Hey friends. Thorium's developer here. Happy to answer any questions or give more insights.<p>Thorium Classic has been in development since 2016 and is primarily intended to be used in brick-and-mortar space centers out in Utah, like the Space Place[1] and CMSC[2]. As such, there isn't a lot of content and documentation to get newcomers up-and-running with it.<p>Thorium Nova is currently under development and is intended to be used by a broader audience. It will include much more content, pre-built missions, and more integrated tutorials.<p>The project is open-source, so anyone is welcome to contribute[3] and follow along with the progress of each alpha.<p>1: <a href="https://www.thespaceplace.org" rel="nofollow">https://www.thespaceplace.org</a><p>2: <a href="https://spacecenter.alpineschools.org" rel="nofollow">https://spacecenter.alpineschools.org</a><p>3: <a href="https://thoriumsim.com/blog/contributing-to-thorium-nova" rel="nofollow">https://thoriumsim.com/blog/contributing-to-thorium-nova</a>
HAH! I did exactly this with my daughters when they were like 8 or 9. Except I just printed out maps on a piece of paper and we used everyday items for the spaceship. I had a golfclub I used to steer the ship, we had walkie talkies that were scanners too when we explored planets, and I think one of them used a collander as a radar. We cozied up in one of their twin beds with the blankets surrounding us. I basically DM'd the entire thing and they loved it. Weekend mornings while their mom slept in, they'd say "Daddy, can we play space ship?" and then they'd go around the house grabbing things to use as controls for it. Such great memories!<p>Edit: forgot to mention, I would have loved to have Thorium when we were playing. But then again, I loved their imagination.
Thorium is great; it's closer to a virtual tabletop for starship RPGs than a standalone game, built around creating interactive narratives. That sets it apart from the more straightforward game-style bridge sims, like Artemis[1] and EmptyEpsilon[2], which have scriptable scenarios with narrative elements but have more fundamentally game-focused mechanics.<p>All of these get used in a lot of fun ways for live events beyond their design, too. Thorium's "family tree" comes from interactive events at planetariums, and EmptyEpsilon, being open-source with an HTTP API and game-master screen for directly manipulating live game state and pretending to be ships, became a popular front-end for European LARPs.[3]<p>1: <a href="https://www.artemisspaceshipbridge.com/#/" rel="nofollow">https://www.artemisspaceshipbridge.com/#/</a><p>2: <a href="https://daid.github.io/EmptyEpsilon/" rel="nofollow">https://daid.github.io/EmptyEpsilon/</a><p>3: <a href="https://www.odysseuslarp.com/blog/steering-the-starship-empty-epsilon" rel="nofollow">https://www.odysseuslarp.com/blog/steering-the-starship-empt...</a>
I did one of these at THAT Conference a few years back with a few friends. In our case, we had the main display and then each person had their own console with their area - weapons, nav, engineering, and science - and the captain had to call out commands and make the whole thing work.<p>We walked in thinking it would be fun but almost silly.. and walked out drained because it was intense. You don't have time to do anything than monitor your own display and make sure you're ready for a variety of things that could happen next.<p>Obviously, there were zero stakes (other than embarrassing yourself) but had a new perspective on what naval battle <i>may</i> be like.<p>If you have the chance to do it - especially in person with the big displays - do it.
Ah… I've been on that space ship simulator. (Voyager) I sat in that elevated nook—the engineer's position, naturally. So much fun. Going to the space center was the most coveted birthday party experience.<p>I was mildly disappointed to learn that the whole thing was not an iron-clad simulator (i.e. everything I did as engineer was just busy work—ship systems could still function if the GM decided they would) but once I got into D&D later as an adult, I appreciated the setup much much more.<p>I'm going to have to try this out some time…
This sounds like such an awesome project!<p>"Bridge Simulators, like Thorium Nova, are cooperative live-action role-playing games set in space. Players act out the roles of a spaceship bridge crew, such as communications officer, navigator, or captain. They work together to complete a set of mission objectives.<p>Thorium Nova adds a flight director, who sits behind the scenes to act as a game master, controlling what happens inside the simulation, acting out the roles of aliens the crew encounters, and guiding the crew through the storyline.<p>Many bridge simulators, like Artemis or Empty Epsilon, focus only on arcade action. Thorium Nova attempts to bridge the gap by offering rich stories in a dynamic environment, while staying simple enough for anyone to enjoy among friends in their living room."
I haven't played Thorium, but bridge sims are a lot of fun. Especially when playing with colleagues or other engineers. I've found non-tech people can get frustrated and bored with them, but my 70yo non-techie mother is in love with the engineering station of Artemis. It is a lot of work to play the Captain role, and in any event the game is tiring after about an hour.<p>What's really fun is having everyone in the room engaged with a central game (played on the big TV in the room) on their own phones/computers. Usually group games aren't cooperative or interactive to the entire group at once. Jackbox has a few coop BYOD party games, but I really wish this product-space had more options.<p>There's also the case of venues having realistic bridge-sims that are kinda like an escape room (in setting/biz model). Show up to the set and cooperate to solve the task. This seems to be the use-case for Thorium classic (the predecessor to TFA). I've seen these at flight museums. They're a load of fun, but probably rather expensive to setup and run (and still tiring).
Maaan! Bridge sims like Star Trek, Artemis, and Empty Epsilon have been some of the most fun I've ever had playing games with my friends in my entire life. Mind you, we play it as a drinking game with plenty of space shanty singing and other LARP parodies. As a genre, it has my highest recommendation above all others, but it's hard to get it together.
Looks awesome, congrats to the devs.<p>Sidenote as a nuclear engineer: thanks for messing up all my scouring "news" alerts with that name choice.
I'm interested but I have no idea what this actually is, after reading the whole page.<p>> You can play it as part of a larger event, or with your friends in your living room.<p>So this is a video game with couch co-op?<p>> part of a larger event<p>There's an online mode?<p>> The USS Voyager Mk II<p>Is this a simulator that requires you to be in that room from the picture?<p>---<p>Is this like Space Station 13?
My first thought was - this reminds me of the space center I went to when I was a kid! It was in pleasant grove utah and built on mac classics with hypercard for the software! Then I scroll down "Alex started working on starship bridge simulators when he worked at the McAuliffe Space Education Center in Pleasant Grove, Utah". Small world!
I used to have a pretty sweet Artemis setup. Projector main screen, a central dedicated server and a few tablets. That was really fun. You could get anyone of any age to play. I should set that up again. And I guess make some friends.
I've played Artemis before. Thorium's promise of a "game master" and a narrative outside of combat sounds interesting.<p>Incidentally, here's a link to the latest alpha:<p><a href="https://github.com/Thorium-Sim/thorium-nova/releases/tag/v1.0.0-alpha.9">https://github.com/Thorium-Sim/thorium-nova/releases/tag/v1....</a>