A man in a prototype submarine struggles with his morality as he explores undersea caves for a company to save his family while attempting to unravel a mystery and fighting strange alien creatures at ever increasing depths. That's the project in a nutshell. BACKSTORY: You are Marv Harting, a man in his late twenties. You've got a wife, a son who's 6 years old, and another child on the way. You're content with this life, and you love your family - but then trouble strikes. The R&D Company you work for has a major scandal, and uses you as a scapegoat. You are somewhat of a prodigy in the field of Nautical Science, better than men twice your age. You lose your job. You now have a black mark on your record, so to speak. No company will hire you, and your family depends on you to bring in money. Things seem extremely dire - until you receive a call from a man who calls himself Jacob. Jacob is the CEO of a company (The Nautilus Corporation) - an extremely new corporation with nearly limitless funds. They want to hire you to build them a submarine - one capable of reaching depths never before thought possible. You wonder how in the world this "Jacob" person knew about the top secret submarine project you were working on before you got fired. Jacob offers you more money than you've ever seen in your life to build him this submarine - enough money to support your family for years. Building this top secret submarine for Jacob's corporation is illegal - but you need the money desperately - so you agree. Months pass, during which you lead a team in creating a prototype submarine. Jacob introduces you to his son Kregen, who oversees your work, and grows increasingly impatient - he constantly tries to hurry things along. It's obvious that the corporation want the sub finished as soon as possible - and before long, it is. You're getting ready to collect your pay and be on your way, when you receive an email message from Jacob: he wants you to pilot the prototype submarine on a trip into the depths of the ocean - immediately. He offers you ten times what you earned building the sub. You already feel like a criminal for selling the secrets of the prototype, and you know that any job that pays this well must be far more illegal. But you don't say no right away - the money is so tempting, and could help you and your family so much - you keep reading the message. It says that the mission would only take a matter of days - and would help all of mankind. It doesn't say how it'll do this, and maybe it's a lie... but the pay is so good... you want to believe it. Kregan gives you a ride to the launch site. You reach it less than an hour later, and launch. SETTING: Underwater, at ever increasing depths. You'll travel briefly along the ocean floor, and later into a deep pit which leads into a network of undersea caves. UPGRADES: Your sub is equipped with a device called a De-Molecularizing Chamber - or Demo Chamber for short - which can break down certain objects and convert them into a mysterious raw material called "Element 447" You will constantly find things to break down, and use the resulting 447 to upgrade your sub – that's why you were personally sent on this mission. Because of your intimate knowledge of the inner workings of your submarine, you're the only one who can make these upgrades en-route. The Nautilus Corporation must be in a pretty big hurry… THE FOLLOWING UPGRADES can be made to your sub using Element 447: Engine – upgrading this makes you go faster – and eventually provides an overdrive (afterburner). This is especially useful at deeper depths, where the water pressure slows you down more. Armor – Increases your damage reduction, and creates resistances and immunities to poisonous waters, Heat, Cold. The final armor changes your subs appearance. Weapon – dangerous sea creatures are pretty uncommon – in shallow waters. Your weapon can blast any barriers that get in your way, along with the countless dangers you encounter in the deep… Light - Provides both a limited radial light, and a spotlight. Your spotlight will eventually be able to reveal certain hidden luminescent resources. Cargo Hold - Upgrading this will increase your carrying capacity of certain secondary weapons, and will increase the amount of 447R you can carry (Element 447R is created from Element 447, and is used to repair your sub). Upgrades to your health can be found in the ocean, as well as many one time upgrades (Tractor Beam, Energy Reactor, High Energy Focus, Depth Charges, Multi-Targeting system). These upgrades will take the form of "Large 447 Crystals" - mysterious crystals that fuse with your sub. STORY PROGRESSION: All communications from the Nautilus Corporation will come in the form of voiceovers: Your primary contact at the Nautilus Corporation is Kregan, the son of the CEO. You will also receive text emails from your wife, your 6 year old daughter, and others. You will also be in contact with an employee of the Nautilus Corporation: Rachael Goldman, who analyzes the data from the objects that you scan, and gives you both qualitative and quantitative information on them). Marv will never send any emails back the character of Marv Harting will be constantly revealed through internal monologues. His sense of right and wrong will be at odds with his actions – perhaps horribly at odds with them by the end. UPGRADE PROGRESSION: You'll start out with a powerful enough sub to make you feel like you aren't too weak. You'll find more and more valuable materials to break down as you get deeper – at a rate which will be carefully designed to control how powerful you are as you get deeper. Optional Objectives from Kregan can get you extra Element 447, so can searching everywhere carefully – but in general you'll be at the right sort of power as you go down. DEPTH PROGRESSION: You’ll first travel briefly along the ocean floor, going slowly deeper. Then you'll travel into the mysterious undersea pit – going deeper at a much faster rate. Once you reach the underground caves, you'll still move in a generally downward direction. To indicate greater depths, the screen tone will change, becoming darker, and color shifted. Also, the quiet, ambient background music will transition unnoticeably (with an extremely high cross fade) to new songs as you reach certain depths – changing the mood of the game without the player even noticing. STORY LATER ON: When Marv encounters the mysterious undersea pit, he starts to seriously wonder what his mission is really all about - the music will change to reflect this. When the environment starts to turn more and more alien – Marv comes to realize that he got more than he bargained for with this mission. But he has no choice – he has to keep going. The creatures he encounters quickly become larger, more monstrous, and more aggressive. Just before Marv reaches the end of the game, he receives a communication from Jacob. Jacob is flustered beyond imagination, because YOU STOLE HIS SUBMARINE?? Huh, what in the world is going on? Apparently Jacob wasn't the one who sent you on this mission at all. The email you got from "Jacob" that sent you on this mission was apparently sent by Kregan. It was Kregan who gave you a ride to the launch site… and got you through all the security checkpoints! Without knowing it, you participated in Kregan's plan – but what is that plan? Why did Kregan send you down here? You attempt to contact Kregan, but receive no response. You have nowhere to go but forward. You finally reach your apparent destination – a glowing meteorite from a distant world. It seems that bacteria from this meteorite have been infecting the caves - making creatures grow large and mutate. Kregan give you one final objective – to retrieve a piece of the meteorite, and return it to him. He plans to use it to make powerful weapons capable of creating "order" in the world. He offers you 100 times what he offered before for the whole mission. The player is then given a choice – to retrieve the dangerous bio-agent, or destroy it. IF: You return the rock to Kregan – he makes good on his end of the deal, takes the sub from you, and sends you on your way. You are now a rich man – but also a wanted criminal, pursued by the American government for the theft of Jacob's prototype submarine. You can't go back to your family – you'd be caught in an instant. You live out the rest of your life in despair – having the money to help the people you love, but being unable to use it. Your wife gave birth to a healthy baby girl – you never see her face. Otherwise: You destroy the meteorite, and then receive a communication from Kregan: "You shouldn't have done that Mr. Harting. You've made me angry… I am not a man that you should make angry! You think you're safe down there?! My creature was not bred for retrieval work – but it is quite well suited for vengeance. Savor these next moments – they'll be your last.". You will then be able to proceed forward – and into some more caves. As you navigate through them, the screen will start shaking, and bits of debris will fall from the ceiling periodically. After a harrowing escape, you will reach a dead end, and a giant bio-mechanical sea beast will bust through the wall. The fight will be epic, and afterward, you'll be able to proceed through the broken wall and escape from this nightmare. Prologue text will play, talking about how you returned the sub to Jacob – and convinced him of Kregan's treachery. Kregan is arrested, and Jacob gives you a permanent job at The Nautilus Corporation. You return to your family – and meet your newborn daughter. You name her Muriel – a name meaning Bright Sea.