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[Dean Tate]

Captain Forever Remix is a 2D action roguelike where you create a spaceship and blast apart randomly-generated enemies for spare parts.

You better build a pretty tough ship, because you're gonna need it. Your mutant little brother is being a total butthead and must be stopped! He froze the Sun, poked out Jupiter's eye, drank Neptune's oceans, and cracked Earth like an egg! Set off across a messed-up Solar System to put a stop to the big jerkface once & for all!

Captain Forever Remix is an officially-licensed remix of the award-winning Captain Forever by Farbs.

FEATURES

Build your ship bit-by-bit: Protect your Command Core with bulkheads, weapons, & boosters to customize your ship. Every piece you add affects your ship's movement, combat capabilities, and armor.

Plunder enemies for new parts: Every enemy ship is randomly generated and presents a unique combat challenge. Go in guns blazing or pick them apart carefully so that the leftover bits can be grafted to your ship!

Choose your tools: Obliterate your enemies with prismatic lasers and sniper beams or shred them to pieces with the ripsaw. Make the fastest ship in the Solar System with uniboosters and twin thrusters, protect it with bubble shields, repair cores, and tons more!

Captain Forever - Remixed: Experience all-new gameplay that wasn't in the original cult-hit Captain Forever. Earn special bonuses, unlock new starter kits & special abilities, discover new ship modules, and fight powerful Bounty Hunters.

A new look, a new universe: Remix features a completely new art style that draws inspiration from the 1990's heyday of amazing & weird cartoons. Tour a Solar System in disarray as you set out to put a stop to the insane shenanigans of your mutant little brother & get payback!

New tunes by Danny Baranowsky: In space, you WILL be able to hear new tunes by Danny Baranowsky, composer for Crypt of the Necrodancer, Desktop Dungeons, and Super Meat Boy.

TEAM

Dean Tate doing art.
Brain Chan doing code.
Danny Baranowsky doing audio & music.
Farbs lending spiritual guidance.

HOW ARE WE MAKING THE GAME?

We're using Unity to build the game. None of the code from the original flash/browser based is being used: everything is being rebuilt from the ground up in Unity.

So far we're just using all of the out-of-the-box Unity Free features. No plugins or the like. We're building this thing ROUGH! Heh.

For art we're using Adobe software. Photoshop for backgrounds and character portraits, Illustrator for ship assets/projectiles/effects/etc.

In terms of what the game is going to be, we're taking the original game's design and bringing it forward into 2014. The roguelike landscape has changed somewhat and been pushed forward by the likes of Spelunky, FTL, Binding of Isaac, etc. We're adding new features that bulk up the original game and make it deeper without breaking the magic formula that made the original so great.

Footage of new features can be seen here:



LINKS

Website: http://captainforeverremix.com/
Game Twitter:https://twitter.com/CapForeverRemix
Dean Twitter: https://twitter.com/IamDeanTate
Bchan Twitter:https://twitter.com/BchanSays

[Loop Gain]

Looks interesting; what sort of new features are you planning? I only skimmed the video, so my impressions may be inaccurate, but currently it seems quite faithful to the original (I like the revamped art style, though.)

Also, nice to see a tardigrade in the menu screen image; they're tragically under-represented in games.

[Dean Tate]

"Also, nice to see a tardigrade in the menu screen image; they're tragically under-represented in games."

YES. Finally, someone who understands the magic that is tardigrades! This is for you: http://pixelsaurusgames.tumblr.com/post/85226656479/if-you-say-tardigrade-three-times-one-will

So we're still being a little quiet on the new stuff, because we're heavily experimenting. Right now we're trying out this like:

-Adding a cash economy that can be used to buy modules and rare stuff.
-Slightly altering the "structure" of the core game (for example, right now we're trying out giving the player access to a store where they can buy modules in-between "rounds").
-Adding some game-to-game progression. Think about how in FTL you can work towards unlocking new craft, or how in Spelunky you can pay the tunnel digger to unlock shortcuts. Something along those lines ie. having the player unlock new stuff across multiple games.
-New module types that don't exist in Successor or any of the rest of the series.

Now keep in mind all of this is *highly* speculative. It's not clear where we'll land yet. There may even be, and hopefully are, amazing new things that we haven't thought of yet (or that I'm not listing here )

[Dean Tate]

Oh, but forgot to mention: yes, the video above mostly shows off stuff that existed in the original game. I wanted to post it because there are PLENTY of people out there that aren't aware of the magic that is Captain Forever, so the video is about getting them to grips with what the core game is about.

Thanks for watching it!

[Loop Gain]

Game-to-game progression (via unlockable functionality or through some other means) is a good idea. One thing that was rather frustrating with the original Captain Forever was getting destroyed and being thrown all the way back to square one with little to show for it. Admittedly that's a core part of the gameplay, but having something to (metaphorically) shoot for each round (besides survival) would be nice.

[Christian]

Were you involved in the original game? I'm confused if you're rebooting your game or doing this like a spiritual successor or something similar?

Anyway, I loved Captain Forever so I'm very excited for this

[Farbs]

Hey! So, I made the original, and Dean and Brian are making the remix. I'm pretty excited by what they're doing with it.

[Dean Tate]

Oops, didn't see people had replied! Sorry about that.

Yep like Farbs said, I wasn't involved in the original, we're doing a "remix", which means we're taking the original game, making some tweaks to it's design, and adding some fun stuff.

Here's what the game is starting to look like:

http://37.media.tumblr.com/bc7d58bbe3c89b2056a2edd18c0ad235/tumblr_n8j264xhz31tatdmyo1_500.gif

I'll give a quick update on what we're doing right now:

-Changing the way the core game flows somewhat. We're giving the enemy spawning system a pretty big overhaul, and now when you kill a tough enemy you're given the ability to warp to the next level when you feel ready (in the original, the game automatically moved on). It's still dangerous to stick around in a level for too long: enemies will get more aggressive, and more of them will spawn.
-We're starting to add modules from Captain Successor. So far we've got prismatic lasers, repair tools, and twin boosters. More soon.
-We've added the concept of "bonuses": When you go to the next level, you get to select a bonus from a randomly selected collection of them. It's a bit like Nuclear Throne in that way. Bonuses are stuff like "loose modules heal to 100% health when dropped by a dying enemy" or "all your modules level up" or "All your modules get healed". A mix of one-shot stuff (immediate effect) and passive effects (you get an interesting bonus for the rest of the game).
-Your core/command module (the little spaceship you start out as) levels up when you kill tough enemies. It's weapon gets more powerful, it gets more health (though generally has far less health than in the original game, which had a TON of health coz it had to last you the entire game). This means that even if you drop back down to having nothing but your command module, you can still take on enemies that are the same level (or lower) as yours (which is different to the original game, where you could generally only take on Level 0 enemies). It's very risky though: your command module has very little health and can usually only take a couple hits from whatever enemies are around.

Loop Gain: those last two things in particular are helping a LOT with the problem you described (with it often being better in the original game to just reset and start fresh if you drop back down to square one). Now, you have a better chance of using your command module to kill an enemy and take its modules, and also you tend to not want to reset the game because you'll lose all the cool bonuses you've earned.

Things are going really well, generally. The game is becoming very fun and I'm finding I spend too much time playing instead of working every day! Kind of a mashup of original Captain Forever/Captain Successor/Nuclear Throne/FTL.

[Dean Tate]

Things are going well this week. We've got a milestone at the end of this week, by which point:

-We're aiming to have a new build to send out to our testers.
-We'll have added the majority of module types that we want to keep from Captain Successor/Forever. Right now this are:
--Sniper laser.
--Prismatic Laser.
--Missile Launcher.
--Repair Tool.
--Bubble Shield (though we're trying out making the shield itself square shaped so that it's clearer which modules are being protected)
--Twin booster.
--Unibooster.
-We'll have some more bonus types in the game for the player to select between levels:
--Chance for critical hits.
--Chance for enemies to make critical miss (missed shots).
--Vampire: kills give you health.
--Mulligan: all of your modules are destroyed, and you're given a random grab-bag of new ones (good in situations where you're low on modules or they're really damaged).

The game is becoming fuuuuuun. The new additions are really exciting.

More news soon on:
-Crazy new modules we're adding.
-More bonuses.
-Narrative/world.

[Dean Tate]

Today we announced that Captain Forever Remix will be available later this year on Steam Early Access, and you can pre-order now (for a heavy discount!):

http://captainforeverremix.com/

There's a big post on our Tumblr about the announcement, some new screenshots, and plus info about where the game is headed:

http://pixelsaurusgames.tumblr.com/post/92475436379/captain-forever-remix-is-coming-to-steam-early

We'll be streaming footage of the new gameplay this Wednesday at 7pm PST right here:

http://www.twitch.tv/iamdeantate

The tumblr post goes over some of the changes to the game and we'll show those in the stream this wednesday. Right now we're planning on what to try next, based on feedback we got from playtesters, and systems we've had in the backlog for a while. Next "big" thing to try will most probably be unlockable starter kits and command module perks ei. "character traits". So for example you might choose the "ripsaw" starter kit (our new melee weapon) and then play with a perk that makes you better at melee combat (eg. any lasers you equip, which are plentiful, convert to ripsaws, or ripsaw weapons will deflect shots that hit them). Really fun stuff, the game is starting to feel nicely fleshed out!

[Dean Tate]

Last week went really well and we got good feedback from playtesters:

-People generally liked the new module types and bonus perks system.
-Bunch of usability issues were called out.
-Game is currently too easy (some people were able to get to the end).

So this week we are:

-Fixing the biggest usability issues (one of which is "people don't realize they have time to rebuild their ship after battles")
-We're making the game tougher with a lot more variation and surprises. We're going that by:
--Adding the idea of "mini bosses" that can randomly appear in a stage. Sometimes they'll be very, very tough (+2 levels above you) but other times they'll be the same level as you or lower. You'll know where they are, but be unsure of how difficult it is to beat. If you beat a miniboss, you get to choose a bonus perk at the start of the next stage (and only if you beat a mini boss).
--We're also going deep on varying how enemy ships are constructed. Ships can be much larger or smaller, with more or fewer modules. They might use LOTS of rare/powerful modules, or very few of them. Sometimes there'll be tiny little "gnat" ships that attack in swarms. Stuff like that. Basically as a player you'll need to be more prepared for crazy ships to attack at any moment, and be a little more careful in choosing which targets to pick apart for spare parts.

I'm excited about this stuff! The game is becoming more fun at an exponential rate.

We're streaming the stuff we made over the last few weeks tonight at 7pm PST/10pm EST: http://www.twitch.tv/iamdeantate

[Dean Tate]

Last night we streamed footage of new gameplay, and Farbs himself dropped in to chat!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cDKIgrMXyw&feature=youtu.be

Will post more today about what I'm working on:

-Trying experiment that switches around the colors assigned to levels. It might be crazy, and fail. And really confuse players of the original (would maybe need an option to let them revert the game to use same colours as the original).
-If I get time I'm going to update our thruster effects and trails.

[Dean Tate]

Today I ended up doing a bunch of work on backgrounds. I've been making sprites for asteroids and small planetoids. To get a lot of use out of the individual assets, I compose them into weird formations that are used as "tiles" to populate the background.

Individual tiles:







Tiles strung together to make a great big background that takes up multiple screens/large enough for the player to explore for a while:



I also tried out the experiment I mentioned of taking all the ship colours from the original Captain Forever and randomly sorting them (so they aren't chromatically sorted). It uh...sucked and didn't work, for various reasons (not to mention if we shipped like that it'd confuse the heck out of fans of the original game).

[Dean Tate]

We spent the last few days on the system that constructs enemy ships. We're working to get a ton more variety out of the types of ships that spawn: how many pieces they're built from, how many types of pieces (eg. 3 weapons? 4? How many types of thrusters?). It's starting to really work out. I spent a lot of time playing and tuning the game today and had an absolute blast!

To add spice we're also adding some ship "types". These guys are called "gnats": the rule is that they don't have any bulkheads, and have random weapons and thrusters put onto their body:

[Dean Tate]

Last week I streamed development for an hour. Spent some time tuning game difficulty and a bunch of new features that Bchan added to the game:

• Enemy construction system got a pretty massive overhaul. Enemy ships are way more varied now.
• There are now optional "Minibosses" to fight. If you beat one, you get to choose a Bounty Bonus (skills and perks). Minibosses are large ships that are +2 levels above the player, making them really hard to beat.

Bchan is going to make a blog post soon detailing how the new enemy construction rules work. The system is in a really good state now and is really helping every game feel VERY different.

[Dean Tate]

Yesterday was spent revising some of the module designs to make their function a little clearer. I made a new version of the "Ripsaw", which is a melee weapon:

-It's always-on: you don't need to hold down fire to use it. Which means you can have your projectile/ranged weapons turned off, and still use the Ripsaw. That's something that is completely unique to this weapon.
-It works by dealing damage-over-time to anything it touches. So you just press a Ripsaw up against the enemy's bulkheads, and it'll start tearing them apart.

I love the Ripsaw, it's my favorite weapon. Nothing quite as satisfying as ramming your ship into an enemy craft and just watching it pop & explode as you go on sailing by 

[Dean Tate]

Here's a work-in-progress piece of concept art for Captain Forever (the character).

Bit of info about her:

-She's around 13-14 years old and one of only 2 humans left alive in the Solar System.
-The other human is her jerk of a little brother, who (along with all of Earth's animals) has become an insane mutant. He's gone a little more insane than most though, and has rampaged across the Solar System leaving every planet in a pretty big mess (not to mention the sun, which is frozen solid). Captain Forever feels like she's the only one that can stop him.
-She's an imaginative geek with an artistic streak.
-She has no fear: she's seen what her brother did to the Solar System, including cracking Earth in half like an egg, and she's not afraid to travel all the way out to Pluto, fighting her way through throngs of his attack drones and the odd mutant animal space criminal, to stop him.

[futurecrayon]

Hi all, Brian here. I'm working on the CF Remix with Dean. Here's a brief overview of our process for procedurally-generating enemy ships. Questions/comments/suggestions appreciated!

How we build our spaceships!

[Dean Tate]

We've had a good week! Lots of progress on multiple fronts.

We've now got the concept of "Starter Kits": when you start the game, you get to pick a Starter Kit which consists of a bunch of starting modules to build your ship out of, plus a special perk. Right now we have three perks:

-Extra rebuild time.
-Laser sights (for the long range/sniper specialist)
-Lasers fire double-shots but have decreased range. (for the close-range, deal-tons-of-damage-fast specialist)



Here's a gif of the laser sights in action:



We also made a ton of progress on our narrative/world, on our UI (Shell, HUD) design, and on how we're going to construct our backgrounds. More on that stuff soon!

[Hempuli‽]

Amazing! I love the visual style - you managed to make the wireframeish look of the ships fit a colourful environment very well I think the concept has a ton of potential so really looking forward to this.