Introduction

Nebula is one of four "System" proposals for a major commercial proof-of-concept product for the FederationX Collaborative Metaprogramming Framework under development at Magnetar Games Corporation. This document is intended for potential strategic partners, investors, and content and service providers who together could realize the vision presented here.

Concept

Nebula is a game system for the Abstract Board Games (ABG) genre including puzzles. Game Nebula is envisioned as a global Internet community involving a federation of service and content providers for both classic board games such as Chess and entirely new games authored by end users. A proof of concept product already exists in the brilliant Zillions of Games system, which has over 1000 games and variants. Nebula would license Zillions technology to be added to an enhanced collaboration platform "Tryst" supporting both voice and multi-point video. Nebula interfaces would also be scaled to deliver a maximum experience for wireless and game consoles which would be fully integrated into a heterogeneous network with personal computers.

Technology

The FederationX Collaborative Metaprogramming Framework (CMF) is a meta-product line technology for creating domain-specific distributed software systems. Products for systems are created using very high-level collaborative real-time editing tools, which are aimed at non-programmers.

• Strategy: The design of FederationX is designed to maximize the strategic importance of the technology through aggressive promotion and further development of Standards sponsored by powerful organizations. The motto "Linking Entertainment and Defense" adopted by Magnetar is also reflected in the genesis of "FederationX," which combines "Federation" (the core concept of the U.S. Department of Defense High Level Architecture (HLA) worldwide standard for modeling and simulation) with Microsoft's "DirectX" standards for PC games.
• MORPH: An information modeling language developed by Magnetar, which extends the HLA modeling component. MORPH is the foundation of the FederationX meta-product line technology. MORPH is promoted through GameXML.
• Network: FederationX is a three tier network comprised of an authorization hub and a super-peer network of Federates (service and content providers) plus end users who have peer-to-peer (P2P) capability and are also clients of the Federate.
• Engines: FederationX Systems are comprised of Engines, which are either domain specific, such as Nebula, or cross-domain, such as the Chronos network engine, Mirage graphic engine, and Realm repository engine.
• COTS: "Components Off The Shelf" technology enables third parties to build components which can be re-used in many different products. A true COTS architecture has been identified as very desirable for the simulation developers and would be revolutionary for game developers. FederationX implements COTS through its use of plug-in "Agents" (components) in its MAGNETAR Metaprogrammable Agent Network Architecture. Nebula combines disruptive technology with a viral marketing concept, which together creates a heterogeneous network for multiplayer games and simulations of major strategic importance. The launching of Nebula will take advantage of Magnetar principal's extensive connections to World Chess community as that is by far the largest game community on the Internet.
• Meta Product Line: The foundations of FederationX technology are the MORPH (Metanode Organized Prototype Hierarchy) and MAGNETAR (Metaprogrammable Agent Network Architecture) specifications, which together create framework architecture for creating Product Line Systems.

Market

The key to very rapid growth of the Nebula network is the concept of viral marketing. The idea is that the community propels the growth of the network by creating new products and services. Two powerful levers driving the exponential expansion of the network are:

• Collaborative Metaprogramming: The Forge editor enables teams or individual developers to collaborate in rapidly creating new games using a Metaprogramming systems developed by Zillions of Games. The very high level of the underlying scripting language allows new games and puzzles to be literally created in a few hours or days.
• Global Federation: FederationX is designed to support a global network of federates which provide services and content for games. The vision is that of an open federation, which means that, a popular game like Chess may be represented by many Federates.

Further Reading

For more information about Nebula, view our PowerPoint presentation (4.56 MB).