Our Aquanox Deep Descent Kickstarter is now Live!

The original AquaNox-series started with Archimedean Dynasty (“Schleichfahrt” in German), released for MS-DOS by Massive Development and Blue Byte in 1996, which was followed by AquaNox in 2001 and AquaNox 2: Revelation in 2003.

Aquanox Deep Descent(ANX DD) does not tie into the original series directly, it acts neither as a sequel nor prequel to the original games. A fresh start is never an easy decision. Sadly Helmut Halfmann, author of the original series, passed away in 2009. This and the scientific advances and political changes that have come to pass since the original games have lead us to the conclusion that re-imagining the series allows us to create the best game we can, while leaving the original vision of Aqua untouched and unscathed.

Still, the foundations of the storyworld of Aquanox Deep Descent are derived from what made the original game world stand out:

• The deep sea, unexplored, mysterious, hazardous
• Humankind forced to live under dire circumstances, far from the world we are used to, but still faced with the most basic of human problems
• A multi-layered ecosystem, in which the political and economical balance of power is ever shifting; the struggle for survival does not grant the luxury of simple categories like good or bad
• A dystopian vision of our Earth and oceans, no alien planet, no parallel dimension
• Characters whose personal problems inform and dictate the narrative of the game

In short, a world worth exploring.

Fans of the original games will however come across familiar terms and names, though often within an altered context.

BRAVE NEW WORLD

A brief overview of the game world of ANX DD and some thoughts on the differences to the original series.

The remainders of humanity refer to their world as Aqua, rather than Earth. In ANX DD  Aqua is comparable to the Wild West. Humanity has lived underwater for but a few generations, survival is still the primary goal and the struggle for resources never ends. There exist no expansive underwater cities yet, but small settlements, former research and mining stations that are painstakingly being expanded. The deep sea is a vast, desolate, lonely desert, and we are the settlers trying to survive in it. And there’s no shortage of gunslingers.

The factions that have replaced traditional countries are all engaged in the following conflicts and endeavours:

• The struggle for control over major occurrences of black and white smokers along the ocean ridges, the primary source of resources, the “gold mines” of Aqua.
• Attempts at finding a way to return to the surface, though most people and factions have given up on the idea and concentrate on the task at hand: survival
• The on-going fight against the NP-plague and the investigation into its source (details below)
• Attempts at making first contact with the symbiotic intelligence (details below)

The reason why humanity had to abandon the surface of the Earth is in dispute among the citizens of Aqua, the reason why humanity cannot return, is not. It surrounds them every day. A plague has befallen the oceans, swarms of nanobots, called Nanoplancton (NP), inhabit the epipelagic zone, the first 200 metres below the ocean surface. They attack any ship that tries to pass through them and destroy it. They infest the flora and fauna of the oceans and have increasingly started to drift down to deeper zones.

In the face of this plague, humanity would likely have perished, were it not for a mysterious deep sea intelligence that provided us humans with pieces of technology that allowed us to prevail, without ever actually making real contact. Their giant symbiotic current gates allow us to travel the oceans at high speeds, are a source of light in the abyssal darkness and keep away the NP from the main travel routes they created.

THE SURFACE

One of the main changes in ANX DD compared to the original series is why humanity can’t return to the surface. In the originals the Earth’s surface is covered by the POM-layer, a 40-meter thick layer of dead organic matter that also keeps any sunlight from penetrating the ocean surface.

We introduced the NP-plague instead of the POM-layer for several reasons. Mainly, because we felt that not being able to get back to the surface is integral to the game world and thus should have a connection to everything in the game – gameplay and story.

Encountering the Nanoplanktons – UE3 Prototype

Gameplay-wise the NP can be harvested and used as ammunition. It infects sea fauna, causing the animals to become aggressive, rabid and attack the players. Polarized NP or Anti-NP can be used to heal the infected animals, giving the player the choice to save them or put them out of their misery. Anti-NP may also be used to restore an ally’s defense system, allowing healing of sorts among allies in co-op and classic multiplayer.

Furthermore the NP creates natural restrictions on where a player can travel with a certain type of ship, e.g. a certain ship might only be able to go to a certain depth, but in addition it can only withstand a certain level of NP in the surrounding waters, which may keep players from exploring certain parts of the game world until they get their hands on better equipment. It also gives us more freedom in playing with different light settings, closer to the surface and beneath oceanic ice layers.

Story-wise it allows us to keep humanity’s hope to return to the surface alive. Our characters can strive to exterminate the NP-plague. Strive to one day return to a surface life that they have never known, even though they don’t really know in what state the surface is in.

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