Science & Industry
Back in 1998, shortly after the release of seminal PC game Half-Life, THUP team members were committed to creating a fresh, free add-on (mod) to the popular game.
Science & Industry (S&I) was the result. Using Half-Life's run-down cold war era industrial setting as inspiration, THUP created a game that cast players as security guards and rival shadowy corporations. By grouping into teams online, S&I's players have to "recruit" (read: hit over the head and kidnap) the opposing team's scientists to meet their own team's quarterly earnings goal.
We took a kitchen sink approach to S&I's design. We mixed capture the flag (with scientists, rather than flags, who cower and can't work around gunplay), real time
Back in 1998, shortly after the release of seminal PC game Half-Life, THUP team members were committed to creating a fresh, free add-on (mod) to the popular game.
Science & Industry (S&I) was the result. Using Half-Life's run-down cold war era industrial setting as inspiration, THUP created a game that cast players as security guards and rival shadowy corporations. By grouping into teams online, S&I's players have to "recruit" (read: hit over the head and kidnap) the opposing team's scientists to meet their own team's quarterly earnings goal.
We took a kitchen sink approach to S&I's design. We mixed capture the flag (with scientists, rather than flags, who cower and can't work around gunplay), real time
strategy (scientists develop new items for each team to use), and a little bit of democratic action (players lobby and vote for which item their scientists will develop next).
S&I was an early example of THUP's "question assumptions" approach to game design and was honored with inclusion in Valve Software's first annual Mod Expo and was awarded 5 stars and named 'Mod of the Month' by PC Gamer UK. Developed and maintained by a separate team since 2000, S&I retains a small but dedicated community of fans to this day.
© 2004-2007, Empire Telegraphy, LLC & THUP Games