Seed Demo

Seed, at the first glance may look like a 3D shooter. However, once you pick up the controls, you will realize immediately that it is something completely different. Gameplay in Seed does not follow the rules set down by traditional 3D shooters. It is trying to do something new, something innovative by utilizing game features from the more traditional platform games such as Maro on the Nintendo 64. Seed smoothly blends the gameplay offered by a 3D shooter with the gameplay offered by a platform game. The synergy of implementing lighting and shadows as part of the gameplay together with the unique game elements offered by Seed creates a very unique game, unheard of thus far.

Most 3D-shooters play in a first-person view. In this view usually only the player's hands and the weapon are visible. Nothing is lost in this genre by only having the hands and the weapon visible. Gameplay hinges on battles fought from afar. You traverse the levels with a fast firing weapon. In this situation the fact that only your hand and weapon are visible is adequate for gameplay. There is no distinction between the rest of your body parts. It is treated as one "big lump", so you only have to make sure that this "lump" does not get hit.

Third person view, where the whole character is visible, is a key feature in traditional platform games. Here, the gameplay focuses on close combat, agility and to a certain extent puzzle solving rather than shooting enemies in the distance. As everything happens nearby, around you, seeing your full body is important. Seed fuses the viewpoint of a 3D shooter and the elements of a traditional platform game, hence we end up with a first-person platform game.

Seed offers an "inside" view to what is happening with the player by having a first-person view in the game, however, there is a twist. In Seed, the whole body is visible as it cast a life-like shadow! In a platform game or in any other near combat game, the player must be able to ascertain his position in the game. Without this he would have no idea where a punch would land or if a slow moving projectile, customary in platform games, has hit any part of his body or not. Knowing exactly where you are is especially important during jumps as you need to know the edges of the platform. As the player's shadow is visible, all the criteria are met as far as orientation is concerned, yet we have a first-person view that we can take advantage of. In a first-person view the player actively "feels" all the forces of nature, such as currents, acting on him. The sudden jolt or spin of a platform has a more realistic affect as we follow its movement with our own eyes.

Our aim was not only to set Seed apart from the competition by having a unique genre. We wanted to go further than that by creating never-before seen visuals that are not only used as eye-candy but are integral part of gameplay. The technology used in the Seed engine far supersedes any currently available engines. This is especially noticeable in the engine's representation of lights and shadows. All shadows are calculated real-time to an accuracy never seen before, taking into account all the dynamic lightsources. This means that Seed does not approximate the color, shape or the position of the shadow, it calculates it exactly, to the nearest pixel, in real time thereby elevating the visuals to new levels. This software only mode of Seed offers dazzling visuals. This is only surpassed by the 3D accelerated version of Seed. Currently Seedsupports OpenGL and Glide.

As the Seed engine generates real-time shadows, based on the environment, the player always sees his shadow. Although this in itself is very unique to Seed, the gameplay feature that derives from this is even more astonishing: all the enemies' shadow are visible and generated real time as well. So imagine an enemy who tries to hide behind the player. If the lighting conditions are such, his shadow is projected forward hence his location is given away! Not to mention the fact the a tiny enemy may indeed have a huge shadow! Imagine the gameplay possibilities.