We didn’t want to reveal all in the KS pitches, because we feared it might confuse the goals of the project fund – which are large enough as it stands! The KS pitch itself was all about building the foundations for Dominium, allowing us to grow it into what we actually want to achieve without posting an initial project which tried to demand more hundreds of thousands of pounds, or into the millions.

We want to evolve Dominium in deliverable chunks – baby-steps style – to build a much bigger, broader game universe which we can roll out in stages so you – the player – can benefit (and contribute!) to its development.

So… what are these dark, sinister secrets about Dominium…?

The Greater Vision…

We’ve touched on the (somewhat insane) plan to create the largest scale content development ever undertaken – and perhaps you agreed with it being insane when you saw the KS page… but that is only the tip of the iceberg…

What I actually want to do is go far beyond Vessels and Textures.

• I want you to be able to walk about the interior of your own vessel, as if it were a fully functioning, space-going craft. Take over a gun-placement, or engage an engineering console – interface with the ships Auto-Pilot from anywhere and fly the ship from the Rec area, or the Bridge – or the dunny if you will! See the WIP Video!
• I want to be able to dock, and walk off my vessel, and stroll about the docking bay – go into the station and wander about a bit, encounter other pilots/crew/station staff, punch my way out of a fight in a bar.
• I want to land on a planet – and get out – take a stroll through the jungle or forest, or ice-plains. Get chased by carnivorous wild-life which are hell-bent on drinking my blood, shoot my way back to my ship – and, being vindictive, lance the every one of them from upon-high with maser-fire from my ship.
• I want to be able to fly deep into an ocean and dock with an underwater colony.
• I want to fly to a space-port next to an alien Metropolis, land – get into a taxi and take a tour. Get out and enter a building, take the elevator to the top floor and oogle at the view.
• I want to be able to hunt out vital precious ores and minerals in an asteroid field or planetary ring system, drop onto the asteroid and mine it, or leave a mining base behind.
• I want my own private base, where I can walk around my ships at my leisure – not have them floating about in some “quick-flick-virtual-hangar”.
• I want to own an apartment in a city, or a homestead on a remote desert planet, or on an asteroid – in a place of my choosing.

Basically, I want a lot, I’m a spoilt brat! I’m very demanding 🙂

This may sound unrealistically ambitious… but we can make it happen. All we need are time, resources, and funds… we’ll bring the passion, the skills, the experience and the expertise!

Sounds impressive, but still – what is it?

It sounds ambitious – and it’s been said before and sadly not delivered. Dominium is “all things”.

Space combat sim, RTS-like, FPS, explorer, trader – you can pretty much do what you want how you want. But, we won’t start off with all these things – they will get built in over time. Our 666 game engine doesn’t restrict us at all so we can continually upgrade with what we want to put in next.

So – initially, it will be a space-combat game with exploration, piracy, trade, combat – whatever mix you choose. RTS-like control will be present in a “just enough” manner, and expanded on later. FPS elements will also come in later.

You’ll be “you” in the game – effectively FPS but unable to take advantage of it in the initial release. Your view of the game universe is all “by wire” – with cybernetic implants that can integrate you into the ships systems. So the HUD is actually in your mind, you see what the ship sensors see, you can control any turret on the ship, directly interact with its systems. To all intents and purposes it is you flying through space.

You can still choose “traditional cam” of course, and view from within your ship, or from outside third-person style. Observer technology allows the pilot to pretty much see from wherever they choose – positioning cameras as and where they will.

Once you’re familiar with these systems – you’re off. Choose your destination and just fly there. Explore, trade cargo, take up some jobs, enlist in the Navy – all there for your enjoyment.

Once you have enough money, upgrade your vessel – new weapons, defenses, cargo space, exploration equipment – or buy a bigger vessel. All the vessels in Dominium can be bought and flown – Naval vessels aside of course. You can only fly those if you advance through the ranks.

At the last count, we have 72 vessels in Dominium waiting to be prepped for flight, ranging from fighters to battleships and a few capital class, and that’s just the beginning.

Fingers crossed we’ll be able to realise our vision here – we know we’ll enjoy playing it, we hope you will too!