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The Star Wanderer

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The Star Wanderer

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THE STAR WANDERER

By

Yifei Chen

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC CINEMATIC ARTS
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF FINE ARTS
INTERACTIVE MEDIA & GAMES

May 2020

Copyright 2020 YIFEI CHEN

ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................................iii
Introduction...................................................................................................................................................1
Artist Statement................................................................................................................................1
Market & Audience..........................................................................................................................1

Chapter 1: Ideation.........................................................................................................................................2
The Dark Forest Theory....................................................................................................................2
The Backstory...................................................................................................................................3

Chapter 2: Experience Goas & Design Goals................................................................................................4
The Experience Goals.......................................................................................................................5
The Design Goals..............................................................................................................................5

Chapter 3: The Making Process.....................................................................................................................6
Pillars & Features………..................................................................................................................6
Challenges & Difficulties...............................................................................................................18

Chapter 4: Prior Art .....................................................................................................................................20

Chapter 5: Reflection ..................................................................................................................................21
Scale & Genre.................................................................................................................................21
The Future.......................................................................................................................................22

Bibliography.................................................................................................................................................23

iii
Abstract
Human beings are infinitely small within the scheme of the universe. Yet we are capable of
understanding and exploring this vast space despite our insignificance. By understanding the universe, we
understand ourselves, our origination and purpose of existence. Aside from academic study, numerous
science fiction novels, movies and other mediums have reimagined our relationship to the universe in
countless ways.
Yet for sci-fi themed games, most of them are either shooting games under the skin of alien settings or war-
game inspired strategy games that emphasize colonization and supremacy. For traditional PC 4X games,
the relationship between different civilizations are often portrayed similar to the one between different
countries on earth: civilizations compete with one another for territories, resources and technology.
Nevertheless, in reality the technology gaps between civilizations are more enormous than the gap between
humans and ants. Thus, instead of long-term competition and well-matched wars, what is more likely going
to happen is annihilation or captivation.
Inspired by the award-winning novel The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin, The Star Wanderer
project provides a new approach to reconstruct the relationship between civilizations in the vast universe,
enabling the player to make meaningful decisions with or without aggressive acts. The project also aims to
provoke the players to reflect upon human beings’ possible future. Overall, using the game a medium not
only to provide entertainment but also inspire thinking and reflection.
This paper is an in-depth discussion of the ideation and development process of The Star Wanderer.

1
Introduction
2.1 Artist Statement
The Star Wanderer is a mobile turn-based space strategy game inspired by the Dark Forest
Theory proposed in the famous science-fiction novel The Three Body Problem.
In the game, civilizations in the universe are symbolized as hunters in the dark, striving to survive
in the dangerous space colosseum. You will play as the leader of the civilization “Iskra” that is
threatened by an approaching black hole. Lead your people through the epic journey of wandering,
face the infinite challenge of survival, encounter other civilizations with their unique culture.
Although hard to achieve and rarely seen, the spark of alliance and kindness can always be kindled
by wise decisions.
2.2 Market & Audience
In the context of the game industry, especially the Chinese market, the leading strategy
games on the mobile platform are often SLGs, which are free to play games that focus on negative
social competence. On the other hand, classic strategy games on PC are usually considered hard-
core and time consuming. As we live a fast-paced life in the ever-growing metropolis, people no
longer have the time to splurge on learning complicated gameplay. Those who are interested in the
genre are also afraid of the high learning cost. Hence, The Star Wanderer aims to capture the
essence of classic strategy games and deliver it to a wider range of audience with easy-to-learn but
hard-to-master gameplay on a more accessible platform. The ultimate goal is to redefine the genre
of strategy games on mobile.
There are three groups of target audience:
2
4x Space Strategy Game Lovers: Many of them complain about how time consuming and tedious
the traditional 4X games are. Now they can explore the universe on their phone at any time.
Sci-fi Lovers: Many of them are interested in the genre but often intimidated by the complicated
system and time investment. The Dark Forest immensely lowers the learning cost and is designed
upon scientific theories.
Citizens/Office Workers/Students: Many of them spend hours on commute every day and want
to escape from mundane everyday life. The game is easy and intuitive to interact even when people
are on public transportation and provides a great escape.

Ideation
This session discusses where did the original idea come from and how did it evolve.
3.1 The Dark Forest Theory:
The Dark Forest Theory is a theory proposed by Liu Cixin in his award-winning novel The
Three Body Problem. It provides a possible explanation to the Fermi Paradox. Until now, human
beings haven’t encountered any extraterrestrial civilizations. However, since there are billions of
stars in the galaxy that are similar to the sun, some of them may have developed intelligent life.
Why is the universe so silent? Where are the extraterrestrial civilizations?
The Dark Forest Theory interprets the silence as such:
● All life desires to stay alive.
● There is no way to know if other lifeforms can or will destroy you if given a chance.
● Lacking assurances, the safest option for any species is to annihilate other life forms before
they have a chance to do the same. [1]

3
According to this theory, civilizations annihilate others not because they are naturally
aggressive but because this is the best survival strategy. When I first read the novel years ago, I
thought this cynical concept is dark yet convincing. It explains the Fermi Paradox in a brand-new
angle.
Yet with future understanding of the world, I start to question this concept. It is somehow
using the theory of evolution to imagine the behavior of extraterrestrial civilizations, assuming that
the universe is a forest, and everybody follows the Rule of Jungle. However, in human society, as
the technology advances, our morality and ability to feel empathy also evolves. Altruistic acts are
both present in the human world as well as the animal kingdom. If we assume that some
extraterrestrial civilizations don’t conduct altruistic moves, others must do. Hence, the universe
might be dark and terrifying overall, but the spark of peace is always possible.
As a result, I decided to create a game that is inspired by the Dark Forest Theory but added
with a twist. At the beginning of the game, the player will enter a universe loaded with danger, and
one must try their best to survive. Over this process, players can choose between aggressive and
highly beneficial acts or peaceful and less beneficial acts. Overall, every decision that the player
makes will reflect upon the system. (e.g. affect how other civilization treat you)

3.2 The Backstory
After I got the main idea for this project, I decided to choose strategy game as the genre
because it provides the player a wide range of meaningful choices. Nevertheless, as I played more
and more traditional 4X space strategy games (Stellaris, Endless Space2), I found that most of these
4
games highly encourage the acts of expansion and evasion despite the fact that there are different
types of winning condition. In mid to late game, even if I aimed for a science or influence victory,
other hostile civilizations will declare war no matter what I have done, and the only way to protect
my people is to arm them with higher level weapons and ships. In other words, military
development is inevitable no matter your play style.
The ultimate reason behind this phenomenon is the limitation of space. Inherited from
traditional war games, most of the strategy games have a map that is fixed in size, which encourages
competition and conflict. Yet in the real world, the universe is nearly infinite, for a low-level
civilization, the chances of meeting another civilization is low and the resources are abundant. I
want to capture this more realistic experience in my game.
After a discussion with my advisor Sean Stuart, I decided to set the backstory of the game
as such: an approaching black hole is forcing your species to leave your mother planet and enter
the unknown universe. The design of this backstory has several intentions:
1. The game will have an infinite map as you travel through the universe.
2. The initial prompt of the game is not to expand and exploit but survive and explore.
3. The map is procedurally generated, so the game is replayable. (rouge-like)

Experience Goals & Design Goals
Once I have settled the basic backstory and overall tone of the game. The early idea evolved
into several early prototypes. Including a multiplayer version that involves the idea of a space
“Battle Royal”. However, these ideas didn’t last because of the limitation of time and scale.
5
Eventually, I keep the basic model of a classic space strategy game: resource management, tech
tree, combat based on strategy. Yet I also settled a series of uncommon experience goals and design
goals to ensure that the final gameplay experience sticks to my original vision.

4.1 The Experience Goals
1. Meaningful Decision Making and Strong Player Agency
Every player decision in the game will feed in the core loop in some way. The game is meant to
give the player strong agency over the gameplay.
2. Player’s Value and Worldview Reflect Upon the System
The decision that the player makes not only has instant feedback but also affects the “Value Meter”,
which directs the play to choose different routes in the technology tree and ends up in three different
values. (Peaceful, Neutral, Hostile)
3. Intrigue the Player to Think about Human Beings’ Possible Future
A goal that is commonly seen in Sci-fi novels but seldom considered by space strategy games. In
order to achieve it, the core loop/ diploma system/combat system and world setting will be largely
based on real-life astronomy discoveries, aiming to intrigue reflections upon human beings’ own
future.

4.2 The Design Goals
1. Condense the Core of Space Strategy Game to Your Phone:
This is not a 4X game in terms of scale and goal, however, it will capture the core features of 4X:
6
Resource management and decision making. Thus, provides traditional 4X lovers a chance to play
anywhere at any time.
2. Tension and Excitement
The player will constantly experience the pressure of survival and face life or death decisions. On
the other hand, exploring unknown territory and encountering others are always exciting and
rewarding.
3. Intuitive and Simplistic Interface Design
Intuitive UI design will guide the player as an organic tutorial and lower the learning cost. Designed
for people taking public transportations, the core interactions are so simple that this game can be
played even with one hand.
4. A Replayable Game
This goal is achieved by procedurally generated maps and the variety of species.

The Making Process
5.1 Pillars & Features
In order to realize the experience goals and design goals for the project, a series of features
are implemented. Some of them are inherited from classic 4x games, others are customized for this
game. In the next session, I will explain how the new features contribute to the goals.
Basic Features (Inherited from classic 4X games):
1. Explore : Explore the universe and gain resources.
2. Expand: Expand the size of your population and survive.
7
3. Encounter: Encounter other civilizations and choose your diplomacy.
4. Technology Tree: A well-balanced tech tree that requires careful planning.
New Features:
1. Value Meter:
The Value Meter is a positive feedback loop built within the system to ensure that most of
the player decisions are meaningful and have a long-lasting effect in the game. Players start from
50(neutral), their different choices throughout the game will either add or decrease this number.
The minimum value is 0, which stands for peaceful, and the maximum number is 100, which stands
for aggressive. The Figure 4.3.1 shows a list of events that will affect the value number.
The value meter also acts as a narration trigger in the game. When the number reaches a
certain point, a page of illustrated story appears and an element in the system is also triggered. For
example, when the value meter reaches 70,” The hive mind announces that a vision of the Elders
comes up”, a new technology “Ruin Detector” also appears in the tech tree.
Overall, the value meter acts as bound between smaller systems in the game, creating a positive
feedback loop that amplifies player’s decisions and directs them to long-term, game-changing
effects.
8

Figure 4.3.1 Events that Affect the Value Meter

Figure 4.3.2 How Value Meter Works

2. Procedurally Generated Universe:
Generated according to a set of designed rules, this was the major technical challenge for
this game. The idea of a procedurally generated universe is not new to space strategy games.
However, in The Star Wanderer, a new row of map (6 grids of new star systems) is generated at
9
the end of every turn. This feature makes sure that the game is replayable and the universe is infinite.
The idea of a constantly generated map comes from the “rouge-like” genre, it ensures randomness
as well as saving computing power.

3. Different Types of Species and Traits:
Originally we planned for five types of species, each has their unique backstory, traits and
special technology. Due to time limitation, we include four types of species in the final version.
Each species corresponds to a type of planet and resource. The design of these species and their
backstory are based on xenobiology and astronomy.
Planet Type Life Form Type Resource Type
Terrestrial Planet Carbon-based Life Form Carbon, Food
Silicate Planet Silicon-based Life Form Silicon, Metals
Gas Giant Floater Life Form Hydrogen
Frozen Planet Ammonia-based Life Form Ammonia

The writer of our team also created imaginative backstory for each species:
(1) Frisians “Children of the Beast”
Home world: Frisia
Carbon-based lifeform; Terrestrial Planet
The Frisian are a mammalian species hailing from a planet with a highly variable climate.
Their world experiences a decades-long seasonal cycle that routinely plunges the normally
10
temperate planet into a deep and forbidding ice age. To survive these intense climate cycles, the
Frisian have evolved a thick, sugary mucus that encases their bodies for freezing during winter.
The Frisian have always been curious about what lay beyond the stars since their world is situated
along the migration route of a species of space-whale that the Frisians simply call “Behemoth”.
Occasionally, the carcass of a Behemoth will fall to the surface of the planet.

Figure5.1.1 Original Design of Frisians

Figure5.1.2 Final Design of Frisians
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Figure5.1.3 Terrestrial Planet

(2) Iskra “Children of the Gods”
Home world: Iskra
Silicon-based lifeform; Silicate Planet
Life for the Convolution was simple when the Elders ruled the galaxy. Elder technology
endowed the shadowy progenitor race with god-like powers and ambition. Bored with organic life,
they created entire silicon worlds and a race of sentient computers in their image. The Consortium
is a hyperconsciousness, ever-present in each silicate lifeform like a hive-mind. But then the Dark
Age began. Contact between planets dwindled and eventually ceased. The Consortium only
remained aware of one planet and stayed dormant until the discovery of the Singularity at the center
of the solar system. With a black hole encroaching, the Consortium reaches once again towards the
stars, hoping to find traces of its creators and exact vengeance on those who dare try to replace
them.
12

Figure5.1.4 Final Design of Iskra

Figure5.1.5 Silicate Planet

13
(3) Xenon “Children of the Void”
Home world: Xeno
Floater lifeform; Gas Giant
To an outside observer, Xenon sentience is a miracle. With nothing resembling a traditional
brain structure or anything more complex than a rudimentary nervous system, it is a wonder that
the Xenon have been able to organize such an advanced starfaring civilization. Resembling massive
jellyfish, their natural habitat is among the clouds of gas giants. Xenon do not build physical
structures but simply manipulate the gas around them. When a Xenon has grown large enough,
usually the size of a small planet, it ejects from the atmosphere, taking with it a cloud of gas to
travel through the vacuum of space. When it reaches a suitably habitable planet, the Xenon will
release spores and procreate. As the latest Xenon to leave your homeworld, it is now your chance
to explore the cosmos. How you deal with any aliens you encounter is your choice, you can befriend
them, or choke the life from their lungs.
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Figure5.1.6 Design of Xenon

Figure5.1.7 Gas Giant

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(4) Moebians “Children of the Deep”
Home world: Moebius
Ammonia-based lifeform; Frozen Planet
The Moebians evolved in the teaming ocean buried under the thick ice of their homeworld.
Life on Moebia began near the volcanic vents at the bottom of the vast, planet-spanning frozen
ocean. The Moebians built their society there, with no light reaching that deep, the Moebians did
not develop eyes and never bothering to look beyond the thick ice sheet that protected their
civilization from the notice of hostile aliens. That was until the emergence of the black hole caused
a shift in gravity that broke the ice sheet asunder. For the first time, faint sunlight made its way to
the depths, where it burned the Moebians on contact. Forced to evacuate their homeworld, the
Moebians built enclosed colonization ships, travelling through space based solely on sensor
readings. Because their natural habitat is at the bottom of the ocean, Moebians require much more
pressurization in their ships than the average surface dweller as well, experiencing explosive
decompression on the surface of an average planet. As you lead the Moebians into this new
spacefaring era, you must decide how to interact with the strange beings you will encounter among
the stars. They are not like you and do not understand the unique needs of your people. Will you
befriend them or exterminate the outsiders.
16

Figure5.1.8 Final Design of Moebians

Figure5.1.9 Frozen Planet

4. The Combat & Diplomacy System
The original idea of the combat & diplomacy system came from soviet astronomer Nikolai
Kardashev’s “Kardashev Scale”. It is a method of measuring a civilization's level of technological
advancement based on the amount of energy they are able to use.
17
The scale has three designated categories:
● A Type I civilization, also called a planetary civilization—can use and store all of the energy
available on its planet.
● A Type II civilization, also called a stellar civilization—can use and control energy at the scale
of its stellar system.
● A Type III civilization, also called a galactic civilization—can control energy at the scale of
its entire host galaxy. [2]

Based on the Kardashev Scale, the gap between different levels of civilization is enormous. It is
impossible for a lower level civilization to fight against a higher-level civilization. The only option
would be escaping. Thus, galactic diplomacy can only present in civilizations within the same level.
Incorporate these ideas into the design of the combat system. When players meet civilizations of
different level, their options to interact also change.
● When player meet lower level civilization, 2 options:
(1) Exterminate (2) Incorporate
● When player meet same level civilization, 2 options:
(1) War (2) Peace Treaty
● When player meet higher level civilization, 1 option:
(1) Escape
In conclusion, these new features are designed to realize the experience goals and design
goals. Over the process of making the game, some features have been changed or simplified due to
the limitation of time. In general, they are interconnected with one another by the flow of resources
through the system.
18

Figure5.1.10 Core Loop

5.2 Challenges & Difficulties
1. Procedural Generation
One of the universal problems of procedurally generated content is how to eliminate
buggy/incorrect outcome and boring combinations. In order to solve this problem, we need a set of
designed and tested rules to generate content. For The Star Wanderer, the universe map is entirely
generated according to a set of rules. In the future version, the designers can tweak the numbers in
19
these formulas to make sure that the generated content is optimized.

2. Usability
For complicated strategy games like this, usability is always a big challenge to our team.
Long reading and too many options are two key factors for mobile game players to lose interest.
Thus we decided to use icons instead of words for most of the player options.
The best way to improve usability is playtest and continued polishing. In November 2019, we’ve
conducted three playtest sessions to collect data and feedback from first time players. Many of them
expressed confusion to the same icons and game procedure. These problems are then getting fixed
and improved.

3. Tutorial
Tutorial is the ultimate challenge for space strategy games. Games like Stellaris have long,
complicated and confusing tutorials. A larger number of first-time players are intimidated by the
enormously long text and confusing descriptions in 4X games. Tutorial is also the biggest challenge
for our team because The Star Wanderer is trying to access a larger audience who has never played
this genre before.
From my previous game development experience and 4X game playing experience, I’ve
learned that creating an effective and easy-to-understand tutorial can take up to half of the game
development schedule. It also requests a large amount of user testing and bug fixing. Given the
limited time and resource we have, I had to make a trade-off between a well-designed and tested
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tutorial vs. a rich gameplay experience. In addition, for 4X games, watching a video tutorial is often
the best way to start the game. Thus, I decided to give up in-game tutorial and make a video tutorial
instead, that way players can watch before they start.

Prior Art
1. Out There
Out There centers around exploration and resource management. The player starts with a
ship equipped with some devices, fuel, oxygen, and hull metal, and can mine planets for more
resources; a steady supply of them is necessary to continue progressing through the game. Along
the way, the player will also discover a variety of aliens in space as well as artifacts and abandoned
spaceships, which can be stripped of equipment and resources or taken over. The final goal of the
game is to travel across a sector of space to a faraway solar system.
Inspiration: Out There shows a perfect example of small scope space strategy game on
mobile platform. The major difference between The Star Wanderer and Out There is gameplay and
background story. Out There is more of a ship-management game, while The Star Wanderer is
about the development and interactions between civilizations. The elegant system design and UI
interface of Out There provides a great reference on how to simplify a complicated system into an
interface that even first-time players can easily handle. For game narrative, which is usually the
weakness of most strategy games, Out There also used an impressive way to incorporate narration
into the gameplay, in which the player is given great agency to decide their fate. Back to The Star
Wanderer, the game narration is closely linked to other systems with the feature “Value Meter”,
21
the narration then becomes non-linear.

2. Endless Space 2
In Endless Space the player chooses one of ten unique civilizations to expand their
interstellar empire and conquer the galaxy. To win, the player must be the first to meet the
requirements for certain victory conditions, such as Economic, Diplomatic, Expansionary, and
Supremacy victories.
Inspiration: A classic turn-based 4x space strategy game that provides a lot of inspiration
for the system and core gameplay design. Although the game has all the complicated systems that
a 4x game usually has, the systems are interconnected with each other and the player doesn't have
to know them all before they start. This design principle is also applied in The Star Wanderer.
On the other hand, the user-friendly UI interface really helps new players to quickly learn how to
maneuver through the game. Important information and buttons are heightened in size and colors
to attract players attention first. The Star Wanderer inherited this UI design philosophy.

Reflection
7.1 Scale & Genre
Overscale is one of the problems that is once considered at the beginning of the production.
In the later half of the production cycle, it turns out that in order to finish the project on time, we
have to cut many planned features and content. The major problem for the team is lacking full-time
engineer and team-work efficiency. Making a strategy game requires an excessive amount of
22
programming, however, the engineers in our team join the project as volunteers. Many emergencies
and tests come up so it’s hard for them to deliver sprints on time. I would recommend that if students
want to make a strategy game as their thesis project, it’s better for them to hire a full-time engineer.
In addition, due to the lack of time, we have to give up making an in-game tutorial and use the time
to deliver more content.

7.2 The Future
The Star Wanderer is exploring a genre that is not yet fully adapted to the mobile platform-
- the strategy game. In the Chinese market, except a few successful cases in early years (Plague
Inc.), the majority still hasn’t been fully introduced to this genre. On the other hand, Sci-fi theme
is a rising star in the Chinese market due to the popularity of Liu Cixin’s novel and film adaptation.
Hence, The Star Wanderer has the potential to be published and enjoyed by a broader audience.
The team will continue to develop this project if given a chance.

23
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Kardashev, N. S. “Transmission of Information by Extraterrestrial Civilizations.” Soviet
Astronomy, vol. 8, 1964, pp. 217–221. SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS),
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1964SvA.....8..217K.

2. Hendricks, Scotty. “Dark Forest Theory: A Terrifying Explanation of Why We Haven't Heard
from Aliens Yet.” Big Think, Big Think, 7 Feb. 2019,
bigthink.com/scotty-hendricks/the-dark-forest-theory-a-terrifying-explanation-of-why-we-havent-
heard-from-aliens-yet.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Chen, Yifei (author)

Core Title The Star Wanderer

School School of Cinematic Arts

Degree Master of Fine Arts

Degree Program Interactive Media

Publication Date 04/24/2020

Defense Date 04/15/2020

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag game,OAI-PMH Harvest,sci-fi,Stellaris,strategy game,technology tree

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Wixon, Dennis (committee chair), Fullerton, Tracy (committee member), Lemarchand, Richard (committee member)

Creator Email lucyf8888@gmail.com,yifeiche@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-290351

Unique identifier UC11675072

Identifier etd-ChenYifei-8322.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-290351 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-ChenYifei-8322.pdf

Dmrecord 290351

Document Type Thesis

Rights Chen, Yifei

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA