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[PGGB]

I seriously don't know what I'm supposed to find. 

[Melly]

I don't see anything more than one executable and other files (rt.exe). Yes, I extracted the file. Yes, my monitor is a CRT that supports all those crazy resolutions including 320 x 240. This computer is also new, with a pretty powerful graphics card.

[Bob le Moche]

I just checked the linked zip and it contains the two executables for the windowed and fullscreen mode. My guess is that your browser still has the older file cached? I'm sorry, I should have been clearer about what to expect in the new file.

Also, I'm working on a less confusing introuction to the game, where you are shown what a data voxel looks like, but until then: it's basically a flashing cube.

[Melly]

Managed to get it working on windowed mode. Found 2 data voxels, then gave up.

I really like what you did with the graphics and how the world is constructed, though it would probably help being given at least a rough direction to where the next data voxel is.

Well done.

[mjau]

I don't think you should add a direction indicator. It would just reduce the gameplay to "fly towards the arrow". As it is, without it, the game has a really unique, alien feel..

You start out with nothing but a huge mass of cubes and the knowledge that somewhere in that mass, there's some data cubes just waiting for you to find them. But the world's so huge, and you're just a tiny little thing, all alone in the middle of it all.  It's like finding the needle in the haystack, it feels a little daunting, hopeless even.  But you drive around at random for a little bit in the alien landscape, until suddenly, you hear that first ping..  The clue you've been waiting for!  Hopelessness evaporates as you speed along, the pings getting more and more frequent, and.. no!  The time between pings has increased!  Time to back up and reorient yourself, trying out a few alternate directions to see which ones will improve the frequency.  You get it wrong a few times and have to back up again, but then you get it right!  Speeding along until the next one.  All the while the pings get more and more frequent, and then finally one time when reorienting yourself you spot it:  There's something flashing there, in the distance!  It must be a data cube!  Pings all but forgotten, you race over and catch it!

And then there is silence once again, and you realize you're completely lost.

There are less data cubes out there now.  Chancing across one will be less likely.

..

..was that a ping?

[ForTheUSSR]

Nice visual and audio style!  I had a hard time finding the voxels, but it was fun to fly around the wierd map.

[Will Vale]

I like having to look for things in games, although this is one of the hardest examples of that I've played - perhaps because it's hard to pick out landmarks (owing to the fisheye view?) and the ping is intermittent rather than continuous. That said I did enjoy it although like Melly I only had the stamina for two voxels...

[0rel]

wow! really interesting space feel here. voxels + heavy lense distortion, never saw something like that before. nice. the interface is also well done, in combination with the sounds. gave me a impression of an golden ancient diving capsule exploring psychedelic space. nice. gameplaywise i had some problems though. finding the first data voxel was fun, i liked how the sounds were guiding me, and also the the maneuver to avoid collisions was engaging, but after that i wasn't that motivated to do it a agin... just thought, it would be absolutely fine with just one thing to find, and maybe a small rewarding end sequence with sound/effects or something. nonetheless, really nice look and technique!

[Gainsworthy]

it would probably help being given at least a rough direction to where the next data voxel is.

Heck, I'd suffice with being told what a Data Voxel LOOKS like. I haven't been able to find any. It's, uh, still really cool though. I agree with 0rel! The game just feels right. The cockpit is pretty sparse, but exactly what one needs.

Congrats!

[MisterX]

I'm also really enjoying this. It's interesting how this game may be highly simple, but the visuals, sound and design of that big world create a very engaging atmosphere. I especially like how you can seemingly see the whole level from any distance, but at first it looks like nothing more than a distorted background image, but as you get closer and closer to the far away parts of the level it gets more and more clear that you can actually fly there.

I have yet to find a single data voxel, as the sonar didn't seem to help me much. Unless I haven't understood how to properly make use of the sonar, I think it should probably be a bit easier to tell if you get closer to a voxel or not. But I'll just play a bit more, I may be wrong about that

While I have no ideas of my own, I think you should probably go on developing this. As it is, it's a nice little game, but maybe something bigger could be made out of it while retaining its uniqueness.
Either way, I think analogue gamepad controls would add quite a lot to it, making the whole movement more appealing.



Oh and by the way, unless I miss something about it, that title is horribly unsuitable for the game I think you should have went with at least some mysterious, uninterpretable single word for a name

[edit]
Wee, just found two data voxels. I now think the sonar works very fine as it is. Appropriately long range, so it's really nice to scan around bigger sectors just to see if there's any different response of the sonar, yet if you've got a clear line of sight the voxels can be easily seen from afar if you're in the right area. Sweet

[Pishtaco]

I'm afraid the sound is spoiling it for me; I get this continuous thumping and squelching noise -- is that the engine? And I have a tree always floating in the top right corner of the screen  . Otherwise, I really like the old-fashioned feel this has of probing through a microscope. It would be good to have a few more navigation aids, just to show how you are oriented; I tried to turn 180 degrees a few times, and wasn't sure whether I had done it or not.

[MisterX]

I'm afraid the sound is spoiling it for me; I get this continuous thumping and squelching noise -- is that the engine?

That is indeed the engine It's very weird, but I like it.

It would be good to have a few more navigation aids, just to show how you are oriented; I tried to turn 180 degrees a few times, and wasn't sure whether I had done it or not.

I agree, although you get used to the view after a while, which makes that easier. But I think something like a little abstract 3D compass would do just fine for the purpose.

[Synnah]

And I have a tree always floating in the top right corner of the screen 

That's to keep your cockpit smelling as fresh as a Mountain Breeze!

I really liked the atmosphere of this game. It's completely stripped-down exploration, and it really makes you feel like you're alone in the universe, especially as you approach the edges of the game world. I didn't find all of the voxels, though; after I found the second one, I was so far away from the next that I was getting about one ping every ten seconds, so I gave up!

[homeDrone]

I really dig the claustrophobia of it. Turn off your lights put on some head phones and fullscreen it.

Perhaps to help people out with the sonar, a little digital display showing the time since last ping, or when there is a ping, it shows the time between pings, so people can easily tell if the pings are getting longer or shorter apart.

[vdgmprgrmr]

Yeah, I played for almost an hour, didn't find anything, gave up. Got close, but of course wound up getting not close again because the pings are so far between NO MATTER WHAT (I guess they'd be pretty fast if you're ON TOP of the data voxel, but that's pointless).

I really think that this is too hard. I don't want to run around a huge random map randomly hoping to find stuff. If you could add a few more tracking devices to the ship, it'd be better.

A direction indicator could work, but I'd recommend that you make it basic, so as to not fall into the boringly easy area. Maybe it can only show cardinal directions. So you can know the general direction, but not simply be able to follow an arrow. That might also get too easy, though. Or maybe you could make it an exact direction indicator, but make the map denser, so simply trying to follow the arrow would be futile.

A ping-time indicator would be nice. It would make triangulation easier, and still require the game to be a somewhat complex mental activity. (I also don't think a tutorial on triangulation should be given, I'd like to figure out the nuances of it on my own. If someone does want a tutorial, the concept can be found on the internet within seconds, and it should be easy to understand it from there.) I often had to travel VERY far before I could actually notice a difference, and then it was usually slower, so I'd have to go back, which is hard, because it's hard to tell where you started in a place with little or no landmarks at all, and the whole thing felt like a crapshoot.

I really like the idea, but I really, really don't like the game because I feel I'd accomplish the same thing the game offers by rolling a die repeatedly until I get five tens in a row.