Okay, I went overboard with the title. Let’s move on.
When you’re making a game (or, I imagine, embarking on any creative endeavor), you find yourself navigating possibility space. Your game could feature dolphins or sharks. It could be played from a top down perspective, or via a text parser. Each of these decisions affects the game and helps locate it in possibility space, so each time you make or change a decision the game moves. If you’re doing this with any intention (such as to make something awesome) then I think it’s fair to say that you’re navigating. Ahoy, land ho, etcetera.
With many constraints and clear goals this becomes an excercise in problem solving, and can be quite fun. If you’re simply cloning an existing game then you just need to accurately map your destination and set sail. Without any constraints or goals you could conceivably create anything, but you’re far more likely create nothing, having no idea where to start on a giant blank canvas. Here be dragons.
I follow a different approach, which I call selfish design. I create games tailored to my tastes, specifically so that I can play them. This keeps me clear of the paralyzing dragons of possibility, and helps me stay motivated. Also I get to play cool games that I like. Obviously I’m also keen on distributing and sometimes selling these games, but I find if I keep to the selfish design principle the other motivations can also be satisfied. Sometimes.
Right now I have a problem. If you follow this blog you’ll know that much of Captain Jameson is played via Command Line Interface, and that I’ve recently been testing the game with real, live, squishy humans. The strongest indicator I’ve found for whether a player is able to engage with the CLI and enjoy the game is this:
Is that player me?
This is where selfish design falls apart. I built the game systems, I understand how the ship computer terminal operates, and I know what few commands it can process at any time. Everyone else see a blinking cursor. Even when prompted to type a specific command, players know there are almost limitless things they could type, and any of these things might work. They face infinite, paralyzing possibility.
Though I love the CLI, I think I’d be happier making a game other people could play and enjoy. With this in mind I’m experimenting with a new system, based on the Multifunction Electronic Display Subsystem (MEDS) currently installed in NASA shuttles. You can see a little old man fiddling with one in the picture here. I’ll keep the ASCII stylings of the CLI, but instead of typing arcane half-remembered context sensitive commands I’ll have the player pick from a series of options at the bottom of the display by hitting number keys on their keyboards. Hopefully these six buttons will present finite, liberating possibility.
<3 Farbs
?
That’s cool, suggestions are always welcome.
Post deleted. See below for why.
Uh, no. Captain Lan was named after my partner (wife, more or less). Captain Blix is named after Andrew Leys (the music guy), since his Counterstrike handle is Hansblix.
I was kidding anyway. I’d actually be thoroughly shocked if that happened.
It would be terrible if you tried to drive sales by pandering to the lowest common denominator. But obviously you wouldn’t, and for that I am glad.
And since we never see more than a vague reflection, I’m pretty sure rule 34 doesn’t apply here. Probably.
Sorry about the way I said things earlier, I was a bit confused.
Basically, what my suggestion was, is capturing enemy command modules and earning bounties off them/selling them, maybe to Peacekeepers or what the form of law is.
I got really good at shooting only the ship parts off of the ships that flew in and then trapping them in an enclosure I built onto my ship.
Speaking of apologies, I owe you one, Farbs. That was in bad taste, and I am really sorry.
No worries dude.
Okay, I am glad you aren’t out to kill me now.
By the way, it’s cool that all of your characters are named after real people you know…. And that makes me wonder… Do you think of Captain Farbs as an in-game extension of yourself, or is he just a character that is either loosely based on you/just bares your nickname?
Also, I originally typed “bears” before I caught my mistake. Bear should be a verb.
Actually, I think “bears” is the verb you wanted.
I don’t actually know how or when I decided to make Cpt Farbs the main character. He really isn’t based on me, but I suspect I thought it would be fun to further blur the line between the gameworld and reality. It’s Capt Farbs asking you to support the project, not me asking you to pay for a game etc etc.
Oh, you are right. Now I am officially an idiot
Also, okay, that makes sense.
wow this is so far off topic, getting a little personal and such. =) tis nice to know there is more than letters and keystrokes on this forum thingy.
as said just above here somewhere,(post 5 on this page) ‘cash for kills’ would be a great addition. it would give reason for players to hunt other ships in the universe for cash instead of just dumping parts at scrappers. later in the game when you have a powerful ship, you’ll have no reason to hunt smaller vessels. having a cash bounty for light, easy to carry pieces of scrap ship, *i.e. command modules*, it would make it rewarding to hunt smaller vessels. also if you were to include something like this then i think you should make scrapping parts make very little money so the focus would be to build up your ship with parts and sell command modules.
…im just saying…
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK MATE, kudos to you
Matt, I think you misread what I had typed.
What I had said was [LIVE] Command Modules, and since parts don’t come off of CM’s that you don’t destroy, it would mean having to choose between Credits or Parts, and shooting off the parts of a CM is not easy mind you; I have near perfected it in Captain Successor, but there are still mistakes sometimes, and it’s dangerous against heavily armed Ships.
You’d also have to have some form of Prison Enclosure on your Ship, to store the Captured CM’s in, which you can build out of Girders(I’ve done it before), and also somewhere to turn the CM’s over to; the Boot/Jackers are typically Criminal/Insane who maraud around space blasting everyone else for scraps to get stronger, and if the Law system was different, turning the Captures in to the Lawmen/Peacekeepers in would raise your General Reputation, instead of the constant warfare that ends up making you look like the Antagonist blasting everyone you come across.
Capturing, although it sounds not worth it, would have to have a high payout to make it worth people’s time and patience.
And Yes, Keep Up The Great Work Farbs!
If you can’t force em to use function keys you could at least give them the feel that they are pushing an old fashioned sprung keyboard using proper sound effects when in that interface.
*th-Thok* *th-Thik* *th-Thack*
@Koriteal:
My bad =S *insert sheepish face*
well then ‘MY’ idea still remains valid, cash for kills of sorts would give a more combat driven feel to the game… as far as i can tell from here anyway
Oh. Another thing. And I know already it’s irritating. The only good thing about “SPORE” was that individuals could send back their evolved creations to a central server to be used as opponents in other people’s games.
Ya follow me?
The mutation function in C.S. is good, but not nearly as good as it could be if the game reported back ship config, and used those as seed + mutation.
That’s a cute idea, but I don’t think it’d create the best play experience. Seeking out poorly constructed ships and taking advantage of their design is a big part of the game, and I think it’d be a shame to lose it. Remember, smarter and more capable enemies don’t always make games more fun.
hi, bieng one of the people who signed up , and someone who really loves playin forever and successor i felt compelled to offer an opinion on the gameplay aspect . the control feature was hard to get used to for a while , but it grew on me .. and things got to be more fun as the learning curve was at its end … but now i feel a wall has come in my enjoyment . and i have this to say .. there are no compelling enemies to face kinda as a surprise . i see alot of the same build models used over and over sometimes and the game drags as your looking for some oddball part to make your mega giant super ship .. some of successors rules with cloning i found to be great but easily exploitable and i found myself wishing for diffrent kinds of modules ..to roll over back into supply more often in a random sense . and im not asking for a shit ton of giant enemies that are fast and nible kicking my ass every second , id just like the parts selections to be broader or grouped by quadrants .. some sense of progeression to the types of enemies as you move thru the landscape .. maybe include sub missions ? overall i love successor and forever and i would love really more of the same with some twists that run longer term .
thaks for makin my fave game of all time ,
Steve
“That’s a cute idea, but I don’t think it’d create the best play experience. Seeking out poorly constructed ships and taking advantage of their design is a big part of the game, and I think it’d be a shame to lose it. ”
Oh, I was thinking more like, use other people’s ships as the seed and then apply some psudo-random mutation (like +/-10 of ship parts get randomly swapped out). So you get a fluctuation between previously successful structure and random mutations. Just like life!
Question’s whether the ships are too poorly constructed right now. An improvement in difficulty could (I used the conditional verb form, there) make the game (YOU JUST LOST THE–) more fun.
I dunno, sometimes I feel the game can be too difficult and sometimes I feel it can be too easy. I think the problem has less to do with enemy designs, and more to do with part availability. Also, needlers. Seriously, those guys can make progression very difficult.
But the main stopping point for me, as I said is when I find myself in a situation where none of the parts available to me are effective for taking on the enemies that are currently in play. For example, homing missiles against homing missiles is almost always a losing battle.
Can we have a new thread to heckle you in? This one has gotten too long.
Hi!
Just a random opinion about CLI of a newcomer who has not buy the game yet (reasons at he end).
I for one love the retro feeling of the command lines and I think it must stand here but why not with a twist : first with a context-sensitive list of main commands onscreen (at the bottom), next with some kind of word prediction (like in dreamweaver/flash) with optional tags automatically added and ready to edition.
I don’t see these tools like a “mainstreamization”, but more like a way to speed up the typing and so limit its side effect to lose focus on the main action.
About not buying the game yet, the main reason is the lack of key remapping (I cumulate being french – so azerty here – and being left-handed), and I’m really looking forward to Captain Jameson.
hey farbs. any chance of another update on your progrss any time soon?
@Pen:
No Pen… i WON the game XP
Yeah, sorry, have been meaning to write for a while. I’m still working on the console rewrite, which unfortunately doesn’t make for the most amazing screenshots. Monday maybe?
Screenshots! I want to see ’em, no matter how unexciting they may be!
just want to know that things are still rolling with you and the captain series
http://goo.gl/E5eay
That is amazing. Simply amazing
The Info Buoy… it floated into me and died.
And then I realized that there were actually lasers.
Whoops! Was there an investigation?
>>>FARBS, HELP<<<
my E-mail has been killed!!! could i have the email address attached to my supporter account changed my new one? i can supply some form of ID from when i joined… i think…
please help!
its still me… the email address i used under my name HERE (above ^^^ above) is the new one i have set up. old one was for games and for some reason it was shut down by ninemsn…
@Matt – Sorted. Lemme know if there’s still a problem.
I updated your player name to Matt btw. If anyone wants to update their own player name they can do that via COMMUNITY.DIR->PROFILE.CFG.
your a hero farbs… ill give it a shot now and report back with SUCCESS!!!
brb
>>>FARBS<<<
yeah, sorry.. made a mistake. as i was re-writing my email address just now i relised i left off the "1991" part last night. if you could please fix it again. im real sorry about this, i know you have better things to do than fix my mistakes.
*feels like a douche*
sorry
so much for “reporting back with success” =P
Heheh. I’ve sent the new login email, lemme know how you go.
all good… sorry it took so long to reply, i’ve been away for almost a week. thanks again, i just checked and everything is A-ok. thanks mate…
nice blog! thanks for the help.
There’s definately a lot to find out about this topic. I like all of the points you have made.