Clickage invokes zoomage

In the two months since my last post I have released Captain Jameson 0.4, taken a holiday, ported most of Captain Foraxian to XBLIG, abandoned Foraxian XBLIG because ports of games in unpopular genres and unpopular styles are, unsurprisingly, unpopular, and devised a wonderful plan for Captain Jameson 0.6. Oh, and I’ve been working on 0.5, which is the subject of this post.

Captain Jameson Alpha build 0.5, to use its proper title, is not a major milestone. There are no sweeping design changes and there are no amazing additional features. Instead, 0.5 contains all the little adjustments, tweaks, and bugfixes that I’ve been putting off for the past year. It won’t make the game substantially different, but it should make it substantially better. Of course I couldn’t help making a few visual adjustments, as illustrated by this screenshot. Items of note are:

Snipe laser targetting
These show where a snipe laser will fire, and make the module feel a lot more snipey. It’s surprisingly fun to use.

New blurst shield visuals
The original blurst shield (in Captain Forever) was an ultra-rare component. Very few people ever saw one, so I didn’t think much about its appearance. Now blurst shields are relatively common, so the bizzare vibrating sausage graphic has disturbed many a player’s vision. In response to forumite prompting I’ve redesigned it.

New mouse cursor
I may still fiddle with this, but so far I like it. The crosshair is oriented in the same way as the player’s ship, which makes some sense when you then use this cursor to attach modules.

CJ0.5 is still some way off, but for now you can still play 0.4, 0.3, 0.2, and even 0.1 if you’re particularly sentimental or masochistic.

Enjoy!
<3 Farbs

Also: New shields! (Capt Jameson 0.4)

Vaconcovat, who you may know as the administrator of a rather successful Captain Forever forum, is running a fan video contest. If you create a 1 minute Captain Forever/Successor/Impostor/Jameson related/themed/inspired video that garners the most views, you’ll win three supporter memberships as gifts for friends/family/pets, and possibly have your name appear in Captain Jameson*.

Sounds great, huh? Check here for more details.

Thank you for promoting my games sharing your creative and artistic vision with the world. :)

<3 Farbs

* Maybe some stations will be named after you? Or perhaps some pilots? I really haven’t figured out the details yet. Most likely I’ll just talk with the winner and we’ll try to figure something out.

Since last I wrote I’ve released two new builds of Captain Jameson, each more incredible than the last. If you want to read the fascinating details and play the new builds then click here, otherwise you’ll have to trust me when I say that the game is coming along great. The game is coming along great.

The forums are also doing well, with Vaconcovat’s board swelling to 40 members and 270 posts. The efforts to map the Jameson universe are utterly spectacular, and well worth a peek if you’re having trouble finding your way around.

With 0.3 out I’m now considering what to do for version 0.4. Suggestions?

A deal’s a deal! This afternoon three forums and a reddit subforum all came online. Please check them out, register for any you like, and join in the conversation. If you’re wondering what to talk about, why not start with the Captain Jameson Alpha? I’d love to hear about bugs, suggestions, and stories from the final frontier. All players should find themselves exploring the same map, so it might be helpful to start sharing route tips and mapping data. If you get stuck in the game it might also be a good place to ask for help.

Since Jameson is still in alpha I wasn’t comfortable posting it in the main site menu, but you can find it tucked away in the community page as CJALPHA.BAT.

Enjoy!

<3 Farbs

Hi folks,

I have a proposition for you. I hope you like it, because otherwise I’ll feel like a bit of goose. Here’s the deal:

If you¹ create a Captain Forever forum², I’ll release³ the Captain Jameson alpha⁴.

• ¹By “you” I mean the community. Anyone. Possibly several people. Ideally multiple forums will emerge. If you want to build a forum then don’t let the efforts of others disuade you!
• ²The forum must be dedicated to or at least heavily feature the Captain Forever games. This would be a place for players to find release notes and announcements, trade mapping and exploration notes, post feedback about the games, and generally hang out.
• ³The alpha build will be released for play by all Captain Forever supporters, ideally within 24 hours of me being notified about the first forum, but possibly up to a week later if I encounter unforseen technical disasters.
• ⁴The alpha is an incomplete version of the game Captain Jameson. This means that it may be missing some features of and contain more bugs than the final version. You will have the opportunity to play the game before it is complete, and help fine-tune it. I still plan to finish and release the game, regardless of the presence of an alpha build.

I’m very excited about sharing this game with you, but I really need there to be somewhere for everyone to discuss it first. I hope someone out there can summon up the pony to pony up and get this pony (forum) on the road.

<3
Farbs