Captain Kaon
Version 1.1
So....I've been working on this update for a little while. I'm going to patch in a couple of fixes here and there over the next couple of weeks, but otherwise this is the end. I had been hoping to add a few more things, but unfortunately, like so many other games on Steam nowadays, Captain Kaon didn't really sell and I've run out of money. It's been arewarding few years making this game, and I'm really proud of what I've accomplished.
In this new version the main changes are:
New Gunships
I've change the sprites to better communicate the gameplay. The old ones looked a bit too 'top down'. I've made the new ones side on, the body then has a fixed rotation so it's always horizontal. The thrusters are then on a tilting bar that you rotate to change direction.
New Hanger
The old hanger screen was hideous, so I made a new one. It also has some new features. You now build gunships and weapons using your fleet resources. You can then choose three to take with you on a mission. But be careful, if your shiney new gunship is destroyed you lose it and any weapons it had.
Campaign Changes
I've changes the way fleet resources are used, you now spend resources once to scout a region, you can then attempt the mission as many times as you like.
Highscores
You now have a score and killing stuff increases that score. Watch out for the civilian buildings, if stray bullets destroy them you will lose points.
These's also lots of balancing tweaks and level fixes and other little stuff.
I hope you enjoy this new version.
Game Postmortem video series
I've been working on a new video series about Captain Kaon, it's a postmortem of the project where I talk about how things went.
I start with an intro video where I explain a little about who I am and what a postmortem is, you can check it out here.
Postmortem Intro
In the first episode of the postmortem I talk about the concept stage of Captain Kaon and why getting your concept right is important.
You can check it out here.
Captain Kaon Postmortem - Concept
I have six videos planned so far, and I hope to be doing more. I'll be publishing them once a week, so head over to Youtube and subscribe to see them.
Update #15 Hotfix
Sooo, I slightly broke the frontend so it thought there weren't any save games and wouldn't let you contiune. Or at least it would only let you if you had a save game in the last slot.
Unfortunately I compounded my mistake by not testing a fresh install before uploading the build which, for someone who spent so long in QA, is just embarassing.
You have my humble apoligies and it's all working now.
Update #15
Here's the latest bunch of fixes and tweaks.
- I've fixed the 'fullscreen is black' issue. It seems the Windows 10 Creator update causes problems with Java based games.
- I've gone through all the levels and closed all the little holes where you can get you ship stuck.
- I've added some new sounds and changed some others. The most obvious are the bullet impact sounds.
- I've added little icons to the campaign to indicate which regions unlock weaposna dn ships.
- I've added a little improvement to performance. It seems that Gamemaker will still call the Draw event on objects that aren't on the screen. There might be a good reason why it does this, but I've stopped it because it's silly, very silly.
- I've made a couple of little tweaks to the ai behaviour, they should now swarm the player less.
Update #14
I've mostly just been making little bug fixes and tweaks here and there. I'm currently working on an XBOX One version, which is all fun and games :-/
- It now runs at a silky smooth 60 fps.
- I've rebalanced the ships, some of them were too slow.
- I've changed a couple of the music tracks and added a missing one.
Chatting on Lave Radio
I recently sat down and had a chat with the guys over at Lave Radio, the Elite Dangerous Podcast.
Check out the Podcast here.
We talked about how I made Captain Kaon, my time working on Total War, and the 5 games I would take with me to a desert island.
Enjoy.
Update #13
Mostly I've been fixing little bugs and making little tweaks to things. But I've also tried to make changes to help people who find the game to challenging.
- There are now two levels of difficulty Normal/Hardcore. The previous difficulty is Hardcore, and now there is a 'Normal' difficulty. This has a bunch of tweaks to take the challenge out of the game such as an increase in health for your gunship and you don't take impact damage from the environment.
- I've also implemented a 'flight assist' which can be turned on/off in the Main Menu > Options. It gives a little bit of help to the ships rotation by making it turn quickly to 'up' and slowly away from it.
Framerate Issues - Resolved
So, there's a frame rate issue in the game that currently has me pulling my hair out. I thought I'd fixed it, but it seems to have come back.
Sometimes the game gets stuck at 24 fps and it jerks around and stutters. There's a short term work around, closing and reopening the game sometimes corrects it.
This is not ideal and I'm really sorry. I've been working hard to find a solution and have reached out to Yoyo for help.
I'll keep you updated and hope to have it sorted out once and for all soon.
In the meantime I've updated the game with some bug fixes, including making the text easier to read. I've also added a difficulty mode, you can now play in Normal or Hardcore (previously just hardcore).
Update:
After chatting with Yoyo I've putting in a fix for the framerate problems, so far it seems to have worked. It's a little tricky to judge as it was an intermittent problem, but I haven't seen it recurr in the last 4 builds and I'm reasonably confidant it's fixed.
Update #12
After a long and exhausting week at Rezzed I've been back at the grindstone making some improvements to Captain Kaon. It was great to spend three days meeting people and watching them play my game. The positive response from players has been really heart warming.
More importantly I have been able to watch new players learning to play the game and make notes on lots of improvements. The first set are in this build, along with a few bug fixes.
- I've improved the strafing and made it useful. Instead of the slow sideways thrust the gunship will now 'pulse' sideways in a dodging move. This is much more useful for avoiding bullets.
- I've made improvements to the players HUD to give a clearer indication of what the objective type is.
- I've tweaked the ship sprites to give a better indication of the gunships angle of rotation. The bottom corners now have little bits of colour on them, e.g. the Wasp has a bit of red on one side and green on the other.
Updae #11
I’m currently packing stuff up in preparation for Rezzed in London, I’ll be busy there so there won’t be an update for a couple of weeks. I’ve tried to pack lots into this one, Ceres is now mostly ‘done’ and all focus now will be on completing Mars.
Some of the stuff in this update:
- I’ve added medals that are awarded at the end of a successful mission if you complete it within the target time. There are gold, silver, and bronze medals. The silver medal time is the time it takes me to complete the mission. There are also several new achievements tied in to these.
- I’ve improved the difficulty curve so that that challenge of each mission ramps up at a slower rate. You should be better able to complete the first 5-6 missions
- Fixed a problem with the ship selection not saving correctly
- Fixed the blast damage for secondary weapons, often a missile wouldn’t do any damage when it hit next to a turret. They now work great. I also made them do friendly fire damage if you are too close, because I’m mean.
- The large bomb wasn’t working at all, it is now. I also gave it a delay in detonation, so you can bounce it off stuff.
- When I added the power shot in the previous update I broke the Welder Bot, whoops. I’ve fixed it and made a few other tweaks to improve it.
- At some point I broke the campaign win check, it now works and you can actually win a campaign and unlock Mars.