Argus (Starship Captain WIP)

Heya, folks! Proff here.

This is the first game I’m working on, and I thought I’d create a WIP thread to gauge interest, snare bugs and collect suggestions from everyone. Currently, I only have Character Creation finished and am currently diving into Chapter 1. Sorry for the lack of content, but I wanted to see what kind of interest a game like this would produce. I’m looking for any kind of feedback - positive, negative, it doesn’t matter. If you have any opinions about the way it flows or if it needs any certain elements, be sure to reply here and let me know.

The game is set in the 25th century. You play the captain of a space vessel and your goal is to make enough money to live and maybe even retire one day. It’s not an easy life, though. Pirates are a constant concern, no matter where you’re going or where you’re coming from. Out in space, as you get farther and farther away from civilization, chaos and disorder tend to get their way. Aside from pirates, you also have to worry about malfunctions in your ship or running out fuel so that you’re not left stranded and doomed to float through the cosmos in a fancy coffin. Making money and surviving may be your only two goals, but there are many ways to go about doing it. You could transport passengers, carry cargo, serve as an escort and protector, smuggle illegal contraband or take out known pirate bases on obscure moons. There’s plenty to keep you busy…

Okay, so it’s clearly a Firefly ripoff. CLEARLY! :slight_smile: I’ll admit, Firefly was the principle inspiration for the entire game. It’s okay though, I promise, because absolutely nothing from Firefly canon will be seen in this game. The premise may be similar (and maybe that’s why it’s attractive,) but the game has it’s own unique canon, feel and atmosphere. I hope you’ll enjoy playing it as much as I am writing it.

LINK: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/207984753/web/index.html

2 Likes

Oops, already found a mistake. In the Stats Screen, under Ship Stats, Weapons will start off as 0 … not a blank. I accidentally named 2 variables the same thing.

-face desk-

Aw man, I can’t wait to see this develop! It looks interesting so far and I’ve been hoping for a Firefly-esque scifi game.

My only critique is that the sudden switch from second-person to first when you choose your athletic abilities and overall trait was kind of jarring. It might be best to stick to one, or introduce the perspective switch through the choice wordings (text: what did you do next? answer: i decided to blahblahblah) but that runs the risk of being too repetitive.

Is first-person the most efficient for Choice of Games? I can make it 100% first-person.

nope almost 99% used second. I prefer second. With first the author don’t stop controlling and telling what character think. I do this i think that… its not my character its author doing a monologue.

Oh okay, I’ll fix that and stick to 2nd-person narrative for the rest of the game. :smiley:

Looks like I switched to first-person out of nowhere there. Must have had some sort of brain-fart in the middle of writing. :wink:

See? This is why I need you guys and girls. Your keen eyes can spot all my careless mistakes.

Because I’m short for time, I decided to skip all the writing and instead just go through each choice. I’m curious to see how each stat will be used in game. Care to give some examples of what each stat will deal with?

Just tried this, I love it! Good range of options already, I can see.

Well there’s two stat blocks: the character stats and the ship stats.

CHARACTER STATS
Characters have 3 physical stats and 3 mental. Agility determines actions where you need to be quick and dexterous. Strength is your level of physical prowess, your bulk and brawn. Exactly as it sounds. Vitality is how well your character can withstand physical punishment, as well as their resistance to disease, poison, and how much it takes to get them drunk. Onto the mental stats - Awareness gives you options to spot a pirate ambush, detect a lie, or realize when something is wrong with your vessel. Intelligence has more to do with you figuring out how to fix said problem on your ship after you’ve spotted it, as well as a bunch of lore options that will open up in dialogue. Speaking of dialogue, Charisma determines all of your social skills, like bluffing an enemy or haggling a vendor for spare parts.

SHIP STATS
You’re probably going to be changing ships every now and then, when you can afford it. When you can’t afford an entirely new ship, you may swoop into a commercial district or a shipyard to buy some parts to outfit onto your existing vessel. Ship stats will always change, and it’s entirely dependent on the gear your ship is rigged up with. Speed determines your ship’s rate of acceleration and top speed, naturally. If it’s high enough, you can outrun pirates or government warships, if you’ve got illegal cargo in your hold. Weapons is the 2nd ship stat, and it is a numeric value of the punching power of your guns, missiles and other munitions. Cargo is a stat that determines how much you can actually carry from one planet to another. Sensors is a stat that acts as your ship’s “Awareness” of everything else around it. If your character has a low Awareness score, but you’re in a ship with sophisticated sensors, you won’t be any worse off, really. AI is a stat that measures your ship’s intelligence, and I think I’m tying that to a few in-game mechanics, such as satisfaction of passengers if you’re a transport (because AIs can entertain guests) as well as giving you thorough assessments of your ship’s structural and technical integrity. If something goes wrong on the ship, a good AI can usually detect it, and if it’s Technician-related, it may even be able to auto-fix it without the need of rousing your Technician from his or her bunk.

Condition and Fuel are two variables that start off at 100% and deplete when damage is taken and when you make trips between Points A and B, respectively. These are pretty easy to figure out. Condition and Fuel are two stats that have game-ending consequences, should you let either deplete to 0%. If you run out of Fuel in space, you’re a goner. I thought about implementing a simple proximity-to-planet system for a scenario where you run out of fuel. Technically, you could get on the comm-link and shout out for assistance and refueling, but I started thinking that your mayday could draw unwanted attention (Pirates, duh…) It sounds like it could get complicated pretty quick, so I’m putting that off until a little later.

The game would be good. Cheers

Very nicely written! Got nothing but good reviews for this game so far… keep up the good work! I’m excited to see this game develop :slight_smile:

I really liked it and I can’t wait to see more of this. I love games like this.

@Proff I really like how we don’t have to choose a ‘worst’ stat- in lots of games, character creation goes a lot like ‘What are you good at? Now what are you bad at?’, but I really like how you don’t have that in this game. I also like how you’ve split physical ability and mental ability into 3 different sub-categories, as I feel this will add a lot of detail to the game and make it more immersive. I absolutely loved the demo, and I’m really looking forward to seeing more!

Thanks, folks. I’ll be working hard on it for quite some time. :wink:

I really enjoyed it, can’t wait to see what’s in store.

Nicely done so far! I’ve been hoping for a Firefly-esque game. Really looking forward to seeing its development.

Just had a go at the updated demo, very good so far, the characters all seem decent and the means of balancing skills seems good. Will the two crew members be the only romance options? I’m not saying they’re boring but I’d like to avoid a Ash/Karidan situation if possible.

They will be the only romance options, at first. Haven’t considered it a huge part of the game, but I may add more options later in the game.

@Proff Well by all means do what you think is best, I’m devising my own game at the moment and debating exactly how important romance is in that too. After all COTV managed perfectly with Coco and Silas for me.