Phenomenon 32In an alternate 1940s, scientists discover an extremely powerful and dangerous new area of physics, code-named Phenomenon 32. Years before it can be fully understood, the United States government uses it to create the ultimate weapon: the Reality Bomb, whose blast not only destroys matter, but shatters reality itself.
By the 1950s, the Great Depression has reached an unimaginable low. With the threat of revolution and pressure from the multinationals on the inside, and the aggressive policies of Stalinist Russia on the outside, the government sees only one way of revitalizing the economy: war.
Within less than a day, the Earth is gone. The Reality Bomb has done its work.
Twenty years later, a small population of humans is still alive on the moon. Previously dismissed and laughed about as a waste of money, the Moon Colony is now humanity's last shelter from the insanity of war. But the Moon Colony was never meant to be completely self-sufficient, and now resources are finally running out.
There is only one place to get more.
In a special ship designed to withstand the dangerous environments of Earth, you are sent to explore our former planet, to gather information for research, and to find all the materials needed for the Moon Colony to survive.
But Earth is no longer the Earth we knew. Things have
shifted; out from the cracks in reality, creatures have come that live in the darkness between the worlds. The atmosphere is often poisonous; radiation from Soviet bombs is widely spread; and in some places, reality itself is so fractured that not even your ship's shields can protect you. Phenomenon 32 has turned the Earth into something... unknown.
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Phenomenon 32 will be a 2D exploration/strategy/RPG game. It will feature:
- Exploration of a very strange, hostile environment
- The ability to improve your ship
- Research that sheds light on the mysteries of Earth and furthers your tech
- Turn-based menu-based combat
- A detailed and useful cockpit interface
- Non-linear gameplay
- An evolving storyline
- other stuff
- (possibly) some voice acting
The central design concept, except for having an interesting story and scaring the crap out of some players (while definitely boring others), is to have a really detailed cockpit, and one that really functions. The screenshot above is not entirely complete: there will be quite a few more controls and tools. These are designed so that you really have the experience of piloting this ship in the surreal horror environment of Earth; not in terms of not-hitting-rocks-and-exploding, but in terms of understanding and using the readings and settings.
Wish me luck!
UPDATE: See my post on page three. I am still going to finish this, but I don't want to release a crappy version.