Week 04 — The Captain Gets Cooking

The captain now looks the part while preparing meals, even when the ship’s resident opossum turns the kitchen into a crime scene.

What changed

• The captain received a full cooking animation. Instead of standing beside the kitchen while food magically appears, they now step behind the counter and visibly get to work.
• Moving into and out of the cooking position is much smoother. Interrupting a kitchen task no longer leaves the captain in the wrong place, and repeated cooking orders no longer cause strange jumps around the ship.
• Barrba and his opossum received another round of polish. The opossum now appears at the correct height, spends less time stealing food, and gives Barrba a better chance to begin the chase at the right moment.
• Several movement problems involving the captain, furniture, dirt, and the opossum were corrected. Characters should be less likely to stop in odd places or lose track of what they were doing.

Best moment

There was a bug whenever the opossum’s feast in the ship’s kitchen was interrupted by its owner. Its sprite ended up in the wrong position, so it started flying through the ship instead of fleeing along the floor.

Martian marsupials cause enough trouble with their feet firmly on the ground. We definitely don’t want them growing wings.

Behind the scenes

The hardest part this week was simplifying the captain’s internal logic to prevent future bugs.

As the captain gained more responsibilities—cooking, cleaning, repairing facilities, calming passengers, and joining the end-of-trip lineup—the rules controlling movement and tasks had become increasingly complicated. Adding another special case risked creating new situations where the captain could become stuck, teleport, or continue the wrong activity.

The system was simplified so every task follows the same basic rules for choosing a destination, walking there, and interacting with it. This work is mostly invisible while playing, but it should make the captain more reliable and make future activities easier to add safely.

Next week

• Create a new cleaning animation so the captain can properly mop the ship’s floors.
• Start working on a new likes mechanic. The more likes players earn, the more they will be able to upgrade the spaceship.