Provide a summary of your idea, application, product, or service:

Our product is a multiplayer persistent real-time 3D space strategy game. We are

developing an entirely a game that that truly stands out from mainstream competition. It
is centered on tactical player vs player combat on a truly epic multiplayer level. All of the
game's combat is done using top of the line three-dimensional graphics simulated in six
degrees of freedom to allow for unparalleled tactical strategy and movement beyond the
typical compass points. The Second Antarean War (2AW) is a persistent game, when
players disconnect, the game world continues, their fleets carry out orders and continue
combat in a nearly unlimited game-space.

The Second Antarean War is worlds beyond the standard World of Warcraft rip-offs that
have saturated the market. It breaks through the mitative fantasy themes and old patterns
of single character adventure experiences. Most massively multiplayer games are
MMORPGs, or Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, who build their
game play out of repetitive tasks and quest-style goal accomplishment. They pull their
players in with user communication, competition, and large-scale community support.
Games in the real time strategy (RTS) genre take advantage of interfaces which allow
simultaneous user control over many characters and armies. RTS games emphasize an
enormous scope of experience and a high level of replayability, but lack the social
aspects of an MMORPG. The Second Antarean War is a project which aims to take the
best parts of both types of games and create a Massively Multiplayer Online Real Time
Strategy Game, creating non-repetitive large scale gameplay and combining it with the
social aspects of MMORPGs that make them so successful.

Describe what stage you are at in your design/development process:

2AW started out as an entry for a programming challenge, but it has grown radically
since then. It is now a team project and obsession for a highly talented international team
of programmers, designers and artists of all stripes. Under the flag of 2AW, this talented
team pursues the goal of a persistent universe created from a base of solid fiction, art and
programming. The team is well aware of the potential pitfalls, but has a record of
overcoming every limitation that has been thrown at it. Though many would never have
imagined the project coming this far, the team has persevered and is constantly working
towards new heights.

We are currently in the alpha phase of the project, with our product functional, but basic.
The art and game engine is in constant development, but we are already holding regular
internal playtests to find bugs and determine which features need their design modified.
Innovation is constant and the team's motivation is strong.

We are using the Panda3D, an open source engine that was released by Disney under a
BSD license. The engine is scripted in Python, so our game is a mix of C++ and Python
components. There are two small MMORPGs already developed on the Panda3D
platform, providing a foundation that allows the 2AW team to develop quickly. Though
there have been obstacles in Panda3D they have not caused any setbacks.
Many of the art assets have already been completed, already enough to go into beta. The
2AW team has already worked together on modifications for several games, notably
Unreal Tournament, Homeworld and Nexus, which gives this project a large pre-built
library of professional quality assets in-game.

How have you incorporated Amazon Web Services as part of your

solution/application? What services used and how?

With the project still in Alpha, we could use Amazon EC2 and S3 services the most. Our
client application is quite large and we need to have a good support system for
downloading the client itself and the patches. We currently use S3 in our testing, but we
would like to take greater advantage of the server. We hope to use S3 or the new content
management system that's coming out to optimally provide this system.

Our tests show that EC2 would provide the base service needed to run our servers.
Amazon's cloud computing service is excellent and is lowering the barrier for entrants in
the MMO field and we hope to use that advantage. Our current system was designed for
use on EC2; it has been designed with a highly peer-to-peer structure. The world has been
constructed modularly, with each area functioning independently from other areas, with
an overall system knitting them all together into a holistic universe. Each node hosts
several active zones, where the player can explore, team-up, build, or fight. The primary
communication between nodes lies in game chat and uploading player stats. Despite this
agile system, we have been experiencing growing pains, especially with the AI's growing
abilities requiring an increase in resources.

We would use DevPay as our payment model. The service is simple but effective, we
would charge premium players a monthly fee, backed by limited free trial accounts, in
order to entice users to subscribe. Our project manager has used DevPay for one of his
earlier projects and he was very happy with it.

We have looked into using simpleDB as a storage database but, at this point, we've found
that it does not serve our needs. We have been using MySQL as an initial base in order to
move the project forward, but it is inadequate for our future needs. The SQS service
would be an exceptional solution for node to node communication, providing a
significant advantage over our current in-house solution, though, at its current capacity,
our system has been running adequately.

What was your inspiration or what problem is being addressed with this
application?

One of our inspirations was the initially created universe, called Angels Fall First, which
is being expanded by the team's progress. The universe, contributed to by many artists
and writers, is a complex one, full of highly tactical battles, intense political
maneuvering, and a remarkably diverse fleet of ships. In other words it is precisely the
type of universe to lend itself to a MMORTS.
Another inspiration was the immensely successful game Homeworld, an epic science
fiction game in which players commanded fleets of starships in real time. At one point,
Homeworld had a huge community, but the players grew tired of endless single battles
with no real objective and the community drifted away in search of more compelling (and
more community based) titles. We have many people who contact us looking for the
"next Homeworld." A game who's single player campaign was mythic and huge in scope,
Homeworld's amazing storyline and majestic universe is an inspiration to the entire team.
This is part of what we want to accomplish, to create a game worthy of being considered
a successor to Homeworld and to bring that SF RTS the human interactivity of a
persistent universe.

Another project that attempted to be an MMORTS provided some inspiration—

Boundless Planet. By no means a good game, Boundless Planet managed to attract
players simply by filling the gap in the market for MMORTS. It used a persistent world
combined with strategy to the game, despite very flawed controls and horrendous
graphics. Though it was able to build up a health player community, the developers
abandoned the project. With the developers gone and bugs going unfixed, the community
evaporated due to inactivity. Witnessing thousands of players frustrated at being unable
to find a similar game was a significant inspiration for 2AW.

What inspires us the most is general MMO market. Not so much the AAA titles like
World of Warcraft but the more grass roots efforts of The Universal and Infinity: Quest
for Earth, which proved the viability of small companies making large profits over niche
audiences, much in the same way as EVE Online has done.

Who is your target customer / user and what is the potential market size?

Our target is a gaming audience. Most massively multiplayer games make the mistake of
targeting—sometimes intentionally—the most hardcore class of gamers, ones who can
spend many hours per day playing their games. With 2AW we have a built-in niche
audience who is out there seeking a game like 2AW; from them we can build a much
larger group of users. With Second Antarean War we hope to target the more casual
gaming audience who can spend only a few hours a week playing their games. The
potential market size is millions.

With other companies pushing cookie-cutter MMOs genres into the mainstream market,
they are alienating an increasing number of gamers and increasing the niche market. The
whole gaming market is seriously lacking innovation at this time and MMORPGs lack it
even more. RTS games are also a genre whose field is narrowing, with more and more
games in the genre focusing on match-based gameplay. Our game fits neatly between
these two extremes, pulling players from both audiences and everyone in-between. The
market potential is huge and we could sustain a profit with only a couple thousand
players.
List key competitors of your idea, application or service and how your idea is
different?

We could list Beyond Protocol as a direct competitor, but it has the same major flaw
present in almost all MMOs—only by playing the game full time can a person really
enjoy it. We recognize that people can't play our game for days at a time and really want
to focus on smaller game sessions. We don't want to focus only on hardcore gamers, as
most other MMOs do, but on mid-level players who are seeking an experience that is
between hardcore and casual gameplay. We can find a happy medium by producing a
polished niche MMO with innovative gameplay ideas and less grind than a regular
MMO.

Apart from this, there is very little direct competition, and the competition that does exist
is far outside of the mainstream commercial sector. Though some of the people we are
catering to are members of mainstream MMOs, like EVE Online, our product represents
radically different gameplay and is an entirely different market segment, one that is
practically unexplored.

List names and brief bios of key team members.

Creator and Director – James "Alex" R. Morris-King

Writer, Webmaster, Code/Media Dabbler
James is 22 years old, currently residing in Auburn, Alabama (USA). He received a B.S.
in Computer Science in 2007 and is currently pursuing a PhD in Artificial intelligence at
Auburn University. The team's director worked as a program instructor at MIT, web-
developer for several startups and most recently worked in a Federal Research Lab
performing HCI R&D for the US Department of Defense. His spare time is mostly spent
proving people wrong.

2AW Project Manager and Core Developer - Andre "Treeform" Von Houck
Andre conceived The Second Antarean War MMORTS as it is now. He currently lives in
Seattle. He was born in Germany, has lived in Russia and is now US citizen. Andre went
to collage at the age of 14 and finished his B.S. at 20.

Art Director - Josh "Strangelet" Grafton

Josh is the lead 2D and 3D artist for the team. He is responsible for the look and feel of
the universe and for coordinating artists and modelers who are creating assets.
Josh is was a professional TV and film composer and is now a professional 3D and 2D
game development artist with AAA titles in his showreel.

Lead Writer - Aram "Phifty" Zucker-Scharff

Aram is an award winning writer who specializes in convergent, social, and new media
content creation. He has also worked to publicize online content to an audience of over
30,000. His blog Read, Write & View has garnered attention from numerous readers and
Silicon Valley insiders for its examination of narrative in New Media.

3D Modeler – Adam "Cevius" Corbally

Adam is a talented 3D and 2D game artist who has been extremely active in the
independent game community. He is an artist and community moderator for Nabi
Studio's Toribash project and a member of the Brisbane Indie Game Development team,
Lurkers Craft. He is knowledgeable in a wide variety of subjects and aids the team in
every element of development.

3D Modeler – Chad "Xhado" Rempel

Chad lives in Vancouver, BC and learned 3D in animation class in high school. He is
working part time to save up money to go into the 3D Modeling course at the Art
Institute of Vancouver while working on the project.

Arts and FX Specialist - Sergiu "Ikarus" Stoicovici

Sergiu lives in Timisoara, Romania and has been working in 3D and 2D Arts and FX
since he was 13. He has been a member of the team since 2006 and worked with other
teams before that. He considers the current project the most ambitious, impressive and
exciting he has seen.

Designer and Musician – Jyri "SkyWay" Honkanen

Jyri is an overall designer, musician and a visual futurist. He began learning 3D in 2001
at the age of 14 and is completely self-taught in graphical design and music. He is now
attending a game-industry school, from which he will graduate in 2010. He has been on
the team since 2004 and his personal quote would be "It's looking good. Now make it
look awesome!"