An MMO Space Shooter/Strategy Game Bill Chang

 Humans have depleted resources on earth, and a newly discovered mineral is fueling civilization. Thousands of expeditions have been launched to remote solar systems to gather this precious resource. As the cost of setting up mining bases is high, some lawless adventurers turned to piracy and preyed on the miners. In response, the miners have set up fortresses and hired mercenaries to defend their space.  As a pirate, you must roam and pillage planets that have mining bases, while evading and eliminating the defense.  As a miner, you must upgrade base defense technology, install turrets to your bases, and rally security mercenaries to ward off the pirates.  Due to the rampant piracy and slow reaction from the intergalactic police force, many miners have turned to piracy themselves while maintaining their mining bases. It is slowly becoming a free-for-all war.

Arena Shooter + Tower defense + MMO

 Core pirate game play similar to a standard arena shooter.  You command a single pirate ship equipped with an array of weapons, and you dispatch waves of incoming hostile mercenary forces.  Static turrets guard the planetary mining bases, but you must get close to the planets to intercept mining vessels.  Your "income" is therefore dictated by how closely and how long you "graze" the mining bases (which are located on the planets). Idling in safe areas in a system gets you nothing.  Security forces alert each other and show up in increasing rate, eventually overwhelming the player making it impossible to dwell in a hostile system for extended periods of time.  Pirate ships can be upgraded with defensive and offensive modules to make them more effective.

 Core miner game play similar to a strategy game (tower defense).  You can set up mining bases to increase your income, and defense towers that can be upgraded to shoot at incoming pirate ships.  You can hire security forces and spawn them in your system to make it more difficult for the pirates to get near your planets.  Setting up research labs and upgrade your mining and defense technologies can increase your income and allow you to upgrade towers, install more powerful defense systems or call in stronger mercenary forces.  Killing a roaming pirate ship will net the miner a bounty reward.

 As a player, you are both a miner and a pirate.  Think of it as a mining corporation hiring mercenaries to both defend the home system and attack/invade other competing corporations.  Technology upgrades purchased can be applied to both defense and pirate ships.  “Veteran” pirate ships are worth more bounty when destroyed.  Systems with better mining yields give pirates faster income when pillaged.  Technologies can be "looted" from ships or planets by chance.  Losing pirate ships means you have to spend money hiring new pirates and buying new ships.  Universe is persistent; players establish their own home systems and can travel to and pillage any other system occupied by other players. Income is otherwise gained in real time from mining.

 Simple client server.  Server keeps and updates player data.  Client has two game play modes; each mode retrieves data from the server, updates them from player session, and sends them back to server for update.  Potential multiplayer (co-op/versus) in pirate mode; potential "live" miner mode.

 Simple graphics (Asteroids-like).  Arena shooter in pirate game play; mouse and keyboard control. (Geometry wars)  Elegant and simple interface for miner game play. (Possible "worker unit", Minecraft)

 Game can go in a number of directions  better graphics  more strategic game play  client server technology  Team decision on focus of development.  Game appeals to fans of tower defense and 2D shooter  Player generated content; sandbox gameplay  Questions?