Previews// Human Orbit

Silent Running remains one of the most thought provoking sci-fi films ever to emerge from the 1970's. Set on a spaceship that has the last remaining plant life from Earth, things spiral out of control when central command orders the destruction of the bio-domes that contain the vegetation, to the horror of one of the crew members.

He revolts and sets about doing everything he can to save the plants that once flourished on Earth. Helping him accomplish this task are three robots that maintain the ship. Human Orbit takes some cues from this seminal classic of a film by putting the player in the role of an AI-controlled robot that is part of the maintenance crew of a space station that orbits a distant planet.

Human Orbit is about human relationships and how they behave within a confined environment. Using a sandbox model, Human Orbit allows the player to manipulate how the occupants of the space station interact with one another by putting them into certain situations and locations, without them knowing, to trigger an event.

This is done by delving into the personnel database and emails to see who they are talking to and their personalities. From this the player can create artificial situations that can be for the greater good or bad for the occupants of the space station.

As an example, a technical officer takes a fancy to one of the research scientists but is finding it difficult to interact with them. The player can create a situation where they are alone with each other and perhaps something might lead to happy warm things... who knows?

The dialogue between the computer-controlled people is procedurally generated based on their personalities. This can allow the player to create both harmony and turmoil within the space station as the player sees fit. There is an overall story arc as the player can upgrade equipment in labs to investigate alien artefacts as they are retrieved from the planet's surface. This leads to further events and an eventual end.

The replayability is almost limitless, as each character in the space station will act differently depending on how the player manipulates them while remaining in the shadows. For the robot the player is controlling in Human Orbit is only supposed to maintain the space station's systems and not to investigate and manipulate it's human occupants! Such actions would mark them out to be a HAL-9000-like AI that no human being wants to have around. It is therefore in the player's interest to remain hidden in plain sight for fear of being discovered.

Human Orbit is both a brave and ambitious title. It definitely steps away from the well-trodden path it could have gone down. I can easily imagine a 2D platformer with a cute little robot jumping around a space station. Instead it's a study on the human condition and the consequences of space exploration all rolled into one.

Human Orbit is due to appear sometime in 2015 for the PC and Mac via Steam.