Star Trek: Infinite Space Q&A With Mike & Denise Okuda

This summer Gameforge releases their browser game Star Trek: Infinite Space. Today the game publisher provided us with a new Q&A with Star Trek consultants Mike & Denise Okuda, along with some screenshots of the free to play role playing game.

 

Infinite Space Okudas Q&A + new screenshots

Star Trek: Infinite Space, the free-to-play browser game from Gameforge comes out this summer. In order to make sure the game set during Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Dominion War fits in with the look and history of Star Trek, Gameforge brought in Star Trek design veterans (and Trek lore experts) Mike and Denise Okuda.

In the following Q&A (provided by Gameforge), the Okudas talk about their involvement in the game and preview what we can expect for Infinite Space.

Q: How did you get involved with the Star Trek Game?

A: We were lucky enough to be approached by CBS and Gameforge. Our first meeting with the Gameforge team was when they came to Los Angeles about a year ago . Frankly, we just wanted to hear about their game concept because it sounded cool . Imagine our surprise when Michael Hengst, the producer, turned to us and asked if we could fly to Germany in a couple of weeks to meet with his team!

Q: What is your role during the development of the game?

A: We are consultants to Gameforge and Keen Games on Star Trek content. That means that we review designs and story elements to help them stay consistent with the world of Star Trek . For things that have been established in episodes and movies , we try to help them make it match what you’ve already seen. But, of course, part of the fun of this game is to dig a little deeper and reach a little further than we did in the actual episodes. Where new material – like new ships – is being created, we try to help them make it both fresh and familiar.

Q: You have been to Europe last year, to see the developer of browser game and to work on the preliminary design. What was your impression of Keen and what did you like about Europe?

A: We had a great time in Europe! Sarah Steffen and her colleagues at Keen really impressed us with their attention to detail, and their concern for authenticity. Also, they have some very, very fine designers. They were trying to get the nuances right, and they bombarded us with questions like, “would a Klingon do this?” or “could you upgrade a Defiant-class ship to do that?” or even “does this feel like Star Trek ?” It was a whirlwind visit, but it was good to meet the team face to- face. We continue to collaborate with them over the Internet.

Q: Transferring a vastly complex universe like Star Trek to a game is a challenge by its own.

A: What would be the most important thing to keep the feeling“ of Star Trek? That’s a tough question. Star Trek is the sum of many, many elements , from story and character, to the thrill of discovery , to the power of science and technology to improve our lives. To us, the visuals of the ship and character designs are very important. But even more important are the core values of Star Trek : The adventure o f exploration, delight in the diversity of life-forms in the galaxy, and the ethical strength of the characters who are always willing and able to defend themselves very effectively, even though they never go out looking for a fight.

Q: Working on a game is somewhat different, than working on a TV show. What was for you the main difference?

A: Each version of Star Trek is a little different from what came before , and movies are quite a bit different from television . So the jump to interactive gaming was, in one sense, just another version of Gene Roddenberry’s universe. It’s fun for us because is a very different medium, so we’re learning a whole new set of rules for storytelling and production. Fortunately, our friends at Gameforge and Keen have been holding our hands in that regard , and we’ve been learning a lot. For us, one of the interesting differences is that in television, there are a lot of things that are seen only in the background, so you don’t put a lot of time or effort into them. For example, in a big battle scene, a lot of the background ships might be very crude models. But in an interactive game, you often can’t control what things are seen closely, so the Keen design team sometimes has to put in a lot of extra work on things that we might ignore in television. Gameforge has sent us some new screenshots for their upcoming free-to-play browser game Star Trek: Infinite Space, set during Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Dominion War.

And here are a couple of more screenshots from ST: Infinite Space at IGN

Star Trek: Infinite Space Screenshot

 

Star Trek: Infinite Space Screenshot

Infinite Space at FedCon

The Gameforge Infinite Space Team is headed to FedCon, Europe’s biggest Star Trek and sci-fi convention, held April 28th to May 1st at the Maritim Hotel in Düsseldorf, Germany. Visit the Gameforge booth to meet the Infinite Space team and get a chance to play the latest development version of Star Trek: Infinite Space.

 

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The Dominion War. The era where stuff happened in Star Trek on a regular basis.

It’s really a feather in the producer’s cap to say they have the Okudas as consultants. I know that matters to me and I look forward to trying this game out.

Every single star trek game sucked….except maybe star trek armada
will this join the pile?

#3

Did you ever play Judgement Rites?

Because, despite its now prehistoric graphics, it was a great game. Really captured the spirit of TOS.

This game looks amazing! The best part is, that this game is going to be “free to play!”
“See you around the galaxy!!!”

Judgment Rights was a great Star Trek game.
Although back in those days installing it sucked.
It was about 30 3 .5 discs that had to be loaded into the computer one at a time. However it was worth it.
Great Game.

#7

Oh yeah! I don’t miss those days at all. Hours and hours of installing discs… and by the time you were done… you forgot what the game was.

;)

This is amazing. DS9 was imo the pinnacle of Trek and to have the Okuda’s on the team helping to design the game and ensure it’s authenticity is beyond my wildest expectations.

I’m actually excited about this game now, which is pretty rare. This could, in fact, be the best game ever, at least in terms of my personal Star Trek fantasy fulfillment.

I think a lot of the Star Trek video games out there were pretty good, with the exception of maybe Legacy and it’s mobile spin-offs.

#5. You’re right … those games did get the memo on Star Trek to the letter, despite the antiquated graphics.

I thought Starfleet Academy was pretty interesting, at least for the time it came out, plus it had the original cast involved in a serious way. I’m partial to the first Starfleet Command because of the types of ships involved, but all three had their merits. STO is amazing, albeit a little repetitive.

The only thing I wish had come out was Star Trek: Secret of Vulcan Fury, which looked to have unbelievable graphics for the time. I still think that needs to be finished and put out, is possible, though I think it’s not.

I thought this game takes place before the Dominion War? During the brief conflict with the Klingons shortly before?

Lots of people seem to think there are no good Star Trek games — I advise those people to think back to the ninties, Starfleet Academy was one of the highlights of my childhood. Strongly recommend if you’re into the TOS movie era

Just realized there’s a Ferengi space station in one of those screen shots. I don’t believe we’ve ever seen one of those in Trek before. At least I haven’t.

The game looks great, by the way!

My curiosity has been piqued. Tell me more.

Elite Forces was an Awesome game, but rarely felt star treky, more violence than plot and story.

If you think every ST game sucked, then you probably just played ST:New Worlds ;-)

Well, in my personall opinion there are some really great ST games (Judgement Rites, A final Unity) some I think were quite good (STO, Elite Force II, Aramada I & II, Starfleet Academy, Klingon Academy, Starfleet Command I & III, Generations, DS9 The Fallen) some were somewhat mediocre [means they had some serius, annoying bugs and/or some features were missing, but the overall gameplay/story was quite entertaining] (DS9 Harbinger, Elite Force, BotF, Away Team, Dominion Wars, Legacy, Borg) and at last there are some ST games I absolutey didn’t like [bad story, bad graphics, bad gameplay, bugs, boring] (Klingon, Klingon Honor Guard, New Worlds, Hidden Evil, Starfleet Command II)

hi
#12

do not forget about “birth of the federation” published by microprose ;)

I would love to see the Okuda’s involved in the next Star Trek film. Their work on Star Trek and the remastered original series shows a real respect for the Star Trek universe and an understanding of the original series.

Can we get a version of Judgement rites to work on a mobile? or is it already out there?

#18… agreed! Get them for the next movie!

Anyone want to tell me why this looks like a Star Trek DAC ripoff made to look like DS9/TNG? Now if this were somewhat like, say, Legacy or BC, then I’d be impressed. But this looks alot more like a DAC ripoff to me, and I hated that game.

#16
Bridge Commander ftw!

The Star Trek games of the 1990s/early 2000s appealed that much more to me, than the current crop of Trek games. I’d love to play a bang up-to-date adventure game, something like DS9 Fallen. Not a huge fan of MMOs as it is, but is it asking too much for a new single player action/adventure game? Fingers crossed there will be a fully immersive Trek game released to coincide with the next film. I’m sure DAC had it’s audience, but in IMO that was just poor. I keep getting my hopes up when a new game is announced but ever since Legacy it’s practically been the same genre over and over: Encounters, Conquest, DAC and now this.

That said, I’m sure a lot of people will enjoy Infinite Space, the most intriguing thing at the moment being the Okudas on board and the so called ’feel’.

Are those D5s floating around the Ferengi station?

Looks like a great game!

I still think Bridge Commander is the greatest Star Trek game ever made, especially if you mod it.

And I played them all (Yes, even The Promethean Prophecy)
I’ll give this one a try.

Look awesome—Can’t wait.

Had my copy of Judgment Rites until a couple years ago, when I cannibalized the floppies for a boot disk. Oh well. I agree, it was a pretty rad game.

I’ll give it a go I guess. It’ll make a nice change of pace from STO (awesome game btw)

If CBS are involved in this then I wonder what conditions have to be met, assuming, that this game must adhere to not only DS9 continuity but to STO as well

@29 The First Son of Krypton

Playing devil’s advocate: If books aren’t canon, then wouldn’t all Trek games also be non-canon? Trek books commonly step on each other’s toes and often contradict each other. Star Trek Online’s continuity (if applicable) basically will have no effect considering Star Trek Online takes place in the beginning of the 25th century rather than the 2370’s.

Supplemental: Oh, and I prefer The Final Unity and Armada as my favorite Trek games. :)

Judgment Rites was, well… Righteous :)
I loved that game… I agree it was the best of Trek in spirit and flow.
Whatever happened to The Secret of Vulcan Fury? That one looked to be as equally compelling… too bad we lost Interplay so long ago…
– Kirk

Yeah…It was a shame that The Secret of Vulcan Fury was never completed. Even though it would have been an almost FMV game at the time because those graphics were impossible in real time for home computers at that time. With the crazy powerful Direct X 11 based graphic cards and multi-core processors that are available today…Just imagine TSOVF in Real Time!!!!
Man would that be a trekker’s dream!!!

The 25th Anniversary game and Judgement Rites (which was sort of a sequel) were absolutely amazing. They were graphical adventures, structured like episodes of old Trek. With amazing writing. Judgement Rites took it to the next level with an overall story arc. There were even CD versions with voice acting from the original cast. (Like others, I had the 30 floppy install version, though I’ve got a limited edition box set CD version I found in the bargain bin I play in DosBox occasionally.)

There was a TNG game that tried to be what those were, but to me it just never captured the magic. I played the whole thing but at the end felt like it was a let down.

Trouble with most games is they focus on combat, not exploration, which is not what Trek was all about.

I really wanted to like Starfleet Academy, being a huge fan of the X-Wing / Wing Commander series. But the trouble is, starfleet ships are NOT starfighters, they’re too big and unwieldy and frustrating to fly.