I've spent the last few months upgrading the build system for Starship Rubicon to get it to run more nicely on modern systems (compiling it with Blitzmax NG as opposed to the depreciated vanilla Blitzmax).

If you've had problems getting it running on Windows 10, this should be the fix for you. Or a 64-bit linux system. Or, like, any mac.

Joystick support is dropped. If you really want it, you can opt back into the 2.2 branch.

Changes:

• Moved from a 32- to a 64-bit build.
  
• OpenGL is now the graphics driver for all platforms.
  
• Locked the render resolution to 1280x720 so the game doesn't play differently on different sized screens.
  
• Lancer AI has been changed to hit-and-run instead of circle-and-shoot.
  
• Dialogue size resized from 2x to 1.5x (I'm still not happy with how it looks, but it was too big)
  
• Reef boss now is layered underneath shots instead of on top of them.
  
• New terrain hazard: spinning beam-shooting mines a la mission impossible.
  
• Umm, some other enemy tweaks that I didn't record well. I think the advanced interceptor has less kickback so they're a little easier to hit, and advanced beam turret might turn slower?

There may be a new bug where some background graphics glitch out. I think I've tweaked things to fix them, but let me know if you see them (a screenshot would be helpful!).

Stayin' alive,
Wick

Been getting reports that Rubicon has trouble running on Microsoft's latest hey-know-what-would-be-fun-switching-your-OS update. I don't have a Windows 10 computer to test it/make a fix (and won't for the foreseeable future), so I'm just gonna declare it unsupported for the time being.

Sorry for the inconvenience. I just don't have the resources right now to fix it.

Edit: Sounds like even compatibility mode might not work. I'd rather people give it a pass than have a bad experience due to technical problems, so if you have Win10, I'd really recommend holding off for the time being.

Been getting reports that Rubicon has trouble running on Microsoft's latest hey-know-what-would-be-fun-switching-your-OS update. I don't have a Windows 10 computer to test it/make a fix (and won't for the foreseeable future), so I'm just gonna declare it unsupported for the time being.

Sorry for the inconvenience. I just don't have the resources right now to fix it.

Edit: Sounds like even compatibility mode might not work. I'd rather people give it a pass than have a bad experience due to technical problems, so if you have Win10, I'd really recommend holding off for the time being.

Crescent Loom, the genre-shifted neuroscientific sequel to Starship Rubicon, has been launched on Steam Greenlight!

I depend on crowdfunding to make new games, so if you enjoyed Starship Rubicon and wanna see more, head over to Greenlight show it some love!

As a sidenote, backers over at the Kickstarter have put putting together some really elegant creatures that I'd like to share with you: check them out on Kickstarter!

Crescent Loom, the genre-shifted neuroscientific sequel to Starship Rubicon, has been launched on Steam Greenlight!

I depend on crowdfunding to make new games, so if you enjoyed Starship Rubicon and wanna see more, head over to Greenlight show it some love!

As a sidenote, backers over at the Kickstarter have put putting together some really elegant creatures that I'd like to share with you: check them out on Kickstarter!

The Kickstarter is now live!

Update: we made it! Follow progress on the dev blog.

It's a bit of a genre shift: we're moving from space into the ocean. In Crescent Loom, players construct physics-based underwater creatures and weave scientifically-accurate neural circuits in order to explore an alien ecosystem.




After the events in Starship Rubicon, the planets of both humanity and the bio-engineering Alien Nemesis lay in ruins. Most surviving humans now sleep in cryopods collected by the Pilot on her warpath towards the Nemesis homeworld.

The Pilot now returns to one of the planets that she burnt from orbit and begins using a piece of Nemesis technology called a "Crescent Loom" in order to begin healing the planet and build a new home for humanity and the Alien Nemesis to live in peace. Despite your good intentions, many creatures of this world remember you -- and not fondly.

Unable to communicate directly, you must learn an unfamiliar piece of technology and let your creations speak for you through their actions and movements.

The Kickstarter is now live!

Update: we made it! Follow progress on the dev blog.

It's a bit of a genre shift: we're moving from space into the ocean. In Crescent Loom, players construct physics-based underwater creatures and weave scientifically-accurate neural circuits in order to explore an alien ecosystem.




After the events in Starship Rubicon, the planets of both humanity and the bio-engineering Alien Nemesis lay in ruins. Most surviving humans now sleep in cryopods collected by the Pilot on her warpath towards the Nemesis homeworld.

The Pilot now returns to one of the planets that she burnt from orbit and begins using a piece of Nemesis technology called a "Crescent Loom" in order to begin healing the planet and build a new home for humanity and the Alien Nemesis to live in peace. Despite your good intentions, many creatures of this world remember you -- and not fondly.

Unable to communicate directly, you must learn an unfamiliar piece of technology and let your creations speak for you through their actions and movements.

Hopefully the last patch for a while!

TLDR; to see some of the controller fixes, you may have to delete rubicon.options in the main game folder. (it'll generate a new one by default)

The biggest thing here is a not-abysmal controller scheme. Having designed the game ground-up for keyboard+mouse, it was a challenge to get the same kind of responsiveness from a controller. One note is that the main triggers on a 360 controller are not supported -- the default driver is set up such that if one is held down, it cancels out the other. Since I couldn't find an easy fix, I just left them disabled.

Also I JUST REALIZED joysticks haven't been working on linux or mac at all. I was able to throw together a fix for Linux (i.e. it works on my box, hopefully your milage will not vary), but Macs are still out of luck. Same goes for special Steam Controller support. C'est la vie.

The one thing I changed about gameplay was reverting the databank-gate challenge to before a boss instead of after. I missed the lull before the action and there were some problems on Linux where the databank was being set as the wrong faction. Should be fixed.



GAMEPLAY:
# test drive mode in unlocked hangar
# reverted the databank dragging task to pre-boss. Should fix issues with them being dropped as the wrong faction.


CONTROLLERS:
# better controller scheme -- polished both ingame and in menus
able to adjust sensitivity
# joystick: A or B always works in menus
# resetting joy axis in the options menu should actually work now
# resets joy axis on startup
# pressing a joy button on intro sets it to joy mode right off the bat
# gave joystick players extra lives in the final (secret) arcade battle
# PC controller names standardized to an xbox 360
# on death, controller pops into menu mode (so you can actually click the buttons)


MISC:
# now loads music assets on start of campaign/loading instead of game start
# PD no longer shoots down dodongo's mines
# fixed bug where bulwark reflected shots get HUGE
# larger cryopod icons
# fixed bug where it would scroll through lists on any click after using the mousewheel
# tweaked the parallax stars, there should be fewer gridlike lines on computers that experience them
# cleans up unowned ship config files on pilot deletion
# if a profile somehow loses access to all ship, it'll default to a lamjet
# loading screen for on new_game // loading a game
# sometimes apparently the arcade battle became unwinnable -- gave all enemies a 20sec self-destruct timer if you're not killing anything
points correctly added to profile on campaign victory

Hopefully the last patch for a while!

TLDR; to see some of the controller fixes, you may have to delete rubicon.options in the main game folder. (it'll generate a new one by default)

The biggest thing here is a not-abysmal controller scheme. Having designed the game ground-up for keyboard+mouse, it was a challenge to get the same kind of responsiveness from a controller. One note is that the main triggers on a 360 controller are not supported -- the default driver is set up such that if one is held down, it cancels out the other. Since I couldn't find an easy fix, I just left them disabled.

Also I JUST REALIZED joysticks haven't been working on linux or mac at all. I was able to throw together a fix for Linux (i.e. it works on my box, hopefully your milage will not vary), but Macs are still out of luck. Same goes for special Steam Controller support. C'est la vie.

The one thing I changed about gameplay was reverting the databank-gate challenge to before a boss instead of after. I missed the lull before the action and there were some problems on Linux where the databank was being set as the wrong faction. Should be fixed.



GAMEPLAY:
# test drive mode in unlocked hangar
# reverted the databank dragging task to pre-boss. Should fix issues with them being dropped as the wrong faction.


CONTROLLERS:
# better controller scheme -- polished both ingame and in menus
able to adjust sensitivity
# joystick: A or B always works in menus
# resetting joy axis in the options menu should actually work now
# resets joy axis on startup
# pressing a joy button on intro sets it to joy mode right off the bat
# gave joystick players extra lives in the final (secret) arcade battle
# PC controller names standardized to an xbox 360
# on death, controller pops into menu mode (so you can actually click the buttons)


MISC:
# now loads music assets on start of campaign/loading instead of game start
# PD no longer shoots down dodongo's mines
# fixed bug where bulwark reflected shots get HUGE
# larger cryopod icons
# fixed bug where it would scroll through lists on any click after using the mousewheel
# tweaked the parallax stars, there should be fewer gridlike lines on computers that experience them
# cleans up unowned ship config files on pilot deletion
# if a profile somehow loses access to all ship, it'll default to a lamjet
# loading screen for on new_game // loading a game
# sometimes apparently the arcade battle became unwinnable -- gave all enemies a 20sec self-destruct timer if you're not killing anything
points correctly added to profile on campaign victory

Recently I got together with Wick to do a retrospective interview discussion about Starship Rubicon and get this thoughts on this years launch. We talk about some of his new projects as well as some of his early memories of Star Wars and his start in game development modding Star Wars Battlefront II.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O2Z-vF-cX0