My project is a very small, simple one.

No. That’s a lie.

I realized there is no multi-head, multiplayer focused, opensource  submarine simulator out there, so I decided to write one. This LD Jam will produce a prototype of it. That’s one kind of game my father would always play with me (Silent Service, for NES).

Multi-head? What do I mean with that?

Simple: If you ever tried playing a submarine simulator, you will quickly realize it puts THE ENTIRE SHIP under your command. And while this is cool for a ride, seems somewhat unsuitable for combat, where you quick and precise responses from every station. I remember getting annoyed by the “change current station” behaviour of 688 Attack Sub. I would try to lock on a sonar signal, but switching to weapons and locking a torpedo was so cumbersome that I would always lose the lock.

So, in my simulador, every station is a separate application you can (and should) run on a separate machine (or tablet, or phone). You could even invite some friends over and have them fill in for every station available! Cool, huh?!

…And what if, on top of that, you could compete with other human-controlled submarine? Take some other 5 friends of you can go for a 3 x 3 competition! But that multiplayer server will have to wait for a while.

About graphics: for this prototype, there will be none. The simulator itself will be kind of a Telnet server on steroids, opening a telnet connection for each available station and offering a text interface to command that part of the ship. Eventually, I will have graphical clients. I have SVG handling libraries I’m itching to use for a eventual Cartography station.

What I intend to deliver: a simple “multi-head” submarine simulator, but not focusing that much on realism.

I grew up playing A LOT of Microprose simulators, specially in the Stealth Fighter series. I would love to deliver a game with at least one mission mimicking that kind of simulation.

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What do I already have: some basic modelling of the simulation with a Futuristic Scenario as an example (I intend to have historic scenarios as well) , a generic submarine and underwater base. The sub is still static, but slowing coming to “life”.

To be fair, I had a few setbacks and chose a very ambitious theme – But I believe this is a cool project worth the shot.

License: 3-Clause BSD.

Edit: I lied again – I haven’t checked much about submarine simulators, but there seems to be very few of it.

Edit 2: don’t know about you, but I had buckets of playing those simulators when I was a kid. And as much as I feel annoyed by some aspects of 688 Attack Sub, it’s still darn fine simulator .

Edit 3: for clarity