Darkstar (computer game)

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Current event marker This article or section contains information about an unreleased computer or video game.
It is likely to contain information of a speculative nature, and the content may change dramatically as more information becomes available.
Game controller
Darkstar
Developer(s) Parallax Studio
Designer(s) J. Allen Williams
Release date(s) Summer 2007 (projected)
Genre(s) Adventure game
Mode(s) Single player
Platform(s) PC, Mac
Input Keyboard, Mouse

Darkstar is a PC game that is currently under development at Parallax Studios with production being led by J. Allen Williams. Darkstar is described as more of an interactive movie than a game, as all characters in the game are live actors with movie quality computer produced graphics. According to the Darkstar website, over 45 actors are involved in the production of the game, including many former cast members of the television show Mystery Science Theater 3000. Darkstar has been in production since September 2000, and is projected for a summer 2007 release.

Contents

[edit] Story

The player takes the role of Captain John O'Neil, who awakens after 300 years from a cryogenic sleep aboard the starship Westwick that has been badly damaged. He has no memory of what has happened to the ship, and the player assumes the task of exploring the ship and finding out what happened. In addition to O'Neil, there were three other crewmembers aboard the ship. Paige Palmer is the pilot of the Westwick and is still cryogenically frozen at the time that O'Neil awakens. Ross Perryman is the first officer on the ship and also a good friend of O'Neil's. His cryogenic chamber is empty, and one of the Westwick's shuttles is missing. The final crewmember is Alan Burk, the ships navigator. O'Neil finds him dead in his cryogenic chamber with his left hand cut off. It is assumed that someone cut of Burk's hand in a failed attempt to gain access to parts of the ship that use “Bio-Loks” that scan the persons hand for authentication.

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According to the Prospectus on the Darkstar website, the game is split into four distinct phases. The first phase of the game is the initial exploration of the ship, and the opening up of the initial story. O'Neil must explore the Westwick, with approximately 30 major areas.

The second phase starts when O'Neil leave the Westwick and travels to the planet Theta Alpha III, around which the ship is orbiting. O'Neils primary objective is to obtain water so that he can refill the cooling tanks aboard the Westwick, which he repaired during Phase One of the game. Upon exploration of the alien planet, he discovers a long dead race of aliens, a monsterous creature, and encounters a Mars Scythe ship belonging to enemy Captain Kane Cooper.

Phase three is the main confrontation between Captain O'Neil and his unknown enemy.

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After the confrontation, phase four begins, which is the final resolution and resolution of the story.

[edit] Characters

Captain John O'Neil – The Captain of the Westwick, and the character controlled by the player. Played by Clive Robertson

Paige Palmer – The ships pilot, played by Beez McKeever.

Ross Perryman – First Officer of the Westwick, played by Trace Beaulieu.

Alan Burk – The Navigator of the Westwick, played by Frank Conniff.

Captain Kane Cooper - Mercenary captain of the Mars Scythe ship, played by Joel Hodgson.

Captain Cedrick Stone – A character in Darkstar's backstory, played by J. Elvis Weinstein.

Captain Beth Ingram – A character in Darkstar's backstory, played by Mary Jo Pehl.

Narrated by Peter Graves

[edit] Gameplay

Darkstar takes the form of a first person role-playing game, similar in design to the Myst series of games. The game starts with the main character exploring the ship to find out what has happened and later moving to other places as the story develops. The game places a significant amount of emphasis on the storyline and attempts to give a movie-like feel to a mystery/puzzle solving adventure game.

[edit] Connection with MST3K

As noted above, there are many people that worked on Mystery Science Theater involved with the Darkstar project, including Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, Mary Jo Pehl, Beez McKeever, and J. Elvis Weinstein. Because of the number of actors that were in MST3K working on Darkstar, its status has been eagerly followed by MST3K fans.

[edit] Connection with Canadian Rock Band RUSH

The Darkstar soundtrack includes 24 songs from a dozen different RUSH albums relased over the last 30+ years. Rush fans have been treated to a plethora of new releases by the band including several box set DVD concerts, and a new album is now in production. Buzz in RUSH circles indicate huge interest in Darkstar and this new useage of their favorite band's music. Songs include: Anthem, Bastille Day, The Twilight Zone, Cygnus X-1 (Book one and two), Tom Sawyer, YYZ, The Camera Eye, Witch Hunt, Vital Signs, Subdivisions, Red Sector A, The Enemy Within, Red Lenses, Mystic Rhythms, Manhattan Project, Time Stand Still, Test For Echo, Time and Motion, Limbo, One Little Victory, and Nocturne.

[edit] Legendary Comic Artist Richard Corben contributions to Darkstar

Best known for his "Den" character featured in the 1980's film "Heavy Metal" and his work in the magazine of the same title, Kansas City based Corben met Producer J. Allen Williams in 1999 and worked with him on several animated projects. When Darkstar went into pre-production, Corben was commissioned to do designs for the alien temple that O'Neil encounters in phase three of the game. Corben's ability to animate and illustrate the macabre made him the perfect artist to design the "dead" of Darkstar which consists of the dead bodies of Burk (sans hand), and several invading Mars soldiers whose bodies lie about the ship, evidently ambushed by Perryman as they attempted to invade the Westwick. Corben is also designing and animating the Monster that O'Neil is nearly killed by (or is indeed killed by, depending on choices the viewer makes), and many other various components.

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Corben's comic career spans back to the 1960's after his graduation from Kansas City Art Institute and a stint working at an industrial film company. He began publishing his own "underground" comics, a huge new phenomena that launched many artists careers including Gilbert Sheldon, Robert Crumb, and many others. The medium was perfect for his visceral, ground breaking storytelling style, and caught the attention of New York's Warren Publishing Company. Corben illustrated dozens of stories for Eerie, Creepy, Vampirella, and other Warren Publications. He's also the artist who illustrated the famous "Meatloaf Bat Out of Hell" album cover. His biggest fans are a who's who of comic legends.

[edit] Technological Issues

According to information on the official website, the game is comprised of movie quality graphics, with live actors. In order to achieve such high quality graphics on current computer technology, the entire game is pre-rendered, making the visuals similar to a movie and lowering the computer system requirements needed to run the game. The primary drawback of using pre-rendered graphics is the significant size required for storage. It is estimated that the final size of the game will be 30GB, making it impractical to store on CD's or DVD's. Possible solutions to this are distributing the game on small hard drives, however this would dramatically increase the cost of the game. Another solution would be to use media such as HD-DVD or Blu Ray. Darkstar producers are looking at all of these as possible solutions, but ultimately the Publishers will make the final decision on the best media solution.

[edit] Release Date

Although Parallax Studio will not commit to a hard release date, most recent estimates from the studio are that the production will wrap sometime summer 2007. Eagerly anticipated, particularly by Mystery Science Theater 3000 and RUSH fans, the project has been a long wait. This has been made particularly difficult by early completion estimates (the first was 2004 in a teaser trailer released early that year) that the studio missed. "I was told by marketing gurus that getting a buzz going early on was a good idea." says Director J. Allen Williams. "In the end, that might be true, but the long production process has frustrated a lot of people, and I wish I'd waited longer before putting information out there, or even announcing it. I need Darkstar to be as good as it can be, it must be and it will be." Producers say that the primary reason is that opportunities to enlarge the project have been taken advantage of, increasing the amount of work for the small studio. There have also been technical issues with changes in Macromedia's Quicktime software which have thrown wrenches in production as well. All data indicates the end product will be well worth the wait. Darkstar has been in production since July of 2000.

[edit] References