BLASTING OFF

PALMER — “For centuries, humans wondered whether Earth was unique in the universe. Though telescopes had detected over a thousand extrasolar planets, none were believed to be habitable … until now.”

That’s the introduction that’s hooking sci-fi fans around the gaming world. It’s the beginning of the video trailer for Lifeless Planet, a new independently produced video game expected to be out next year and the imaginative brainchild of Palmer resident and entrepreneur David Board.

As a partner in Palmer-based Stage2 Studios, Board uses his talents and imagination to create interactive websites, Flash games, and video projects and commercials for nonprofits and businesses. Now he’s hoping to make a splash in one of the biggest growth industries on the planet — video games.

Does that make Board a nerd?

“Oh, absolutely, I’m a geek,” he said. “I’m a triple-geek threat: I’m an artist … and also a science nerd and a computer geek, so there’s no hope for me.”

There’s plenty to be hopeful about with Lifeless Planet, however. The game’s video trailer and premise have caught the notice of the gaming community. It’s been featured on popular gaming websites like PCGamer and Joystiq, and a grassroots online funding campaign was a huge success, Board said. Next week, Board and his partner are traveling to London to discuss Lifeless Planet with what he describes as “a major publishing company.” A deal there would make the game commercially available worldwide on multiple platforms, including PC, Mac and possibly game consoles.

“My partner, he’s the video side of this, I’m the interactive side,” Board said in describing Stage2 Studios. “My interest is in the more truly interactive experience. I’ve done games, little Flash games and stuff like that. … I’ve always wanted to produce a project where we’re the customer, so to speak. We’re not talking with somebody, sitting down and saying, ‘OK, what do you guys need.’ It’s that we’re the creative impetus for it.”

Inspired by other visually breathtaking and cerebral games like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, Board said he is designing Lifeless Planet in the same vein. The player has to explore and solve puzzles to advance the plot.

And the plot?

That’s where Lifeless Planet takes a turn from other sci-fi games. The player is an astronaut who travels in stasis and lands on a planet 20 light years from Earth. While exploring, he discovers he’s not as alone as he thinks he is and encounters what he at first believes to be an impossible mystery.

“This astronaut gets to this planet 20 light years away and thinks he’s alone,” Board said. “But then he starts discovering evidence of another mission to this planet by Soviets so long ago it doesn’t make any sense. Then he discovers this woman — there she is, kind-of creepy up there on the hill. Is he imaging that? What’s going on?”

The trailer on the game’s website, lifelessplanet.com, has elicited many comments from gamers excited to play. The project is on track for an anticipated release in July 2012, Board said, adding it should retail for about $20.

For those who have donated some of the $17,000 to kick-start the project, they will become the game’s testers. A perk for helping finance the game, a move that makes many independently produced games possible, is that those who give at or above a certain level get to be its beta testers, Board said.

More than a way to scratch his own nerdy itch, Lifeless Planet can become a springboard for Stage2 Studios, Board said. Recently, gaming eclipsed Hollywood as an industry, generating $80 billion annually in sales worldwide. The recent release of Modern Warfare 3 recorded $400 million in sales in just its first 24 hours on the market.

“The idea of going to another planet is not a new story,” Board said. “But to me, it’s grown out of the recent discovery over the last 10 years that we’re finally discovering planets circling other stars out there. Now the count is over 1,000 extrasolar planets. We used to imagine they existed, now we know.”

For a West Virginian who married a woman from Palmer — Board’s wife, Susan — reaching for the stars is proving to be a good business model.

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.