This weekend I’ll be in Sydney swanning about at the The 80s Are Back exhibit at the Powerhouse museum. Why? Because they’re holding a gaming weekend. I’ll participate in a panel talk on Friday night, Global Game Jam for the 48 hours that follow, and a slightly beefier talk on the Sunday. I probably won’t participate in the ROM CHECK FAIL highscore challenge since that seems a little unfair, but it’ll be great to see how people go at the game. I just hit 10700 in a quick playthrough, but my highest is somewhere around 1300. Up until this point I’ve considered myself possibly the best ROM CHECK FAIL player on the planet. Prove me wrong.

Once I get back I have a bit of GDC preparationary faffing to do, but I promise to follow that with some serious Captain Impostor development. Did I mention that the next episode is called Captain Impostor? The next episode is called Captain Impostor.

<3 Farbs

Late last year I spoke at GCAP about my experiences as an indie developer. Sadly they didn’t get footage of my first slide, which was a gigantic picture of my beautiful glowing face. As its radiant, comforting smile beams out over the crowd you can can hear a gasp, a sigh, and perhaps even a tear. Let us now enjoy the most narcissistic fourty nine minutes of my life:

<3 Farbs

Farbs

Wow my throat hurts. I can’t tell if it’s from the solid 72 hours’ talking, or from the hotbed of disease we call a conference. Either way, ow. I gave my first ever hour-long talk, which you can experience in summary through the magic of Twitter. Speaking of Twitter, guess what I’m adding to Captain Forever and Captain Successor? The new Twitter and Facebook exporters, along with the current ones, will be available after you finish a game. All ship configurations will be recorded as you play, so you’ll get to browse through them and recover your favourite pre-accident creations. Cool, no? I’ll release this with some tagalong bugfixes, then put my head down and get working on the next CF episode.

Post-GCAP Greetz go to Paul Callaghan (who got me thinking about narrative design), 2K Australia (who bought me beers and dinner), Ant Orman (who works at 2K but gets a special mention for helping with a slippery design problem), Tom Crago (who I somehow never bumped into), and Yahtzee (who politely endured my fanboyish yammering).

<3 Farbs

A week (or so) after launch, Captain Forever is looking pretty good. Tens of thousands of people have played it, and over a hundred were awesome enough to register. Thanks everyone! What’s even cooler is that people are starting their own CF initiatives. In the past week I’ve seen a 3,500 word strategy guide, a facebook group, a wiki, and even a wikipedia entry (though this is being threatened with deletion). Huge props go to the people behind these projects. If you have both the time and the inclination, please drop by the wiki and jot something down.

The games themselves have also seen a minor overhaul, with annoying scrap reclaimation warnings appearing much less often and adaptive training messages added to CF to assist first-time players. This week I’m making some final changes to CF and CS, and starting work on a new addition to the series. Expect more soon!

<3 Farbs

Captain Successor (Click for larger)

Has Captain Forever launched?
Yes!

Can I play Captain Forever for free?
Yes!

Can I play Captain Successor?
Yes! But only if you are a supporter.

Is that all?
No! On Monday I’ll start the next game in the series. It will be like Captain Forever and Captain Successor, but better. When it’s finished it’ll be released to all Captain Forever supporters. Then, with any luck, I’ll start building another Captain Forever game for you.

Thanks Farbs! I love you. Is there anything else I can do to help?
Yes! You can tell everyone you know to play Captain Forever. They don’t have to support it, and hell they don’t even have to like it. It’d just be rad if they gave it a try. Thanks!

<3 Farbs