I’m back! I spent the last month and a half at GDC, touring around the US, and recovering from all the resulting infections. You’d think I’d have collected a whole bunch of things to blog – and you’d be right! Here are…

…some things that have happened

Captain Forever won a Mochi! I cut myself on it, and a few bits broke off in transit, but otherwise it has made me very happy.

People wrote about me! Or me and lots of other people. Or whatever. My favourite piece is still this interview with Dejobaan games, wherein the questions accidentally made their way past me and through to Captain Farbs. And yes, this is canon.

Fishie Fishie Wii! DK-Games‘ interpretation of my early piscine work is now available in North America, and I believe it’s soon coming to Europe. We talk about it here.

…some things that are happening

Captain ??????! I’m elbow deep in the next Captain Forever episode. I’ve decided this time to stop futzing about with little projects and make something sizeable. I’m excited to see it, excited to make it, and excited to play it. More details in the coming months.

Side projects! I always have a few of these running alongside my main work, but for once I figured I’d talk about them. Right now I’m working on (and may never finish) 48 player Fishie Fishie for XBLIG and some prototypes which use the Wii balance board.

PlayPen! This is a side project which somehow made it through to release. It’s a simplified graphic adventure game built entirely by players. Is it moderated? No. Is it safe for work or children or the easily offended? No. Is it awesome? Yes.

…some things that will happen

Rawtext! I’ve interviewed a few more indies and distilled their answers into a PC Powerplay column, but again I think it’d be cool to post all their answers in raw form. I should have these up soon.

<3 Farbs

Captain Impostor (Click for larger)

What’s like Captain Successor but faster, shootier, and in every way pew-pewier? It’s Captain Impostor!

This new episode in the Captain Forever series wraps up the Captain Successor story arc and experiments with an alternate construction mechanic. Forget the drudgery of module-by-module construction – now with a tap of the SHIFT key you can steal a nearby vessel’s entire configuration! Has your ship become damaged or uninteresting? Tap SHIFT again to discard it, then find something better to copy.

DISCLAIMER: The level of cloned modules is determined by Clone Power (CPW). Clone power is reclaimed from nearby command module destruction accidents and consumed through activation of the clone drive. It is recommended that the clone drive be used sparingly to maximize CPW.

So that’s it for Captain Forever, right? Of course not! I’m already planning the next episode. I expect to bring back construction and to add some larger game systems that span multiple playthroughs.

Supporters can play Captain Impostor RIGHT NOW, and non-supporters can consider it another reason to register.

<3 Farbs

Wallpapers over there ->

Captain Impostor is almost finished, so I’m working on screenshots and other promotional materials. Last night I took over 400 screenshots, then spent a few hours deciding which nine to use. Some were fired, some were big losers, but by the final leg of this amazing race it was clear that the tribe had spoken. Nine contestants screenshots were chosen, but one stood far apart from the pack. I present to you, in wallpaper form, The Coolest Screenshot:

1024×768
1280×1024
1600×1200
1280×800
1440×800
1920×1200

<3 Farbs

Theo, PC PowerPlay intern

This morning I submitted my first column for PC PowerPlay, an Australian games mag I’ve read on and off since 1997. In this month’s piece I wobble around near the issue of indie game pricing, inspired by the question marks hovering over VVVVVV‘s $15 price tag. VVVVVV is easily worth $15 by the way. In researching the article I emailed a bunch of people and received waaaaay too much in reply, so I’m posting the raw interview data here in the extended.

Read More

Some kind of award

I heard word today that Captain Forever has been shortlisted for a Mochi! “What’s a Mochi” you ask? Let me tell you, a Mochi is some kind of award that I nominated CF for and promptly forgot about. I really need to pay more attention to the flash gaming community.

The awards are held approximately 20 hours before GDC, which means I arrive in San Fransico approximately 2 hours beforehand, at the end of a 13 hour flight. Will I make it? Hopefully. Will I win something and fall asleep mid acceptance speech? Hopefully not. If I’m lucky nobody will decide to vote for Captain Forever to win the People’s Choice award.

In other news, Captain Impostor saw major rebalancing last week and is blossoming into the twitchy frag-fest I had always hoped it would be. I can’t wait to release it.

<3 Farbs