A sun sets on Extrasolar : A real-time Exoplanet exploration game
Extrasolar is a game by Lazy 8 Studios, wherein you incarnate a newly trained remote drone pilot for the eXoplanet Research Institute.
It is quite honestly one of the most unique games I've ever tested. I never did complete the storyline, as the game itself requires some patience to play (4 hours between images, and that's the Minimum !).
This makes it even sadder that, due to financial concerns and a lack of profitability, the game will be retired on the First of December 2018.
It's not cheap running a game where an entire island, with day/night cycle and moving critters, is simulated in the cloud in such a way all the drone pilots can take photos of any part of the island in HD !
Introduction
Given the view above, you'd pretty much expect an FPS game, wouldn't you ?
Extrasolar, though, is very different...
As I've already said, you've just finished your training as a volunteer in XRI's ambitious long-distance planetary drone program.
Just look at this beauty you'll soon be driving around !!
Now that's some camera power baby !
XRI has tasked you with exploring the island using this drone of yours, one amongst many.
When NASA began its unmanned mission to Mars in 2003, they wisely chose to send two rovers—Spirit and Opportunity—so that if one broke down, the mission could still be successful. Here at the eXoplanetary Research Institute (XRI) we call that "redundancy lite." For the Extrasolar project, we've packed so many rovers aboard Interstellar I, that there's no way we could control them all without bringing in assistance from volunteers like you.
-- The eXoplanet Research Institute
Gameplay Mission Parameters
Here is a look at what your dashboard will look like for this mission:
As you can see, it is composed of your current tasks, Missions from XRI, and interesting data that point to potential new points of interest, as well as your communications with the institute and it's leading Exobiologist, Jane, and some extra information showing your current photos, location on the island, time of the day and latest discovery.
As indicated here, given the latency between Earth and Epsilon Prime, each photo, once planned in the map view below, takes 4 hours minima (Time for the drone to get in place, take the photo, and for the data to be sent back to earth).
Once you've chosen a spot:
An angle for your photo:
and a time of day):
Warning: this might prolong the waiting time for your photos to get back to you, as the drone will need to wait for the appointed time before it can get the shot you want
You will then be able to relax, get back to your daily life, and wait for an email confirmation from the XRI institute that your photos have been received:
Tagging - For Science !
Once you've received your photos, it's time to examine them.
As you can see above, there are various structures of interest visible.
For logistical reasons, XRI has decided to restrict the number of tagged objects to a max of 3, so choose wisely which objects you will tag for further analysis:
As an example, here is a steep slope with interesting growths on it, one having had a non-confirmed tag placed upon it.
Once tagged, items will be sent for analysis by XRI, most likely by the resident Exobiologist, Jane, if it looks to be a lifeform of some kind.
The ID'ed organism in this case was a Sinew Weed:
You might have noticed strange artefacts, sculpture-like structures, in the background of some of the photos I've shown you.
These seem to come from a long-lost alien civilization, and any speculation, especially by the likes of that Kryptex guy, are best ignored. XRI has had no previous contact with any intelligent lifeforms, no matter what others may insinuate.
The technology behind the game
Now that you've got a taste for Extrasolar, let's talk tech.
Epsilon Prime, the world which your drone is exploring, is actually running entirely inside several AWS instances, in the cloud.
With real rules (15Hr days, 2 moons with their own cycles, moving critters), Epsilon Prime is quite an achievement, and the ability for the players of the game to park their drone nearly anywhere on the world map and take a High Definition photo of that exact place over on Epsilon Prime, moons, hours and critters along with it, is an amazing feat.
It's just amazing...
The sun is setting on Epsilon Prime
Sadly, I bear bad news.
For any who want to experience the game before it is shut down and replaced by a story archive, you only have till the First December 2018 to play.
I've personally started playing again, though I do not know if I'll be able to finish the story in time XS
Extrasolar also has a certain Alternate Reality Game feel to it, given it's two main websites. The XRI's exoresearch.com, and the "crazy persons" exoleaks.com, each one advancing arguments about the mission, and whether or not XRIs been lying to you...
I hope I've inspired some of you crypto-enthusiast to play, especially since we're all technically part of the reason the costs to run Extrasolar ultimately ended up being too high (cloud computing was dropping in price till cryptocurrency came along... now it's stagnating, if not increasing, depending on the applications).
Though of course it was most likely that the financial model and marketing couldn't quite get enough in to make it break even:
Here are some of my favorite shots from Extrasolar:
All rights belong to Lazy 8 Studios, a small dev company who also developed Cogs an interesting and quite artistic puzzle, which I'm definitely getting my hands on as soon as possible, just after playing the demo:
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