Mass Effect celebrated its 15th anniversary on November 20, and the unofficial Twitter account Mass Effect News (opens in new tab) celebrated with a collection of its prototype art, videos, and documents. While none of this is new (scans of the 2003 pitch document (opens in new tab) have been online for over a decade), it is still interesting to look back at how much has changed.

First, the title of the pitch submitted by Casey Hudson on September 15, 2003 was "SFX", not "Mass Effect". Several of them even made it to the logo design (opens in new tab): the Guardians of the Citadel, Star Citadel, and the good old Citadel.

One of the main features of SFX is multiplayer trading, an entire online economy made possible by Xbox Live. This allows players to "create powerful items that cannot be obtained without online trading" and earn money through a "dynamic in-game economy. Sounds a bit like EVE Online, or even modern live-service games, especially when it comes to the additions made possible by regular updates, such as "new locations, special items, new quests, and online news updates about the best players.

Much of what is described in the pitch ranges from the basics of the setting to gameplay ideas that build on what BioWare previously did with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, making it "more accessible to a mainstream audience." Same as what we ended up with. Specifics such as exploring the galaxy in "small parties of two or three chosen from a larger group" and being able to travel long distances via "jump gates" while local travel is possible via FTL drives on board ships were there from the beginning, but there are minor differences, some of which are "a lot different from what Mass Effect 2. The spaceships are upgradeable and can be replaced by other party members during combat.

An early plot outline, published on January 8, 2004, likewise covers many of the basics of the setting. Nevertheless, it depicts Earth as the starting point for the game, and then the home base becomes a space station called "Star City" rather than the Citadel, from which "new jump stations can be established to expand the frontiers of the galaxy. As you search the galaxy for relics of the Creator Race that have disappeared, leaving behind technology, you will learn that "humanity was designed thousands of years ago as a slave class of the Creator Race."

The thread also includes the first prototype SFX footage (opens in new tab), showing that shooting people behind crates in a warehouse was part of Mass Effect from the beginning. There is also a video compilation of gameplay trailers from late in development, including destructible environments (opens in new tab), direct control of squad members in combat, and a mission in the mining world called Caleston (opens in new tab), which was ultimately cut from the first game.

While we wait for more news on what's next for "Mass Effect," it's fun to look back at how things started, and the latest news in that direction came on N7, the day BioWare dropped a video encoded with a hidden message (opens in new tab). Last year, BioWare celebrated the day with a teaser image that read "Mass Effect continues" (opens in new tab). Below that image was a depiction of the spaceship that will presumably be ours in the next "Mass Effect". And the name "SFX" stenciled on the side of the ship pays homage to the name Mass Effect almost had.