The Exile Project

EXILE

What is this?
Exile is a great game available for the BBC Micro, C64, Amiga. Yes, it's old, but in my book it blows HL2 and other modern games out of the water. Describing what it's about is a bit tricky. First of all it's a two dimensional exploration game. You start aboard your ship, an evil guy steals your warp gizmo, and you're stranded on a planet. Below the ship there's a lot of caves to explore, and robots to battle. The game has great physics, if something hits you, you might spin around from the impact. You can shoot and move in all angles, and you can jetpack around. Everything is affected by gravity and wind.

Random screens from the C64 version. Interesting read

My idea is to make my own version based on the C64 version. It will feature very open gameplay, and a hand painted map where no location look alike.

24bit | C64 style - Map meant for a Zeppelin project originally.
This open dir has more experimental images.

GAME WORLD RULES

Design philosophy
Most games today are extremely linear, and the player doesn't have much freedom of choice. This is an attempt to contrast that. A skilled player pushing ahead should be rewarded for his efforts, and an important part of the replay value will be to see how early certain items can be aquired.

The game should not 'nanny' the player. The player is responsible for his own actions, and is allowed to lose important items, or get stuck in a dead end. Just like in real life, there are useless objects and pointless locations. If the player runs into a dead end, it's a dead end, not 'there's a hidden item here' or 'come back later with the super bomb'.

The game world rules, hereby refered to as GWR, shall under no circumstances be violated to restrict the player from doing something, like taking a shortcut or messing with the story. Instead, the GWR should first be constructed to be as consistant as possible. All obstacles in the game must obey under the GWR.

STORY

Summary
Finn, the hero, gets on a mission to investigate what happened an old expedition that was exploring a temple on a planet named Itari 5. Of special intrest is the mentioning of a warp portal, because that kind of technology would be extremely useful. He goes to the planet, lands, finds the expedition ship, which has some confusing logs suggesting the fate of the expedition. Triax, the antagonist who arrived days earlier, has erased and altered parts of the logs, leaving Finn to find out by venturing into the temple area. The expedition fought a losing battle against a deadly robotic guardian, and left a lot of doors and robots behind. Triax reprogrammed the robots to attack Finn though, and he also brought some of his own troops.

Finn grows more powerful as he scours the temple area, and eventually learns what happened by reading various logs. Apparently there's traces of a much more advanced civilization deep under the temple area. This is where the warp portal is, and that is what Triax is after. Now the player must stop that technology from falling into the hands of the evil pirate/mega-lo-maniac.

It's up to the player to fantisize about the story behind the cultures found on the planet, just like with the Derelict ship in Alien 1. There will be logic behind the architecture though, and suggestions, but nothing will be overly explained.

HEADQUARTER MISSION STATEMENT

Intro
This is a message that is available in Finn's log aboard his ship.

Finn,

Eight days ago we recieved reports from the (apparently forgotten) Odysseus expedition on Itari 5. The reports are over 15 years old! Unfortunately, their main communication unit must have been non functional, because the signals we got were sent using old radio technology (hence the long delay). We only managed to salvage the following extracts:

Wo
th
a
impres
vanced energy pod with an output muc
arp portal!
chor
-Ja
WARNING T
etting up doo
rt right through our blockades! It
he guardian ki
!
lled.
ELP!

We want you to goto Itari 5 and investigate what has happened to the expedition. Some of our more optimistic analysts suspect that they might have found a warp portal. Don't take the path through Irvemy-88 though, we lost dozen ships there just the last few days!

[end of file]

ODDYSSEUS EXPEDITION LOGS

Telling the story
These are found in a console aboard the Odysseus expedition ship.

Expedition week 1, summary:
Interesting news! I've just sent a detailed report to headquarters about our findings here. There seem to be traces of two different cultures here (besides from our own). First, there's the impressive temple structure. It appears it was built and used by a humanoid, possibly a primitive human culture about 3500-4500 years ago. Inside we have found a cathedral, living quarters, a crypt and deeper down there's large cave structure that is perforated by mining shafts, but much is unexplored. We don't know how deep the mines go.

Secondly, it appears an alien explorer (or several) landed here some 75 years ago, and mysteriously disappeared, leaving a derelict ship behind. Under the ship we found an elaborate lair with a maze like structure, which we're exploring now.

Well, there's also an abyss, we don't know how deep it is, because our first probe was destroyed by the pressure, we're working on getting better shields for the next one. There's also a platform a bit down, and something that appears to be a sacrificial chamber. Ludwig says they might have made sacrifices to the abyss.

- Jarl

Expedition week 2, summary:
Our cave team has come up with some really interesting findings, possibly there a third culture deep down under the temple regions! We think it might be twice as old as the temple culture. We have now explored most of the temple structure, and our findings in the crypts suggest that we're dealing with a race similar to our Neanderthals. Their brains are slightly smaller by ours, but we estimate that their intelligence might have surpassed modern human's (unless they had help, but we've found no indications of that).

As for the alien ship, we've still not found any traces of the alien explorer/s. We did find some interesting clues though, but right now our priority is to investigate the third culture so we're allocating resources to that project. Jefferson is quite excited about it!

Oh yes, Ludwig found strong indications that there was a substantial increase of the number of sacrifices made to the abyss towards the end. We still don't know why the culture disappeared, but we do know it was sudden.

A more detailed report has been sent to headquarters. I can't possibly convey how excited we all are about this expedition!

-Jarl

Expedition week 3, summary:
Wow! What we found is beyo beyoyobababababa babaaa!

Expedition week 4, summary:
WARNING TO ANYONE WHO READS THIS! DO NOT ... do what? It's a secret to everybody!

Expedition week 5, summary:
We've built additional security level 3 doors, but the remaining crew is unorganized and tired, and we're not sure if we managed to contain it. The masterkey should be safe here on the ship. Knut improvised some security robots that we'll be deployi YOODELADIHOO!

Hullooo Finn! Guess you should've taken that the shortcut through the Irvemy-88 cluster... awww... don't be sad now! Look! This robot remote has a 'Play with Finn' setting to lighten you up... get it? Lighten. up. Sometimes I just crack myself up. Anyways, no time to chat, gotta jet!

PS. This master key will come in handy, kekeke!

[end of file]

GAME LAYOUT

The convenient path
The map will not be designed like a puzzle, instead locations will serve a purpose within the context of the story. For example, the mines will look like mines, and the crypt will look like a crypt.
The Odysseus expedition has placed several doors and sentry robots to keep the guardian in check. However, the guardian was able to teleport through doors and eventually killed off the entire crew. The robots were reprogrammed by Triax to attack Finn. Because of the chaos, many expedition items are now scattered all over the place.

The map layout allows free roaming, and there's no planned path. There are both robots and doors restricting the player, but the robots can be defeated with a little skill, and sometimes there's ways around locked doors. The doors can also be blown up. The player can level up by finding better weapons, energy pods and other gear. It will make it easier to get past some of the more deadly robots. Convenience and curiosity will lead the player, not impregnable forcefields and scripted events.

1: The surface - This is where the player start. There are some explorable regions, like the upper part of the abyss, but the energy/jetpack will make it a dangerous trip that require resting on various ledges. The cave over the temple is a bit hard to reach too. The alien ship and maze is a bit of a mess and doesn't offer any valuable objects at this time. The expedition ship was plundered by Triax, but has some interesting logs that are apart of the intro story (if the player bothers to read). There's a grenade in a bush, and it can be used to blow up any of the doors into the temple.

2: Temple area - There's some nice equipment available right away, like a gun and a better energy pod. The doors are still causing trouble, but a few weaker ones can be penetrated. A few robots cause trouble too, and there's a particulary nasty one guarding one area. To get past it the player needs to level up or be skilled. After some exploration, a remote, some logs (revealing both codes and story elements) and a better gun is found. It's possible to explore better outside now aswell.

3: Exploration - Now the game is really opening up, the player can get through low level doors, the more massive ones can be destroyed with a bit of inventivity. If the player wants, he can get to the ending but that will require quite an effort. Instead, it's better to explore and level up the gear, maybe find some more logs. The player can go into the abyss but will not be able to get very far underwater. It's possible to run into Triax clonetroopers and maybe even Triax himself (who is deadly at this point).

4: End game - The deep ruins can be explored and the abyss may be visited, although with trouble. Even fully equipped, there's some nasty areas off limits to unskilled players. Triax has disappeared at this point.
There's a room or area with group of clonetroopers camping out, and the player will have trouble defeating them. It's possible to defeat them by throwing in a lot of grenades, maybe a coronium bomb (which is rare), sniping them off, or just being well equipped and skilled. However, they are guarding a device that will initiate the warp portal in a room below. It will also call upon the guardian, who's role is to see that no one without authority uses the portal. The guardian will duke out with the clone troopers, and most likely prevail. It'll be fun to watch. The idea is to give the player some time to get to the warp portal though. The guardian will follow soon after.
The portal leads to another location, where Triax is (if he lives). He's investigating some alien artifacts, and as he sees the player, he'll grab one of significant importance. Some forcefield traps the player outside, but the guardian who's on the player's tail teleports through. It doesn't like looting and attacks Triax. The outcome of this battle varies, resulting in different endings depending on who wins. If the player is skilled, it's possible to avoid the forcefield, maybe bring some reprogrammed robots into the battle, or do other wierd stuff, nothing is set.

After the battle, the player gets a chance to grab the alien artifact (a warp core?) and flee. The warp portal can be used to make a jump to Triax ship. Triax decrypted the portal interface and managed to find the treasure room location aswell as setting a position to his own ship for escape purposes, but he won't use it since he knows the player might try to trap him, or has raided his ship. There's also a position set to Triax's lair/mothership, which is crowded with his pirate buddies. There's also a position set to empty space.
The player can't set new positions, and there's a giant coronium bomb set in the warp portal room and there's no way to hack it. Triax made a mistake though, positions can be erased, so the player can erase the position to the lair, forcing Triax to goto his ship, where the player can set up a trap, then take the artifact.

If the guardian survives, the player has to be quick and grab the artifact, then flee, or defeat the guardian.
The player can goto Triax's ship and then to his own, or goto Triax's lair, defeat the crew (very difficult, it's meant as a deathtrap) and hijack the ship. The giant coronium bomb will blow up the warp portal, so the artifact (warp core) is the only surviving technology, as Triax had planned it. The player is free to roam the map if he manages to defeat both Triax and the guardian. The player can also grab the artifact during the heat of battle and get attacked by both villains. Triax can get away with the artifact, and the player gets a bad ending, or the artifact is destroyed or left in the remote location...

MAP LOCATIONS

Rough map
I think I could fit a handpainted map (256 colors) into 10 mb if I optimize away blank areas. The map is very large as a rectangular canvas, but less than 15% is used. This gives me about 70 screens to paint, which is a month or two in work time. One way to optimize away the blank areas is to tile it up, maybe in 64x64 pixel sections. The collision map will use 8x8 pixel with 45 and 22.5 degree slopes.

To the right, rough layout. It's 25% of the 1/8 version... so that's 1/32 I think. The blue square is screen size.

1/8 version.

The surface
On both sides of the map there are steep cliff walls. It's possible to fly up, a bit, but after a while the air will get so thin the jetpack will lose its boost. On the surface there's four ships. From left to right, the ships are, Triax, Odysseus, Finn/Player, Alien. To the left a temple is built into the cliff. Above it, there's a natural cave that might have been used for something, and a bit higher up, a plateau with an altar for worshipping... something.

The abyss
The abyss is partly filled with water. Because of its depth it's really hard to explore it. A bit down there's a sacrificial chamber and a platform jutting out. The ledges along its steep sides are littered with stuff that has tried to make its way to the bottom (subs and sacrifices). There's some exotic creatures deep in the abyss, and treasures of course. Maybe a depressed robot too.

The temple
The temple has several entry points. Above the main door there's a eagle head with a door, which leads to a crypt. Inside the temple theres some smaller living quarters, a long hall, and under it the storage and mine shafts.

Leads to the crypt (flipped).

The caves
There's a couple of caves and cracks under the temple structure. These were once used by the temple people, but also more recently by the expedition members. Many strange creatures inhabit the caves. There's a crack that leads all the way to the deep temple.

The deep temple
The ancient race that once were active deep down under the temple area has a number of valuable artifacts to 'offer'. Unfortunately the key that opens their doors was tossed into the abyss along with some unfortunate guy. It ended up on a platform not too far down though, and is retrievable. It's possible to get through their doors by using a two component coronium bomb.
The player can find an efficient energy pod and a nasty lightning bolt weapon in this area. Triax has placed extra troops here.
There's a vent / cooling canal attached to the abyss. Behind a grate a bit in there's an item that almost got flushed out. The warp portal chamber is a circular structure, above it there's two generators.

GAME OBJECTS

Doors
Doors can be opened with buttons, keys (remote control), or they can be destroyed. They're quite bulky and open with telescopic sliding of some sort.
Door orders: Open, Close, Open and close.
Forcefield orders: On, Off.

Robots and turrets
Each and every robot is unique, because they were assembled in a rush by the threatened expedition members. They mostly look like a barrel on tracks. Turrets are stationary so move orders are irrelevant.
Weapon orders: Shoot everything, Ask then shoot, Don't shoot.
Move orders: Follow, Spot, Patrol, Roam.
Forcefield orders: On, Off.
General orders: On, Off.

Expedition
The design here is based on how the C64 sprite looked. Finn is blue, Triax is red, and his clonetroopers yellow. The rest can be expedition members.

Triax
Triax is the antagonist, and the player might run into him occasionaly during the game, as he goes about his business. He's quite powerful, like a fully equipped player.

Clonetroopers
Thehe are controlled by Triax. Although clones, each one has developed it's own personality. the top row has plasma guns, the middle row has special weapons, and triax is to the left, in a commanding pose.

Guardian
The guardian is a very nasty robot built by the ancient culture. To defeat it the player needs luck, planning, good equipment, and skills. During the end of the game it will roam the map, this will hopefully create a scary atmosphere. The guardian can warp, so doors and walls are no protection.

Indigenous life
I'm not sure if it's possible, but it would be really sweet to have an eco system thing going on. Creatures that I feel belong in the exile universe are: Imps, Wasps, Frogs, Fish, Deep sea fish, Jelly fish, Larvaes, Mushrooms, Plants.

Items
All items has a weight, and is affecting the player's weight when carried. Also, all objects can be destroyed, including important items. There's also useless items, and decor items like crates, pots, treasures and skeletons. Destroyed things will leave debris.

Keys, remotes and control codes are used to control the expedition equipment. Most of the expedition gear was operated using control codes sent by remotes. There's three different types of control codes, an unique one that only works on that specific object, a security class code that works for a number of objects of the same class, and a master code that works for everything. The control codes are 6 digit numbers that are randomized at the start of the game. They have to be manually punched into the remote, and can thus be guessed. The expedition crew wrote most of the unique control codes down, and they can be found in various logs. Unfortunately, Triax took the master code and erased it from the log aboard the expedition ship.

Expedition Logs made by the expedition members can be found (stored in their PDAs). There'll be notes about creatures, cave layout, personal experiences, horror stories, jokes, control codes, clues to where items are, etc.

Personal forceshields are used by robots, turrets, doors, and the player of course. Forcefields are one-way, allowing objects to pass through in one direction. Objects (bullets, blasts, explosions) stopped by the forcefield will drain the field's energy buffer. Once the energy buffer is low, the field will become unstable and can be passed though, and damage can be dealt to the object protected by it. Damage greater than the remaining forcefield health will 'trample' through. When attacked, a forcefield will spark in a color based on the remaining health. From strong to weak, the colors are: white, cyan, green, orange, red.

Since a forcefield recharges, a certain amount of damage must be inflicted in a certain amount of time. It's likely that someone attacking it will deplete his energy first, because the forcefield buffer is greater than weapon buffers. Many doors have several energy pods providing boost to the buffer, a luxury the player can't afford because of the weight.

There's two types of Energy Pods. Those who produce free energy and those with a finite supply. The first kind can be used forever, because they extract free energy from the air. They do not actually store energy, but produces it at a certain rate. There's many types of energy pods, and their recharge rate varies between 1.0 and 5.0, but most energy pods are around 3.0. There's also the rare alien hightech energy pod that produces 12.0.

Logically, there should also be energy pods with a finite energy supply. These have values around 3.0 to 7.0, but they get depleted of course. Robots often use the first kind, but there are a few robots who have depleted their energy pods. Once rebooted, they'll ask for control codes and orders.

The jetpack, weapons and forceshields have energy buffers. These are recharged by the energy pod, and each buffer can get different shares of energy. The energy recharge rate is quite slow compared to normal energy drain. The buffers assure there's no sudden shortages.
Below, Energy pods as they might look. Megaman inspired? Indeed. Remote on the right.

Various ammunition is used by... various weapons. There is a finite supply on the map.

The PDA can take notes, copy logs, and do other PDA things. It could have a 'GPS' (X,Y) that stops working deeper into the cave, but functions in the abyss because it's outdoors.
Possibly it could even have a little drawing program. In any way there will not be an 'auto map' since that ruins the whole exploration deal. It's more authentic to improvise with the means you have. Also, by not having a map, the game will seem larger, as you might forget where you've been. The game will never be 100% explored, even if you've actually been everywhere.

The SaveState Machine uses energy, but allows Finn to save and reload the universe. Umm, yeah it's just a save and reload thing, but by using energy it won't be abused too much. The game has two difficulty settings, easy and hard. Hard is without this item, ie. the player only have one life.

Weapons
The symbols below is not real weapon stats, but just pointers to how the weapon behaves. For example, a weapon's reload rate depends on the buffer size and mechanics of the weapons such as cooling, charging up, etc. Weapons that use ammunition will not have the buffer problem of course, but they do run out of ammo eventually.

Uses (or is) ammo.

Uses energy.

0.25

1.0 - Normal damage.

4.0

12.0

100.0

3.0

1.0 second reload.

0.3

0.6 screen in 1 second.

1.0

0.25

0.75 screen range.

1.5

Grenades are really powerful, and quite rare to come by. Low security doors can be destroyed by just one. Medium security doors require a few to be detonated at once along with some weapon blasts maybe. High security doors require more grenades than the player is likely to normally have, plus grenades weigh a little so the player will have to bring them in batches and pile up. The grenade can explode on impact, or be set to 4 seconds, or be set not to explode at all. Grenades will explode if damaged.
Coronium two-component bombs can destroy just about anything. There's only one or two in the game, and the player has to gather different components to make them work. Since Coronium is radioactive the player also needs a shield modification or he'll take damage.
The Blaster pistol is a simple gun that fires... some sort of blast.
The PlasmaGun is a versatile weapon because it has several settings. It can act as a 'machine gun', or shoot stronger charges at a slower rate.
The PulseLaser shoots a short beam, or a row of particles that looks like a beam. It doesn't diffract as much as the plasmagun, so it has a better range. Inspiration: StarWars - Blaster.
The ThunderBolt is found in the deep ruins. It fires a strong bolt of lightning which might scatter around a bit and diffract. It has a poor accuracy and range, but the bolts are slightly homing. Inspiration: Arc Welder - StarTrek elite force, BFG - Quake 2, Lightning gun - Quake 1.
The WaveGun is an alien weapon that emitts a wide of wave beam of some sort. The beam looks a bit like hot air and is not easy to see. Inspiration: Arc Welder - StarTrek elite force, BFG - Quake 2, Lightning gun - Quake 1.
The StarBuster Cannon fires a charge of superdense plasma at a high velocity. Slow reload, high damage. Inspiration: Buster cannon - MegaMan Legends II.
The P-821 is similar to a shootgun. It fires a burst of small plasma particles. Inspiration: Electro-Bolt - unit 821 - Paradroid 90.
The Flamer is, well, your regular flamer, except it uses superheated air and plasma. Easy to hit with.
The BoltGun shoots a bolt and is normaly used to attach things. Since the projectile isn't aerodynamic it'll tumble and quickly lose accuracy and speed. Inspiration: Nailgun - Quake 1, Stapler gun.
Grenade Launcher shoots an exploding projectile at low speed, which gives the grenade an arced trajectory. The grenade can explode on impact, or be set to 4 seconds. It's not as strong as a hand grenade. Inspiration: Grenade launcher - Quake 1.
The RPG Launcher shoots a Rocket Propelled Grenade with no guiding. It doesn't lose altitude and thus has a straight trajectory. It's not very fast though. Also, any remaining fuel will boost the explosion slightly, so it's an advantage to hit things at a closer range. Inspiration: Rocket launcher - Quake 1.
The Mini Missile is mounted in some robot sentries. The missiles are homing, but not very fast. Also, any remaining fuel will boost the explosion slightly, so it's an advantage to hit things at a closer range.
The Mini Cannon shoots an exploding projectile at high speed, and has a significant recoil.
The Old Rifle was brought by an expedition member as a nostalgia and 'just in case' option.
The Old Revolver was brought by an expedition member as a nostalgia and 'just in case' option.

(c) Niklas Jansson 2005. This is a personal project. Exile design/idea is (c) Peter Irvin... I think.
Last updated: 19.feb.2005