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[nihilocrat]

This looks like a freaking awesome idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnZszGvpTrQ

Artemis is a multiplayer game that lets you and your friends play as a starship bridge crew. One computer displays the main screen and runs the simulation server. the rest serve as bridge station consoles, like Helm, Comms, Weapons, Science, and Engineering.

One player plays as the captain, with a central chair but no workstation of his/her own.

Artemis was created by Thom Robertson, and will be downloadable at the website:
http://artemis.eochu.com/

I tried to do something vaguely like this with "Verteidiger", but at a much smaller scope and using only one computer. I'm surprised no one has thought of it before, the theme is a perfect fit with the control concepts.

[Christian Knudsen]

Kind of a mix between a real life RPG and a computer game. Seems interesting in theory, but I thought that video looked pretty boring.

[allen]

Perhaps it is something you would have to play to understand. Videos probably aren't sufficient for this type of game.

60 bucks is quite a lot, but if you split it with 6 people it's just 10 dollars per person.

If I regularly attended some sort of gaming LAN I would definitely be interested. But it's hard enough already to get 6 people to play DEFCON these days.

It seems very cool though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnZszGvpTrQ Super nerdy, but also strangely immersive.

[Christian Knudsen]

Perhaps it is something you would have to play to understand. Videos probably aren't sufficient for this type of game.

Oh, definitely. The interplay between the players seems really fun. I just think that the video doesn't really show off much interesting gameplay in the game itself -- just undocking with a space station and getting shot at a bit, and most of it taking place on a visually boring grid. It'd be cool if there was more of the outside view or a POV view. And maybe engaging in diplomatic negotiations with other ships (and your crew members getting injured/killed/abducted by hostile ships and stuff, so it's more personally engaging and not just turning the impulse/warp engine on/off). This just seems more like a proof of concept kinda thing than a game I'd actually want to play.

[FARTRON]

Why is the captain standing around and being awkward? He should be in the biggest chair and being suave.

Got a few friends who own projectors, gonna try to get something together to try this out.

[The Monster King]

i have a really cool and more complex idea involving two gigantic battleships fighting each other

IN SPACE

but yeah with each player having very separate roles

[phubans]

The top-rated comment made me chuckle.

[moi]

The top-rated comment made me chuckle.

http://cdn2.knowyourmeme.com/i/000/067/554/original/tumblr_l7q3a8ppiy1qdolauo1_500.jpg?1282769420

[allen]

but isn't there two girls playing the game.

[Landshark RAWR]

I gonna try and get a bunch of friends together for this :D

[dontkickpenguins]

You know what this reminds me of? Puzzle Pirates. It's got the same vibe, a crew of people working together to do battle against a computer based enemy. They even both involve ships!

I can imagine a whole genre for this kind of thing turning up. Computer Simulated Social Role Playing Games? Wherein each player takes on a different role in a computer simuation and they all work together to solve a problem. Maybe you could even open up a bar or some other sort of social space that specialised in these kind of games?

[tyronehenrie]

I did something like that when I was a kid in school.

We took a field trip to a space center and there was a simulator where we all manned our stations with about 20-25 kids. We had a commander and different sections of the ship served different purposes. I was over the navigation if I recall correctly. I had 3 or 4 people that I had to give orders to.

I was never really in to Star Trek so I'm not sure but we encountered ships and had conversations with aliens that looked straight out of Star Trek. There was some sort of battle and then a wormhole opened up and we were being sucked in. I had to get all the navigators to click on reverse at the same time over and over to get us out.

I'm sure it was less simulation and more of playing through an interactive movie but still it was a pretty intense and memorable experience for a kid. I think this was the place: http://www.spacecamputah.org/simulators.html

I'll have to check it out again sometime to see how much of the experience I remember is just nostalgia.

[Rob Lach]

This would be really awesome as a game show, where you have 2 ships hunting each other in a section of space, with NPCs that are friendly to one side, friendly to both sides, and hating of both sides.

contestants would wear different costumes and give their ships different names, it be hilarious/awesome

[shockedfrog]

Since playing Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates (not to be confused with Puzzle Pirates) I've been interested in something like this. I think Three Rings mentioned the possibility of working on a space game, though I don't see it happening now until they've added another few billion achievements to PP.

Sadly setting up a local game of this would be a near impossibility for me, and seeing as it's not really designed for online play I'm not sure how well it could ever adapt. Still, nice to see and hopefully one way or another this is the first step to something awesome.

[Nektonico]

Ooooh, that is the same guy who programmed a procedural spaceships 3d model generator.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw61GPSjcFI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMSNioOMnv0

Does the game engine implement the aforementioned tech? I actually spotted that stuff a long time ago.

EDIT: It does!

Quote:
"Q: How did you make this game?

A: I wrote the game in C++ using Microsoft Visual C++ 2008. I already had a large amount of code to use (I've been making games for a long time), and in particular I have home-made tools that procedurally generate spaceships. For my 3D objects, I also used Deled Pro. For my audio, I used Goldwave. For the skybox, I used Spacescape by Alex Peterson."



As far as this is concerned, it would probably only appeal to a limited audience, who would be into LARPing and perhaps roleplaying. Maybe its lanparty material, but the fact that you would sorta need a projector further narrows the target audience.
Perhaps some sort of online component and matchmaking service, or mmo implementation of the idea would be neat. But alas, im going off on a tangent here.

Or maybe the trekkies are going to be all over this and turn it into a cult hit.