FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD26 → soundscape

soundscape

By ragzouken

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Innovation34.54
Theme204.36
Coolness1100
Audio703.69
Overall1053.76
Mood1833.41
Fun2713.32
Graphics4333.21
Humor4702.35

Comments

arrowthefighter 2013-04-28 22:00

awesome game i made after like 200 trys

evelynjolli 2013-04-29 09:41

it's a kool game and also made my ear hurt

davidemo89 2013-04-29 10:13

Very original game. I like it!

ella-guro 2013-04-29 10:19

i like this idea a lot. i had some trouble navigating, though. i'd move a really long time in the direction of the static and i never got anywhere. maybe i'm missing something. though a lot of it was that i had to stop after awhile cause it was hurting my ears

gertjohnny 2013-04-29 10:21

Neat idea!

infin8 2013-04-29 10:26

Very fresh take on the entire theme! I couldn't get the hang of it though and trying to memorize the layout when the it was zooming in didn't help much :(

beshr 2013-04-29 10:27

Interesting concept. Haven't seen any game like it before :) It's a bit difficult to tell which sound is good and which is bad for navigation though. But +1 for innovation :)

ragzouken 2013-04-29 10:30

ella, yeah I think I made a bad choice on the static/movement - it's supposed to signify that you are almost touching a wall, so movement isn't going to do anything. However my code actually lets you slide along walls so it doesn't really tell you the whole truth. The screen will always make it look like you are moving even when you are stuck - I didn't want to give any information about shape visually, but I think it's just confusing.

It is very difficult to navigate - even with the same information presented visually instead of aurally I think it would be too difficult to navigate... imagine and FPS where all the walls are coloured by how far away they are but you can only see a single vertical slice of the screen.

niallm 2013-04-29 13:28

I like the idea, but this is hard! For some reason I had a lot of trouble judging when the heartbeat was louder/quieter, and how close I was to the exit. I think I'd have found it easier if the speed of the heartbeat varied rather than the volume.

Love the zoom out at the end, and seeing the path you traced through the map.

geepit 2013-04-29 14:28

Very cool, nice concept!

ysty 2013-04-29 15:47

Very neat indeed. The map it gives you at the end is a really good touch.

kinzata 2013-04-29 15:49

This is pretty freaking cool.

chman 2013-04-29 15:55

Very original and intriguing game. Best played with headphones, obviously.

ithildin 2013-04-29 16:43

Brilliant idea!

Moving at the same time that you move around with the mouse is a bit messy, though. Keys only worked best for me.

Despite this minor issue, congratulations for a great job! :)

adventureloop 2013-04-29 17:18

This game is freaking awesome, Im not really sure what to say. I could easily have say here for hours trying to find my way out.

Well Done Ragzouken

luzfish_4 2013-04-29 17:24

It was a little creepy. I think sometimes I was running into a wall, but the background was still moving. That's confusing.

vdz 2013-04-29 18:40

Very interesting game. However, the difficulty is very high and the learning curve is very steep - it took me ages to figure out how everything worked, and even after I understood how it worked it was still extremely difficult.

vdz 2013-04-29 18:44

By the way, the game freezes for me when I don't have my gamepad plugged in but I do have bluetooth input devices configured. Apparently it's checking for gamepad input even if there's no gamepad (analog stick is probably also a requirement), as long as there's some other input device. (I occasionally connect my Wii Remote to my PC via Bluetooth; it's an input device, but not a gamepad.)

Screenshot of error: http://i.xomf.com/bkwsz.png

felix20 2013-04-29 19:49

Ooh very nice concept and good game. It was fun and it its the theme good. I like how it shows your path when you're done.
The weird thing is when you look away from the heart it sounds the loudest. The first time I failed misserably, until I looked at my path and saw I was going in the opposite direction :P

_alts 2013-04-30 06:05

This is excellent. It took me a while to figure out the controls, but once I got the hang of it I really enjoyed navigating the maze. I'm still not sure how I feel about the static movement. On one hand, it helps to be so audio focused, but without directions, and without helping guide the player in the direction of static = wall, it's easy to get lost. Fantastic work.

argo15 2013-04-30 16:37

The path at the end is a nice touch.

fabienporee 2013-04-30 17:03

This is really excellent! I love that it gives you a picture of your itinerary at the end, giving you an idea of how you stumbled around. This little idea pretty much makes the game for me.

bleullama 2013-04-30 17:49

Really original and challenging without being tedious. I really enjoyed this one! Thanks!

jellycakes 2013-04-30 18:33

Interesting mechanic, haven't seen that before! Was fun to play with. Nicely made although a bit short. Would appreciate more levels!

psenfilip 2013-04-30 19:12

I didn't really find it difficult at all. It was amazing to explore!
I got the hang of it pretty quickly. The hints you have left under the description are enough for finding out what is is about. Very good experience

pighead10 2013-04-30 21:37

Awesome game. Somehow it was fairly addicting, and seeing your path at the end as a nicer extra. Good take on the theme!

paulmcgg 2013-04-30 21:44

Really interesting idea using a kind of 'sonar'. Works much better than nearly any audio-only spatial game I've played. Well done.

sharbelfs 2013-04-30 21:48

Very nice, it's extramally innovative!

tifu 2013-04-30 21:48

Great concept, though I cannot find the heart at all, I don't seem to notice any change in the volume of the heart beats. But maybe I'm just wandering in circles :P

meta87 2013-04-30 22:45

This is really cool! Love the unique concept and use of audio as a game mechanic :D

multitude 2013-04-30 23:21

One of most innovative games in the LD so far!

norgg 2013-04-30 23:45

yes Yes YEs YES YES.

chrstphrschulte 2013-05-01 00:28

The user created map at the end is great and this game fits the theme so well. It nearly eliminates the use of vision, and makes a compelling, minimalist, audio based puzzle. Very cool.

potentialing 2013-05-01 02:08

Very creative idea, and tons of fun for a while! Unfortunately, the frequency changing made the audio very unenjoyable to listen to, though to be fair, there wasn't really a way around that. Graphics were minimal but clear, though!

loxo 2013-05-01 11:20

Very challenging game, especially due to the hexagonally frame. And I like the map at the end, where you can see the way you went. The game fits the theme very well, overall.

xaychru04 2013-05-01 11:23

This idea is very original, and a sound game is very cool. It's pretty difficult to find the right cell, and the only bad point I think is that when we're moving toward a wall the dots on the background are still moving...

yokcos700 2013-05-02 21:25

While creative and innovative, I simply can't find this game largely fun. However, the idea is excellent and its workings seemingly completely sound. (pun intended)

umu 2013-05-03 16:38

The fact that the background moves even when you are up against the wall is incredibly confusing, which I assume is the point. I do really wish that I could press a button to turn off the pulse from a beam, if if only for a second or so. I often had a lot of difficulty picking out the heartbeat.

Neat concept, and nice selection of sounds. Did start to give me a headache after a bit.

redwater 2013-05-03 16:40

The sounds chosen where highly irritating and i couldn't bear the game for too long. A shame since i liked the idea. Would love to see a different or more comfortable sound design in it. Good work overall!

jlauener 2013-05-04 14:24

Very nice idea! Tried a few times but didn't managed to win :/ It's very funny to see the path at the end.

Oh the static sound was a bit irritating but I guess it was on purpose because it means you are blocked.

gokuhd 2013-05-04 15:49

Really nice idea!

spiridion 2013-05-04 17:42

Made it! Very interesting game. The moving dots were confusing, because at first I thought they indicated my actual movement, not just the direction I'm trying to go. I think adding some positional feedback would help, so rather than just volume make use of stereo. Also, to orient the player, the first level could have the maze visible so you get a mental connection between the sounds and movements. THEN take away the visuals. It gave me some ideas for my sound-based game.

ragzouken 2013-05-04 17:59

Yeah you are quite right about positional feedback - I have a few ideas of audiogames that can do this better. I'm now following you on twitter so hopefully you will post something there if you do any more audiogames :)

multiplex 2013-05-06 07:09

VERY innovative. I don't think I've ever played anything like it. My two suggestions are easier sounds on the ears and a little more global sense so you know where you are (maybe if the walls were still invisible, but the outside of the maze and the heart were visible so you have some sense where you are going and where you are in a relative sense at least). Really cool concept overall.

wademcgillis 2013-05-06 16:15

Sad :(


Error

joystick.lua:42: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'dx' (a nil value)

Traceback

joystick.lua:42: in function 'poll'
joystick.lua:101: in function 'poll'
main.lua:258: in function <main.lua:248>
(tail call): ?
(tail call): ?
[C]: in function 'xpcall'

wademcgillis 2013-05-06 16:17

Also, don't you need to supply the source to be able to enter the competition?

ragzouken 2013-05-06 16:39

Sorry wade, this is probably because you have a joystick plugged in that doesn't have an analog stick - my code is not very robust. You can open the .love file as a zip to see the source, but I should add a zip.

kovacs 2013-05-06 21:09

This is *really* cool. I kept my eyes closed almost all the time and I think that helped me focus. I've never played a game by sound only before. It's really different. Must be a bit like finding ships using sonar. I can imagine getting quite skilled at it - there must be tricks you could learn to help navigate.

justinmullin 2013-05-07 20:33

Super cool concept, and masterfully executed. Closing my eyes regularly helped a lot. I thought this would be LOT harder, and tons more frustrating, but after starting to get the hang of it, the stereo nature of the heartbeat really helped me get my bearings. The map at the end is spectacular, and really makes it all worth it! What would really be fun with this is to have another screen (hidden from the player) show others in the room where the player is, so they can watch as you stumble around blindly. =)

kvisle 2013-05-11 13:28

This game is really cool. I didn't manage to win yet, but it def. deserves some special kind of attention. The mechanic is great, and wonderfully implemented. The only downside is that I can't show it to people I know who are hearing impaired on one side.

samoojamies 2013-05-13 10:28

Cool innovation here

minionstudios 2013-05-20 16:39

Is really fun, but extremely difficult.