Infinity (upcoming video game)

Infinity is a planned massively multiplayer online space simulation video game originally intended to be the first game built on the I-Novae engine by I-Novae Studios. While the I-Novae engine has been in development since 2004 (as a personal project until 2010), development of the game never started.
In Infinity, the player controls a spacecraft and travels throughout a galaxy trying to make a name for themselves. Players will be able to connect to an online server on which large numbers of other people are playing in a persistent world.
A pre-alpha combat prototype was launched in 2006 and a tech demo video was released in 2010. Instead, the game is open-ended, and the player can engage in either aggressive or peaceful styles of playing. Also, unlike Elite, the player can land on planets and see their landscapes like in Elite's sequels Frontier: Elite II, ' and Elite Dangerous: Horizons.
Planets and systems
Like Elite, Infinity will offer a vast number of systems and planets. The universe will consist of approximately 200 billion star systems each with an assortment of planets, moons, and smaller bodies in addition to other phenomena such as nebulae and black holes. Procedural generation is used to create this vast universe on the fly as the player moves throughout the galaxy. This does not mean that each player will generate a random universe to explore on their own, but rather that each player's client will generate a universe identical to everyone else's, creating an effect similar to the non-procedural design of most standard massively multiplayer online games. In addition, the engine has the ability to automatically adjust planetary level of detail so that the player can seamlessly move from orbit to ground level without loading screens. Unlike many space based computer games, realistic scales and distances are maintained, and planetary bodies move realistically about their stars.
Infinity Combat Prototype
The Infinity Combat Prototype is a standalone game that was released in May 2006 and improved upon until July 2007 as a way to test some components of Infinity before it was finished. It is a separate program that only shares the engine, and as such it does not represent what would be found in Infinity. Its goal was to test the graphics engine, the physics engine, and the networking engine, and to experiment with its controls, combat mechanics and balance, to measure performance, and to improve stability and fix bugs. The combat prototype does not include any form of planetary landing, and only ten ships are available to the players. The gameplay is arena (team vs team) based, as opposed to Infinitys intended open-ended, "sandbox" style of play.
Infinity: Battlescape
In 2013, the game's developers announced that they would be attempting to raise funding on Kickstarter for a multiplayer combat game Infinity: Battlescape at some time in 2014. The development blog described the game to be an arena-based shooter in space. However, due to the capabilities of the I-Novae engine, this "arena" will take the form of a realistically scaled solar system. On a basic level, it is planned to focus on combat in the Infinity universe.
On October 21, 2015, the Infinity: Battlescape Kickstarter was launched. The campaign succeeded and raised a total of . Lead developer Keith Newton announced in an update following the successful campaign that he had begun working full-time on the project.
Development
In late August 2004, on video game development website GameDev.net, Flavien Brebion created a journal describing the progress of developing the 'Infinity' game engine, not to be mistaken for . The game engine's features creation of real scale planet terrain, star systems and galaxies using procedural generation. While it would be possible to create other game assets using a similar method. Brebion chose not to do so, as the quality of such assets was unsatisfactory. These assets included 3D models of ships and structures, textures, and music. So instead, contributors of the forum community offered their free time producing these assets.
In May 2006, Flavien released the freeware Infinity Combat Prototype meant to test networking code, as well as basic space combat gameplay. Game engine unrelated content was mostly provided by volunteer contributors from the community. Game consists of two teams fighting each other with the goal of earning credits and destroying the other team's NPC capital ships. Players earn credits from destroying enemy ships and are able to buy other types of ships and missiles. The prototype is still available for download on the official ModDB Infinity game page, though there are no longer any official servers set up.
Up until this point, the project was managed by Brebion as a part-time hobby project. In early 2010 Epic Games engine programmer Keith Newton left Epic to form I-Novae Studios along with Brebion with the initial goal of creating the commercial engine called I-Novae, proceeds of which were meant to fund development of the game. In March, Newton attended the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and showed the engine privately to potential licensees. In April, I-Novae Studios uploaded a 14-minute technical demonstration video of I-Novae game engine on their website and in August also on their official YouTube channel.
I-Novae Studios failed to attract licensees for the engine and so in April 2013 announced that the Infinity: The Quest For Earth project has been put on hold for a reduced scope space combat game called Infinity: Battlescape. I-Novae Studios stated that game's full development would be funded through a Kickstarter campaign. I-Novae Studios stated that the same I-Novae game engine would be used and noting that development of the game engine meant progress towards the MMORPG.
It is important to note that development of Infinity (subtitled The Quest for Earth) never commenced. Until Battlescape, all development effort was purely on developing the I-Novae engine.

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