About the Game:
Miasmata is a first-person survival adventure game, independently developed by brothers Joe and Bob Johnson.
The Story:
You play as Robert Hughes, a plague-stricken scientist on a journey to discover a cure. Your adventure begins on the shores of a remote island called Eden. Long ago, Eden was inhabited by a group of indigenous people, whose extant monuments still decorate the island landscape.
Eden is now home to a scientific research outpost, and it is your hope to reunite with your colleagues working there. Unfortunately, you'll soon discover that something has gone terribly wrong.
The Gameplay:
Miasmata is a game of survival, exploration and discovery. Our goal was to create gameplay that challenged convention. We wanted an immersive experience that gives the player the freedom to discover the world at his/her own pace and in his own way.
During his adventure, the player will encounter a mysterious and deadly creature. This creature can stalk the player for miles, lurking behind grasses and vegetative cover. By treading carefully and quietly, the player may be able to elude the creature. If he's careless, however, the player will be forced to confront the creature head-on.
The island of Eden is filled with dozens of plants and fungi, many of which have unique medicinal properties. Some of these plants hold the secret to curing the plague, so the player must harvest them and run lab experiments to determine their worth.
Exploration is a key component to Miasmata, so we developed an interesting cartography system. The player can use landmarks, such as ruins and statues, to triangulate his location and construct a map of Eden's boundaries and contours.
The Technology:
The graphics technology powering Miasmata is our MILO engine. MILO is a brand new engine and tool-chain, written from scratch by Joe himself. It is state of the art, featuring outstanding lighting/shader effects and innovative real-time simulations. Some of the unique features include: voxel-based volumetric clouds, advanced water reflection and refraction, volumetric lightshafts and atmospheric scattering simulations.
Miasmata's island of Eden is dense and beautifully detailed. Its landscape is covered by forests with lush canopies. The terrain surfaces are blanketed by tufts of moss and grass. The forest floors have thick undergrowth and are littered with fallen leaves, rotting logs, stumps and sticks.
The creature is governed by a deep artificial intelligence. He uses sight, hearing and smell to track the player and react to his movements. Our robust path-finding algorithms allow the creature to find advantageous positions and trap the player.
