Click to de-shrink

Argh, I’m having trouble with words at the moment. For now please accept these new screenies and this intriguing link in lieu of a post. I’ll come back and fill the words in tomorrow.

…time passes…

Okay, I’m back. Here’s what’s going on:

Captain Jameson got fun. It seems obvious now – all I had to do was remove the sucky part. Originally you would drop a passenger off at a station, then start the game again with a new ship. These 10 minute sessions would accumulate into a 60 hour game which was both frustrating and tedious. Whoops. Losing your ship felt more like punishment than reward, tracking over the same terrain was dull, the reward of accessing a new station was delayed right until the end of the next play session when you made your way back out there, and building up your ship seemed futile when you knew you couldn’t keep it. An obvious solution stared me in the face, and I stared right back. Of course I could let the player unlock each station without losing their ship. They could access the station’s services then be on their way. I couldn’t do it however, as the whole game would be over in just 10 minutes and I wanted to make Jameson far more substantial. Eventually I buckled, accepting that a fun 10 minutes trumped 60 hours of tedium. I added a docking station as an Angband-style save point (enter dock and your ship is saved, leave dock and your ship is vulnerable), and set off into the black.

10 minutes passed and my game did not finish. I had not explored to the outer rim of the system. I had not built an all-conquering Juliet class behemoth. I’d been busy just liberating the four stations clustered inside the starting asteroid field and making tentative scouting runs. An hour and a half later I acquired my first Delta level modules and put the ship back in dock. I had to stop playing to calm my nerves. I hadn’t found a bank station yet so all my wealth was invested in my ship, and all 90 minutes of play time could be lost at the tap of a ramming spike. Sure, the stations I’d liberated would still be free and my knowledge of the area would come in handy, but I’d still be stuck in a bare command module. I had to be very, very careful. The game went on, spread out across 10 hours and 11 play sessions. Some times I’d duck in for 15 minutes to collect some scrap or scout a promising cluster, other times I’d play a solid two hours, pushing out beyond known space and finding new routes though the asteroid fields. At the link I posted earlier you can see that I explored only ~15% of the map. Finally I located a Juliet class oxy station, fought off a pirate ambush, and declared the game won. Won and wonderful.

There’s lots more I want to add to Captain Jameson, but first I want to get it out so people can start playing. With this in mind I spun out a list of ~50 tasks to complete before launch, including the improved bubble shield graphics and station identification pictured above. There’s still much to do, but the game is fun so I’m sure I’ll get it done.

<3 Farbs

“Air Farbs” – Photo by Sam of 5P

So yeah… no updates in a while. Sorry about that. I took a holiday, and also hit a dead end with the Jameson design. After months of pondering how to fix it I decided to try some drastic changes. They’re working out surprisingly well, but I don’t really want to talk about them ’till things settle down again.

Oh, and I was on TV again. Yay! <3 Good Game.

Indie Kombat is bumbling along nicely too, with Rob taking out the first round on the technicality that more people voted for him. Mr Podunkian, SophieH, and ChevyRay are currently trading blows in the site’s first three person battle, and I’m looking for suggestions as to how Ichiro should be punished for his spectacular failure to finish. If you have a minute please pop over there and add a suggestion to the comments. Thanks!

<3 Farbs

IGF ChiBROKENa, The MoBROKENs, Freeplay

Freeplay 2010 awarded Captain Forever Best Art, and in return I award it Prettiest Trophy, The Only Trophy I Own Where All The Bits Are Still Attached, and Trophy Least Likely to be Permitted as Carry On Baggage. Thanks Paul and Eve for another fantastic weekend!

In other news, I’ve joined forces with Irrational Games co-founder Jon Chey on an all new, totally secret project. All I can tell you – indeed all you need know – is that it is rad, and that you will love it with all your heart.

Captain Jameson progress progresses, with banking and upgrade stations recently added to the mix. I spent a bunch of time at Freeplay listening to Dan Graf talk about interactive narrative design, then picked at his brains afterwards to dig out the remaining morsels. My oxy tanks, todo lists, and enthusiasm for game dev have all been replenished, so I’m off to shut down firefox, fire up the compiler, and head once more into the black.

<3 Farbs

The following is a repost from IndieKombat. You can read more about it here.

We’ll get to the formalities of voting later, when Fish Squid Time Machine (FSTM) passes review and nestles into your cerebral cortex. For now however I think it’s safe to assume that FSTM has won. I mean, just look at it.

Beautiful, yes? We’ve all seen game mashups before, but had you ever seen a game peel back the layers of space and time to reveal another game underneath? No, neither had I. It’s even prettier on a standard definition telly, since there’s much more game and much less spacefiller. Anyhow, let’s look again.

*SIGH*
I could stare at these all day, and if I couldn’t play the game proper I probably would. Instead I spend all my time pumelling the A button trying time and again to beat my high score (currently 25,209). Oh, and I’m also trying to beat the game itself. You see, FSTM is difficult. Over the past month I’ve played it literally hundreds of times, and so far I’ve beaten it twice. I had no idea, three years ago when I built these levels for Fishie Fishie (PC), that I’d later blast through them as a hyperactive laser spewing Squidfish. Luckilly nearly all of them held up and made for interesting tactical play, but damn are they ever difficult.

Then there’s multiplayer.

So far, to my knowledge, there have been a number of genuine FSTM multiplayer games totalling exactly zero. I asked Lan to play against me the other day and she declined. Instead she played a quick single player game and offered this fine and detailed review:

“Fish Squid Time Machine is scary and loud. Also the controller often vibrates. I hear that’s called rumbling. There is a donkey. I’m not sure why. I have heard that you control the fish squid, but this is not readily apparent.” – Lan , doesn’t play games, age 30.

Jokes aside, I want to thank Rob for joining me on this voyage of kicking his arse. I dearly love the SYNSO series, and was very glad for this excuse to work with it. I hope it survives intact. The original Fishie Fishie was an exercise in making games for other people’s tastes, and a brutal lesson on why that’s a shit idea. Rob’s games clearly play as and how he wants, and the delight he takes in his work shines through. I wanted to spread some of that love over Fishie Fishie, and I don’t think Fishie Fishie Fifty really accomplished that. With Fish Squid Time Machine I think I’ve finally made a Fishie game that makes me happy. Thanks again Rob.

I’d also like to thank Andrew Leys for supplying yet another highly original soundtrack, and for not getting too upset when he finds out I left that awful retro filter on the main tune. Final thanks go to Matthew Wegner, for use of his donkey.

Now, for your delightment, an audiovisual presentation.

<3 Farbs (Indie Kombat Farbs vs Fearon anticipated winner)

<3 Farbs