have delay built into them. Our estimate for a commercial launch is April 2nd, 2006.

37. How much will Seed cost?
The game client will be available for download free of charge, and online play will be free for an introductory period of time. After this, a monthly fee (approx. $13) will be required to keep playing. We want the game to grow and evolve slowly, and for that purpose, a subscription model is the best option. We will also most likely do prepaid game card solutions, and let people buy e.g. 6 months in advance and get some sort of discount.

38. Will there be a beta? When can we apply?
Certainly. And later. We are not open for Beta subscription yet.

Our development plan calls for an open beta starting February 1st, 2006.
The plan is to have 5.000 - 10.000 beta testers, and we are planning for a
2 months beta test period.

39. Will there be a closed Alpha or Beta period ?
As you can already guess, this is undecided for now. We think it would be prudent of us to split a 6 month beta into first a closed Beta, followed by an open Beta. We definitely want an open beta leading up to launch.