Spring = In like a lion...of work!

Sorry to my seven readers, it's that time of year where life seems to take up all my time. That being said, I have been hard at work at attempting to launch my game. Just to update you quickly: Over the past two months I have been actively trying to put together a team in order to create a computer game based on a design I have been working on for a long, long time.

The good news is that I now have !3! programmers on board that want to see this game become a reality just as much as I do! We are currently in talks with concept artists that will help us visualize the Second Contact universe (more on that later).

I, myself, have been doing my best to crank out backstory fiction in order to tighten up where this game is going to take place. I have published the general history of the game's universe, and would love for you to give it a read! Click the link below or read it after the jump...
http://computertopgames.blogspot.com/2012/04/second-contact-backstory.html


 Second Contact Universe - Backstory

In the year 2118 C.E., the residents of Earth celebrated the discovery of wormholes, heralding in an age of interstellar exploration and colonization. Although it would take almost 50 years for the first human colonists to break ground on an alien world, no fewer than 9 otherworld colonies were founded by the year 2200 C.E.

The exploration and trade that followed brought vast riches back to Earth in the form of scientific knowledge and badly needed natural resources. The human homeworld, freed from the burdens of overpopulation and united in the common goal of spreading its civilization across the stars, entered its golden age.

Toward the end of the 23rd century, the unified governments of Earth's reach spanned 27 star systems. After 163 years of traveling the stars, little evidence was found that could refute the notion that they were the lone sentient race in the galaxy. That is, until August 1, 2281 C.E. At 15:14 GMT, an unidentified vessel entered the orbit Neptune, originating from a wormhole previously unknown to human astronavigators. Three minutes later, the ship made its move, setting a trajectory that would put it in Earth's orbit in less than two hours, 3 days faster than any human ship could travel. Sirens and klaxons began to wail on ships and space stations all over the solar system. With almost two centuries exploring the final frontier, the notion that humans were the supreme beings in the universe collectively evaporated from the entire species in a matter of minutes.

On United Earth Orbital Gamma, crew members were scrambling to their stations, most unsure of what was happening, all of them scared of what was heading their way. Although there were protocols in place in the event of such an encounter, they were written long ago, during a time when humans were still unsure of their place among the starts. It was called Protocol 6Echo1-8, a fail-safe that would protect the locations of every human colony if first contact turned hostile. 192 seconds passed from the time the ship was detected to the communication officer on UEO Gamma to recommend Protocol 6Echo1-8 as a course of action. Over the next 83 seconds the station's commander had to ask his crew three times what would happen if he gave the order to go through with it. It took only 6 seconds to convince himself that he needed to protect his homeworld, and that he was grossly under-qualified to make such a decision. At 15:18 GMT, the order was given to enact Protocol 6Echo1-8. By 15:20, the course of human history would change forever.

What the communications officer did not realize when he suggested Protocol 6Echo1-8 was that those who created it did so at a time when sub-space communication was all but non-existent. Despite the fact human beings could travel  light years away, communications could only travel as fast as the ships could carry them. Its function was simple: if first contact with an alien race was not peaceful, all data on all navigation computers in the solar system would be wiped clean. At its best, it would prevent the hostile force from locating and destroying the still fledgling human colonies. At its worst, it would delay an attack, giving the human colonies time to prepare their defenses. The theory was that even though no ships from Earth would be able to navigate outside of the solar system, the colonies would be able to reconnect with their homeworld when the threat had passed. When Protocol 6Echo1-8 was initiated, it was done so over 100 years after it was written. Great advances had been made in sub-space communications to the point where planets could communicate with one another directly, albeit with up to a month's delay.  As a result, the signal sent out as a result from Protocol 6Echo1-8 was not contained to the solar system. The signal was sent to every human planet across the galaxy, deleting every single piece of astronavigational data gathered since 2118. What was once a united empire was now a collection of isolated settlements strewn across the void.