The Universe Project

The Universe Project is a simulation of humanity through time that plays like a video game. If you haven't seen the concept video yet, you'll want to check that out first!

A Brief Summary

So now you have a vague idea what we're trying to make, but let me take a moment to summarize. We're creating a video game, similar to an RPG, that is capable of supporting millions of players, in the same game world, at the same time. The very first players who enter the game will notice the planet they appear on is completely devoid of human infrastructure; they appear on a planet that has developed only plant-life and animals. Now, the perspective of the game will be 1st/3rd person in that the player will control a single character in the game and will control only their character's actions in the world. There will be no NPCs in the world, every character is a real player.

The game will simulate human needs in that player's characters will need to eat and drink. Characters will need to find shelter and need to avoid being too cold or too hot. Characters will need to defend themselves and their belongings from animals and other players. Characters will be able to invent their own tools, skills, buildings, and even weapons, to assist them in meeting their needs.

How does this game relate to other games?

Many games have some similarities to the Universe Project, but that's because most games are based on real life, the one thing we can all relate to, and the Universe Project is truly a game based on real life. So it is like Sims, Minecraft, World of Warcraft, Ultima Online, and nearly every RPG. But none of these games really help you understand the universe project better than life itself.

If you, in real life, were suddenly dropped on a bare Earth that no human has ever touched, what would you do? Your answer would likely be exactly what you would do in the Universe Project.

The donation site

Many people have asked why we've made our own donation site. Others are concerned about donating to a site that has no history. First I want to make it clear that the donations are being handled by PayPal. This donation site merely tracks the donations that were made for the purpose of reward levels. We had 2 major reasons for wanting to create our own donation platform:

1. We were unable to find a donation platform that could handle smaller, monthly donations. Kickstarter and Indiegogo, for example, deal exclusively with lump-sum donations. We wanted to reduce the risk for our backers by providing milestone updates all throughout the donation process such that they could easily stop donations if they felt the project was not going to be successful. This also increases the pressure on the development team to deliver on their promises!
2. We wanted a tight integration of both the referral and donation program. If your referrals donate to the project, you will be given a percentage of their donation credited towards your own donation reward level. We felt that this is an important part of making the project go viral.

If you are still unsure about using this site for donations, we will be running an Indiegogo funding campaign at the same time. When the Indiegogo campaign finishes, donation reward levels will carry over onto our primary site.

Player Centric Skills vs Character Centric Skills

What is available to be invented/discovered is going to be outlined by us, the developers. The fact that you can invent your own version of an object or skill is more about differences in the resulting object; that every design is slightly different (even requiring different materials). This is meant to mimic the way invention works in real life where you may have different devices and tools that perform the same action, but they are different in that some are more durable, have better functionality, are lighter, have more than one function..etc. Furthermore, the game's knowledge paradigm is such that knowledge is character centric and not player centric. With Minecraft, you can look up how to make something on the wiki and then go ahead and fill in the formula. With the Universe Project, your character needs to know how to make something, or at least have a vague idea, and then he can proceed to make it (given time and the right materials and tools).

What makes this a new genre? Why is it different than an MMO?

In a sense, the game is an MMO, but most mainstream MMOs today have a series of common elements that make them, recognizably, in a common category. They often have a large game-world (painstakingly modeled by hand), quests or "things to do" (offered by NPCs), and some sort of storyline to give some lore and context to the world. The Universe Project will have none of these things.

These differences lead many into thinking that the game will just turn into a giant grief-fest with players killing each other with reckless abandon. Specifically, the Universe Project has some notable similarities to Minecraft, which often suffers from this problem to an even larger degree. There is very little stopping people from killing each other in Minecraft, the same can't be said for the Universe Project. There will be a lot of defensive protection when in a group. Inactive players will be AI controlled. These inactive players can work as guards for the group, they watch over everything to make sure nothing is stolen, no one is attacked, nothing is vandalized.

Characters in the game don't actually have to sleep, but they will continue to have needs. Characters will need to eat, and they will try to eat whatever food is most readily available to them. While players are away from the game, they will receive email updates with what is going on in the world and what is happening with their characters. They will get notifications when something major is happening, like when their character is being attacked.

How will spawning work?

There will be one particular area that people can start in "close to civilization"; within walking distance of a heavily populated area (but still random). There will be the option to spawn near someone they know who is already in-game. There will be the option to spawn on the outskirts of civilization (also random). There will be the possibility to spawn far from civilization.

There will also likely be more customization than this, like the ability to spawn near large vs. small populations.

The Universe Projects Philosophy

Traditional massive online games evolved from pen and paper style games; from a time when there was only so much you could keep track of before it got too tedious to play. But while computers and technology have advanced enough to better model the human experience in a game environment, games have continued idly down this path of game model simplification.

We believe it is time to break this paradigm. Games don't need to have a simple start and end; they don't need to simply simulate one aspect of life. We're ready to experience video games as a true and un-coddled participant in an alternate reality. We're ready to enter a vibrant and active reality that emulates our own, with no excuses and no deception, just the pure and simple emulation of the real world, where game mechanics only exist to ease the disconnect players face in a GUI.

Who are "we"?

The Universe Project team includes myself, a number of colleagues of mine who have contributed to the Universe Project over the years, and the participants of the Open Development Program. Up until now, the Universe Project has been something we've only done on the side; a bootleg project if you will. This is why it has taken so long to put together the technical demos that you're about to see.

Here is a video of myself talking about the game and demonstrating some of the technical demos that have been developed over the last few years.

Who is Nik? The origins of the Universe Project (longer version)

When I was 10, my father showed me how to make a computer print words onto the screen. He showed me how a computer was able to do math, how it could generate a random number, how to capture what is typed on a keyboard and finally how to write a conditional IF statement (and a couple other things like GOTO statements..etc).

With Dungeons & Dragons fresh on my mind, having played it with my friends regularly that year, I created what could be called “my first game”. When you ran the game, you were greeted by a description of where you are and what keys to press to tell the game what you’d like to do. It went something like “You’re in the city. Press 1 if you’d like to go to the store or press 2 if you’d like to go to the wilderness...etc”. The feeling I had from both writing and playing this little game I had made, was something I’ve never experienced before and probably never will again.

My father noticed that I had taken a liking to programming and bought me a few development tools (Amos 3D, Amos Pro for the Amiga), and when I was 12, I made my first 3D space shooter. When you ran this game, you were greeted by the blackness of space with a single opposing ship and a structure that was supposed to represent a space station. At the time, I didn’t know what an array was and the player could only control a single bullet at a time. This meant that if you missed, you had to wait for the bullet to timeout before being able to fire another shot. If you won the battle, you had the option of docking with the space station and feeling smug.

When I was 16, I was introduced to a couple influential games including Frontier Elite II and Warcraft 2. It was around this time that I had made some predictions and the beginning of my passionate quest for game making focused itself. The first prediction was that internet connections would improve to the point that we would be able to play what I called “massive online games” (M.O.G for short). These games would allow hundreds or even thousands of players to play in the same, huge game environment (it turns out MOGs did end up getting created but, for reasons I can't possibly understand, everyone seems content to call them MMOs). I made a second prediction: that after M.O.Gs would come a new genre of computer games. I never could come up with a suitable name for it so I had always just called it a universe.

This universe game would simulate an entire universe where people could enter the game universe and live virtual lives through their player. I dreamed up two different versions of this universe. The first being a futuristic space game, similar to Frontier Elite in scale and playability, but much more detailed and allowing millions of players to play in the same game. The second idea was a simulation of humanity from its very beginnings. Players would enter an empty world with no skills and they would learn how to survive, relying on other players and their own character’s creative ideas to get them through the night.

Now I realize this concept is not a unique one, many of you reading this article right now have had the same dream. But 15 years ago, I decided I would devote my life to making, and learning how to make, the "universe game". Only now I can finally say that I know exactly how to do it.

How much progress has been made so far

A number of different technologies have been experimented with over the years, but the latest and final technology has been settled on. The game will be made using HTML5 and a series of asynchronous communication transports between the client and server (with fallback support for: WebSocket, Flash-Emulated-Websocket, Comet, Long-Polling). The server backend will be made up of homegrown java modules and hypertable for the database (a speedy and highly scalable open-source BigTable implementation).

Technical Demos

Here are some of the more interesting technical demos that we have put together. Please note that these are only the graphical demos. Other technical tests have been done including: Hypertable testing, asynchronous communication using the Atmosphere framework, and other frameworks that are still in the works. Most of them were not meant for public consumption so they don't have the same kind of polish that you should expect from our work.

Please see the previous video for the animated version of these demos.

Testing Appengine

An appengine asynchronous performance test can be seen at: http://atmosphereperformancetest.appspot.com

Please note that this application is not on a paid account and may stop working when under heavy load.

The purpose of this test was to test the feasibility of using Appengine to support the Universe Project as a real-time game, and to test on different browsers and devices. Even though ChannelAPI response times were sufficient, we had to conclude that Appengine was not suitable because a client could not guarantee the use of a particular instance, even for a short period of time.

After concluding that Appengine was not suitable, we started building a framework using Hypertable for our database needs.

Development Components

The universe project obviously requires a lot of components to make it work, but I'm going to try to give a general overview of what needs to be developed so that I can use that to explain when we plan on developing each part, and why. Note that we won't be listing all necessary components, just the ones that will be relevant for the next 6 months or so.

Components

[Networking] Fundamental Client/Server Communications Framework (Atmosphere)

This is essentially complete.

At the moment, we're going to be using the Atmosphere framework for this. This framework handle the basics of starting and ending Websocket and Comet connections, detecting when to use each one, and ensures cross compatibility on various devices and browsers. Unfortunately, the framework is somewhat rudimentary and needs some help for a real time game, so we've built a layer on top of the atmosphere framework to do the rest of the work.

[Networking] Protocol Controller

This is 95% complete with only about a day of work remaining.

This layer sits on top of the Atmosphere component. It's job is to simplify the handling of Atmosphere and adding necessary features that are required for a game. Some of these features include: packet ordering, large packet splitting and handling, seamless reconnection handling, buffering during reconnects, and state hooks...among other things.

[Networking] Game Elements Networking Framework

This is about 40% complete and will take up the majority of the first 2 months of development.

Now this is a major piece of the entire project, and any related projects. This framework resembles the functionality written in the white paper by Valve, regarding their client/server communication for their games (including Half-Life). It resembles it, but it takes a big step forward in generalizing the concepts into a highly reusable and simplified framework. This framework will massively reduce the amount of data needed to communicate inputs between client and server, and even server to server. It also removes much of the thinking required when dealing with client server delay issues.

[Graphics] Html5 Sprite and Isometric Graphics Framework

This is about 80% complete and won't need much, if any work, for the first private demo.

This framework handles the visual side of the game as well as providing game loop hooks, resource loading, and many graphic and behavioural functions.

[Graphics] GUI Framework

This is about 15% complete, but only a simple implementation is necessary for the first private demo. Likely only a few days work here.

A simple user interface framework for creating various GUI components, like textboxes and buttons, within the html5 canvas graphic display.

[Backend] Server Clustering

This has not yet been started, but it won't be necessary for the initial private tests.

This isn't really one component because it comprises of a handful of modules that work together in a scalable, clusterable environment. Most notably: database servers, relay servers, and simulation servers.

Part of this module will be a dynamic server allocation and layout rules engine for automatically and dynamically determining the best configuration of physical locations in the game world that each simulation server should be responsible for. This layout engine will not be necessary at first since servers can be laid out manually, based on population. When the automated version is written, there will need to be a tool that simulates population movement and changes to test the effectiveness of the program.

[Backend] Game Elements Designer

This has had quite a bit of work put into it already, but it is a long way from being complete. Luckily, we won't need it for quite some time.

This will be the tool that designs most of the game. Capable of describing objects and their associated graphics, ranges and math formulas for calculating attributes and probability curves, GUI element descriptors for interfacing with the object and performing various actions, action association...etc. This tool will essentially link game mechanic code with objects and describe: how objects are created, when ideas for inventions come about, how easy it is to try to create objects.. and the list goes on.

Challenges Ahead

Many people have pointed out various aspects of the Universe Project as being "impossible" to do. I'll try to address some of the most common misconceptions:

A planet the actual size of Earth is impossible!

People are saying that it takes hundreds of developers/artists years to create even a tiny fraction of the game world we're claiming to be capable of creating (like assassin's creed, or grand theft auto). But remember, the artists are creating a modern world that resembles our own, with tonnes of human infrastructure. We're simply creating a world full of plant-life and animals; there is no human infrastructure whatsoever. It is much easier to create a realistic-looking planet because, to us, the natural world has a striking resemblance to a computer generated fractal, and a procedurally generated fractal is something a computer can do quite easily (check out this video as it relates to fractals in the natural world). The players create the human infrastructure, and yes, it will take a million man-hours to do so, but imagine what a million players could do in an hour.

There is also no need to create every permutation of skill available in the world today for the first release. Skills will be added to the game over time (years even). Players won't even notice when new skills are added to the game because they will be discovering new skills arbitrarily. As far as they are concerned, they won't even notice when there is a new release (unless the UI changes or there are gameplay tweaks).  There is no need to get all the content into the game at once, players will have enough to do even with a very small fraction of what is planned.

A simulation of the entire universe is impossible!

This seems to be the most popular misconception about the project. People seem to think we're proposing to literally re-create the universe at the molecular level, or something similar. For one thing, we only need to simulate the parts of the world that players can actually see. This means that 99.9% of the planet will not be simulated and will be sitting there, waiting to be discovered by a player. We're also not going to bother defining the rest of the universe, even as a fractal, until players reach a point where space becomes available to them. The game won't likely enter a space age for many years.

The game is a simulation of humanity, the way we generally perceive actions, results, and requirements. A player's character needs to know how to make something before he can go about doing it. Characters learn skills, be crafting a hammer, a bow, some boots, or even martial arts. Characters learn skills the same way we do in real life, they are either taught it by another character, or they come up with an idea, and develop the skill until it is usable and reproducible.

One more popular opinion is that the game will take up more space than is available on today's computers. The Universe Project operates like a website where content is downloaded as necessary. There is no need to store much, if anything, on the player's computer. No downloads, no installs, just pure javascript and html5.

One of the most challenging aspects of the development

A game like this sounds like it will be difficult to pull off for many reasons, but the real difficulty tends to be overlooked by those not familiar with the technology we're using.

We've proposed that we'll create a planet the actual size of Earth. This is actually not difficult to do due to procedural generation. Granted, it will take some time to introduce many different types of plants, trees, and animals, but the planet itself is generated using algorithms that are unphased by size.

We've proposed that we'll eventually simulate the entire universe. Well first, you might want to consider that Frontier Elite II did this very thing in 1993, simulating at least the whole galaxy, and the entire game fit into 880 kilobytes. Granted that only the closer star systems were accurately represented, but the entire galaxy was available nonetheless. As mentioned before, procedurally generated content is unphased by size.

We've proposed that we'll be releasing the game on all platforms (game consoles, smartphones, computers..etc). But with the proliferation of HTML5, we now have access to rich web pages capable of running games that, in the past, only flash could handle. Even fully 3D games are just on the horizon and it won't be long until we're playing beautiful first person shooters in our smartphone's browsers.

We've proposed that we will have all players in the same game world. Well this has been done in more recent MMOs like EVE Online. Needless to say, this has been done before, and with a clever arrangement of servers, we will be able expand to host millions of players when the time comes.

The biggest challenge actually has to do with the fact that we plan on implementing an ever expanding tree of technology into the game. Unlike most games, you'd don't simply write the game until you're done; if you need a bow and arrow, we cannot simply code a longbow into the core of the game. That would create an enormous beast of a code base that would eventually become completely unmanageable at best. Instead, we will be creating a suite of tools that link generic game code to objects. This suite of tools will describe:

• The range of ways a character can create a particular object
• How using different materials affect the resulting object,
• How a character gets the idea for this invention in the first place
• What needs should he have (for inspiration)
• What materials should be available/should he be aware of
• How much intelligence/dexterity/strength should he have
• How the object reacts to certain other game mechanics, like fire
• What animations will the object use to represent itself in the game world
• What sorts of actions can a character perform with the object
• What sorts of menu options are available on the object

This list is to give you a general idea of what this suite of tools would be required to describe in the game world. It may sound like a big deal, but the game will be excruciatingly fun even in it's most rudimentary form. In other words, we won't need to finish these tools before we start playing.

Development Timelines

This is a roughly estimated timeline map for the next few months. In as little as 2 months, we're expecting to be able to begin private testing with the space game. See the Development Components section as a reference for the various components that are listed in the timeline.

How does this space game fit in development? I thought this was a simulation of humanity!

Using the space game as a testing platform is a big win on at least 2 major fronts. First, a real-time space shooter will provide much needed stress testing of the Game Elements Networking Framework. Without this kind of testing, we may find bugs much further down the road because the Universe Project is going to be a much slower paced game at the start, and testing the networking in a fast paced environment will really put the framework through the wringer. The second big win has to do with the fact that we're donation funded. The space game (for lack of a better term) will allow us to showcase progress on the foundational frameworks much sooner, allowing gamers to get their hands on something fun to test and play before the Universe Project is ready. We believe we could even have public testing begin as soon as 2 months into funded development!

Depending on the success of the space game, we may actually develop it further to reflect more of the Universe Project philosophy. It could continue to serve as a test platform for nearly every component of the Universe Project, while providing backers some great fun along the way. More specifically, we could include the ability to build bases, discover and invent new technology, and turn the whole game into a single game world operating on a seamless cluster of servers. We could even test a 3D version of the game, in combination with the 2D clients, when WebGL is ready for primetime.

The Timeline

This is a rough milestone estimate. Other factors may influence the speed at which development moves. For example, we may get more full time developers onboard. But, especially for the first 3 months, the milestones outlined in the below image should be fairly accurate.

Further Reading: Universe Project Q&A

Questions will appear in bold and the answers will be below them.

I heard that there will be perma-death and non-perma-death modes in the game, what gives?

I'll try to offer some insight into the thoughts behind perma-death and non-permadeath mode. Different people will be playing the game for very different reasons. Think about the female demographic for example, stereotypically they would generally prefer to avoid combat and play the game by building up their characters and their environment. Think farmville for example, imagine you're playing the game the way you like, perhaps for years even, and then one day you get killed and lose it all. That could be devastating. Perma-death while playing the game in this manner would be much, much worse than for other players who play for a different reason. Therefore, we aim to make the perma-death mode more appealing to those who are interested in playing a "shorter" game (more for players interested in combat), and non-perma-death mode for players who want to play longer game (more for players who want a farmville or WoW experience). Players interested in a shorter game (perma-death mode) would be more interested in building up the skills and abilities of their character, so we would accelerate this process for them. While players wanting to build up their environment, be social and active in the community, would take longer to build up their character's traits and skills.

The balance here would have to be play-tested of course, and even still we're not opposed to the idea of only allowing perma-death.

How is this game going to be fun? What's the purpose? The goal?

This is a difficult problem to answer because people are so _locked into_ traditional gaming concepts that they can't see outside of the box. Games these days are usually meant to take a single aspect of life, and simulate that aspect so you get the emotional rewards/feedback from accomplishing whatever goal has been outlined. You experience precisely the same positive feedback just from living life. Some people love to explore and see new things (not me personally), and they get a kick out of traveling to France, walking about in a new place, seeing and experiencing new things. Other people don't care for those types of activities and instead feel a rush when they are competing with others directly. These types of people find themselves at home in sports, certain types of business, first person shooters (although there is more than one reason to enjoy FPS games). There are a number fundamental motivational tastes that often vary based on personality (this may be a simplification based on my own observation). The game is enjoyable for many of the same reasons life can be enjoyable. Why you find the game enjoyable will depend entirely on what you love the most about it (which is what I was referring to in the concept video), and what you enjoy in life.

I wrote an entry in the FAQ that goes over this concept briefly, I'll paste it here:

"But I think a game about life is boring..."

Everyone plays games for different reasons because everyone gets a kick out of different things in life. There's no reason why one game can't satisfy all, and the best way to accomplish that is by creating a game based on the one environment we know _can_ be enjoyed by all personality types -- real life. Of course, not that everyone _does_ enjoy life, those who generally dislike everything have other issues and probably won't like this game either. :p

The game will be interesting and fun to play because it plays on our most fundamental human desires.

• To create/invent
• To acquire wealth
• To socialize
• To help others
• To acquire fame
• To explore new things/environments and learn
• To conquer and compete with others
• To create and enforce law and order

The majority of us enjoy one or more of the things in this list, a lot. To the point where it could be classified as a human need once our basic needs are met (being able to eat, drink, breath, have shelter..etc). So to answer the question of how will the game be fun? It depends on your fundamental motivational tastes.

The theory is, other games try to simulate the same sort of high you get from accomplishing the above needs, and they do so successfully. But how much more meaningful will the same accomplishments be in the Universe Project? The Universe Project is more "real" than any other game in that it more closely simulates life in it's entirety. The things you do in the game affect other players just like the things you do in real life. The freedom is the same, advancement is the same. Exploration is meaningful and valuable, like most other actions in the game. You're not just "scoring points" or "getting the top spot on the leaderboard", you're actually creating and living in another world with thousands, and hopefully millions of other people.

If you're interested in more reading on human motivation, check this article...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation

And here is the part that lists some of the basic motivational classifications that I used as a reference to make sure I didn't miss any during my own thought process:

Intrinsic motivation and the 16 basic desires theory

Starting from studies involving more than 6,000 people, Professor Steven Reiss has proposed a theory that found 16 basic desires that guide nearly all human behavior.[11][12] The 16 basic desires that motivate our actions and define our personalities are:

• Acceptance, the need for approval
• Curiosity, the need to learn
• Eating, the need for food
• Family, the need to raise children
• Honor, the need to be loyal to the traditional values of one's clan/ethnic group
• Idealism, the need for social justice
• Independence, the need for individuality
• Order, the need for organized, stable, predictable environments
• Physical activity, the need for exercise
• Power, the need for influence of will
• Romance, the need for sex
• Saving, the need to collect
• Social contact, the need for friends (peer relationships)
• Social status, the need for social standing/importance
• Tranquility, the need to be safe
• Vengeance, the need to strike back

How will building structures work? And how long would it take to, for example build a basic home?

This questions smells a little bit like we're making a comparison to Minecraft, so I'll start there. Like most other skill related elements of the game, the player is not intimately involved in the creation or execution of any one skill (except perhaps combat, to a degree). The game wont be like Minecraft in that you build your home out of blocks. Especially with the simplest of housing, there will be a sort of "recipe" that results in a home or hut being built.

That being said, later on in the game, characters ability to create structures will eventually advance to the point where players can choose the layout of their own buildings. But it will be more like placing walls, doors, windows, and floors rather than using building blocks.

Would you be able to draw any similarities to another game that people may be familiar with. From what you are saying, it seems like The Sims to me. Would this be accurate?

Many games have some similarities to the Universe Project, but that's because most games are based on real life, the one thing we can all relate to, and the Universe Project is truly a game based on real life. So it is like Sims, Minecraft, World of Warcraft, Ultima Online, and nearly every RPG. But none of them really help you understand the universe project better than life itself.

If you, in real life, were suddenly dropped on a bare Earth that no human has ever touched, what would you do? Your answer would likely be exactly what you would do in the Universe Project.

As for the world starting out... Will we it be modeled after todays planet? Such as separated continents or will it be a kind of pangea? or a supercontinent of them all mushed together?

The starting planet will certainly have no shortage of islands because this will likely create some very interesting cultural differences between groups of people. There will certainly be large continents, but there will be land masses of all sizes.

More importantly, the "common starting area" will be modeled with a bit more care in order to help make the game more interesting at the beginning.

i would like to hear how much the world can be influenced by the player. how deep can you dig, how high can you build? can you carve buildings into mountains?

"Carving" buildings into mountains may not be possible (or at least, not at first), but you could very well level parts of a mountain enough to build a regular building on/in it.

There won't likely be a hard limit to how deep you can dig (perhaps early in the game there will), but it would take a heck of a long time to get down a significant distance (unlike minecraft).

As for how high you can build.. it isn't quite like Minecraft in that sense. You could pile dirt until you get up quite high, but dirt behave similar to how it does in real life where as you go up, you need exponentially more dirt (due to it rolling/sliding down hill).

There will also be issues with cold and a lack of oxygen as you get higher, so you're better off finding a mountain somewhere and building on top of that. :)

Will there be weather damage? How will rivers affect the landscape? Will houses develop damage over time and need to be repaired? Will there be natural disasters?

Yes! Nothing lasts forever! I haven't seen this question very often so this is a great one. Houses, tools, equipment will need repair. Food spoils, stuff breaks down. Certain things can be fixed sometimes and will need to be replaced other times (depending on the kind of breakage).

There won't be ongoing erosion, that would be too much to simulate on a planet the actual size of earth.

There will be natural disasters, the first one will likely be forest fires.

Will it be a Pay to Play, Free to Play, or will there be something like SWTOR?

The pay model for the game isn't set in stone yet, but we're aiming for pay once, play forever. Ongoing costs will be paid for by fees charged when real money transactions take place (not unlike diablo 3).

Would it be possible to create alternative technology which hasn't been archieved in real life like steampunk technology?

It will likely be possible to form a steampunk-like society. Its not worth the effort in our modern age because other technologies can do the job easier and cheaper. But in a new world like this one, if you really concentrated on steam technology, you could build a world that ran on steam. That being said, it won't look like the "Wild Wild West". The technology has to be feasible in our own world.

If you spawn in a random part of the world how will you find your friends?

You'll be able to find your friends because you're allowed to choose to spawn near your friends (not just a random location).

Will there be an in game chat system of any kind? Or will it be just text bubbles over your head so only those nearby can see? Then when communications technology advances will it unlock a chat system?

At first it will be chat bubbles. Eventually, live voice will be added. Keep in mind that we plan on allowing people of different languages to speak to each other using google translate, so in some cases, text will be the superior option (especially when you want to maximize the reach of your in-game trading efforts).

There will be no need for characters to "unlock" voice technology, that is the domain of the players and developers.

Will the environment be dynamic in anyway? Could a forest fire wipe out a forest or a field or even a whole city? Will there be earthquakes or landslides? Will there be tornadoes that blow a town off the map? Will there be droughts that devastate crops, or floods that destroy cities? Will rivers be able to be dammed off for irrigation or electricity? Could one then blow up that dam and cause a torrent of water to rush down stream and crush a competing farmers land or town?

The environment will be affected by certain natural disasters (like fire), but not things like erosion. Landslides will likely be a problem, but that is far down on the development todo list.

Tornadoes would actually be pretty simple to implement so I would expect them to occur fairly early in development.

Damming falls under the same category as landslides. Its on the todo list, but likely won't be done for quite some time, at least when it comes to calculating the dynamics of the resulting water flow. But building a dam to generate electricity? Sure. Blowing up a dam to release a torrent of water? Not likely for quite some time.

Will we be able to let our character do things while we're offline? e.g. finishing a building or sell things?

Yes! In particular, every character will default to "guard" his possessions and his group's possessions. You'll also be able to sell stuff while you're offline and you'll likely also be able to work on long projects too, yes.

Do you know how combat is going to work yet? And will wild animals (even cows and stuff) fight back?

Combat will be pretty simple for most people. Mostly point and click. Some characters will learn special abilities and even martial arts, which will make it more interesting. Combat can also be completely automated for those who don't prefer it. Will animals fight back? Absolutely, animals will also have their own personalities so don't expect every dog to behave the same way in the same situation.

How customizable will the character be? Will we be able to maybe use of a picture of our own face and skin a character around it?

For the 3D client, you'll be able to go nuts. For the 2D ones, the only customization will likely be in what the character wears and is carrying. We may also provide models with different skin/hair tones and size, but it will be fairly minor. If you check the concept images, you'll see that there isn't much to work with there. The characters will appear fairly small.

Will it be possible to just kill a person and then take their house? Or will houses have some kind of protector on them that only allows those who are 'living' there to have access? Will there some kind of alert that goes off if someone tries to break into your house or can someone just walk in and jack all your stuff? Will there be some kind of tag on items that are stolen so people know they are stolen or can I just take anything and sell it with no consequences?

If the person is alone in the bush somewhere, and no one else is around. Him and his stuff is free game. If he is part of even a small community, it gets complicated. Characters remember who you are and know that you're a bad guy. Anyone guarding the town will automatically come after you (depending on the rules of the territory). Anyone playing live right then will be given an alert and you'll show up on their screen immediately (provided their character saw you). This goes for stealing, and trespassing.

Before you do anything like this though, you'll be given a warning on your screen that you're about to commit a crime. But if no one is there and no one can see you, you'd probably get away with it.

What languages will be used to develop the game?

Frontend: GWT, HTML5, Websockets -> Comet -> Long-Polling

Backend: Java Possibly hosted on Google Compute (working on a possible partnership with Google)

How will you deal with crime? When people are offered a second life with no repercussions on the real one, I expect many to not follow the "right" path.

Offline player's characters will be AI controlled. These inactive players can work as guards for the group, they watch over everything to make sure nothing is stolen, no one is a attacked, and nothing is vandalized. Characters in the game don't actually have to sleep, but they will continue to have needs. Characters will need to eat, and they will try to eat whatever food is most readily available to them. While players are away from the game, they will receive email updates with what is going on in the world and what is happening with their characters. You will likely get notifications when something major is happening like their character is being attacked, if your character is starving, or if his stuff is in jeopardy.

Will resources be limited, like in real life, or will they have a spawn timer? Will it be possible to gather up things, even if you don't know what it is, and wait until you do?

The way resources are spread out and regenerated will mimic real life. Apples on apple trees will grow and be able to be harvested at certain times of the year. Some locations will see a snowy winter season where food is hard to find, but easy to preserve.

As for gathering rocks and hoping to one day know what various metals look like. The details for that mechanic haven't been finalized yet, but its likely that you'll be able to create piles of "stuff" that contain multiple types of objects, even if you don't know what these objects are. It would take time to separate one object type from another in the same way it would take time to sort a pile of stuff in real life. This mechanic likely won't be seen right away since its not super important, but it may be necessary if we are to preserve the mystery of rock types (or other material types).

How will inventing take place, will you have to arrange the materials in exact format. Like minecraft creating but a lot more complicated?

Discovery, invention, experimentation, and ideas are all going to mimic the way they operate in real life. You get ideas from needs + familiarity with related materials + intelligence. You get inventions through experimentation (sometimes it means wasting materials). You'll eventually get an invention that you're able to reproduce consistently. Your invention quite different than someone else's version of the same thing, and every time you create a new object, it will also usually vary slightly from the original (usually by some varying attributes).

Will there be an aging system?

Yes, players will have 3-4 stages of age (depending on whether they spawn as children or as young adults). Each age will find certain traits easier to maintain (strength, intelligence, dexterity..etc). You won't die, your character will live in old age forever (unless you choose to end him/her, which will happen due to the fact that there are only a limited number of character slots per game).

Some people have asked for death of character and being able to live on their "legacy" through children. This is an interesting notion and death from old age will be re-addressed when the time comes.

Will the character for example, be more agile during childhood, have more strength during adulthood and much less everything during an elderly stage?

Yes exactly, among other things.

What happens when you go offline? Does your character sleep?

The default "mode" for an offline character is to guard his and his group's stuff. Essentially, patrolling the general area looking for wrongdoers. There are no plans for sleep for characters because this would make it easier for griefers to take over. However, if this protection model turns out to be particularly successful, we may look at adding sleep to the game as a benefit to characters who get some.

Will there be an achievement system like WoW?

No, achievement systems, point systems... these are all ways that games try to "fake" some form of satisfaction from doing something that is ultimately useless. The Universe Project seeks to turn this concept on its head by creating real value in the game. There won't be a need to keep score because successes in the game would be just as valuable in-game as they would be in real life. In fact, success in the game may even equate to success in real life (depending on how you play). There is no reason why someone couldn't make a real living playing in-game and starting an in-game business, for example.

That being said, there will be a sort of "magazine" or "newspaper" that we'll put out to highlight some of the game-wide achievements. Like, the first time certain things are invented, the first time a group reaches a certain size (like the first town of 100 or 1000 people). Or even just interesting battles or takeovers that take place. This will help people understand the game from a practical perspective and help make news around the net.

It will also be a way for people to get exposure (if they want), of course, people could be left anonymous if they'd rather keep it a secret that they now have the ability to make the first car. It could end up getting them killed!

What kind of anti-cheat/hack prevention will you have in this game?

The networking code will be based on Valve's whitepaper they published a few years ago about how they do server side simulations and checking. Nothing is done on the client side. There will certainly be botting, but we will actually allow botting to a degree, and even provide AI controlled characters as part of the game (offline modes, automatic combat, automatic guarding..etc).

Beyond that, we will have to be very quiet about how we'll detect illegal bot activity, going public would only make it harder for us to catch them.

One of the donation rewards is the ability to have double the amount of characters. what is the default number of characters? will you be able to buy more characters?

At the moment, I'm thinking 2 characters per account. We want to limit the number of characters considerably in order to avoid the issue of players creating their own personal army of offline guards. There will likely also be limitations that say characters cannot spawn within a certain range of another of their characters.

If people are going to be reborn as the offspring of other characters, are we still going to be able to customize how or characters or will we be limited by features that are in those characters generic makeup? Will we also spawn as a random gender?

At the moment, there are no plans for passing down traits from parents.

Character stats will be customizable by the player to suit his playing style, not random. You'll be able to choose your gender as well. Additionally, you won't need 2 people to spawn as a child, just any character in-game, willing to accept the spawn.

If this game uses real money, are there options that don't inhibit gameplay and flow for people who aren't "well-off"? Also are you worried about the effects this system might have on a persons life? Could it have the same impact as heavy gambling?

The limitations of the world will be very similar to actually living thousands of years ago. There is no global auction house, you have to walk around and find people to trade with. Economies, technology, and resources will vary based on your location. So even if you had all the money in the world, where are you going to spend it? You might find your way into a bustling city market, but trying to find some way to drop 1000 dollars on in-game content wouldn't be nearly as easy as it is in other games.

That being said, sure people with money would get "ahead". But the point of the game is to have fun, and to be honest, even if there was no real money transactions in the game, because of the sheer number of people you're playing with, chances are, there are going to be tonnes of people who are ahead of you. But in the end, its not about that, its about the journey you take and the crazy real stories that you have to tell at the end of it. If you don't like the people in power in your area, move somewhere rural and start your own community.

Keep in mind that there is no reason why someone wouldn't give you 1000 dollars for a castle that you built, that took your a few months to do. Then you'll have 1000 dollars to spend however you'd like. The world is big enough and there is enough value in the world that people getting ahead won't have a significant impact on your ability to have fun in the game. Will it change things? Sure, but only because some people will find power and influence before others.

But then, think about the people in the real world who already have a massive following. They wouldn't even need money; if some of the big youtubers decide to start a community, they'll get tonnes of support and resources without having to spend a dime. Just people wanting to support their cause, or be a part of something. There are lots of ways to get ahead in the world, and spending real life money won't be the only way to do it.

As for spending real money in the game being addictive, it would be no different than the real world. We could certainly setup limits to how much money you're able to put into the game, which might force you to try to make real money in the game to get around those limits.

This game world could end up living and breathing like a new virtual country.

Will the economy of the world be similar or different as compared to how it is currently or will it be sole formed by the actions of the players?

The economy would likely behave very similar to how the economy was thousands of years ago. Travel limitations, carrying capacity, weather, and the needs of the local communities, will all be important factors in the game economy. The developers will not control the economy at all, it will be created naturally.

What will happen when one player reaches a certain point where they will have a large amount of power. Could they be a dictator and order their men to slaughter innocent players and burn all their belongings?

Certainly possible, but players would have to follow these orders. Unless the players are all of the same mind, that could start the end of his rule.

How will the world/players be distributed when they first start/reborn. Will people start on one continent and discover how to sail to others? Will the world even contain large oceans/continents?

There will be one particular area that people can start in "close to civilization", within walking distance of a heavily populated area (but still random). There will be the option to spawn near someone they know who is already in-game. There will be the option to spawn on the outskirts of civilization (also random). There will be the possibility to spawn far from civilization.

There will also likely be more customization than this, like the ability to spawn near large vs. small populations.

Is there any sort of AI, animals? If yes, will they be tameable?

Tamable animals, yes.

AI for animals, yes.

What would the system requirements be?

Any device that is capable of html5 AND any one of the following: Websocket, Ajax, or Flash

When you stated that all of space will open up to the players, how are the players going to be able to travel to them? We do not have the technology for it at the moment, so are you going to be creating new technology for the players to use? And if so, how are you going to model it on reality, if it does not exist?

We will be allowing technology in the game that is only theoretical today, this should allow us to travel to distant planets quite easily.

In fact, it was on reddit that I found out that scientists think they know how to create a warp drive.

What about sex?

No simulated sex in game. Having "child" characters simply means that someone in-game has approved your request to spawn near them as a child. Theoretically, this player would help teach you skills before you're a young adult.

Will there be sickness in the game? or disease?

To a degree. Characters can be too hot, too cold, too hungry, too tired, but there won't likely be infectious disease, or debilitating effects of old age (beyond certain stat penalties).

Characters will have to wash from time to time though.

Will there be a friends listing implementation, and I'm curious about whether there will be any ways to find friends who didn't spawn near you.

Unfortunately after character has spawned, there won't likely be an easy way to find them. New characters would be able to spawn near somebody who is already in the game , but it doesn't work the other way around.

Will the game be web-based or some kind of client or..what?

Both. The game will certainly be web based, but we will be using PhoneGap to release "native" applications on various hand held devices. This will mean the game can be acquired by standard markets and app stores.

Questions from the original FAQ

Is there permanent death in the game?

There will likely be two modes available to players -- permanent-death and non-permanent-death. There are a few suggested systems for balancing the two player types in the same world. The top runner is a system where players who choose the "perma-death" option, would see accelerated character improvement. This means that players who don't choose permanent death will take longer to advance the strengths of their character, but they would eventually hit the same level. There would be a time and place for both styles.

Additionally, if a perma-death character is killed, but he was part of a strong social support system. His new character could very well get all his "stuff" back, except for physical attributes that are earned.

Both systems will be tested together and at some point, testing will likely take place with perma-death-only. There is quite a bit invested in a character in this game, more so than other games. Especially when a character makes a new discovery or invention, it could be like winning the lottery in some rare cases. Of course, these discoveries/inventions can be passed on to other characters which would make it less disastrous to be killed.

Will a character die from old age?

As the character ages, it will be more difficult to maintain certain physical attributes while intellectual attributes remain. The character will never die from old age though. But there will certainly be some semblance a "prime" age in a character's life, but it will be less extreme when compared to real life.

But I think a game about life is boring...

Everyone plays games for different reasons because everyone gets a kick out of different things in life. There's no reason why one game can't satisfy all, and the best way to accomplish that is by creating a game based on the one environment we know _can_ be enjoyed by all personality types -- real life. Of course, not that everyone does enjoy life, those who generally dislike everything have other issues and probably won't like this game either. :p

The game will be interesting and fun to play because it plays on our most fundamental human desires.

• To create/invent
  
• To acquire wealth
  
• To socialize
  
• To help others
  
• To acquire fame
  
• To explore new things/environments and learn
  
• To conquer and compete with others
  
• To create and enforce law and order

The majority of us enjoy one or more of the things in this list, a lot. To the point where it could be classified as a human need once our basic needs are met (being able to eat, drink, breath, have shelter..etc). So to answer the question of how will the game be fun? It depends on your fundamental motivational tastes.

But these things are fun in real life, not in a game!

Computer games can't always deliver the satisfaction we desire from accomplishing the goals mentioned above because there is the sense that it's "not real", it's "just a game". Most of the games we play now result in in-game points that have very little value compared to the results of accomplishment in real-life. But the Universe Project won't suffer from this kind of irrelevance. Nearly anything you do in the game will have a real impact on other players in the present and future. The game itself is a simulation of human civilization, created by the players themselves. Even if all you want to do is grow some food Farmville style, your crops will go to other players who need it to eat and survive, so they can go off and do what _they_ want to do in the game, without worrying about food. There is much more value in this game and in the actions you take because it affects other players in a way few other mainstream games have managed to accomplish.

But what you're proposing is impossible! You would need 1 million servers and 1 million man-hours to make it! HOAX!

This seems to be the most popular misconception about the project. People seem to think we're proposing to literally re-create the universe at the molecular level, or something similar. The game is a simulation of humanity, the way we generally perceive actions, results, and requirements. A player's character needs to know how to make something before he can go about doing it. Characters learn skills, be crafting a hammer, a bow, some boots, or even martial arts. Characters learn skills the same way we do in real life, they are either taught it by another character, or they come up with an idea, and develop the skill until it is usable and reproducible.

As for the the millions of servers, every time you play Minecraft, you're playing in an infinite world, and yet it is generated on a single computer. It will be a feat to scale the game to be able to handle millions of players, but its the player count that will determine how much we need to scale the infrastructure, not the size of the world.

Finally, regarding the millions of man-hours to create the game. It's not as difficult as you might think. To begin with, there is no need to create every permutation of skill available in the world today for the first release. Skills will be added to the game over time (years even). Players won't even notice when new skills are added to the game because they will be discovering new skills arbitrarily. As far as they are concerned, they won't even notice when there is a new release (unless the UI changes or there are gameplay tweaks).  There is no need to get all the content into the game at once, players will have enough to do even with a very small fraction of what is planned.

People are also saying that it takes hundreds of developers/artists years to create even a tiny fraction of the game world we're claiming to be capable of creating (like assassin's creed, or grand theft auto). But remember, the artists are creating a word that resembles our own. We're simply creating a world full of plant-life and animals. There is no human infrastructure whatsoever. The players create the infrastructure, and yes, it will take a million man-hours to do so, but imagine what a million players could do in an hour.

Will there be real money transactions?

Yes, there will. And the very first thing people tend to think is that this will break the game. The real money transactions will only be for goods or services purchased from another real player. The other player will have had to acquire the goods or perform the services the old fashioned way. There will be no such thing as buying goods "out of thin air" to gain an advantage over other players. Furthermore, there will be no "global auction house". Transactions happen in-person, 1 on 1. Furthermore, there is no reason why anyone "needs" to use real money, and if you opt to not use real money, there is no loss for you. Depending on the reason why you play, you might even have a better game experience. Those who don't use real money also stand a good chance of making money in the game from those two do.

What about all the "gold farmers"! They'll break the game!

Let them! Those who want to farm to make money make it so other players don't have to and it allows them to buy materials for cheap to create their civilizations. The economy in the game will be based on the local needs and supplies of the players. Inflation won't be a problem, it will be a natural part of the game. If you have too much of one resource, then ship it off to some other location in the world that would pay a high price for the same resource.

How will time progress? Are the first people in the game going to be playing in a primitive era, and people who join later on (2+ years down the line) playing in a high tech future world?

Yes, essentially. Although "high-tech" likely wouldn't happen for more like 10 years, maybe more. And if you think that is a long time, consider how long we've been getting expansions for World of Warcraft.

Will there be wars or large scale battles?

Mechanics would be in place to assist with the organizing of players to make large scale wars possible. Wars at the beginning, before technology advances, will be somewhat awkward though, since communication and transportation is limited (not unlike war in ancient times).

Will it be possible to set up an empire? Will there be politics?

Yes, politics and government will play a very important role in ensuring safety. There will be game mechanics put in place specifically to manage that aspect.

If you are the leader of an Empire/Tribe and you are killed/usurped, does that person then take control of that Empire?

Not necessarily, the same rules would apply as they apply in real life, you need to get control of key players or the people before you have control over everything. There will be no "handing" control over like in other games, it would have to be acquired in a logical way, the way you might expect to take control of something in real life. The same goes for many of the other aspects of people control. There will be no "faking it" that games of today tend to do. If you want to get something of this magnitude done, you'll have to go through the same steps as you would in real life. Remember, there are no NPCs. These are real people you are attempting to assume control over. It is probably best that you get them to like you first.

What about marriage? Could you 'adopt' a child character and raise it? How do these characters develop?

Actually yes, raising a child will be implemented (but some experimentation will be required to see how well the system is accepted as it would be something new for everyone). Certain bonuses to your character will be attained by being "born" into the game as a child. This would also be one way to join your friends and their clan/group/guild.

Is it a leveling system or an age based system?

It is definitely not a traditional leveling based system, age comes into play and learning is modeled after the human experience; doing something over and over again makes you better, doing something similar will make you better at other things that are related.

But the game world will be so huge! No one will ever see each other!

Earth didn't always have billions and billions of people on it. People stick together because they need each other. Humans are strong because they act as a group, not as individuals. The same will go for this game. People will start near each other, and in many cases, near their friends so they can play together. It is certainly possible to play the game by yourself in your own corner of the world though, which would be very interesting indeed...a subculture somewhere on an island, not exposed to the main land, and having to come up with their own technology. I'm sure it will happen.

What about the time scale? Will an in-game hour last a real-life hour?

Walking about will be 1:1 with real life. But learning new things, building things, gathering resources, they will occur at a faster rate. Some skills/resource gathering will happen in real-time while others will be faster. Most of the "sped up" skills/actions will be sped up at a set rate (like perhaps x10) relative to how long it takes to do the same thing in real life. The precise rate will be determined through play-testing.

If I wanted to, could I invent firearms and vehicles?

Eventually, but don't count on it happening soon. The world will be starting out with no technology whatsoever (other than possibly being able to start a fire and a few simple things). The speed at which technology progresses will roughly model how real-world technology progressed since the beginning of the human species. The first tools will be simple ones, likely made of bone, wood, and stone (depending on the material available in the area). Eventually, infrastructure, discoveries, and inventions will pave the way to more complex inventions like firearms and vehicles, eventually even space vehicles.

What's stopping people from killing every player for no other reason than the fact that they can?

As for griefing early in the game, players that band together immediately be able to build up defenses against that sort of thing. There will always be a measure of danger, but how much danger depends entirely on the social system you make yourself a part of.

A character's power over another character will be modeled to mirror that which people are capable of today. If you go 1 to 1 against another player, you better be ready for a fight because most characters are going to be fairly evenly matched. In modern MMOs, most of the time, if a level 1 faces off against a level 60, the level 1 character will do no damage whatsoever, this will not be the case in this game.

Technology will play the biggest part in who has the power. But it is in the best interests of those supplying the technology to sell it, make a profit, to as many players as possible. Players with an advantageous technology wont keep their advantage for too long. It will eventually get out.

How will building things work? Will it be like minecraft?

No, not really. You're not given blocks to put together necessarily (although building large structures may have a certain level of freedom of form). Most things you build in the game are quite small anyway or very specific (like a boat, tool, weapon...etc). Structures will range from small and static, to large and very customizable. But you will essentially have the option of placing walls where you want and shaping particularly large buildings. The rest will be built through what essentially amounts to formulas. The system for building things is meant to model how you might build something in real life.

How would you build a hammer in real life? In reality, you can use nearly anything as a hammer, and that too will be modeled in the game. Some hammers are better than others, some are prone to break, some are not suited for certain types of hammering (based on hardness). To a degree, these things will be modeled as well. Not everything tool/object created is equal, in fact, very few things will be "exactly" the same. Even if you use the same materials to build it.

Later on, assembly lines will be invented to try to standardize building and make objects more-or-less the same.

Why can't I invent firearms right off the bat?

Same reason why cavemen couldn't do it. They didn't know how. There will be a progression of technology and the speed at which it progresses will be determined by the players of the game itself and their ability to invent, progress, and discover. Many of the things that hindered technological progression through our history will be the same things that hinder progression in this game.

So the game is the size of Earth, but will it be Earth?

We want a fresh planet so exploration is that much more meaningful. We also don't want to have to get everything "just right". Having a new planet also gives us the opportunity to customize the terrain to make it more interesting for players. The downside to this is players wont be able to feel like they "found' a place they know, and they wont be able to travel to "where they live", to see it in the game world. As fun as that might be, it would actually be detrimental to have players trying to spread out and find various locations. Players need to stick together, explore, and discover. This way, the only reason for travel will be because of real needs of the player/character.

Will the "nations" be run by all players wanting to run the nation? How will that work?

It would work very much like it works today. No gimmicks, and not much in the way of mechanics either. There will be special mechanics for being able to control other players under certain circumstances. But running a nation will be a whole other level that would require the cooperation of a number of players and the implementation of social systems (just like a real government).

It may sound like it would be too complicated, but keep in mind that a nation will form naturally as population grows. Ideally, whoever was in charge while the nation was but a small town will be taking small steps to handle population growth until they realize they have the first Universe Project nation.

There will however be a way to mark territory and the ability to communicate the rules of a particular territory. This could be considered a mechanic for the building of a nation, but it would also be used on a much smaller scale. More likely, nations will form as a cooperation of towns and cities, which would be governed by different people.

You said there are no NPCs in this game, but what about animals?

You're right. Animals will be run on AI. When I say NPCs, I mean human characters. Infact, there will be some AI automation in real players as well. But there will be no "vendors" or "quest givers" or any human characters that are not connected to a player.