Project Overview
Infinite Stars is an episodic science-fiction story leaning more towards hard science than science-fantasy. There are too many dystopian, dark science-fiction stories in the world. I believe that we as individuals and our stories act as self fulfilling prophecies. We end up where our subconscious dwells. I believe that we need more utopian, feel good stories and dreams, especially in the world we live in today.
I still remember the feeling of reading my first science-fiction story as a child. (It was an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, which had content I was way too young to consume) The endless possibilities the future could hold was like a drug. I’m sure others of you will also be able to recall that feeling of childlike wonder and excitement when you dreamt about the future.
In an effort to inspire others to dream again with me and my team, all our game assets are licensed as creative commons (CC-BY-NC-SA). We want fans and hobbyists to dream again, to rediscover that feeling of hope and excitement for the future, to create their own amazing stories. I feel visual novels are the perfect medium to accomplish this.
Characters
It took several months to decide on a character artist that had a distinct style we loved. We eventually met with Zaph, and it’s been a great journey. As you will notice the style is very different from most visual novels. For starters, it’s not anime, but it’s also not quite the usual Western Disney style.
Lieutenant Mayvheen Ahaffa
Mayvheen’s character is what inspired the whole Infinite Stars universe. She is someone that has been in my thoughts for almost 2 years now. She is a kind, mostly soft spoken person. Her older brother joined the TPA a few years before she did, and they now both currently serve in the UIC. She shares a secret with her brother that could jeopardize both their careers, and possibly cost them their lives.
Katya
Katya is a young adult living in a mining colony in the restricted zone. She has known hardship, suffering and loss, but still has big dreams to travel the stars. Her cat Cleo goes where she goes and together they have overcome every obstacle thus far.
Ensign Veera Polyakov
Veera is new to the UIC. She served as a ground assault soldier during the Discovery War. She is extremely task orientated and always gets the job done. This sometimes makes her appear rude and unpleasant. She hates listening to people’s emotional troubles, mostly because she has enough of her own demons to fight.
Lahkhadia
Lahkhadia is a Cephilusk commander. She is also the first of many alien species to meet. Humans are still distrusting of Cephilusks even though they are technically allies through the UIC. She is extremely intelligent and has more than earned the right to serve as a commander.
Bonus Sneak Peek: Captain Raymond Malone
Raymond appears in Episode 2 that we have already started working on, but I thought I'd share a sneek peak with everyone!
Universe
Infinite Stars takes place in a Utopian society. Humanity has conquered our differences. Racism is something of the past. It’s hard to hate someone for their skin color when everyone has access to genetic makeovers.
Religious differences are no more. It took several generations and several wars to convince humanity that a unified, all accepting religion made up from all the different religions is the way to go. No more Muslims, Christians, Scientologists… Just believers or non-believers.
Earth is a paradise and is classified as a nature reserve planet with strict population control measures.
Corruption and greed is mostly weeded out. When humanity implemented AI assisted processes to detect corruption and pass harsh punishments on offenders everything changed.
Every man, woman and child works together to benefit not their country of origin, but the species as a whole.
Recent Events
When humanity unified and started working together as a species, we formed the TPA (Terran Protectorate Alliance) mostly to combat fringe piracy and to aid in interplanetary logistics. Humanity colonised their solar system and started looking beyond. We always believed that there was intelligent life in the universe, we just didn’t expect them to find us first.
What ensued was bloodbath. The TPA didn’t have the means to defend against an organised enemy force.
The Cephilusk armed convoys started the construction to expand the interstellar jumpgate relay network. Humanity was not seen as a threat, but more as inconvenient insects to deal with. An uneasy era of guerilla warfare started, and once the gate was completed, the Cephilusk withdrew through the gate, reinforcing only small security detail to prevent any intentional damage to the gate.
Eventually diplomatic contact was made with the rest of the Cephilusk empire, and we discovered that there are thousands of intelligent alien species in the universe. We also discovered that the UIC (United Interstellar Concordat) served a similar purpose of the TPA, but for all alien races. Humanity petitioned to be allowed to join the UIC and serve alongside our interstellar brothers and sisters, but membership was denied. We did however manage to gain access to the interstellar jumpgate relay, and a new era of colonisation started. It took several more years of petitions and diplomatic meetings before humanity was recently allowed to join the UIC.
Gameplay
It’s still early days, and we are on the precipice of releasing the first of countless episodes for Infinite Stars.
Each episode is roughly 30-45 minutes of gameplay per branch (Or around 60 minutes for all branches). Each episode starts with an intro, then branches into 2 routes, and joins together again in the end. There are several smaller choices that add flavour to the story. Choices from previous episodes also play a small role in future episodes.
This structure makes it possible to still make meaningful choices that affect the journey of the story, without having to create exponential content. If the story is about going to the nearby beach, you can decide to travel by foot or by car. Each route is an entirely different journey with unique events, but in the end, you still end up at the beach.
We also employ closed feedback loops to enrich the main storyline. This is akin to sidequests, like managing and upgrading a colony, increasing diplomatic relations with another species or finding a lost relative etc. These act as gatekeepers to additional flavour and secret scenes in later episodes.
Lastly, we would love to highlight and share fan created content and invite guest writers to write stories.
Funding
While the game is free for everyone, and our assets are Creative Commons, it does take a large amount of money to produce professional creative content. Sadly, crowdfunding venues like Kickstarter are not available to South Africa, so everything has been funded out of pocket.
Patreon is one of the few ways to get funding for a free project in South Africa, and we started one a few months ago. We have picked up a few patrons, and it has been increasing steadily almost every month. If you want to see some more of our work and ideas you can check out our Patreon here:
https://www.patreon.com/infinitestars
With this being a free game we try to keep a good balance between public posts while still benefiting our patrons.
The most important thing to highlight is that Infinite Stars is a project of passion. It’s something that we will continue to develop with disposable income regardless of profitability.
I’m excited to share my passion with the VN community, and I look forward to contributing in my own way!