Star Trek Online New Devlog
Saturday, July 21, 2007 (04:10:22)

Posted by ferrin

DevLog
Entry 1.0 - Hailing Frequencies Open
(a.k.a. "The Coolest Thing")
Stardate 60998.6 (July 14, 2007)
Welcome to the first edition of the STO DevLog, a periodic behind-the-scenes look into the development of Perpetual Entertainment's Star Trek Online. During the months before we're ready to roll out STO in a big, BIG way, we hope you'll make the DevLog the place to go for informative, entertaining, and intriguing peeks into the making of the most ambitious Star Trek game in the history of the galaxy.

I'm your host and STO Story Lead, Mike Stemmle. I'm also, as my friends, family, and coworkers can attest, an unabashedly rabid Trekkie. How rabid? Let's just say that music from Star Trek: The Motion Picture was played during my wedding ceremony and leave it at that, okay?

As a big ol' Star Trek fan, you'd think that the coolest part of my job is working with Gene Roddenberry's fabulous creations. And make no mistake, wiling away one's days adding to the legends of Kirk, Picard, and Sisko (among hundreds of others) is an exceptionally spiffy way to make a living.

But it's not the coolest thing.

The coolest thing about working on a project like Star Trek Online is the host of unexpected little surprises that emerge as the game takes shape. Because STO is such a large undertaking ("massive," even), it's pert-near impossible to keep one's eyes focused on every single aspect of its development at all times. A fortuitous consequence of this phenomenon is that sometimes I don't get a look at a lot of the really keen stuff going on in the game until it's nearly fully-formed.

Exhibit A: Recently, I was absolutely floored by a demonstration of how we'll be crafting our exotic alien environments. For years, the process of constructing believable landscapes (alien or otherwise) has been a grueling, painful endeavor. But these days technological advances have come along to help designers and "world builders" rapidly assemble huge environments that look like they were shaped by natural forces, while simultaneously providing all the necessary gameplay "Points of Interest" laid out by the design team. Here's how it more or less works:

See the entire article here with screenies!