I've been toying with the idea of a "video game without the video" for a while now, and it's great to see somebody actually attempt it. I love the ambition of the concept. It might just be a bit much to try to make it work as a sandbox game during a game jam timeframe.
Unfortunately, while a human has potentially dozens of senses (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste, balance, body position, temperature, passage of time, etc) on a computer you mostly just get sight and sound, and losing sight is harder to compensate. Without a sense of balance or body position, it's hard to tell when I'm looking at the horizon, or when I just fell down a hole, or about how far. Without touch, I can't tell if the crunchy-sounding stuff I'm touching is sand, gravel, or dirt. The use of "synesthesia particles" is a pretty good way to translate at least some of the missing senses into the unused visual medium, but it really needs to expand to cover more senses. In particular, when I'm working without a sense of sight (reaching deep into a machine to find a broken part) I rely on touch, not just to sense obstacles, but feeling textures, shapes, temperatures. More missing senses need to be recreated in some way to know what it means when I poke something and it sounds like a drum.
I'm not sure I can recommend this to a player yet. It was a bit intriguing wandering around and getting lost in a cave but now I think I'm stuck. It definitely feels like a project whose development I want to get involved in, suggesting, experimenting with, or contributing some ways to recreate the missing senses ... but for those not developerly inclined, it's one I'd watch for future updates rather than expecting much right now. I'm definitely looking forward to when it reaches the tipping point where I can change my neutral review to a positive one.
Also, the "no sense of sight" game being one of the few to actually feature a gameplay video was entertaining.
Thank you Warr!
Hopefully after the Game Jam I can work to improve on these things.
I considered adding a textbox towards the bottom of your screen that explained what you were touching (i.e. wood = rough, sand = grainy, etc.)
Thanks for the interest in the game.
I've been toying with the idea of a "video game without the video" for a while now, and it's great to see somebody actually attempt it. I love the ambition of the concept. It might just be a bit much to try to make it work as a sandbox game during a game jam timeframe.
Unfortunately, while a human has potentially dozens of senses (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste, balance, body position, temperature, passage of time, etc) on a computer you mostly just get sight and sound, and losing sight is harder to compensate. Without a sense of balance or body position, it's hard to tell when I'm looking at the horizon, or when I just fell down a hole, or about how far. Without touch, I can't tell if the crunchy-sounding stuff I'm touching is sand, gravel, or dirt. The use of "synesthesia particles" is a pretty good way to translate at least some of the missing senses into the unused visual medium, but it really needs to expand to cover more senses. In particular, when I'm working without a sense of sight (reaching deep into a machine to find a broken part) I rely on touch, not just to sense obstacles, but feeling textures, shapes, temperatures. More missing senses need to be recreated in some way to know what it means when I poke something and it sounds like a drum.
I'm not sure I can recommend this to a player yet. It was a bit intriguing wandering around and getting lost in a cave but now I think I'm stuck. It definitely feels like a project whose development I want to get involved in, suggesting, experimenting with, or contributing some ways to recreate the missing senses ... but for those not developerly inclined, it's one I'd watch for future updates rather than expecting much right now. I'm definitely looking forward to when it reaches the tipping point where I can change my neutral review to a positive one.
Also, the "no sense of sight" game being one of the few to actually feature a gameplay video was entertaining.
Fully agreed, was going to make a review but this summed it up better. +1
Thank you Warr! Hopefully after the Game Jam I can work to improve on these things. I considered adding a textbox towards the bottom of your screen that explained what you were touching (i.e. wood = rough, sand = grainy, etc.) Thanks for the interest in the game.
-StarNinjas
This game's screenshots reminds me of popular game lidar.dark, just missing enemies and a lidar.