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Project Update – MoonBaseOne

Jay A. Crossler

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Agenda

Overview of Serious Games MoonBaseOne

– Summary of MoonBaseOne progress– Current MBO plans for this year

Demo Next Steps

– Overview of Massively Multiplayer Games– Vision for MoonBaseOne Phase 2 and 3– Development Requirements

Summary

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Games = Negative social stigma with adults

• 48 research papers on Games & learning last year- 46 positively biased- 2 negative

• Most indicate games (when done right) have a measurable significant benefit to learning in children, young adults, and soldiers

• Increases retention and morale

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MoonBaseOne Progress

Phase 1 almost complete (1 June delivery – 80% complete)– Expenses to date - $300– 1200+ volunteer hours– Requires very high skill levels (programming, graphics, design)– Requires high creative additional input (sound, art, writing)

Current game is “First Person Adventure” genre– Developed within the $100 Torque Gaming Engine (donated)– Stresses: Non-violent, adventurous, development, creation– Built to later take advantage of multiplayer– Uses vehicles, robots, AI “non player characters”– Please see additional Game Design Document

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Demo – free from the Blog

Blog (Web Log)http://moonbaseone.blogspot.com/

All posts online Game posted

bi-weekly Great conversations All archived for

posterity Low management cost!

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Next Steps – plans for Phases 2

Phase 2 – Targeted for Jun 2008 Option 1: 20-person Multiplayer games

– Buggy Races across lunar terrain (craters, 1/6 gravity)– Mining races (variation of “capture the flag”, use robots to mine)– Lunar Olympics (marathons, skiing, hoverjumps, jet-pack races)

Option 2: Incorporate advertising, add science classes– Can support 40 advertisements/

object or product placements• Ads on Satellites, Vehicles, Mining Gear,

Posters, Buildings, Space Suits, etc.– Add in additional science missions:

• Economy, Food/O2/Life support control

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Next Steps – plans for Phases 3

Phase 3 – Targeted for Jun 2009 500-person Massively Multiplayer Online game

– Accessible at any time from any country Requires online servers and databases to host system

– MITRE hosted servers enough for development/testing Merged with FOGE Mission Teams

– Give out “Badges” for accomplishing events to give you new vehicles or equipment within the game

– Gamer Points for attending Star Parties, meeting astronauts, mentoring younger kids, or building things to submit to the game

– Hundreds of missions, online events, stories, podcasts This will not be cheap or easy!

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Next Steps – Requirements to move forward

We need more programmers and more tools. Options:

Unreal 3 engine - $250k for engine– Minimizes development time, maximizes portability– Professionalism of $10Mil game!– Requires very skilled head programmer

Virtual Heroes – $40k - Requires Good amount of reprogramming– They have a Moon, Mars, Beyond system

Whyville - Web-based kids platform– Complete reprogramming, all Java via browser

Torque Game Engine– Keep current tools, hire programmers– 2 full- or half-time programmers– Or hire contractors for heavy lifting– Best reuse of code, soon will move to Xbox 360