Overview
Work in progress! This idea is always evolving. Leave a comment if you have thoughts to share!
Images are taken from available asset packs - some already purchased. The goal is to use these packs to greatly increase development speed.
Other Sections:
Overview
Date: 2358
Where: Deep Space Habitation
Who: Human Survivors
Cascade Protocol is a multiplayer co-op survival horror game in a setting unique in the genre; a massive space station. What was once home to hundreds of thousands of humans is now a mass grave overrun with corpses infected with a strange alien contagion. Players work together, or alone, to survive; finding resources, creating weapons, traps, and turrets, and finding survivors to craft and fight alongside them.
When players start the game, they are in a part of the station that is seemingly abandoned. As they explore, they will find resources, recruit survivors, fight enemies, and will begin to understand the layout of the station around them. With bedrooms, offices, barracks, warehouses, industrial complexes, biodomes, maintenance tunnels, and every other kind of room imaginable, there is lots to explore and discover. But even with familiarity, players will need to be cautious... danger, and terror, could be only a door away.
Combat is fast paced and fairly unforgiving. Enemies are easy to kill, but the players are not tanks. One or two enemies aren't hard to handle, but one or two could quickly turn into a dozen, quickly overwhelming under prepared players. As players progress, they encounter larger hordes of enemies, both in areas they are exploring and in attacks on their bases. Players will need to stay vigilante in defense, making sure entrances are properly locked down and secured, and will need to be creative on attack, finding clever ways to isolate and eliminate large groups of enemies that couldn't otherwise be taken head on.
In-Engine screenshot
Through exploration, research, and crafting, players can better equip themselves to deal with threats. Melee weapons, then guns, then more clever solutions... traps, explosives, and turrets. Maybe some computer hacking and airlock venting as well!
NPC survivors are essential to scaling a base and economy; not only can they gather resources, research, and craft, but they are also critical in holding back the growing horde. Players will need to utilize NPCs to defend their base, holding choke points that would stretch the players too thin. Additionally, survivors bring a lot of personality to the game. With personality traits, needs, and health, they will do their tasks, consume resources, and respond to the situation around them. Let's say an NPC has the coward trait - the moment they think they're in danger, they're going to panic and run away, potentially to the detriment of the base. Don't want them defending a choke point!
Because players are already in a space station, the build system will be primarily focused on defenses and crafting areas. They will need to secure areas, control the entrances, then build their base. Eg: Food production, crafting, research, etc. It will be less about expanding, and more about improving and utilizing the existing space. This will force the player to expand; they will need to clear new areas in order to progress.
An example of what zones look like
Opposing the player, the alien infestation is a living, thinking, and ever-growing challenge. It reacts to different situations, expands into the environment, grows in strength, and will inevitably overrun the players, if it doesn't outsmart them first. Players are on the clock... they may be able to hold the line for some time, but eventually, the strength of the alien infestation will be too much for even the most well-equipped bases to resist.
An early in-engine view of what a section completely taken over by the infestation could look like.
The win condition is to escape the station, which is done by finding a ship, making it operational, having the skills to pilot (or having someone with the skills to pilot), and having enough resources to survive. The end game process for this is not only finding a ship, but then establishing a secure base near it where players and NPCs can work to make the ship operational and ready for the escape. Since almost all ships were taken from the station at the onset of the infestation, the only remaining ones are pretty beat up. Good luck getting them going without dying!
