No, don’t worry, I haven’t scrapped Captain Jameson. I have rewritten the beginning of the game.
Since Jameson adds some new and seemingly tricky features I’m worried that players will be lost, not knowing what’s happening or what they’re supposed to do. Over the past few months I’ve thought about this, wondering whether to address it with in-game email, pilot chat popups like in the revised version of Forever, or some other means. At GDC I watched Brandon Boyer’s talk, where he thanked developers for creating new worlds and inviting him to explore. I realized I hadn’t designed Jameson from this perspective, and when I did this issue solved itself! There’s already a character motivated to instruct the player. All I needed to do was figure out how he would communicate.
I decided to use preloaded text files, which the player can access at any time via the console. I’m happy with the theory, but I’m still not sure that it’s effective. With this in mind I adapted a neat little idea from Jason Rohrer’s Inside a Star-Filled Sky. I created a special build which records every input interaction and the length of every timestep, then saves these to disk. Now when someone tests the game remotely they can send me this file, and I can replay their entire game on my machine. I’m hoping these replays will show any areas where players get stuck, frustrated, bored or confused. The player can even type messages for me into the console, to let me know exactly how they feel. I expect to see a few angry comments, and I expect they’ll be enormously helpful!
<3 Farbs
Sounds cracking, perfective maintenance!
#Comment didn’t work first time round?
Cool, I’d be happy to share playthroughs if it helps improve the game. I know from experience that the best way to improve a game is to watch other people play it.
Anyway, I hope you can get the game out sometime soon. I really am looking forward to trying it out, and maybe even making some small contribution to help improve it
Oh, it would be cool if recorded playthroughs were viewable- or even editable. That would be a super cool way to expand the social aspect of the CF series into this game.
Also, maybe you could give players a choice to opt in to sharing their data with you so no one has to get angry?
Being able to watch replays would be a great feature to include in the final release of the game. Also, I’d love to do some test runs – don’t hesitate to drop me an e-mail if I can be of help ^^
your horrible farbs! teasing us like this whle we wait for the best game EVER to be released =P keep up the good work!!!
on a more serious note, great idea with the playback idea. do you need a special program to view them or can we open and share our playthroughs with each other? it would be great for bragging rights =P and what better to motivate a community than friendly competition…
Keep rocking Farbs
Uh oh.
The playback system is really only meant for testing, not for release in the final game. It impacts performance a bit and isn’t particularly stable. Sorry folks, but I don’t think you’re going to get to share replays.
There is a community aspect to the game however. Much of the game is about exploration, and although all the maps are procedurally generated they’re generated the same way for all players. This means you can explore on your own if you want, or you can swap info with other players to find your way around.
This is looking great already.Can’t wait.
Perhaps the player could go to different stations to get tutorials on things,clustered at the beginning, maybe a map so an experienced player could skip them…
Just throwing out ideas, and if theres any chance of play testing please let me know.
Great Work!
Ah, well I hadn’t really thought you had the playback thing set up as a feature for average users to use. But I do think it would be cool if you there was an easy way to record play sessions.
But it’s no big deal that it won’t happen.
Now… if only the series was on Steam or something so I could play out-of-browser… Yay, another thing that’ll never happen
Mostly I just want to play Captain Jameson though. When it’s done, of course.
Standalone builds are sounding pretty good to me too these days, especially if I can get Steam distribution. That’s all on the back burner while I try to actually finish this game though.
Yeah, understandably so. The release here is of course the most important thing right now.
However if you could get this game on Steam I would be a very happy guy. It happens to me all the time, for example, where I’ll pause my game and then absent-mindedly close my browser and lose my progress.
Plus having Steamworks in there would be super cool.
I’m just not sure how you’d go about making it accessible to existing supporters…
That interface looks
AWESOME!!!
I feel like I’ve been waiting forever for this to be released, though Ive been getting my indie game fixes through the new ps3 homebrew communities the anticipation for this is still great, any way u think supporters might be able to get the source for captain forever to be able to port it to other consoles.
yes a stand alone steam build would be amazing, he could just offer “keys” to existing supporters to claim on steam like they did with the humble bundle.
cant wait farbs, nice to see your still chipping away at it.
I dont think steam is they way to go just yet. Be like minecraft. So AWESOME you dont need steam. Unfortunately, CF doesn’t have an extensively large fanbase and this could be difficult.
Also, will this be an open testing stage or are you just getting a few people you know to play through…?
Why not use Steam, though? It’s got great features and it’s a great way to get exposure. And I don’t think Captain Forever has appeal quite as broad as Minecraft does so the situation is a little different here.
Though I wish Minecraft were on Steam as well… But that’s because I love Steam and I love Valve. Great service, great company.
[!WARNING! *Wall of text approaching* !WARNING!]
Right, first of all I’d like to say some comments about the free version of the game, Captain Forever. It’s amazing. It has addicting game-play features (such as construction), freedom to do what you want and simple controls and concept. These three things are probably the traits of a (super) successful indie game. Though there are some errors with it, it was the free version and it didn’t have to be perfect. I had many hours of fun playing this, and I’ve got a few friends addicted with me as well.
However, there are some things I have to criticize about the series- Although I haven’t played the paid versions (Captain Successor and Captain Impostor). I’ve read its changes and can’t seem to help but notice the slight repetitiveness and its… inflexibility, should I say. It’s just that I wouldn’t feel like paying $20 for a Successor and Impostor. I have no doubt that they would be great games but when one plays Forever for that long, reaches the last level and pretty much can destroy anything with a wall of laser, it seems sometimes meaningless to upgrade to Captain Successor. Missiles, Snipers Lasers, Torpedoes, and Shield Generators are all well and good but it just seems to be missing something.
More in-depth dialogue could be one way- A multiplayer in the paid version would most likely boost sales by a lot (I think, but this may not be worth the effort). It’s just that it is too quiet in a sense with all those harmonious lasers going off in the background you realize too quickly that you’re playing alone. One thing I would LOVE would be a super laser cannon, like a 4 block wide continuous laser cannon. Another big thing that would make this game far more addictive is implementing mechanics, like moving girders that move away the laser platform and open up a missile launch bay. Continuity would be good to implement as well- I think. Not in the way of stronger and stronger enemies but perhaps a drone that could grow stronger, a planet with a form of government? Heck, you could let the player own a planet! I don’t know, I’m just throwing ideas out into the abyss.
That being said, your current progress into Captain Jameson looks promising and might just be what’s needed to nudge me a little further into buying the $20 subscription. I insist you to elaborate further and add fine details where people would possibly never look at(But surprised and excited when they find out). Captain Successor seemed a bit like a rushed game made as an add-on to Captain Forever for paid subscribers, rather than it being the full version and Forever being the trial. An indie game should never be rushed into completion, although fans may disagree. If they get too rowdy you could release a *demo* but like pizza, perfection is achieved slowly. All in all, I think your games are amazing, please continue to bless the world with your work :)
Meanwhile, I’ll try and get as many people addicted to this. Oh, and one more thing- could you make a post that you keep all the things you are going/considering to implement in Captain Jameson? This would avoid people like me spamming walls of text… I actually have a million more suggestions but I’ll spare you guys XD. Thanks for reading~
Signed, CasualGameCritic (Not my actual Username)
I hate to be like this, but I think being alone is kind of the point of Captain Forever. It’s intentional that the world feels lonely and Captain Farbs is your only companion.
Now I admit that the game can get repetitive, and Captain Forever in particular has problems in that sense, but it’s not really meant to be a game you play for hours on end anyway. It’s just a free to play spaceship building sandbox.
And trust me, Captain Successor is a far better game on many levels. Not only are there more module types that change up gameplay quite a bit on their own, but there are also a number of different enemy types that really force you to change up your tactics. And the modules an enemies that appear vary with each game, which helps keep it fresh.
I too hope to see a multiplayer installment someday, though. Or maybe even the 3D one that was hinted at if that ever actually gets made. But I wouldn’t discount what is already out as just a simple expansion of the original game.
Hey Gamer, I have to agree with Chris on this one. While even Captain Successor seems to fall into the “Play for an hour then wait a week and play for another hour” category, I must say the way it is set up is so infinitely better than Forever its hard to even explain. There is nearly endless replayability to the Successor version as long as you don’t burn yourself out in one session.
I can’t say much for Impostor though, I only play that version when I ragequit after getting destroyed in some dumb manner by some spinning laser death-wall in successor.
TL/DR The two extra game modes, even without Jameson were well worth the $20, you’ll get hours of solid fun, and you’ll be supporting an amazing indie game dev.
Whoa, you’re welcome! :D
hahaha look at this fucking armchair critic.
>criticise game, havent even played
>toss out bullshit ideas in the form of a dick sucking sprinkled with vapid criticism wall of text with no consideration for how they wpuld actually affect gameplay
Loving the fact that procedurally generated maps will be generated in the same way for all – you get a great sense of community when you discuss/share experiences for certain maps. Cue the speedruns/competitions on maps (not sure how you’d speedrun an open ended game, maybe hoarding stuff).
Maybe a cheeky easter egg map like in the original Worms games – some codes would bring up special maps in the level generator. Keep up the good work!
@bark: Play nice.
Allow the user to input a seed for procedural generation?
…
Might the seed allows a captain’s name to be generated? A multitude of sectors with a lot of people to help out. Hmm.
Actually I’m thinking of letting players choose between 100 predetermined seeds, so you could potentially finish the game by defeating them all. This’d also increase the chance that someone else had picked the same seed as you. More on this later.
Nice!
I dunno if I should be asking for you to stop teasing us about features or to keep on doing it. Depends on when the game actually comes out :P
hey Farbs
i know this feature is only for beta testing but i seriously think you should implement it into the game!
you could call it ‘captains log’ and the player could make notes while he plays, making this game a in-depth star-treking roleplay! it would be optional of course. but this could make the game really really interesting! (as opposed to just intensely interesting)
Boxman, thats an awesome Idea, I’d love to add something to it.
Have “Captains Log” mode be an optional mode for Captain Jameson, what it would entail is that, whenever you write a log, it is stored in a big log system area, and other people’s captains logs can be encountered throughout the game. A cryptic role-playing system that when you stumble across an area someone else has written about, you’ll see something like:
////Captain’s Log/////
Captain Jaxon:
This sector is extremely dangerous, I would advise anyone wanting to participate in illegal or pirate activities to abandon doing so or they will end up facing the consequences.
I didn’t explain it overly well, but it would be neat to have a Spore like community where you see traces of other players picked at random.
@CasualGameCritic:
sorry Critic (whoever you really are) but you have no idea untill you’ve tried. I’m reasonably new to the Captain Forever supporters and community, and with my limited skills and success with captain successor it still feels like a completely new game and heaps more fun. it has its flaws like any game but that doesn’t make it boring or unenjoyable.
if you want to add any new and cool ideas, thats helpful, even to just good to talk about is great, but saying how successor is a waste of money when you have no idea is pointless. support Farbs and then comment after giving the full installment a spin.
(sorry if this comes off harsh, just in a rush today. “hey! im a nice guy”)
DEAR GOD FINISH IT ALREADY YOUR KILLING ME FARBS!
P.S. You are a fabulous programmer I love you.
isn’t that just ‘the way’… we, the fans, beg or abuse you Mr. Farbs, and then add some lovely complement about how we want your babies or something along the lines…
Eg: Abuse\Beg – DEAR GOD FINISH IT ALREADY YOUR KILLING ME FARBS!
: Complement – P.S. You are a fabulous programmer I love you.
hey I’m no different, i was just saying i saw a pattern. its hard love… or something. Fuck idk, I’M TIRED! stop trying to be funny Matt, you’ll offend someone!
To the people that are saying that I’m silly (Under-exaggerated) because I’m criticizing a game even before I’ve played it, I guess you’re right. But I think you’ve misunderstood what I really wanted to convey. I told you outright that I hadn’t played the game yet, and I didn’t say it ‘was’ boring or anything, I just said what I thought it ‘looked’ like. Also if I were to spend money on something, wouldn’t it be natural to want something that would I would like in the game? We pay taxes to our government and we expect things to get better and hey, some people out there have stupid expectations that aren’t possible/beneficial for everybody. I’m new to this game, I told you that I was throwing out ideas, and what’s so bad about that? The game maker knows the game and what to implement, so my ideas shouldn’t affect him even if their ‘bullsh*t’.
To the people that actually presented me good feedback and informed/advised me more about the game I thank you, and Matt, someone who actually puts thought in their reply is bound to be a nice guy :).
The game, and the future games by far do not look like a waste of money, I was just trying to see whether I personally would like it, no one has the same likes and dislikes after all.
Well there’s nothing wrong with making suggestions I’m sure. But if they don’t fit well into the CF universe, they probably won’t make it into the game. Also, a lot of ideas sound good on paper but don’t really work out in game.
Like when Farbs tried removing inertial dampening (or friction) from CJ, it didn’t work at all… What made you think that anything would change from the first time you tried that, Farbs?
me me me! i wanna be a guinea pig. i know nothing about programming but i do know what i like. remember most of your players are as inept at computerising as i am!
@Chris: I initially built Captain Forever w/out inertial dampening, thinking it’d be more space-like. I guess it was space-like, but the ship to ship combat was really annoying. Since Jameson has periods of combat and periods of travel I figured it might be useful as an option to the player, so they could travel without intertial dampening but turn it back on for combat. It turned out that frictionless flight was annoying during travel also.
Yeah, like I said before, I’ve experimented with frictionless space travel in a game as well. I thought I could keep the space travel realistic and ‘spacey’ while having bubbles around planets and other major sites that would adjust the physics and controls to feel more like a 2D top-down dogfighting game. Turns out the space travel still was no fun even when I separated it from combat like that. So I did the smart thing and scrapped the code and started a new game with arcadey controls and a different visual style… That is the smart thing to do, right?
The first game wasn’t very far along anyway. The largest chunk of code was for predicting ahead the player’s path, taking into account the movement of planets and moons and stuff. And I wasn’t going to be using that anymore so I just killed the project.
LOL! dam Chris, that sounds like it would of sucked…
— OFF TOPIC —
hey chris, do you make games too? i LOVE indie space games but i can never find any *captain games excluded*. do you make or know of any that are out there?
— BACK ON TOPIC —
hey Farbs, any chance of getting you to give us a round about release date? i was reading through old posts, and I’m glad you delayed the original release date, but do you think you could come up with a new, realistic one? i was trying to get a friend of mine to give captain successor a go but he’s being a pain. he said “there is no way I’m paying for a game that doesn’t have a release date or a demo”… it may have been my fault for trying to sell him the game relying on captain Jameson. my bad… =S
Oh, weird. Unfortunately I’ve given up on release dates, since I’m not sure how many issues this playtesting will bring up. Looking at my current TODO list I’d guess I’m about a month out, but I can’t promise anything.
Cheers for trying though :)
Thanks Farbs… I’ll give him a try again after release
I remember back in the day when farbs said it would be released in december…
Hey, Farbs, I wonder if frictionless space travel would work better over space sized (as in, measured millions of kilometers) distances. Tell me if I’m jumping to huge conclusions here, but I’d imagine that most of the spaceships in the Captain Forever series are the size of cars and small houses, traveling over distances the size of cities, or possibly small countries. A lack of inertial dampening might work better with spaceships the size of large houses, apartment complexes, or possibly whole cities travelling over solar system sized distances. Of course, that would probably require you to not only re-tune Box2d for interstellar distances, but it would also mean that you would have to calculate for relativity, which I can’t imagine would be fun, or even possible on the flash platform.
I am reminded of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy while writing this. “Space is big, really big. You make think it’s a long way down to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space! Listen!… and so on…”
concerning frictionless travel, even if you weren’t able to switch back to friction flight, couldn’t you just make, essentially, an air-brake button? so wile in a dogfight you accelerate in one direction, turn and fire on your enemy and then hit the air brake to slow your movement regardless of direction, then accelerate again to escape? please please PLEASE try this, a friend of mine tried this formula in a game he made years ago and it worked for him…
i would LOVE to be able to lay with frictionless travel. it adds new options to combat and from the videos of Captain Jameson i think it would be more than useful
@Captain William:
BTW, nice ‘Hitchhikers’ quoting there. with the apparent size of captain Jameson, it actually seems quite apt from the little ‘shelter’ you start from =)
Well seeing as how there already is a button to speed up time while in transit, I have to wonder if frictionless travel would actually feel all that useful anyway… Plus… It would be really, really easy to overshoot your target by a large margin without friction.
If anything I’d say a translocator drive would make the most sense for traversing space quickly. After a short charge time, it would simple move you forward at a speed in the same way that translocator does, but more quickly.
Also, that reminds me of something I’m doing in a game of my own; ships have a maximum amount of energy that is available at any one time so you can’t, say, go to warp speed for a second and then give a full powered laser barrage. And this capacity is expandable through generator upgrades. I wonder if attachable reactor modules being required to keep constant power to other parts would work in CF… I’m inclined to say no because of the weight and complexity they would add, but at least one of those problems could be solved by re-balancing the power of boosters. I dunno
Anyway, how many baby animals do I have to sacrifice to you to be able to playtest Captain Jameson, Farbs? :P
Frictionless space travel is on http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/home.php. It’s more a simulator than a game, but I still find it enjoyable.
I’d think that for frictionless flight to work out well, a spacecraft would have to be designed to go sideways well. I generally don’t.
Laminar Research took down their Space Combat. This was three-dimensional and frictionless, but you couldn’t build like you can in Captain Forever. Space combat in a frictionless environment (with a stationary target!) isn’t much different; you just watch yourself to make sure you don’t go flying out too far away. I’ve never tried it with something moving. There was never a moving artificial intelligence to go up against.
A good way to state it would be that everything in space is one step up from how they are on Earth: it’s not necessarily your position that matters so much as your velocity, and a spacecraft more capable of moving is not with longer “range”; it’s the one that can perform a higher change to its velocity.
So it might be that frictionless flight in the series would be easier if the velocity vector was given graphically. A line pointing out from the spacecraft in the direction of motion with length increasing logarithmically is how I would display it.
But then I also like the series’ frictionfulness. It does make things easier: you don’t have to brake in order to stop drifting sneakily toward a station. And having to decrease speed is an inconvenience in other ways, too. It’d be hard to stop for a generated enemy.
…unless they’re generated going at the same speed you’re going. Unless speed isn’t stored for you, it’s just added to enemy spacecraft (in the other direction, of course). That way enemies can spawn going about the same speed you’re going.
But that all would be a little too realistic, yes?
This is how true combat would be:
http://projectrho.com/rocket/spacewartactic.php
http://projectrho.com/rocket/images/spacewartactic/warGraph1.jpg
The whole thing lasts about a second and would be automated. There is no reason for human pilots.
So don’t do it like that.
But you weren’t going to.
That was irrelevant. Anyways.
@Chris K: Space travel requires planning, really. You have to know your destination in advance and the distance to it. You accelerate up until halfway, then you turn around and decelerate until you reach your target. From there you use small directional thrusters to navigate into dock, and if you mess up, your ship crashes into whatever space station you were aiming at.
Interesting that on that Space War Tactics page, there’s an excerpt from a “Malcom Jameson.”
The header is this:
“From “Space War Tactics” by Malcolm Jameson (1939). Astounding Science-Fiction, November 1939. Collected in Coming Attractions edited by Martin Greenberg (1957). Slightly dated, but surprisingly good for something written almost seventy years ago.”
Hey, or you miss entirely. Add gravity and you have a fat mess.
Also why I don’t think planets are a good idea.
@Captain William
Yes, exactly. For me the planning was part of the fun… For other people it was frustrating and boring.
I’m not saying it can’t ever work, but it’s not well suited to an action game.
Since there hasn’t really been a hardcore back story written to the Captain series, it would be super cool if you opened it up to fans, like a competition and who ever writes the best story gets canonized. You could even continue to do it till theres a whole universe. Idk, just an idea I had.