The Cassandra Project is a single-player modification based on a relatively simple analysis of Deus Ex and the contemporary state of videogames. For our purposes, Deus Ex was about two things.

• Freedom
• The re-contextualisation of the Adventure game into a first-person perspective.

Since we have no interest in doing something that isn't obviously related intellectually to Deus Ex - and, to a lesser degree, other games of the Looking Glass Aesthetic (e.g. Thief, System Shock) - these two elements will be maintained foremost in the minds of the assorted subroutines in the creation process.

Form:

The Cassandra Project will be - to a lesser or greater degree - a process of learning in public. While we've set our sights high, we don't believe they're unrealistically so. Our primary reason for the certainty that this is possible is the form which the Cassandra Project will take.

The Cassandra Project will be released in individual self-contained episodes that can be played through by a gamer with between one and two hours of play, depending upon their approaches. Obviously, being Deus Ex, the alternate routes offer rich replay value to each episode.

Why episodic? Well, obviously, it's less work to produce one lump. If we attempted to create the entire tale, it's likely we would get disheartened before the release date. However there's a more serious reason for our decision. It's to do with the weakness in story-telling techniques in the modern videogame. And it goes a little like this.

A game released to the shelves will have between ten and forty hours of experience. Gamers - or action gamers - generally prefer a length of time between twenty and thirty hours. Developers - and to a lesser degree players - have a desire to tell a compelling narrative across this period. They then use the methods of story-telling generally developed by the film-industry.

This is Insanity. Films are not thirty hours long. If you are going to attempt to keep people enthralled across this length of experience, you should use the methods of literature. The Narcissus Entity has no idea how people should go about that particular task. Or if they do, they're just not telling for now.

(Note: And might even make it more attractive to the less hardcore gamer. By offering something you can experience fully in a time-frame of similar lengths to other media forms. And us, the more devoted, can just play a series of episodes consecutively to gain a more sustained gaming fix)

Content:

Videogames are art.

The only restriction upon the content they can include is the financial purse-strings of Publishers scared of offending a public and the limit in vision of games-creators used to just reiterating the same old tired clichés.

In the Mod-community, being non-profit making (or even loss making, in the case of the many of the talented people in the community who could be doing what they're doing for financial rewards), has no such boundaries. Especially in a narrative heavy game like Deus Ex, the mod-community should feel free to deal with whatever issues they choose. The only limit is your conscience. And, to be honest, the Narcissus Entity hasn't much of a conscience. If easily offended, The Cassandra Project probably isn't for you.

Be reasonable. Demand the Impossible.

Conclusion:

And that's it. All other game theory is taken from major available sources, linked to elsewhere on this site. Throw in some new characters, weapons, skins, textures, sound files and all that Jazz and you'll have the Cassandra Project. Hey. It might even work.