Fortunately there is public information on visionary ideas of what colonization of a planet like Mars might be, but a strong lack of DETAIL. When you hold an object in your hand, it has to look right, whether a wrench designed to be handled with thick gloves of an EVA suit, or a portable Ground Penetrating Radar unit that must survive transport and being dragged along the rocky and craggy surface. Like a painting these Points of Interest can represent the Foreground of a painting, focal points that must appear realistic and convincing.

Beyond DETAIL, there are the mid-ground elements, like duct work, clutter and graphics on the habitation unit panels. Even branding… of course a private enterprise will want their logos present on systems and devices when images are transmitted back to earth and may become news or parts of documentaries. Yeah, think Pepsi or Bud Light in space… it happens now, will always be part of our environment. But these are the familiar cues… those that help decode what otherwise may be a confusing mass of wiring, foreign looking test equipment. They guide and direct the participant into a sense of real space.

Then comes the background. Those things that add ambient and atmosphere and a sense of presence. This is also a trap, as we have discovered. Specifically, I am talking about walking on the surface of Mars. Yes we have some video and images, some very detailed. But nothing from the viewpoint of a human, walking around. In a game engine, we can at best simulate the look, but are extremely limited in the variations that we can provide and keep the build within size parameters (megabytes not gigabytes) and performance limitations of the current engine.

In comes the magic of 3D game engines: vertices and normals that represent raw geometry of what is essentially a desert landscape with soft hills and a few rocky outcrops; DIFFUSE (color), DETAIL (image maps), and NORMALS (how light interacts with the surface) mapping provide a lot of illusions to create a compelling simulation. Color is tricky, as is the perceived “depth” of the surface. Oh and then there are the issues of tiling which creates unrealistic repeating patterns… in the real world it would be impossible to find a 1M square of surface anywhere that is identical to another, but in a game engine – there is no budget for a completely unique texture per meter texture, so those assets are repeated and tiled together to SIMULATE a whole environment. Intelligent compromises between the game engine and reality should create a unique experience.

To that end, we know, somewhat what the surface of Mars looks like. We have color corrected details, from the vantage point of Spirit and Opportunity. We have 50,000 foot photos that give us an idea of the landscapes from which to base the Colonist activities. We have libraries of information on what Nasa and other space organizations are working through to establish long term presence on various planets. What we do not know, is REALLY how it all comes together. There is a magic, undefined element of surprise, that makes Mars Colony interesting and realistic. That is the human element. This is an unscripted experience in a hostile natural environment. With 4 players, those unknown seeds into a dynamic collaboration will make or break success as they setup and attempt to survive long term. All of the tools are there and must be used, which requires periods of intense focus and has periods of dullness. Our testers have been providing immeasurable and valuable information that has started to help us crystallize on a final product that offers the richest and most realistic science based simulation of a Mars experience.

It is HyperKat’s goal to present a perspective on Mars Colonization that feels real and helps to make a compelling case for REAL exploration to the surface of Mars within our lifetime. Mars Colony is still in testing. Though not official, we have effectively moved into the BETA phase. Most of the mechanics are worked out, with a few outstanding issues. Final artwork is starting to be integrated. Now Hyper is working to figure out the productized version of the package. Feel free to join us in the Tester Forum, loving called the Litterbox. A link is to the right.

Mars Colony is proceeding well. I heard from Hyper that the weekend testing was incredibly successful. He continues to focus on alpha testing and has stomped out most of the major snafus that our illustrious and “well paid” testing team have unrolled. Ok, well paid in process food stuffs and Mars dust. They have been incredibly generous with information, ideas and some pretty crazy edge case scenarios. Seriously? Who drills on the roof of a habitation unit?

The screenshot in the header graphic is the latest incarnation of the habitation units, branching into various facilities, and cast with the sunset.

We are always looking for new testers, so please feel free to join us in the forum. There are several tests a week, some directed, and some more open format. There is a bit of a learning curve, but some quicky tutorial information has been put together through the dedication of our great testers. Also – there are some great proposals and ideas, get out your abacus and discuss.

Tug on the suit and jump into the challenge!

Having said all that, as a game designer I have to bend the reality somewhat in order to make it enjoyable for the user. For instance, I can run the game in real time, but the reality of it would be so boring for the user I doubt many would run the game more than a couple hours. You spend most of the day doing research, maintaining the equipment and night time comes and you would sleep.

Sleeping online, think about it for a moment. You log into the game and watch your character sleep for 8 real hours? The excitement level at that point would be mind numbing. So as a designer I have to offer the compromise of time compression so the user is always active. I can put cots, bunks in some sleeping quarters and give the illusion of having that ability but for making things playable I compressed a day down to an hour real time. What we are after here is the core user experience. The user wants to drive rovers, discover new things and be put into challenging situations where they have to resolve issues of survival. That is the driving force behind this game. I want the user to experience all the action of setting up, living and surviving in a colony on an alien world with limited resources and help.

There are potentially multiple products or chapters in all of this. The first exploration mission, like the original demo is a game in and of itself. Like a camping trip, Colonists set up the tents, get the fires going, explore, get the basic necessities working, enjoy the scenary and then go home. The second trip is about establishing a permanent base, and thriving on planet and is a one way trip for those willing to take the challenge. And the last chapter is expanding the footprint of man on Mars. Humans will always want to see what is over the next hill and will set up camps along the way to make that happen. The current version of the game I am building is about the third key experience. The new base is 50 kilometers away from the main base so if things go wrong or you forget your toothbrush, you are on your own till the next shipment can get to you. I think this will give the user a lot of great Mars experiences.

Colonists will have to set up equipment, create a livable atmosphere, get the power generators running and start growing food. I may backtrack and make a prequel version of the first manned landing on the planet or setting up the first colony but from a game / development standpoint I can get more-bang-for–the-game-playing-buck with this version. Perhaps the future of this development will be to put all three chapters into one product but for now I am focused on delivering a great Mars simulation product, with a balance between game mechanics and real Mars science.

The real experience here is the human element, and human decisions and interactions with the challenges of long term survival on the planet Mars. Anything that deteriorates that experience, whether that is a game mechanics issue like where new players “spawn”, game play issues like permanent death or conflicting opinions on core science application in the Mars Environment are set aside. Those things that are perceived as critical and important, and play into situations that add to the sense of urgency and excitement add to the experience. Sweeping the dust out of the airlocks? Not so much.

Mechanics testing: Mechanical testing is running the in-game systems, arrays and databases through their paces to ensure that a rich simulation is available, as well as enough content to keep the experience compelling and fun. Think of the permutations necessary to ensure that enough potential variables are present to make a system seem real, and tracking the sheer numbers of equipment, resources, resource types and dependencies. We have a great crew of game testers, who wait patiently (and not so patiently) for the weekly server bump and drop in and tear through things. Mechanical testing means that art sits on the back burner until enough bugs (yes there are bugs on Mars, but they only bite when the server is running) are eradicated. This also means that testers get to work with programmer artwork, which in this case is actually pretty good.

What this means to HyperKat: Literally hundreds of hours of debug, using both user feedback and server debug logs, to pinpoint the culprit in a couple of millions of lines of code. Some bugs are engine code, some are server/client issues, some are whole systems and arrays that have to be rebuilt from scratch… and all have cascading ramifications in other areas of the code. At the end of this process, the entire game will effectively be rewritten dozens of times, and without good in-line code documentation HyperKat would be lost.

What this means to our crack testing teams: It MIGHT begin to feel like little progress. We are thrilled with the feedback, but are still focused on mechanical systems. That means such things as accurate horizon and solar rendering or drill and sample animations are not put into the game. It may also mean that some feedback is set aside in a queue until it can be addressed. It may also seem that every week you see the same programmer art and find new little annoying bugs. However, without you – this game cannot exist!

Our testers, as most of you know, are an international crew located in all corners of the world, spending their valuable time exploring the Mars environment. Some stay up very late or get up very early to participate… and we love and appreciate their passions.

Bottom line, Mars seems to be caught in a gravity well and progress is slowing. However, the opposite is true. We are approaching mechanical feature completion (unless Marco pops a fuse on the reactor system or Profit parks the rover in the cohab airlock ) and with luck can start to address the ingame art. We have a massive list of potential new features that will be evaluated and targeted, thanks to the extensive brainstorming and research of the testers. Our helmets are off to you gentlemen! See you on Hyperia Base!

The difficulty in creating this as a game is all about the level of activity for the users. I set the game up to require constant attention. The plants need water and fertilizer, the solar array needs cleaned, the Fuel Cells need recharged, the fish need fed and the equipment needs serviced. If no one logs in and keeps after all this work things fall into disarray. It was my hope that the users would organize a bit and get a schedule for maintaining the colony but I haven’t seen that happen yet. The game will have to be a bit more casual and some of the systems will have to be put into automatic mode in order to keep things working properly. I can’t know when people will jump in and do things so I have to change the methods a bit.

On the reality side, if you don’t water the plants they will die. If you dont keep the power systems running and the hubs warm, the fish will freeze and the plants will die. Having to live in this situation you would be more energetic about keeping yourself alive, warm and fed. Just having to keep after all the equipment would cut way down on the boredom of living in such a hostile environment.

The issue of transporting this extreme living condition to a simple, more or less casual game is one of the greatest challenges a designer will have to face. I can’t force people to log into the game to make sure the generator has fuel so how do I give the user the Mars experience when they are only occasional visitors. Most of the systems will have to be auto-magic and take care of themselves and it would be hard to plan a crisis to challenge the users when the users may or may not log on at any given time and stay for an undetermined amount of time. I am left with offering simple tasks for the user. Go fix unit A, take this load of X over to camp B etc…. As I see it this will get boring rather quick and the game will lose any value after a dozen log-ins.

We will be going through a second phase of testing in the near future to see if we can balance the casual user with some excitement in the colony. One of the tests will be to have things work automatically until someone logs into the game then have “issues” that will require user attention. This will be a delicate balance to code in order to keep things fresh and challenging for the constant users as well as the casual users.

Colony has currently split into two main projects: The Colony MCO project, which has evolved into a collaborative online community of Mars enthusiasts – many with great knowledge and curiosity, AND Colony: Surveyor – a mission oriented variation of the above that doesn’t carry all of the coding and programmatic challenges with a semi-persistent colony.

Colony: Surveyor has a strong direction, and provides a much more elegant platform to pursue and solve the challenges being discussed in the space community today. My recent discussions with Howard have gotten me excited about the opportunities. There are still programmatic and mechanical challenges to present a very rich and deep simulation experience, along with game elements that help make this simulation both fun and rewarding for the player.

Hyperkat has not abandoned Colony MCO,  dedicated to ensuring that a long term persistent experience is available. This is still a very important project, that fortunately shares the bulk of code with the Surveyor project. Howard, and the beta testers, have been carefully following the newest developments; plans to put a station on Earth’s moon, new ideas on how to build structures on Mars and so forth.

SPAM: Really, when are we going to evolve past the point that random spams, both to this blog and to the forums will end? Bless those dedicated coders that maintain the source code and security elements for both platforms, their efforts have saved us from some VERY embarrassing posts, yet spammers still seem to get past! What a waste of bandwidth and time!

So a question: Given the need for communication between Mars colonies and Earth, how would you respond if you were EVA in a suit for 5 hours repairing a water processing unit, and your HUD suddenly flashed with the latest Cialis scam or an announcement that you just won a lottery?

Me? I would wander back to the co-hab, open up a can of SPAM and fry up a nice hash with potatoes. Then log into the forums, blogs and other systems and delete all of that electronic garbage! Shame we can’t turn those bits into compost.

Here’s why… there are a couple of “big” things happening. Those of you that are actively testing each week with Hyper in the Mars Colony Online alpha are aware, but for the rest…

MCO has been ported to a new and more capable engine. This gives the engineers and artists many more tools to make the environment much more immersive and leverage Shader technology in modern graphics cards. The result is considerable hand work in porting core logic and rendering systems into the new engine. The good news is that the bulk of the work is completed, and the team is back on mechanics and fixing minor bugs as they pop up.

Secondly, MCO is beginning to mature to the point that actual plans for release are forming. So for all of you Mars simulation fans… stay tuned!

Everyone has settled into a routine of checking the valves on the life support, cleaning the PV array and servicing the wind generators. Job one is to stay breathing and stay warm and we are all aware of the severe consequences of losing either. We got the software running on the main computer now and that has been a great help finding lost equipment, keeping track of the weather and communications.

The farm has provided a lot of work for the crew. Trying to balance the soil nutrients has been a bit of a challenge since the Martian dirt has no inherent value to a plant. The agriculture team has started to produce food now so that is a good sign. It seems the biggest issue we have there is making enough organic compost to keep the cycle working from seed to food and produce enough seed to plant the next round. We are using human waste mixed with plant material and some chemical seasoning to make our own fertilizer. We can’t forget our little friend the worm either. This little ground dweller has been our best friend. They really grind up the soil and finally someone found a recipe that makes them taste like chicken……

It took quite a while to get the fish tanks full of water and an even greater challenge to keep the water warm enough to hatch fish. One of the Hub units we call the Bio Lab is a magic place indeed. We have two tanks with fish and frogs to provide the colony with something other than salad. So far that is working well as long as we can keep the water from freezing. It takes a lot of power to keep that much water from being a block of ice. The Bio Lab is also home to the mushroom farm, the worm beds and some medical plants. We decided to keep the plants and animals separate for a couple of reasons. If either of the units failed in the early stages we would at least have a source for food with the other one and since this is such a closed system of air circulation we wanted to control any contamination that might occur.

The Mine Hub is where we keep all the drilling and mining equipment. There is a Laser Induced Breakdown Spectrometer in this unit that we use to test core samples. There are two ground penetrating radar units, two core drillers and two mining augers as portable equipment to gather samples, and extract minerals. This unit also houses the ore processing unit with a kiln and material separators. For now we have the machine shop set up in the west wing of this Hub since the production Hub equipment got destroyed during landing. We hope to have it online sometime this year or next depending on parts.

The shuttle pad will be finished soon and we can’t wait for care packages from home. As you might guess the mail here is rather slow. Everything from Earth is routed through the main colony then when and if we can get a shuttle up this way we can get fresh supplies.

The Main Hub is where we sleep and play when we get the chance. This unit is also home to the repair shop for most of the equipment. All the pumps, condensers, valves have spare parts in the Main Hub so it is a busy when things break. There is a Rover garage in the service module on the East side for fixing and or patching up the Rovers. They are strong little buggies but our colonists are determined to break them. One of the exciting events we have is the Rover Races. When all the work is done and we have some spare time we like to see who can get from point a to point b in the fastest time. Boys being boys are always up for a little challenge.

This may seem like a fictional tale but most of this is being done right now by the testers in Mars Colony Online. www.hyperkat.com/MarsOnline.html Yes all this is real. We have a online colony with around 50 users and they are building this colony. Every week we try to add new systems for testing and the gang at Hyperia Base go to work running the equipment, searching for ores, growing food and performing the general maintenance required to keep the colony going. We have had a few mishaps but for the most part the software is working well. I would like to thank the testers for the many hours they spend on the planet to help make this Simulation realistic and fun. Join the forums at www.hyperkat.com/litterbox and read up on the adventure.

Good job Marcus!

Enjoy!