| | 33 | == Sample Gameplay == |
| | 34 | The following is a textual example of the experience of playing Epiar 1.0: |
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| | 36 | The player is a new player, he has never played before. Upon launching the game, the screen goes black and a title screen and music appear. The title screen is an impressive but still motion render of what he imagines gameplay might be like in his imagination, somewhat like the fantastical game manuals that came with early 90s computer games: impressive artwork that pulled you in, regardless of whether it matched up with actual gameplay. |
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| | 38 | After waiting only a few short time, the main menu appears. He sees understandable choices such as "Play Game", "Load Saved Game", "Options", "Tutorial", and "Quit." Never one for tutorials, he hits "Play Game." He is asked a few basic questions such as his fictional name and a choice of three alliances, each showing that he would get a different looking startup ship and start on a different planet. Knowing nothing of the game's politics, he chooses the human-like one and hits play. |
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| | 40 | He is immediately launched into the game. A top-down, 2-D view, he sees his ship always at the center of the screen. There is a HUD (heads-up display) that indicates his shield status, hull status, credits (money), and that he has no weapons. There's also a basic radar with some blips moving about that seem to correspond to some other ships he sees flying around on screen. He is in the starting area: a culture-rich and relatively safe area of the game where he can trade copiously without fear of attack, learn the ropes by exploring the local system, and generally watch and hail numerous ships that seem to swarm around the area. It's interesting. |
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| | 42 | He is told via messages to his HUD that he is welcomed to the game and that the date is January 1, 3163. It also says that he can press '?' to get some basic controls, and suggests he lands on the planet beneath to explore it's features. He does so, and the game is seemingly paused, with a dialog appearing on screen with tabs at the top. The default tab, "Info" is selected, and he sees another one of those lush, pre-rendered graphics, this time clearly depicting the planet or spaceport he's landed at. There are numerous other options: Outfit (to buy ship upgrades), Shipyard (to buy a new ship via trade-in), Bar (for recreation), Missions (which piques his interest), and a maintenance tab. He clicks the maintenance tab and sees that he can refuel should he need it, and also that if he had a ship with multiple "mount points", he could change the location and direction of various mounted weapons on his physical ship, affecting his strategy while playing the game. He has no weapons and needs no fuel but he enjoys the picture on the maintenance tab: a wireframe render that is clearly his ship, but from a new angle he's not seen before. He clicks the Missions tab and sees the missions in a UI list sorted by difficulty. The first mission, ferry passengers to a planet he's not heard of for a decent 10,000 credits, takes his attention and he accepts it. Passengers are added on his HUD's cargo bay and the planet is put on his mostly vacant navigation map, along with one possible route via jump gate. |
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| | 44 | He leaves the planet screen and flies near the jump gate, targeting it and pressing 'H' to hail. He pays a small fee of 250 credits for use of the game and his ship rockets off like an elastic band through the game with some impressive graphics and with a sudden white flash he finds himself in a foreign area of space with the destination planet in sight. |
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| | 46 | Somewhat far from the cozy starting area, he sees new models of ships he hasn't seen before, and one is attempting to hail. He answers the hail with the 'H' button and sees a pirate demanding 3,500 credits for safe passage through this system. Not wanting to give up any credits, he clicks the "No thanks" button and the hail disappears -- only to find the pirate firing at him! He manages quickly to avoid the laser blasts and lands on the planet where a dialog box informs him the passengers have paid him and left, and added a bit to his reputation (later, he finds out, enabling him for much more dangerous and much more lucrative missions). He sees a tiny notice at the bottom of the screen that the game has auto-saved due to his landing, and he logs off to research Epiar strategies on the Internet after a satisfying bit of play. |
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