Perihelion
Jeff Ridenour
Jeremiah Jilk
Lorenzo Gil-Sanchez
Pablo Diaz-Gutierrez
Sherry Wang
Perihelion is...
...a game with the
originality of those we
played in the early 80's,
like...
M.U.L.E.
Perihelion is...
...a simulation game, like...
Sim City
In Perihelion you
have to...
...conquer a new world in
which to build your
empire, just like in...
Civilization
And most important
Perihelion is a massive
multiplayer game, as we
saw in...
Ultima Online
The story
• 3028 AD
• Galaxy of Chonchi
• Arrested w/o
underwear
• Confined space
prison
• Objectives:
– 1.- Survive
– 2.- Escape
Network Capabilities:
• One Asteroid System
• Hundreds of Asteroids
• Thousands of Players: Moving from
Asteroid to Asteroid
• All Playing At the Same Time
• How is this Accomplished?
Network Architecture
Main Server
Asteroid Servers
Clients
Gameplay and the Gameworld:
• The Asteroid map will consist of 100 x 100
tiles. The map will wrap around on all
sides, thus creating the effect of a
continuous spherical surface. Terrain will
include rock, mud, mountains, water, and
ice. Display will be centered on the players
position in a 2D, top down display. Players
will interact with other players as well as
buildings, tools, and resources.
Resources: Commodities which players can
gather, produce, and process which will fulfill
players’ needs and generate money. Types of
resources include:
• Consumables which players need (e.g.
Food, Water, Energy)
• Raw materials which players can sell or use
to make other goods (e.g. Oil, Iron)
• Manufactured products which players can
sell for a profit. (e.g. Chemicals, License
Plates)
Buildings:
• Large, immobile stationary factories and
machines, which players can own and use to
gather, process, store, and trade resources
(examples: Iron Mine, House, Shop,
Chemical Factory)
Tools:
• Objects which the player may carry in
inventory which give the player different
abilities (usually finding and gathering
resources) (examples: Shovel, Pick, Metal
Detector, Stock Ticker, Radar)
Economics and the Shop:
• Goal of the game is to make enough money to escape from the asteroid
• Resource tree has multiple paths to fulfill needs and make profits,
allowing players to create and exploit niche markets
• Every asteroid will have a shop which will buy/sell resources and
tools, as well as sell ticket off the asteroid
• Prices of resources determined by a real time supply/demand model
• Consumable prices based solely on local supply/demand, exportable
manufactured products based on external effects
Trading with Other Players:
• Barter between players a crucial part of the game; primary
means of interaction between players
• Players can set their own values for goods, independent of
store prices
• Accessing an adjacent player activates a pop up trading
window
• Windows consist of three panels (inventory, player, other
player’s offer) trades are confirmed with a checkbox by
both players.
Controls: The interface is designed for the
keyboard, using minimal keys to make it both
playable and intuitive
• Movement (Arrow Keys) Players move in continuous fashion with
arrow keys
• Action Button: (Space Bar) Use Currently Selected Tool
Access Button: (Tab) Access adjacent building or player
• Inventory: Player can hold limited number of objects. Page
Up/Down cycles through inventory
• Drop Selected Item: (Del) Items may be left on the ground
• Menu: (Esc) Options for Music, Sound, Quitting Game etc
• Global Chat: (Enter Key) Allows broadcast chat between all players.
Intended Audience & Platforms
•Perihelion is targeted toward Boys, Ages 16 - 25.
•Perihelion should also appeal or Girls, Ages 16 -25.
•Perihelion is Designed for Windows, but...
•It will be Portable to All Major Operating Systems
Technical issues
• The programming language used will be C++ We Will used the library
SDL for two main reasons:
– The game is 2D and SDL is easier to use than DirectX in Windows
and Xlib or SVGAlib in Linux.
– If we only use SDL features and standard C++ constructions we
can get a lot of portability.
• SDL provides routines for:
– Graphics
– Input devices (keyboard, mouse and joystick)
– Timers
– Threads
– Sound
• SDL works on Windows, Linux, BeOS, MacOS and MacOS X
Technical issues
• The project is hosted in Sourceforge (http://perihelion.sourceforge.net).
Some of the advantages of using Sourceforge are the following:
– Space for a website
– CVS server
– Mailing lists ([email protected])
– Compilation farms
– Everything is free!
• The only requisite for use sourceforge is giving your project a free
license. We choose the GPL one.