About the game Choplifter meets Lunarlander in sci-fi shooter setting, intertwined with 'traditional' platform/shooter segments. 'Subterrania' will be based on the already existing game 'Subterrania' for the Sega Genesis. The main difference between the two is the addition of a cohesive story-element played through an avatar. Enter Duncan Troit, controlled in the platform/shooter segments, which are possible to access at certain hotspots found in the games 'ship mode'. The gamer lands his/her ship, resulting in the avatar exiting his ship, and entering said place (be it a cave, a building). When the gamer plays as the avatar there will be interaction with NPC:s, which triggers a 'dialogue mode'. The premise is your usual 'hero saves the day'. Still, character interaction will be an important ingredient in the game, and a fun one to boot! The game starts of in one of the lowest regions in a mining facility. From here the player needs to gain entrance to higher levels, while at the same time saving mineworkers.

Why it will be great The game will be great because its focus will be on character interaction. The gamer will see the character’s facial expressions on the upper screen, while simultaneously reading the dialogue text in the lower screen. Dialogue is influenced by the gamer in real-time. The result is NPC conversations with a strong sense of gameplay.

Gamedesign Abstracted: explorational segments are in 2D (ship mode/avatar mode). Immersive: dialogue segments consists of pre-made movies.

2-screen Gamedesign The best way to explain the 2-screen gamedesign is to approach it from a chronological view, without going into story titbits. From the outset of the game you only play as the avatar (restricted more or less to the upper DS-screen). When you reach the place where the ship is, and enters it, both screens will flash white ("drama" / also, making you aware of the fact that both screens are now on); that is, after you've seen the ship taking off in the upper screen (in avatar mode). What now happens is that the lower screen becomes a simulated dashboard; but you don't control the ship exclusively with the dashboard, instead you use it as a map readout, an inventory, and for instruments (shields, ship calibration).

This is a basic concept on how the dialogue mode would work. An interface showing the buttons, and highlighting the ones that can be pressed. As for the dialogue; red text followed by squares would mean it’s interactive, grey text: non-interactive. When the squares have filled up time is up: the NPC behaves as if you’re being silent. The NPC would be shown using movies corresponding with the current state in the dialogue. The style of the character animation would be 'expressive cartoon', meaning not too much coloring and detail. The backdrop: sparse, as a lot of detail in the scenery would result in the gamer feeling cheated upon: “this place looks much better than it does in the platform/shooter parts!”. 2-screen Gamedesign in dialogue mode

Additions to the game: those small pixels... When it comes to designing people, items, vehicles etc., every single pixel has to be placed thoughtfully. The difference between the two pictures to the left is miniscule, but it none the less has a huge impact on the gaming world, since this stranded worker now can defend itself from hostile aliens, as opposed to 'empty handed' workers.

Ship mode / avatar mode Ship mode: apart from the dashboard, more or less identical to the Genesis iteration. Differences would be in the graphical department; the addition of camera scaling: when the gamer enters larger areas the view zooms out. Another graphical effect would be a dust-layer, that made the miningshafts more gritty. Avatar mode: these segments play out somewhat similar to Metroid 3. Not that you’d see Duncan roll up into a ball anytime soon; but the cinematic in-game camera would be there, as would the blocky feel that was present in this game be. Again a case of not cheating on the gamer: movement is restricted in a platform/shooter environment, if you implement a blocky feel, it becomes more doable for the gamer. Not found in Metroid 3 is a basic shadow engine, this, to establish mood.

2D-characters To emphasize that characters are own individuals in the game, they’ll sport distinct individual animations for their generic actions (such as walking, jumping etc.). If possible, there will be some sort of sprite based skeletal-animation. Duncan Troit, to the left, wont have any superhuman abilities; he’ll wear high- jump shoes, that’s it.