2020-06-06 00:20:56

@shiftBacktick, I'd be interested to know what quests were included in the full version, also nice to know that what I could see on screen wasn't my limited vision, since I noticed the wave effect, colours and weird bars, but assume I was missing other details, (I have not been able to play mainstream graphical games since the 16 bit era due to my level of vision not coping with high levels of graphics and detail).

For internationalisation, there are probably people here who could help with translations into other languages, considering that I doubt the game will have much text, and personally i actually like the idea of you being instructed to walk to different beacons, especially if they could have evocative, proceduraly generated names when created which would fit with the audio landscape,
EG, go to beacon green zebra, or beacon peace magnet, or beacon mathematical rock. Incremental score in terms of number of beacons found might even add to people's general relaxation too.

Alternatively however, you could simply use a predefined set of distinguishable beacon sounds for beacons 1-5, then have the player's objectives given with reference to those sounds by using a single identifyable quest given sound, say a harp cord or bell or the like.

I'd be interested to know what quests are in the full version, and to hear some of the differences.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2020-06-06 00:29:00

@drg: No worries! I understand that I dumped my game with very little explanation. Thanks so much for the positive rep.

Here's more info about the full game and how it differs from the demo:

The demo is a standalone experience without time limits. It includes sounds of the beach, storms, ambient tones, and a port of the sounds from my first audio game, Soundsearcher (a 48-hour game that's not important enough to warrant its own thread). Adventure mode has repeatable expedition quests to demonstrate the general game loop, but Free Roam and the bookmarks system is the main focus.

The full game has twelve more environments to explore:

  • Aquatic. An underwater theme with glittery tones, bubbles, and ripples.

  • Astral. A deep space theme with objects that revolve around you.

  • Desert. Arid and windy with shifting sands, snakes, and vultures.

  • Forest. Filled with cicadas, frogs, and unique bird species.

  • Industrial. Machinery synchronized in time.

  • Limbic. Breathing and heart beats, like being swallowed by a beast.

  • Mainframe. A hacker space with computer sounds and typing.

  • Mountain. A windy high-altitude area with wind chimes and standing bells.

  • Pulse. Ever listen to Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians?

  • Trance. What happens when RNG tries to compose club music.

  • Tundra. Icy and snowy with wolves and aurora at night.

  • Urban. Dynamic traffic that honks but can't hurt you.

The full game has a few more quest types that provide more emergent experiences:

  • Escort. Some waypoints spawn lost objects that lead you to their homes. My most memorable playtest so far was walking with a campfire through the ocean to the forest.

  • Synthesis. Some waypoints spawn broken machines. Collect musical components and return them to repair.

  • Clockwork. Some waypoints spawn clockwork toys. Wind them up to hear a unique song.

The full game has a few unfinished features that I can't talk much about yet:

  • Instrument. Play along with the game, either by pressing keys or with a MIDI device.

  • Metaprogression. A basic unlock system for the instrument based on metrics across play sessions.

  • Poison. Simple pickups that temporarily enhance the experience.

So there's plenty more to hear and do in the full version. But if you enjoy the demo, then it's perfectly fine to keep playing without purchasing. It will continue to receive updates and fixes from the full game.

2020-06-06 00:29:45

Hi.


I actually got somewhere! I walked forward, collected the 3 note thing and then, new sounds! The only issue is, I played the game for about 5 or perhaps 10 minutes and I can't figure out how you're meant to meditate to square wave and saw tooth? Sounds? They're very, painful is the wrong word but they're not what I'd call meditative.


When I think of meditation I think of calming music or rain or some kind of nature sound. I'm not trying to bash your game, I'm sure with a bit more explaining it will make sense but for now, I'm not seeing how you're meant to be calm when playing this.

I'm gone for real :)

2020-06-06 00:36:49

@brad: Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I was unaware that my PDF was still inaccessible despite being text. Shouldn't be too difficult because the source document is HTML. I plan to provide an HTML version of the manual in my next update, early next week.

The mention of a seed in the manual is slightly misleading. Recently I added a "Start Adventure" menu item for new players that skips seed selection and launches folks directly into the game. Starting a new adventure or entering Free Roam from the main menu will prompt you for a seed.

2020-06-06 00:41:06

Hi.

@shiftBacktick, that's great news about the HTML document.


The sounds and things for the payed game sound interesting, I might pick it up once the game is fleshed out a bit more.

I'm gone for real :)

2020-06-06 00:51:56

@brad: Just saw your follow-up. Forums are so hard to keep up with!

I totally understand where you're coming from about some of the more grating sounds and I don't take offense. The areas with pure oscillators are driven by Perlin noise fields that control oscillator type, their frequencies, and the amount of filtering. This creates pockets of harsh and calm areas that aren't necessarily meditative for all people. A strength of the Free Roam mode is to be able to avoid those areas if you prefer. Personally I like harsh noise, but your experience demonstrates that perhaps they need more tuning.

2020-06-06 01:05:09

Well I decided to try the full version out given the low price, and I can say, yee gods the soundscape is complex, I like how musical some of the sounds are.
I think I hit one of those machines, or at least once I hit a beacon it seemed to spawn a lot of sound sources that created a melody, though I wasn't entirely sure how to put them back together, since approaching them didn't directly interact, unless I missed something, and otherwise i'm just running between beacons seeing what happens and enjoying the crazy background.
Whilst I'd still like this to feel like a game, at the same time I can say I've rarely heard soundscapes like this, and anyone who enjoys listening to the demo should probably give the full version a try.

Oh, and for the reccord, personally I find discovering the different sound sources and hearing their interactions is quite relaxing, but that might just be me.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2020-06-06 01:22:30

Hi.


Having played the game a bit more I've decided not to buy it but that's just me.

I'm gone for real :)

2020-06-06 01:51:49

hey! i just got the full version, I've paid $15 to help and support your amazing work, plus i loved all the extra environments and features, i'll be enjoying it for years to come, especialy because you can lose track of time quite easily, ahahah.
i found a bug with the latest version of the game, and i tried to copy the bookmark to the clipboard in order to try to help you find the issue. thanks for all the info and replys, if you want the game translated to portuguese i'll be glad to help!
d2VzdGVybi1waHlzaWNhbC1tYXliZQ:1172:959:239

contact info
email:
matrheine at gmail . com

2020-06-06 06:14:57

I for my part like the game very much. Although not a game in the classical sense, it is very relaxing and yet requires concentration to find the waypoints. The Soundscapes are fantastic. I bought it, and I like the idea of the compass sound being unhearable when you go in the correct direction. Very good work, thank you.

The Answer to the question about life, the universe and everything is?

2020-06-06 19:11:06

this game is awesome!!! but can you add more birds forests etc?

2020-06-06 22:16:41

well, I tried this but it did not work so well for me, I heard a lot of crackles in the sound  and am using latest firefox with NVDA... too bad, because what I read (all posts so far) has been incredibly promising and interesting all the same

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station…

2020-06-06 23:19:29

ok, so was finally able to play the demo, and the game is relaxing....I just turn off my screen reader completely and walk around to see what different sounds and ambience I will hear....how much is the full version? and is the full version also web based? and as one of the previous comments stated, firefox does screw up the sound, I will try crome next time I play

can i get a peace double harmony burger? no chaos

2020-06-07 05:11:42

I'm really enjoying this. Tried the demo for a while earlier today and had a great time exploring. It didn't take me long to buy the full version. I'm looking forward to any features that will be added soon. The instruments feature sounds like something I could easily spend a large amount of time with. Thanks for the great project, and I'll be keeping a close eye on it for sure.

Trying to free my mind before the end of the world.

2020-06-07 10:13:05

i love this game I purchaset on itch.io

2020-06-07 11:52:04 (edited by Dark 2020-06-07 11:52:29)

@smoothgunner, the full game is 5 usd on Itch.io. It's downloadable, however the interface for the menus etc is the same html one as in the demo and on the web interface, so no access problems there.

If you Enjoy the demo, I'd recommend getting the full game, since there are so many more sounds and environments to play with.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2020-06-07 14:37:44

sounds cool, especially the instrumental and midi feature is interesting as well. Will it get more features in this direction as well? I could imagine it beeing even a creative tool in terms of musical things as well.

2020-06-07 20:42:39

Hi folks,

Based on your feedback I've completely rewritten the user manual and converted it to HTML format. I've updated the original post with a link to the new manual. It will also be included in the game archive starting with the next update. The PDF version will be discontinued.

For this week's update I plan to consider your feedback, improve aspects of the navigational cues, and add a basic settings menu. At first that will include the credits and player statistics across play sessions, but it will expand to other requested features.

I'm humbled and grateful for everyone who has supported the game so far. Specifically I'd like to thank the person who left me a review on itch (unfortunately reviews are anonymous and not public facing). It brought me tears of joy. I'm just one person but I'll try my best to listen and support you all.

I'll be able to respond more soon. Enjoy!

2020-06-08 15:59:32

I purchaset sounn stridel on itch.io  i have elot of lags

2020-06-16 08:28:56

Hi folks!

I've added quite a few updates since my last post, including an Audio Mixer screen for adjusting sound levels (including master, footsteps, and individual navigational cues) and screens to adjust performance settings and view statistics about your play sessions. You can find them all by navigating to the Miscellaneous screen from the main menu or while the game is paused.

@Robokop: Thanks for your support! Today's update was inspired by your feedback. From the new Performance Settings screen, please try disabling reverb or slightly reducing the render distance. Let me know if either helps with your lag.

2020-06-16 17:32:46

Thanks a lot for letting us know about this amazing program and keeping us in the loop with updates. For my own reasons, something like this that offers such a wide variety of various elements that can be explored and focused on really helps me. I'm very grateful.

Trying to free my mind before the end of the world.

2020-06-17 16:11:02

it is super now! no lags

2020-06-17 23:48:18

i've just tried the beta 5 and everything is working perfectly! screen reader integration is much smoother and faster now, plus being able to change audio preferences is super great! i'd love if there would be a simple  click when you enable or disable auto walking.
the manual is also very screen reader friendly with all the headings and accessible formate!
disabling graphics when there's no one sighted around also helps quite a lot!

contact info
email:
matrheine at gmail . com

2020-06-19 21:01:13

guys! the new beta is out and is even more interesting! you can play and interact with the notes and make them react by using either the keyboard, controller or a midi keyboard. super interesting.
the sound still stops or crackles for half a second when there are too many objects in the screen even though my computer is powerful, but it's a small problem

contact info
email:
matrheine at gmail . com

2020-06-20 07:41:52 (edited by shiftBacktick 2020-06-20 07:44:16)

Thanks @drg! Been too busy to post updates here but glad to have your hype!

Adding the MIDI feature was a longstanding dream of mine. Today I hosted a livestream for the Steam Game Festival. I'm not a great pianist but I had a ton of fun playing along with the sounds between exploring.

Near the end of the 4+ hour stream I started to experience a lot of stuttering myself. It's one of those issues that I'm super sad about and trying to rectify. The game is coded in JavaScript and I'm starting to worry that I'm pushing its limits. My hope is that by release I'll find a bug I've overlooked and it magically works better (without compromising sound quality or complexity). Otherwise I'll add more performance settings so that the game is more playable until hardware and web technologies catch up to what the game is trying to do.

Part of the next update will add a second octave of keys to the keyboard layout so there's more notes to play. Unfortunately it will take up the entire keyboard and make remapping infeasible. Something I'm considering is mirroring the controls on the numpad for left-handed folks so remapping is unnecessary.

Thanks all for playing!

Edit: Also! Thanks for the feedback about a forward toggle notification. It's possible and I'm looking into the best way to implement it.