Radio Silence

[StephenM3]

Wow, that was great.  For some reason it reminded me of Myst, a game with absolutely no similar gameplay elements (except for the sound of waves).  It was the disorienting sensation of exploring a world that is weirdly immersive despite it's complete lack of realism.

Spoilers below, so play it here if you haven't yet, it's not long!

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Finding the radios was an interesting experience.  It was cool how I missed some of the quieter radios on my first loop around, but with less distracting noise I could pick them out. Eventually the noise of the waves became more obvious and apparent, especially contrasted by the silence of being underwater.  I started thinking the only way this could end was with complete silence.   When I found my very last radio, on that remote smaller rock, all I could hear by then was the sound of waves, so I thought it must be actually producing the sound of waves.  I was actually kind of disappointed on a second playthrough, when I grabbed that radio first to no noticeable effect.  It doesn't seem to make any sound at all?

The process of finding overlooked radios on islands I'd been to before made me think this would be an interesting concept for two players.  In a slightly larger world similar to this one, one person runs around hiding the radios while the other player tries to find them.  If the hiding player was visible to the seeker, it would add an extra element of trying to be sneaky about where you're going to hide things.  I'm not sure what the end goal would be for either player, or balance issues, but it's a concept that intrigues me.

This also makes me want to try out Unity.  If this sort of thing can be created in little over a day, it must be a pretty cool program.

[Josiah Tobin]

Terry, I really liked this one, even though the goal was very simple and stripped-down (well I mean, one day, c'mon now )-- the sound design was, indeed, very Myst. This is the second time I've been reminded of it by your work-- the first was the music in Don't Look back, extremely Robyn Miller-esque. Seeing as Myst is my absolute favorite game/experience/creative result/whatever, that's definitely a good thing.

Of course, because of Myst I have a total weakness for anything involving the sound of waves and out-of-place electronic/mechanical noises, but really, some of the stuff you put out (like this and DLB) are among my favorite indie game experiences. Hope to work with you again sometime (y'know, like the old days before you sold out and got all super famous!  )

~Josiah

[Terry]

Hey, cheers I'm just about to post it to the blog. Quite happy with how it turned out - I think I'll make it a "minor" game.

When I found my very last radio, on that remote smaller rock, all I could hear by then was the sound of waves, so I thought it must be actually producing the sound of waves.  I was actually kind of disappointed on a second playthrough, when I grabbed that radio first to no noticeable effect.  It doesn't seem to make any sound at all?

Heh, funnily enough, when I went home last night after the cafe I was thinking the same thing over and over again, but I figured I shouldn't change it because the deadline's passed...

But you're totally right, that's a far more interesting behavior. I went back and changed it to work that way this morning. I'm probably disqualified from Ludum Dare now, but whatever

(That also fixes the other problem with that particular radio - it uses a really low frequency, which apparently means that most headphones can barely hear it.)

This also makes me want to try out Unity.  If this sort of thing can be created in little over a day, it must be a pretty cool program.

Unity is really cool - I'm almost certainly going to be using a lot from now on. There's quite a learning curve involved, though - I've tried to get to grips with Unity several times before and gotten nowhere. The difference this time is that I had several other Unity users around the table helping me out. I dunno if I'd have gotten very far without that. There's still a lot of basic stuff I have no idea how to do yet.

well I mean, one day, c'mon now

Heh, I'm a bit shocked I managed to finish anything at all. Thankfully this idea was simple enough that I don't really feel like it was compromised by having to do it all in just one day. (unlike the RPG idea, which would have been)

Hope to work with you again sometime

sure, that could be fun

[StephenM3]

Heh, funnily enough, when I went home last night after the cafe I was thinking the same thing over and over again, but I figured I shouldn't change it because the deadline's passed...
Unity is really cool - I'm almost certainly going to be using a lot from now on. There's quite a learning curve involved, though - I've tried to get to grips with Unity several times before and gotten nowhere. The difference this time is that I had several other Unity users around the table helping me out. I dunno if I'd have gotten very far without that. There's still a lot of basic stuff I have no idea how to do yet.

Man, you're right.  I downloaded it yesterday and haven't gotten very far yet.  Nonetheless,  it looks like a very powerful tool, everything I've heard has made it out be be pretty great, and it's very impressive for being free!  I resolve to learn Unity, because personally I'm getting fed up with Game Maker.

[Terry]

What eventually broke a barrier with it for me was just getting a simple environment in the game that I could walk around - from there I was able to work things out one at a time.

My advice is to approach things this way: make a simple level outline in Google Sketchup, import it into Unity, and create an FPS Controller object that can walk on it.

[StephenM3]

Thanks for the pointers!

Man, after working in Google Sketchup for a while, Unity feels clunky.  Sketchup is a damn nice program!

Can't figure out how to make my imported .dae actually visible in the scene.  It seems there are some things I have to do to it before it'll be anything but a point-label on the screen and a set of statistics in the inspector, but I can't figure out what.  Maybe Unity is a little advanced for me still.

[Terry]

I'll send you an email

[Damn It AL to Hell]

Yeah, that's a pretty nice game actually