------------------
Transcend Credits:
------------------

All programming, graphics, and music by Jason Rohrer

The PortAudio library is used for cross-platform audio output.
More information at http://www.portaudio.com




------------------------------
Transcend System Requirements:
------------------------------

Required:
 -- Stereo headphones or speakers
 -- OpenGL
 -- Keyboard

Minimum system for basic playability:
 -- OpenGL software rendering (no 3D card)
 -- 250 MHz processor

Recommended:
 -- 3D card that can render OpenGL
 -- 400 MHz or faster processor




--------------------
Transcend's Creator:
--------------------

Jason Rohrer is a programmer, artist, and activist.  His most popular software 
project is MUTE, an anonymous file sharing system.  Transcend was his first 
video game effort.  Jason lives with his spouse and child in Potsdam, New York,
where he divides his time between parenting and personal projects.




----------------------
Transcend Description:
----------------------

Transcend is an abstract, 2D shooter.  The morphing graphics engine creates an 
alluring visual display.  Using musical power-ups, players simultaneously 
construct churning visual collages, arrange unique pieces of music, and 
strengthen their projectiles.  Transcend blurs the line between games and 
art---is it a video game or a multimedia sculpture?




-------------------
Transcend Features:
-------------------

 -- intricate, abstract visual style

 -- dynamic graphics that bloom and morph from one complex shape to another

 -- musical power-up system that lets you strengthen your projectiles while 
    also composing a unique piece of music

 -- novel collect-and-defend gameplay mechanics (no lives, health bars, or 
    "game over" screens)




----------------
Transcend Genre:
----------------

Action (2D Shooter)




--------------------
Transcend Installer:
--------------------

Installs all files into a "Transcend" folder.  Does not touch the registry.




------------------
Transcend Support:
------------------

Web:    http://transcend.sf.net
Email:  jcr13@users.sf.net



-------
Extras:
-------

The motivation for Transcend:

Though I was too young during the 1980s to have participated in the golden era
of video games as a programmer or designer, I am greatly inspired by the swell
of creativity that occurred during that time.

Computers and other game machines were quite limited, and this meant that you
could not fit very much content into a single game.  Thus, most games were 
distinguished by the novelty of their underlying concepts.  Having more than a
handful of members on a particular development team was overkill, and many 
games were created from start to finish by a single individual.

We saw some amazing games during that era:  just think about Tempest,
Centipede, Pac Man, and Defender.   Even if we look at those four games in 
isolation, we see four dramatically different creations in almost all respects.
From concept to gameplay to graphics, Tempest and Pac Man are about as 
different from each other as two video games can get.

Looking at the popular games of today (August of 2005), we see a handful of
narrowly-defined genres.  Games today are mostly distinguished by their 
settings and content.  For example, _God of War_ was just like _Devil May Cry_,
but it was set in ancient Greece instead of in a Gothic castle.

Imagine a new board game that is just like Monopoly, but set in Miami instead 
of Atlantic City.  Would that be a unique or interesting game?  In fact, 
Parker Brothers does market these locale-specific Monopoly modifications, but 
no one calls them "new" games.  So why would anyone hail _God of War_ as a 
"great new game"?    

The main reason people plunk down $50 to play _God of War_ is to see the 
graphics and experience the world that it creates.  So, they are paying for 
special effects and a trip to ancient Greece, not for a unique or interesting 
game.

But why the short list of narrow genres?  What happened to the Tempest genre?
There was never such a genre, ignoring a few Tempest knock-offs that appeared
over the years.  People were too busy inventing their own new games to worry
about building genres of nearly-identical games.

We all know what happened:  games became very expensive to produce as the 
hardware platforms became more capable and the focus moved toward content.  
When you go from a single designer/programmer to a team of hundreds, your 
budget skyrockets.  Game design became financially risky.  I do not need to 
delve deeper into the history here---the simple result of this trend is 
stifled innovation in the video game industry.

But if games are boring today, how can we again start making non-boring games?
We need to move back to single-person teams and focus on unique game ideas.

Of course, there are major limits to this kind of process, especially when you
compare it to main-stream game development:  no huge, virtual worlds;  no 
motion-capture;  no highly-detailed polygon models or texture artwork;  and 
no support for the PS3.

Still, given these limitations, we can perhaps design fun, interesting games.

Transcend was my effort to explore the development process of the golden era.
I first came up with a unique idea for a game that was unlike any of the games
I had ever played.  Then I designed and programmed that game by myself over
the course of several months.

The resulting game is playable on a computer that is pushing ten years old, yet
still pulls off graphical tricks that will make you say "wow" from time to 
time.

Transcend proves that there is plenty of interesting space left to explore in
the game design spectrum without a team of hundreds or a massive virtual 
world. 

On the other hand, just imagine what a team of hundreds could pull off with the
latest hardware if they could just get out of the five-genre rut.   

Jason Rohrer
Potsdam, NY
August 2005
http://jasonrohrer.n3.net

