- Duke Nukem joins the crew! - 2 February 2022
When your crew is facing deep-space disaster, you can always rely on one man to rock up at the eleventh hour and save your sorry butts… Duke Nukem! That’s why we've enlisted legendary voice actor, Jon St. John, to provide the voice for the final crew member in their laser-powered, space survival strategy game, The Captain is Dead. N U K E M Jon lends his inimitable brand of machismo to the ship’s lovable (but slightly over-reaching) underdog, the Janitor, whose ability to fix shipboard systems with nothing but duct tape and chewing gum has made him a favourite amongst players of the original board game. Mr. Nukem himself joins an impressive and diverse cast featuring Elias Toufexis (Deus Ex, Assassin’s Creed), Lani Minella (Mass Effect, Professor Layton) and Kevan Brighting (Portal, The Stanley Parable). So when you need to introduce an alien invader to the business end of your boot, yo…
- It's the Final Countdown... - 22 December 2021
Stand by for action, brave commanders! Here at Thunderbox HQ we're getting ready for our final crew update, and it's a good one... This update will finally max out the crew roster (to 18), and adds numerous enhancements. Joining the existing crew are The First Officer and Janitor - bringing totally new strategies to the game with their unique set of abilities... L O G I C A L The deceased captain's Number One brings a distinct tactical advantage to your crew, with his mastery of Battle Plans. Able to draw these game-changing cards more efficiently than other crew members, the First Officer can be powered up to select any plan he chooses... particularly handy when the dilithium hits the fan. I M M A C U L A T E If you like the floors on your spaceship to sparkle like a crystalline entity, then the Janitor's your man! He may like to think of himself as the sheriff, but his improvisational…
- Three to beam up! - 20 October 2021
New crew have just beamed aboard... and not a moment too soon! Get ready to turn the tide of battle as three versatile new specialists join the fight... D I P L O M A C Y Maybe those pesky space aliens are just getting their Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra confused with Shaka when the walls fell? Or maybe they need another dose of hot laser justice? Either way, the Diplomat can help you out! With her Command prowess, and ability to override Alerts whenever she heckin' well pleases, she's always ready to unleash Uzano's army... with fists open! T E L E P A T H Y Cloaking devices and tentaclular probes are no match for the power of the mind! The Telepath can wield the combined prowess of nearby team-mates, making him extremely powerful when deployed as part of a well balanced crew. Mind-meld clever crew combos to turn him into an unstoppable, psychic one-man-army! S C I E N C E Y If in doubt.…
- The Telepath beams aboard! - 25 September 2021
...Your thoughts to my thoughts! It's time for the Beta Channel to get cosmic with the addition of a mysterious, new crew member: The Telepath! P S Y C H I C The Telepath can use his mind-bending power to trade skills with any crew member on the ship without the use of the Comm System. This means that he can boost his abilities even when under attack from Alien Soldiers, or in the presence of a debilitating sub-space Anomaly! P O W E R F U L On top of this, the Telepath can absorb the Discounts of any crew member in the same room... and these discounts stack! Need to fix the Jump Core ASAP? No problem! Just pop the Telepath in Engineering with the Weapons Officer and Chief Engineer for a triple repair discount. Pick up a Torch en route and the Jump Core will practically fix itself! BEHOLD THE COSMIC POWER!!! B E T A v 1 . 3 2 So grab the latest beta to recruit this master of the mysteri…
- New Crew Incoming! - 2 September 2021
Fresh Update incoming!!! Check out new crew and features for The Captain is Dead! U P D A T E v 1.3 The latest update brings the Medical and Weapons Officers to the main build, ready to heal injured crew while grumbling incoherently, and dispense smooth torpedo justice to any jive-talking alien spaceships lurking off your starboard bow. You'll also notice the crew are a little... chattier than before, as the new banter system has been shaken down and integrated into the main release! B O N U S On top of this, brave space adventurers on the Beta Channel get TCID's answer to Chrisjen Avasarala, in the form of the no-nonsense Diplomat, whose mad negotiational skillz allow her to override alerts on other crew member's turns! ...and if the Diplomat's voice sounds familiar, that's because you'll have heard it in games like Mass Effect, Starcraft and Professor Layton. Bonus points if you can w…
- The Mission Continues... - 23 June 2021
Space... The final frontier... Our mission continues... to bring you more crew... more features... and more laser-to-face danger! C R E W Get ready for the next crew members to beam aboard: The Weapons and Medical Officers! The Weapons Officer is a smooth operator... but you wouldn't like to see him angry! His mastery of torpedoes makes short work of any pesky alien ships that are hanging around the starboard bow turning your shields into Swiss cheese. The Medical Officer is a rough diamond, more at home on his horse than in deep space. His extensive medical training will keep your crew fighting fit, although his bed-side manner does leave a bit to be desired. B E T A Both of these new crew members have just been activated on the beta channel, so we can polish them thoroughly before the official release. We rely on your feedback to make The Captain is Dead great, so please do take them…
- v1.2 - Achievements, Crew & More! - 9 June 2021
Ahoy there, crew! Our second major update is officially live today, as we continue our plans to emiggen your bad-ass space posse, with 2 new crew members for you to command! The versatile Hologram is only activated in dire emergencies... which pretty much describes your current situation perfectly! Fortunately he's fast, effective and immune to meddling alien invaders. Unfortunately if the ship's systems get damaged he can end up trapped in the CPU core where he's as much use as a chocolate teapot... so keep an eye on those External Scanners, m'kay? Wise in the ways of interstellar exploration, the Scholar is a always ready to help save your crew. Her scientific expertise makes researching anomalies and upgrading the ship that little bit easier, and her special ability means that she's never short on mission-critical Skills. Once again, with the addition of new members, the team size ha…
- Achievement Hunters Wanted! - 25 May 2021
We've been working like crazy on the next update, and I'm excited to say that it's a biggie! Aside from a major pass on the animation, to improve the silky smoothness, we're adding two new characters (the versatile Hologram, and mysterious Scholar) and 36 brand-new achievements. You may have already heard that these Medals (as we like to call them) are all rock hard. Our team have only been able to hit a paltry nine of them so far... That's why we need help from you - the fearless, alien-fighting, ship-saving badasses - to make absolutely sure they all work as intended! If you are going on an achievement hunt, you might want to arm yourself with the following knowledge... You can view your Medal collection at any time from the Settings menu under Game -> Medals. Click on a Medal to read the win conditions... working them out is half the battle! Some of the Medals are hidden... these are…
- Activate the Emergency Hologram! - 7 May 2021
Heads up, crew! We've just uploaded a new beta release, with bug-fixes, tweaks and, oh yeah... THE HOLOGRAM! That means that if you've subscribed to the beta, this photonic fellow will be waiting for you when you next fire up the game. There are two things you need to know about this unusual crew member, who has been added in at the vociferous behest of our lovely Discord community... One! The Hologram has three skill discounts, five actions, is immune to damage, and can ignore any alien interference, making him an extremely handy addition to your team. Unless of course the Teleporters or CPU get taken out... in which case he's about as much use as a chocolate teapot. So don't let that happen, m'kay? Two! To create the perfect, lovably-annoying blend of Voyager's EMH and Red Dwarf's Arnold J. Rimmer, we not only recruited a top-flight, AAA script writer, but we also enlisted the conside…
- Achievements are coming soon... - 23 April 2021
Let's cut straight to the chase here, people: Achievements are for the weak! Most games reward you for just booting them up... but not The Captain is Dead. No sirree! We've decided to do things differently with our Achievements, and have crafted them with the following tenets in mind... To have value, they must require effort. To reflect mastery, they must encourage advanced techniques. To have meaning, they must stay in context. To respect the player, there must be no grinding. That's why you won't get Achievements in The Captain is Dead, you'll get Medals. Each medal requires the use of a different crew member or advanced technique to attain it, and getting your hands on that sweet, sweet chest-candy won't be easy. In fact, just working out exactly what you have to do to win a medal will be part of the challenge. The easiest one is to save the ship... and we all know just how difficul…
- Play anywhere, even on an away mission! - 8 April 2021
Flip open your Communicator, and bust out the PADD - it's time to go mobile! Don't get caught short on an away mission... The Captain is Dead is available for all good mobile devices. And even some bad ones. Check out the pan-galatic pocket panic, in the mobile launch trailer from way back in the day... Featuring all the deep-space devastation of the Steam version, but with added touch-wouchy, zoomy-woomy enhancements, the mobile version of TCID has just received the v1.1 update, so we celebrating with 30% Off the usual RRP of $9.99. Yes, you heard right! That's... 30% OFF! So set phasers to fun, and beam on over to your respective mobile store while the Gagh is still fresh!
- v1.1 Update - Time to get Tactical! - 25 March 2021
Ahoy there, crew! Our first update is officially live today, adding (among other things) 2 new crew members to your team! The Teleporter Chief can get you what you need, where you need it. He'll keep your systems running smoothly, and can beam crew and tools around the ship for free. Use his mastery of teleportation to sneak weapons to other crew members when aliens are in the room! From her command post on the Bridge, the Tactical Officer can deploy her unique abilities to keep the shields fully powered, and the crew stocked up on Skills. And if you need to crack off a torpedo, the Chief can always beam her to the Armory to bust out some explosive justice! With more crew to chose from, the team size has been upped to 5 characters, so you can pair Chiefy and the Tac. Officer with 3 more specialists to create the ultimate squad. Why not partner up with 4 of your mates using Steam Remote…
- New crew are on the way... - 12 March 2021
Here at Thunderbox HQ we've been working away diligently on upgrading and improving your starship! We'd like to share a quick road-map of what's coming up in the not-too-distant future... More Crew! We're aiming to deliver a new crewman roughly every month, starting very, very soon. The next three space cases to join your intrepid team will be... Teleporter Chief - this surly gent is an expert at beaming both crew and tools alike. Tactical Officer - from her post on the Bridge, she can keep the shields up, and the skills flowing. Hologram - laser beams pass straight through him, making him real handy when aliens are around. We'll be releasing the crew in sets of two, so keep your comm frequency open for more news! But if you want to break the temporal prime directive, then you can travel to the future and get the characters early... just activate beta mode in the game's properties. You'…
- Elias Toufexis joins the crew! - 20 January 2021
Fresh from starring in Immortals - Fenyx Rising for Ubisoft, and Blood of Zeus on Netflix, prodigious actor Elias Toufexis joins the crew of The Captain is Dead for some over-the-top, sci-fi survival strategy. If you’ve played a videogame in the last 10 years, you will undoubtably have heard Elias’ gravelly voice in titles like Splinter Cell Blacklist, Far Cry Primal, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and, of course, Deus Ex, in which Toufexis played the bionically enhanced detective, Adam Jensen… before cyberpunk was cool. Few actors can claim a showreel as impressive, but two things make Elias the perfect casting for the eminently expendable Crewman, who is, strategically speaking, a walking death sponge. First of all, Elias has been needlessly brutalized on a number of TV shows, including moody sci-fi drama, The Expanse, and, more appropriately, Star Trek Discovery, in which he was given a pa…
- Dice Tower Vs. Deadly Mode - Episodes 1 & 2 - 23 October 2020
Join Mandi & Suzanne from The Dice Tower, along with Ashley from Meeple Mountain, as they try out a new, extra dangerous rule variant, exclusive to the digital edition of this stylishly intense, sci-fi, survival/strategy game. It's called Deadly Mode... how hard could it be? Will our team survive the alien onslaught... or end up as space dust? Tune in to find out! Episode 1 - In which the ship is slowly blown to pieces: Episode 2 - In which the team battle to survive: Starring... Mandi is a member of The Dice Tower Team where she co-hosts the bi-weekly Dice Tower podcast and also appears on The Dice Tower's Monday night "Teach and Plays". She also creates video reviews on the To Die For Games YouTube Channel, of which she is the Founder. Favorite games that you can find on her shelf are: Viticulture, Food Chain Magnate, Caverna and Trajan, just to name a few. She enjoys pinup fashion an…
- Tabletop Fest - The Dice Tower vs. Deadly Mode - 14 October 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcjigWovVb8 It's the last 10 minutes of your favourite sci-fi show… except that this time things have gone seriously wrong and The Captain Is Dead! Join Mandi & Suzanne from The Dice Tower, along with Ashley from Meeple Mountain, as they try out a new, extra dangerous rule variant exclusive to the digital edition of this stylishly intense, sci-fi, survival/strategy game. It's called Deadly Mode... how hard could it be? The cardboard and digital game designers, JT Smith and Dan Taylor, will be live in the chat to answer questions, and gasp in horror as the ship catches fire. Will our team survive the alien onslaught... or end up as space dust? Tune in to find out! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1126580/The_Captain_is_Dead/ Starring... Mandi is a member of The Dice Tower Team where she co-hosts the bi-weekly Dice Tower podcast and also appears on The Di…
- It's a board game... but not as you know it, Captain. - 7 October 2020
Here at Thunderbox, The Captain is Dead is one of our most favoritest board games EVAH! Recreating the intense experience of battling a relentless alien nemesis with a band of your best buddies is a daunting task... so we decided to skip the literal approach that most digital board games take, and go in phasers blazing. We've taken the fantastic gameplay of the tabeltop version, and fused it with an electronic crystalline entity to deliver a fast-playing video game with lasers, torpedoes, teleporters, blowtorches, scanners, aliens, tentacles, and all sorts of in-your-face, sci-fi goodness. Oh, and a phenomenal soundtrack that sounds like John Carpenter hung out with Queen for the afternoon to remix Flash Gordon. Whilst the original board game is best enjoyed with friends, the video game has been designed to be a flawless single-player adventure. But don't worry - you can enjoy online co…
- Can the designers beat the game? - 2 October 2020
Space can be a dangerous place. Particularly if your Jump Core has blown a fuse. You may think you're a seasoned, interstellar hard-case... but things can go south pretty fast when the sub-space anomaly hits the fan. Join the digital designer, from Thunderbox Entertainment, Dan Taylor as he tries to save the ship on one of the trickier difficulty settings, with back-up and/or scathing critique from the designer of the original board game, JT Smith. And while the ship is going to heck-in-a-space-helmet, maybe Dan & JT can answer your questions... if they aren't too busy panicking! What could possibly go wrong?
- It's a board game... but not as you know it, Captain. - 17 June 2020
Here at Thunderbox, The Captain is Dead is one of our most favoritest board games EVAH! Recreating the intense experience of battling a relentless alien nemesis with a band of your best buddies is a daunting task... so we decided to skip the literal approach that most digital board games take, and go in phasers blazing. We've taken the fantastic gameplay of the tabeltop version, and fused it with an electronic crystalline entity to deliver a fast-playing video game with lasers, torpedoes, teleporters, blowtorches, scanners, aliens, tentacles, and all sorts of in-your-face, sci-fi goodness. Oh, and a phenomenal soundtrack that sounds like John Carpenter hung out with Queen for the afternoon to remix Flash Gordon. Whilst the original board game is best enjoyed with friends, the video game has been designed to be a flawless single-player adventure. But don't worry - you can enjoy online co…
- Livestream with Mandi & Suzanne from The Dice Tower - 16 June 2020
The dynamic duo of Mandi Hutchinson and Suzanne Sheldon are pretty amazing. By day they review board games on The Dice Tower... but by night they also stream the latest and greatest digital editions under the secret identity of Salt and Sass! And if you were wondering why voice of the ship's Counselor sounds familiar, it's because her laid-back burns are provided by none other than Mandi herself! Mandi and Suzanne will be streaming The Captain is Dead right here, and over on their Twitch channel, but their crew will need your help! Special guest, Ashley Gariepy from Meeple Mountain, will be running the Comm System keeping hailing frequencies open for all you budding space captains out there to provide tactical support, and make sure they escape the diabolical tentacles of those merciless aliens! Will our intrepid pair survive? There's only one way to find out! Be sure to subscribe on Tw…
