Apogee

Apogee is a working title for a game I'd like to make written in pygame.

The game seeks to incorporate elements of games like Escape Velocity, GTA 1-2, Ares, and other early shareware 2D games.

It will be my first attempt at a 3D game, utilizing Panda3d a python library.

basic story

world takes place in an alternate future where the space race did not end with the apollo moon landings. by 1989 russia had put a cosmonaut in mars orbit only to lose the vessel on return trajectory, Russia attempted to recover the vessel but were unsuccessful until America set aside agression and assisted. This act turned America and Russia into mostly allies in space. A decade later North america joined England and most of Europe to form a joint space effort. India and japan formed a working relationship and China, Russia and North Korea formed a space power of their own. for 40 years, although relationships have been tense as yet no major war has occured in space yet. there have been cold war dealings.

the moon is fully colonized, it is the center of all space commerce housng the larges shipyard in the solar system

by the beginning of the 21st century most space concerns were under the direction of several multinational corporations and the earth had begun to establish several large multinational governments in response to the growing power of corporate interests.

at the time of the game the three colonies on mars landed by the US, russia and India have allied to form the Mars coalition government, and have declared independance. a constitutional governm enacted.

no one is sure how the earth governments will respond but none have recognized the legitimacy of the act.

in the far off colonies of ceres rumors are circling about a growing number of inexplicable equipment failures. the destruction of a freighter carrying needed food aid to ceres has prompted an accident investigation. Chief SSTB investigator chris lacoix is enroute but needs a clandestine ride so as not to taint the investigation by drawing unwanted attention.

Gameplay

start on small planet fresh out of flight academy

meet an old fella who tells you about a mission. offers you an old clunker if he takes you with him to mission

character will explore the solar system of earth.

ship mechanics

every ship is a frame with several hardpoints for adding equipment, cargo area for storage and crew support determines how many crew.

some vehicles are single stage to orbit small vessels, others are large scale capital vessels that cannot land.

orbiter

crew vehicle

equipment ranges from heavy weapons, sensors, energy collectors,

crew

more crew means ship systems are automated. larger ships require more interaction otherwise ships can blow up.

space mechanics: like ares, ships have momentum and rcs. ships can move sideways backwards etc