Sector 13
Encyclopedia
Sector 13 is a third-person space shooter
video game developed
by Reactor Interactive. At the time of this writing, it has not been officially published
by a third party, though there are plans for a limited commercial release sometime in 2007 for the PC
, and later, pending publisher or investor funding, Xbox 360
via Microsoft
's Xbox Live Arcade
.
The competition is fierce between the corporations. The fate of entire solar systems lay in the violent battles that rage throughout the region. Because of the distance from the centrality of the Galactic Federal Government, the corporations rule over their respective systems like small governments in and of themselves. It is a very incoherent system of rule, and full of political inconsistencies that only add to the turmoil that engulfs the lives of every being in Sector 13. Everyone who lives in Sector 13 is in one way or another employed by one of the four major conglomerations. The outcomes of the battles significantly affect the livelihood of all of the beings in the area.
Long ago, when the Galactic Confederal Government consolidated its power over the entire known galaxy, the scientific community found itself baffled by the mystery of the area of space dubbed Sector 13. For no known reason, this arm of the galaxy was found to contain hundreds of thousands of habitable star systems rich in resources, yet not one of them boasts a single sentient species. For this reason, the Galactic Confederal Government decided to not waste resources in establishing a governing presence there. Instead, the government agreed to give the region over to corporate development with the guarantee of complete autonomy granted to the companies chartered therein. After hundreds of years of hostile takeovers, military conquests, and large scale consolidation in the area, the Galactic Confederal Government continues to honor the original charters given to the various corporations in Sector 13 space and has not interfered in any way with the internal politics and conflicts of the Sector. Therefore, the wars will continue as long as there is profit to be had and solar systems to conquer.
Version Zero was very successful demonstration of the game's playability and fun factor. It won the 2005 "Summer Shootout" independent game competition sponsored by ATI
and Caligari
, and was a finalist in the 2005 Bawls "Big C" Slamdance independent games competition. Version Zero was also featured on the show floor at the 2005 Game Developers Conference
alongside GameDev
and Caligari's trueSpace
and gameSpace booths. The success of this demo prompted Drew and Ryan to build a larger team of developers to re-engineer the game around the Ogre 3D graphics engine and create a full-featured version of their original vision for the game. Development was officially halted on Version Zero in June, 2005, when development on the Ogre 3D version of Sector 13 began.
Most of the information above originated from the Reactor Interactive website.
Shooter game
Shooter games are a sub-genre of action game, which often test the player's speed and reaction time. It includes many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing "on the actions of the avatar using some sort of weapon. Usually this weapon is a gun, or some other long-range weapon". A common...
video game developed
Video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...
by Reactor Interactive. At the time of this writing, it has not been officially published
Video game publisher
A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....
by a third party, though there are plans for a limited commercial release sometime in 2007 for the PC
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, and later, pending publisher or investor funding, Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
via Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
.
Story
Sector 13 is a multiplayer space combat game. It takes place in an area of space known as Sector 13, which is completely controlled by gargantuan mega-corporations with fleets of starships that could rival that of the Galactic Confederal Navy. These four corporations, Ptolaman-Triton Defense Systems, Daetrexx Enterprises, Inc., Scuvelli StarTech Corporation, and Reinaare Consolidated Industries, have battled for ultimate control of the sector for generations. The player is a starfighter pilot for one of the corporations, and finds himself sent on numerous melees and dogfights to gain control of small pockets of space, defend convoys, capture and recapture solar systems, and generally try to reduce the value of the competing companies' stock.The competition is fierce between the corporations. The fate of entire solar systems lay in the violent battles that rage throughout the region. Because of the distance from the centrality of the Galactic Federal Government, the corporations rule over their respective systems like small governments in and of themselves. It is a very incoherent system of rule, and full of political inconsistencies that only add to the turmoil that engulfs the lives of every being in Sector 13. Everyone who lives in Sector 13 is in one way or another employed by one of the four major conglomerations. The outcomes of the battles significantly affect the livelihood of all of the beings in the area.
Long ago, when the Galactic Confederal Government consolidated its power over the entire known galaxy, the scientific community found itself baffled by the mystery of the area of space dubbed Sector 13. For no known reason, this arm of the galaxy was found to contain hundreds of thousands of habitable star systems rich in resources, yet not one of them boasts a single sentient species. For this reason, the Galactic Confederal Government decided to not waste resources in establishing a governing presence there. Instead, the government agreed to give the region over to corporate development with the guarantee of complete autonomy granted to the companies chartered therein. After hundreds of years of hostile takeovers, military conquests, and large scale consolidation in the area, the Galactic Confederal Government continues to honor the original charters given to the various corporations in Sector 13 space and has not interfered in any way with the internal politics and conflicts of the Sector. Therefore, the wars will continue as long as there is profit to be had and solar systems to conquer.
Version Zero
The first version of Sector 13 was a simple technical and gameplay demonstration designed to show off the game's potential as a marketable title. The game and its engine was developed entirely in-house by Drew Clark and Ryan Buhr, the founders of Reactor Interactive and creators of Sector 13. This version has since been dubbed "Version Zero", as it was never intended for commercial release, and the entire codebase for it has been scrapped in favor of building the game from the 3rd party Ogre 3D graphics engine.Version Zero was very successful demonstration of the game's playability and fun factor. It won the 2005 "Summer Shootout" independent game competition sponsored by ATI
Ati
As a word, Ati may refer to:* Ati, a town in Chad* Ati, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines* Ati-Atihan Festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines* Ati, a queen of the fabled Land of Punt in Africa...
and Caligari
Caligari Corporation
Caligari Corporation was founded in 1985 by Roman Ormandy. A prototype 3D video animation package for the Amiga Computer, which led to the incorporation of Octree Software in 1986. From 1988 to 1992, Octree released several software packages including Caligari1, Caligari2, Caligari Broadcast, and...
, and was a finalist in the 2005 Bawls "Big C" Slamdance independent games competition. Version Zero was also featured on the show floor at the 2005 Game Developers Conference
Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference is the largest annual gathering of professional video game developers, focusing on learning, inspiration, and networking...
alongside GameDev
GameDev
GameDev.net is a website dedicated to game development, founded by Kevin Hawkins, Dave Astle, and Michael Tanczos among others, in 1999. It serves as a central trade resource and media outlet for the computer and video game industry, with particular regards to hobbyist and independent developers...
and Caligari's trueSpace
TrueSpace
TrueSpace is a freeware 3D computer graphics and animation software developed by Caligari Corporation, bought-out by Microsoft. As of May 2009, it has been officially discontinued, but with some 'unofficial support' up to February 2010, at least.- History :The company was founded in 1985 by Roman...
and gameSpace booths. The success of this demo prompted Drew and Ryan to build a larger team of developers to re-engineer the game around the Ogre 3D graphics engine and create a full-featured version of their original vision for the game. Development was officially halted on Version Zero in June, 2005, when development on the Ogre 3D version of Sector 13 began.
Status
Sector 13 is nearing completion. It is being actively tested by a dedicated alpha testing crew who are providing feedback and bug reports on an almost daily basis. Although there is no official release date for Sector 13, a beta version will available for testing sometime in May, 2007.Most of the information above originated from the Reactor Interactive website.
Credits
Sector 13 is a product of Reactor Interactive.- Producer: Drew Clark
- Technical Director: Ryan Buhr
- Designers: Drew Clark, Ryan Buhr
- Senior Programmer: Timothy A. Graupmann
- Programmers: Mike Vasily-Cioffi, Doug Reisinger II, Liam Graham, Gilad Eisenberger
- Artists: Chris Sekorski, Ernesto Llamas, Jim Burchfield, Paul Nurkowski, Luis Cabrera, Karl Diaz
- Musicians: Evan Arnett, Amit Yadav, Mike Watts, Chanda Dancy, George Shaw, Tom Gersic, Michael Huang
- Writers: Jay-Dev Karunaratne, Chris Dailey, Bruno Dias