Play Captain's Chair
Captain's Chair's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Art Style / Visuals | #4 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Audio / Sound Design | #5 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Overall | #8 | 3.528 | 3.528 |
| Gameplay / Fun / Engagement | #14 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Theme | #18 | 3.611 | 3.611 |
Ranked from 18 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
The entire game takes place on a starship bridge. You never leave this single command room.
As captain, you rotate your view to access different stations (Tactical, Navigation, Communications) positioned around your chair, but you always remain in the same physical space. Every decision, every crisis, every system is managed from this one location.
The bridge is your world. One room to command an entire starship :-)
Devlog
Easter Egg Challenge
Easter Eggs
There are some little references to Star Trek characters and ships plus one famous mission you can not win.
Hail some ships multiple times for some funny conversations.
Game Engine
Self-made & used stuff
Have you joined a game jam before?
Roughly how much time did you spend developing? (in hours)
64
Anything else you'd like to share about your game or development process?
Overscoped big time :-)! This prototype has a few working missions showing the core concept, but it's definitely unfinished and rough.
Lessons learned: Time management and scope control are still hard 😅!
But it was a lot of fun creating the game!
Tip: Let dialogues play out completely to avoid bugs.
Thanks for playing! 🚀
Are you entering the "Best 3D Model Design with UModeler X" optional prize?
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Comments
You nailed the feeling of being a SpaceShip captain. Sadly i got softlock at some point, i was asked to scan but the scanner crew was not clickable (it appear like i had already click on it). I think there is something i could really enjoy in this concept if it go further ! Congrats
Thank you for the feedback and the kind words. I am glad I managed to capture a bit of that captain feeling, even though it was still an early prototype. That probably also caused the soft lock. Unfortunately I did not have enough time to fully test and fix all of those issues.
It is great to see that the concept resonates with multiple players. Definitely something to keep in mind.
Thanks again for your feedback!
A game that does a great job capturing the science fiction atmosphere it sets out to create. It’s clear that the entire game was designed with maximum immersion in mind, from the interfaces to the sound effects and dialogues, all of which are really well done, especially when experienced together.
The feeling of being a leader can be tense at times haha, especially for someone like me who’s never liked being in charge of anything in real life. However, the experience of leading the ship through space and completing the missions is truly rewarding.
Since we're limited to just one room, the sense of immersion the player feels from the environment is crucial to creating something satisfying to play. I’d say the game focuses more on emotion than action, even though we can control some aspects through the other crew members.
The scope is really ambitious, but in a great way because it gives us a glimpse of a game with a lot of potential for expansion. After all, in space, there’s so much more we could do.
You managed to make the environment feel alive with the communications with other ships, which shows a lot of care and attention to detail in the game itself, drawing the player in with those little touches.
One area that could be further improved is the visual atmosphere. I think the windows could have objects outside them, but they don't necessarily need to be 3D models like the rest of the game. Simple 2D drawings with parallax movement and some random animations could be enough to create a sense of depth and a constantly moving environment, without the complexity of 3D models.
The sound effects are also quite pleasant and blend harmoniously with the rest of the game. Honestly, great work! I hope that at some point you continue with the project and expand it further, with more missions, endings, and potential game-over scenarios (maybe instead of just exploding the ship, the crew could end up on an unknown planet and become prisoners? That would make for an interesting game over).
Thank you for playing and for the feedback, tips, and compliments. Really appreciate it.☺️
This was a small and quite rushed prototype in the end. My time management was not the best, which is always one of the trickiest parts of game jam development. There is a lot more that could be done, and I still have plenty of ideas in my head. I’ve now seen several people say they enjoyed this style of gameplay, so maybe I will revisit it in the future, expand it further, or create a new version with cleaner code😅.
My original idea was actually to show nothing outside the ship, except on the view screen during communication or combat, to reinforce the one room feeling. But another player also mentioned that having things visible outside would make it even more fun, so that is definitely a good suggestion to keep in mind. Improving the visual atmosphere is definitely on my to do list now.
Thanks again for playing, for the comments, and for the ideas for possible future additions.
And I’m glad to read that you had some fun with it despite it being a rough prototype.☺️
General:
Okay, I’ve always wanted to be Captain Picard (or in my case, more like Janeway), so of course I had to try this game. Back in the day, I really enjoyed playing Starfleet Academy and I’ve been missing a similar gameplay experience ever since.
The game immediately shines with its presentation once you get past the rather simple main menu. The controls on the bridge are intuitive, and you quickly find your way around. As a Star Trek fan, the Easter eggs are a real treat: I got to talk to Kirk (even though he unfortunately had better things to do at the moment). It also adds a lot to the atmosphere that you can hail other ships that aren’t directly part of the mission. It gives the impression of a living world.
Later on, it would be great to have more decision-making and multiple mission endings! I can also imagine a stylish mission overview menu working really well.
Graphics:
The game looks very good — especially the UI layout contributes a lot to that. The ship and everything inside it look fantastic! The effect when taking off is also really great; I only wish I could see something through the windows — stars, planets, space stations… overall, I think that’s very important. For example, when approaching the wormhole, or when undocking from the space station!
The rumbling during undocking was a great touch — you can feel the attention to detail. In the start menu, a hover effect on the button (visible already when hovering with the mouse) would have been nice.
Music/Sounds:
The sound effects are very good and fit perfectly; only the tones when playing back messages could be a bit lower in pitch, in my opinion. The ship’s hum helps the atmosphere a lot. The intro music is fitting and sets the tone nicely. Overall, I would add music in a few more places to underline the importance of key moments — for example, right when the demo ends…
Theme:
The bridge is a room — so the theme is absolutely met.
Conclusion:
A game strongly reminiscent of Starfleet Command. I would love to keep playing!
First of all, thank you very much for your detailed review, your experience, and all the helpful tips, kind words and feedback. I really appreciate it. I am also glad that you enjoyed the prototype. From what I am reading, there are a few people who like the idea of being a starship captain, and I also remember those older games where you could replay moments from the shows and movies, like Starfleet Command.
Your feedback and comments absolutely make sense. My time management during this jam was not great, which is of course a classic game jam killer😅. The points you mention definitely need to be improved and could have been better if I had planned things more carefully. They are valid suggestions that I can really work with. Some things, like adding music to important events, were already in my mind as well, and I agree it would enhance the atmosphere. The UI can also be sharpened with the small details you pointed out. I am very happy you mentioned these things so I can learn from them and improve in future jams and games, even though time management will probably always remain a challenge😅.
I am considering expanding this project at some point, with more varied missions, a stronger sense of immersion on the bridge screens, and more going on in the world around you. For this jam, the focus was mainly on quickly getting everything to work, which is why the dialogues could sometimes break or soft lock. With more time, that is something that should be fixable.
Again, thank you so much for playing the game and for taking the time to write this feedback. I am really happy to hear that you enjoyed it!☺️
I had lots of fun with this! I'm a major sucker for high-tech sci-fi and this definitely scratches that itch. It looks great and sounds great and seems mechanically tight. Good scene transitions, too.
I played a second time to try doing things in a different order but I didn't manage to tease out the bugs you mention in the beginning, no matter how hard I tried lol
The text appeared a little on the slow side and, as far as I could tell, there was no way to speed it up or skip the crawl. I fully acknowledge that this could just be down to reading speed but the ability to skip the text animation would be a big plus.
Very nice prototype!
First of all, thank you for playing and for your feedback. I really appreciate it, and thanks as well for the compliments 🙂. It sounds like we share the same love for high tech sci-fi 🚀!
I would have loved to add a skip option or at least a way to speed up the text, but yeah… time management during a jam 😅.
Still, it is a valid point and it would definitely be nice for players to be able to speed things up ⏩. Noted!
By the way, did you happen to go to Wolf 359 instead of following the objectives to Alpha Centauri? There is a small nod to a certain well known Star Trek training mission hidden there. Just for fun, and also to showcase and test the, for now, fairly simple attack mechanics.
Thanks again for playing and for your feedback, tips, and compliments. I am really glad you enjoyed it! 🎉
good try
Thank you 😊