GF-POLICE

FOREWORD

GF-POLICE is a hobby project I've been working on for years... well, it keeps changing around every year, but I go back and use old stuff occasionally. It is based on Metroid 1, and might contradict the other games in the series (which, as far as I'm concerned are not Metroid games and not canon). I'm trying to extrapolate on what's in Metroid 1 to come up with a more complex universe that still is true to the original.

Feb27.07 Page up, or something. I don't remember.

Mar1.07 Came up with the idea of using 8*8 pixel blocks. This way a lot of game relevant information can be given to the player. Looks cute too! If more high rez images are presented somewhere (scans, logs, intro, intermissions, manual), the brain (of the player/viewer) might link these to the tiny pixel representations and see more than there actually is. Well, that's the idea anyways. Works for comics and movies.

Dec5.07 A while ago I managed to draw the first re-design of ridley I'm happy with. I wrote a blurb about it on my blog. Also, I uploaded the most recent pixel graphics sheet I had (click img below). It's a bit of a mess, I'm just drawing stuff here and there. The idea is to have repeating tiles, a simple palette, but lots of personality and landmarks in the environments. The maps should be designed with with plausibility and function (within the game world) in mind. I think there's still room for fun gameplay layouts within those bounds, and I think fun will also emerge from the fact that the environment does make sense. I'm not much for gameplay centered map design, not in an adventure game at least. It might work in Tomb Raider, but mostly it just feels like someone built a whole gigantic base with retarded puzzles just for me, which means that it wasn't built for someone else, like those ancient aliens mentioned in the story. Suspension of disbelief: *poof*. Immersion: *gone*. I think I often like game worlds (and movie worlds) more than game play (and story).

Click image for big WIP sheet.

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Concept Art

Here's some pictures. I haven't managed to structure all the old enemy drawings and stuff yet, so it might be a while.

Ideas & Scribbles: Spaceships | Space intro | Subterrainian architecture

Thumbnails & Sketches: GFP logotype | Armours | Bosses | Ridley! | Enemies | Surface turrets | Dropship intro

Getting there: Protagonist portrait (Tyrana Mow) | Chozo | Suit (Samus) | Planet texture detail | Planet texture (wrap-wrap) | Planet size comparison

Outdated: Chozo | Chozo pets | Suit (Samus)

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The METROID Story

In the year 2000 of the history of the cosmos, representatives from the many different planets in the galaxy established a congress called the Galactic Federation, and an age of prosperity began. A successful exchange of cultures and civilization resulted, and thousands of interstellar spaceships ferried back and forth between planets. But space pirates also appeared to attack the spaceships.

The Federation Bureau created the Galactic Federation Police, but the pirates' attacks were powerful and it was not easy to catch them in the vastness of space. The Federation Bureau and the Federation Police called together warriors known for their great courage and sent them to do battle with the pirates. These great warriors were called "space hunters." They received large rewards when they captured pirates, and made their living as space bounty hunters.

It is now year 20X5 of the history of the cosmos, and something terrible has happened. Space pirates have attacked a deep-space research spaceship and seized a capsule containing an unknown life-form that had just been discovered on Planet SR388. This life-form is in a state of suspended animation, but can be reactivated and will multiply when exposed to beta rays for 24 hours. It is suspected that the entire civilization of Planet SR388 was destroyed by some unknown person or thing, and there is a strong possibility that the life-form just discovered was the cause of the planet's destruction. To carelessly let it multiply would be extremely dangerous. The Federation researchers had named it "Metroid" and were bringing it back to Earth-- when it was stolen by the space pirates!

If Metroid is multiplied by the space pirates and then used as a weapon, the entire galactic civilization will be destroyed. After a desperate search, the Federation Police have at last found the pirates' headquarters, the fortress planet Zebes, and launched a general attack. But the pirates' resistance is strong, and the Police have been unable to take the planet. Meanwhile, in a room hidden deep within the center of the fortress, the preparations for multiplying the Metroid are progressing steadily.

As a last resort, the Federation Police have decided on this strategy: to send a space hunter to penetrate the center of the fortress and destroy Mother Brain. The space hunter chosen for this mission is Samus Aran. He is the greatest of all the space hunters and has successfully completed numerous missions that everybody thought were absolutely impossible. He is a cyborg: his entire body has been surgically strengthened with robotics, giving him superpowers. Even the space pirates fear his space suit, which can absorb any enemy's power. But his true form is shrouded in mystery.

The planet Zebes is a natural fortress. Its sides are covered with a special kind of stone, and its interior is a complicated maze. On top of that, the pirates have planted devices and booby traps in the maze, and the pirates' eery [sic] followers lie in wait around every corner. Samus has now succeeded in penetrating Zebes. But time is running out. Will he be able to destroy the Metroid and save the galaxy?

- Quoted from the Metroid 1 manual.

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FORTRESS PLANETOIDS

Why is Samus Aran alone on Zebes? As common in sci-fi, an excuse could be that a frontal assault with troops would be suicide. The back story mentions Zebes being a 'fortress planet' so I'll elaborate on that. From the menu image I can tell that that it has little or no atmosphere, and the low gravity suggests something along the lines of a body 1/10th to 1/20 the radius of earth. I imagine it being made up by metals making it heavy (normally bodies of this size are made of ice and rock). The metal rich environment has obviously allowed someone to convert the planetoid to a fort and littering the surface with various turrets, sensors and warp disruptors, resulting in a pretty much inpenetrable base. The space pirates could have several of these bases or shall we say Fortress Planets, all found in a region of space they have control over.

Base architectire & functions

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SPACE PIRATES

For the space pirates themself I'll refrain from adding anything humanoid. Instead I'll try to use the existing designs and turn them into something that fits their ways. So what does the space pirates need to do? Well, they obviously need to be able to launch pirate raids with spacecrafts, store loot, sustain a population, produce power and equipment and experiment in a lab.

Being monsters, creatures and generally not very humanoid, I imagine them being a part of a biomechanical system (like the story mention). Each creature has a specialized role and the entire thing is orchestred by the MotherBrain of course, with Kraid and Ridley being the two henchmen.

This means the monsters will not just hang around waiting for Samus to appear, they'll go about their business, and Samus will be treated more like in infection the immune system has to deal with (the fortress planet being an organism, the corridors veins, and the MotherBrain... well the brain of course). Some creatures will flee from Samus, some will ignore her, others might attack her if capable. There might be turrets, dormant guardians and there's also the pipes (I recall the manual mentioning them being somewhat like a rapid delivery system, like a mail pipe).

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METROIDS

The Metroids were discovered on SR388 where they apparently had killed everything. The space pirates captured a specimen and plans to use it for their own purposes. As stated in the story, the Metroids are extremely dangerous. Think massive demolition steel ball coming at 40mph! Think crazy 'DragonBall' power! Think "o-shit, we´re screwed!" Even a super-upgraded Samus will have serious trouble against one of them. The trick is of course to freeze them, but they might even grow resistance against that.

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CHOZO

The Chozo have since long disappeared from the galaxy. They left a lot of interesting artifacts behind though, maybe even something to fight the Metroids with. Most of the artifact are actually not tangible objects, but holographic information (in the form of a sphere, held by a statue). There's also fragments of Chozo data logs and statues, suggesting that a less sympathetic Chozo had created the Metroids as a biological weapon, then there was a great conflict. Overall I'd like to keep the Chozo mysterious, kind of like the fossilized pilot in Alien.

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GF-POLICE

Although the Galactic Federal Police are relying on "space hunters" to deal with the Space Pirates, this doesn't mean they're not taking measures themselves. Each Space Pirate Fortress Planet is being monitored and a secret taskforce is always kept nearby if an opportunity to strike should emerge.

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STORY

Space Pirates have attacked a research ship and stumbled upon a Metroid.

A fortress planet belonging to the Space Pirates (SP) is orbiting an large F class star at a safe distance. A powerful solar eruption temporarily takes the fort defence system offline, and the Galactic Federal Police (GFP) having a rapid deployment team hanging out in a nearby asteroid field decide to cease the moment. They land between the massive but inactive defense turrets on the surface. Little do they know that the Metroids are present on this world. The goal of the GFP is to take out important subterrainian structures to permanently disable the defence, and ideally the MotherBrain itself, not an impossible task. They're heading for an elevator shaft nearby.

A small army of robotic troops deploy from the legs of the GFP dropship, along with a human coordinator. After some brief assembling they're on the move towards an elevator shaft. Soon a few scouting Memu appears. Confusion. Is it cute or dangerous? A tank opens fire on them with it's secondary gun, slaying a few. The remaining Memu's quickly withdraw.

Soon the SP send in reinforcement. Several strange creatures go to attack, most are disposed of easily, some cause a little trouble. The GFP appears to be winning without taking too much damage. The opposition is growing thin.

Suddenly a Metroid slams into the leading tank, causing severe damage. It briefly hovers above the damaged tank then swoops down to crush it with it's claws, shrugging off the fire from the GFP troops. It slowly lifts the creaking tank wreck up, then drops it onto an infantry group. It remains hovering in the air, as if mocking the futile attempts of the remaining GFP taskforce to dispose of it. More SP creatures appear. Bratatatata.

The camera moves to the back of the line where our brave heroine is. Everything is interactive from here, but the SP side is extremely superior. The Metroids are portrayed to be very lethal and agile, so escape is the best option. Hardcore players might have some success and it might be theoretically possible to win, but certainly not practically.

Some time passes as the last GFP troops are dealt with. Once the GFP is decimated, the SP carries away the crates brought by the GFP, the SP are all about looting after all. The crates are brought to different subterrainian storage rooms.

By now our heroine is either dead or hiding inside one of the crates. There's four crates, easy, normal and hard and impossible. The actual difficulty depends on which storage room a crate ends up in, and what crates are in that storage room. In the easy difficulty room, the player will find good starting equipment and the location on the map is advantageous.

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GAMEPLAY

I'm a bit frustrated with how the focus in modern games have changed from exploration to storytelling and action. Aside from the intro and extro, I will do all storytelling with game elements which can be found in an almost arbitrary order. I'll stay away from using too many "keys and doors", as they tend to make the game very linear, instead player skill, character skill and curiosity will limit the progression. The character is leveled up by exploration of the game world. Here's how I'll tackle the items found in the game.

There are several different projectile types which can be upgraded individually.

Boosters are assigned permanetly, but are have less and less effect for each that is added (+1.0, 0.8, 0.64, 0.512, 0.4096, ...). For example, a weapon beam will start with 3.0 in a stat, and upgrade will add 1.0, the next one 0.8, and the next 0.64, resulting in a total of 5.44, which is a multiplier used with a hardcoded weapon performance value in the code. Since there's a limited amount of boosters in the game, the player can choose to play the game differently each time.

Examples of things that can limit the progress of the player are...

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ENGINE

3D models, 2D 'sidescroller' projection. Bodyparts linked to an interactive skeleton. Well, no. I changed my mind. I'm doing pixels instead, because it's doable, and semantically I can still do a lot of the important Metroid stuff. Some sort of destructable terrain and persistent eco system would be nice though.

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MATH

I'll try to use my rudimentary understanding of math to solve Zebes size and density and figure out the specs of my fortress planet. Note that I'm assuming that Samus is human and not a Cyborg (which would be able to jump higher, maybe).

REFERENCE
Earth radius: 1E = 6,378km
Moon radius: 0.27E
Iron density: 8.0
Water density: 1.0
Planet Earth density: 5.5
Small moon density=1.0-2.0)
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FORTRESS PLANET(oid)
Radius: 0.049E = 312km
Density: 7.0 (grams per cu.cm)
Gravity: (7.0/5.5)*0.049 = 0.0625 (approximate)
Solving jump height:
Earth_jump_height * (earth_g/fort_g) + crouch'n leg tweak
0.25m * 16 (=4m) + 0.4m = 4.4m
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METROID 1
jumpheight: (5 blocks + 0.5 crouch) * (Samus_height 1.6m / 2 blocks =) 80cm = 4.4m
Zebes gravity: 0.0625 (1/16 E)
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An alternative method could be to simply calculate how fast Samus falls...

- Niklas Jansson 2006