Overview

Master Of None is a sci-fi strategy game, where the player leads a group of explorers, soldiers, and engineers to scavenging sites in the deep reaches of space. The player has no direct control over his crew, but can influence each member through different incentives based on the character's job and personality. The player is also tasked with protecting their ship, discovering/utilizing new technologies found at the scavenge sites, hiring  new crew members, and providing assistance whenever possible. In a few cases, the player may be tasked with the hardest choice of all: to leave members behind in order to save the ship and all those on it.

 

A few things to note:

  • This game has only been in development for 2-3 months -- features, story and art direction has a high probability of changing.

  • All art is very much placeholder at this point.

  • The largest part of development up until now has been focused on the AI, leaving little playable gameplay.

  • Most Importantly!! this has been a solo project so far, originally designed to test/showoff new AI technology. However, overtime I've come to see its potential as a full-fledged game, causing me to adjust my priorities. I mention this because as you view what is currently implemented you may consider my choices pertaining to the order in which elements were developed a bit odd.

** If you would like to see more detail on the AI elements already implemented in the game, please visit the AI Technology page.

 

Design & Development

 

Summary:

Engine: Started off in Leadwerks, but switched over to Unity midway through.

Genre: Single Player, Sci-fi, Grand Strategy, Similation

Intended Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One

 

Influences and Insperations:

Majesty 1 & 2

Majesty was one of the first games I ever became entranced with. I would go find my dad's little black work laptop after school and soccer practice just to watch my warriors and mages learn new skills and upgrade their equipment on their own. For some reason this seemed so advanced and made me wonder about what NPCs were going to be doing in future games(Admittedly, leading to a little disappointment). To this day, I still equate Majesty with my love and wonder for the game industry.

As for how it relates to Master Of None, I drew the base gameplay from what they had. There was no direct control over your heroes; you could only place bounties and build/upgrade buildings. Their use of these different buildings within your kingdom was entirely up to them. I do plan do expand heavily on this concept, allowing the player to generate meta strategies for his crew and setup priorities. Yet, if you want to see closest representation for what I have planned I highly recommend the Majesty series. 

 

 

X-Com: Enemy Unknown

Although I have heard good things about the older members of the X-Com series, I genuinely enjoyed Enemy Unknown. Whenever I try to imagine how Master Of None is going to look in the end, images like the one above pop into my head. Also, the decision of which soldiers to bring on a particular mission is something I will be pushing heavily.

 

 

Jagged Alliance: Back In Action

Jagged Alliance is another series where I have only been exposed to their newest releases. However, after the 100+ hours I've put into the game, I'd be lying if I said I didn't think its base mechanics were strong.

Recruitment, team setup, and gear elements are the obvious reasons why I would point to this game. But it was really the grand strategy on harder difficulties that I found myself rubbing my bloodshot eyes after staring staring at the screen for 6 hours straight. Choosing areas to attack and setting up defensive squads at key intersections in case the enemy attempted to counter attack brought the game to life. It is this grand strategy aspect that I intend to incorporate.

 

 

State Of Decay

I became aware of State Of Decay after I had already been burned out the zombie genre. However, as soon as I learned about the base camp gameplay, I had it downloading on steam and continued experiment with it consistently over the next few months. Just the idea of one of my fellow survivors going and doing their own supply run put a smile on my face. It made me think of Majesty but on a more personal level since I was having to do the same tasks as they were at the same time.

 

 

Lost In Space(Movie)

One of my favorite movies as a kid, Lost In Space, made me wish I was born at a point in time where exploring the universe was a possible career option. I've purposely avoided giving any information as to the story/plot in Master Of None, but I am willing to say that both this movie and Stargate Universe were drawn from.

The concept of exploring completely unknown worlds and technology is an element I am also attempting to incorporate into gameplay.

 

 

Stargate Universe

Like Lost In Space, SGU has a theme I find fascinating and somewhat lacking in the world of games. Secondly, a large portion of the show was centered around crew that they were stuck with by pure accident. Adapting to such circumstances as you are trying to leverage alien technology has the potential to bring about a lot of new gameplay elements.

Too bad more people didn't like the show.

 

 

Game Elements Currently Implemented

(or at least mostly implemented)

AI

The current state of the game is centered around the AI. They have two main priorities: Survive and Make Money. Above all else they want to stay alive, but once that condition is sufficiently satisfied they do everything in their power to make money.  There are dispensers the player can set up for his crew, which act like shops where they can both sell and buy from. The reason they explore maps, is to find items and enemies that they can loot. Selling this loot increases their worth, and the process repeats. In the near future I plan on providing additional ways of making money such as repairing equipment and collecting bounties.

Implemented AI Elements:

  1. Action Planner

  2. ~25 Actions

  3. Teamwide Knowledge System

  4. Cover Objects and Manager

  5. Level Manager

  6. Event System

  7. Two NPC types(Soldiers and Spider Bots)

  8. Context Map

  9. Priority Helper

  10. Weapon Aim and Use

  11. Awareness System

  12. Animation State Machines

  13. Goal Determination

  14. Level Navigator that takes into account current knowledge

  15. Integrated behavior tree use for action execution

  16. Randomized(within constraints) creature inventory upon spawning

** If you would like to see more detail on the AI elements already implemented in the game, please visit the "AI Technology" page.

 

General Game Elements:

  1. Object building/placement(currently only Turrets)

  2. Equipment handler

  3. Inventory

  4. Containers(able to be locked/unlocked)

  5. Doors(able to be locked/unlocked)

  6. Base GUI

  7. Base weapon mechanics

  8. Weapon effect handling for both projectile and laser based weapons