GDC09: Star Trek DAC details (and no, we don't know what it stands for)

by Kevin Kelly { Mar 24th 2009 at 5:09PM }

We caught up with Benjamin Hoyt, senior producer at Paramount Digital Entertainment, David Baronoff, associate producer on the new Trek film and Bad Robot workerbee, and Joshua Glazer, CTO from developer Naked Sky Entertainment to talk about all things Star Trek DAC. We didn't get any juicy screenshots or video, nor did we find out what the heck "DAC" stands for (although Baronoff did say that a lot of the fan guesses are "in the right realm"), but we did come away with a lot of information about the upcoming title that's tied to Paramount's May release of the new Star Trek movie. Beam down beyond the break where you can read all about it.

We love bullet points! Here's what we could squeeze out of 'em:

The game features online mutiplayer (up to 12 in two teams of six), where the Federation does battle against the Romulans.There's a single-player option where you fight alongside and do battle with AI bots, or you can team up on the same side with a buddy for co-op gameplay.
They were extremely cagey about revealing what DAC stood for, and it "may or may not" be tied to plot elements in the film. When asked if we'd know what it was once the game came out, Baronoff said "Not necessarily. There will be clues planted around."
It's a top-down 3D space shooter that doesn't require a lot of hardcore gameplay experience to jump into, but it features a large amount of strategic gameplay that'll please hardcore gamers.
The new U.S.S. Enterprise from the movie is featured in the game, as well as several other types of ships that vary in speed and weaponry.
Sound designer Ben Burtt (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Wall-E) referenced the original Star Trek sounds to create "inspired-by SFX" for the movie, and those will be featured in the game.
There are different strategic objectives in each game type (three game types total), and each level has a target completion time of about 10 minutes.
You'll be doing some sort of resource protecting/gathering and will also be able to upgrade your ships and get special power-up weapons and items.
J.J. Abrams has been involved with the game during development, and has given notes aplenty, including the directive to "include more SFX from the movie!" Red alert sound? We hope so.
The game is arcade style, and not narrative-based. There are no voices from the movie in the game. According to Hoyt, "I think it's a mistake that most movie games try to emulate the plot of the movie."
They have the ability to drop in DLC after the fact: new ships, levels, objectives.
The game will be available "near" the launch of the movie on May 8 for XBLA, and the PSN version will follow soon after. Pricing hasn't been announced yet, but it should be in line with other DLC titles. There will be a free demo available on both platforms.

The best quote came courtesy of Glazer, who said, "We wanted to make a pick up and play thing that was just about getting online a kicking ass, so that anyone who liked kicking ass would like the game." We're keeping a watchful eye on this title, and should have assets to show off next week. With any luck, Star Trek DAC can avoid the fate of the Watchmen: The End is Nigh game.

Tags: bad-Robot, DLC, GDC-2009, JJ-Abrams, Naked-Sky, Paramount, Star-Trek, star-trek-dac

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Spallit @ Mar 24th 2009 5:20PM

"J.J. Abrams has been involved with the game during development..."

Crap!

daedalus @ Mar 24th 2009 5:33PM

so its not 'Da Animated Ceries'?

Averna @ Mar 24th 2009 7:05PM

Dark Age of Camalot

They just replaced the horses with space ships and textured the ground black with twinkles.

ERS @ Mar 24th 2009 5:35PM

Um, DAC - divide and conquer?

FemaleOrca @ Mar 24th 2009 5:34PM

Dragons Amidst Centaurs, obvi.

Kyle @ Mar 24th 2009 5:45PM

DESTROY ALL CRABS!!!

prometh3rus @ Mar 24th 2009 5:49PM

If this is anything like the old-school Deep Space Nine mod for the old PC game Subspace then this actually could be really cool--although more nostalgic than a really engrossing game... Just look at the XBLA games Battlestar Galactica and the abysmal excuse that is Wing Commander, on paper I guess they sounded fun, I mean what's not to like with a simple multiplayer top-down shooter, right...?

Thiago123 @ Mar 25th 2009 10:07AM

I loved Subspace, I loved DS9...
Where the hell was I? How did I miss this mod...got any screenshots?

Andy @ Mar 24th 2009 6:05PM

Maybe the Joystiq Podcast needs to have a contest to determine what DAC stands for.

Lou Griffith @ Mar 24th 2009 6:11PM

there are screenshots on the naked sky website

tsoul @ Mar 24th 2009 6:11PM

Drugs are Cool
"Dude, I went totally warp 9 back there....SWWEEEET"
Ever seen a Star Trek TNG episode where they make up some scientific-sounding item? (positronic hyper-thermalating actuator, go!) You've seriously gotta be on some kind of drug (or twelve) to come up with half the stuff they talk about.

Brendan H @ Mar 24th 2009 6:11PM

I made my previous guess here when the original story broke, so it stands to reason that mine must be one of the fan guesses that's "in the right realm!"
I wonder how close I was with "Dildo Ass Clowns?"

inevercheckthis @ Mar 24th 2009 6:13PM

Dead and Counting

korwyn @ Mar 24th 2009 7:10PM

Duck And Chicken?

krash411 @ Mar 24th 2009 6:39PM

Data's Acne Cream

Bearskopff @ Mar 24th 2009 6:52PM

Detecting Awesome Captain

Rumour has it we will be seeing a new firmware VERY soon folks. Emailed the folks here already so hopefully we'll see a nice rumour story in a jiffy. No details on the actual content of the update but many sources are pointing at a release of....

....tomorrow! :O

343 Guilty Fart @ Mar 24th 2009 6:56PM

Data and Chewie, the best of both worlds.

Jonman @ Mar 24th 2009 7:16PM

Dodgy Anachronistic Crap.

DJcube @ Mar 24th 2009 7:36PM

It sounds like it could be very similar to the (rather poor) Battlestar Galactica XBLA game.

Jonathan @ Mar 24th 2009 7:47PM

Dorks Are Coming

DBuck_Eye @ Mar 24th 2009 7:48PM

Star Trek is DAC compared to Star Wars.

W00tMa5ter @ Mar 24th 2009 8:09PM

Naked Sky Entertainment has 4 screenshots of the game up on their website!

http://www.nakedsky.com/html/games.html

Interestingly, if you hover over the screenshots the popup says "Star Trek DNC Video Game Screenshot"

Typo, or did they change the name for release? The letters A and N are usually interchangeable in acronyms to mean "And"

Anyways, Screenshots give a good idea of what gameplay will be like. Check it out!

Justin @ Mar 24th 2009 9:14PM

@Kevin Kelly this is also for PS3 not just 360, might want to check your tags.

ANeM @ Mar 25th 2009 3:13AM

DAC: Data Antagonizes Crew
The game will feature Data as a playable character. Drawing inspiration from http://www.jandrewedits.com/ your goal in DAC is to make your way about the enterprise, making the lives of other crew members as difficult as possible.
There will be a DS version with a painting minigame.

aj @ Mar 25th 2009 6:22AM

I'd love a good Star Trek game.

Trek is about exploration and not so much about shooting things. It would be cool if they made a Star Trek game in the vein of Civilization, or even Pirates, where you fly around in a star ship in a sandboxy type way either making peace or blowing crap up if you like.

Just no more Starship combat games. Please.