No worries! I will quote and reply to you below:

I’m using the windows version.

Same here! This is tough. I’m personally not having any issues with the build, but there are many variables, and that doesn’t mean that what’s happening isn’t real. I’ll continue to troubleshoot.

I was wondering, how do the graphics look? Do you use simple dots or are they actual graphics?

The graphics are very simple and abstract. All objects drawn to the screen are rectangles with a color fill.

Imagine a unit grid. Draw a square on each gridline intersection. Then project those squares from you in the first person, where each one is at the elevation of that point.

Occasionally there are some particle effects, like falling snow or sand blowing in the wind. They’re just smaller rectangles drawn in the same style.

Each world has a unique color scheme. For example, the desert world uses warm colors, whereas the new ice one is entirely black and white, and the ocean one will be cool colors. On worlds with a day/night cycle, they change over time, and you might see significant astronomical objects moving across the sky.

Also, is each world randomly generated, or is the terrain consistent?

The worlds are randomly and endlessly generated once per game using a seed value. Some terrain features are always present, like you’ll always start in a crater at the landing site. Biomes like mountains and plains are unique to each game. And discoverable things like collectibles and structures are generated in larger chunks, so you’ll find them more uniformly distributed throughout the worlds as you explore.

How does the music work? Like, what allows it to change dynamically? Is it dependent on wind and sun position, or will it change with the altitude of the player?

The music on the desert world acts like a clock synced to the position of the sun. Over about a half hour it will complete a rotation, and at shorter intervals it cycles between randomized chords and voicings, with their rhythms having prime number relationships. Right now it only reacts to the direction you’re facing, but with the jetpack and other upgrades, I intend to revisit this.

The new world will definitely react to elevation changes. And the following one will have many interactions as you skip across the ocean surface.

I remember you saying something about why the suit doesn’t have a talking AI. Will we be able to install one at a later stage, or won’t one make an appearance?

I don’t plan to do this for artistic reasons. I’m worried that, if the game were chatty, then it would take away from the experience of solitude. I would like to offer in-fiction explanations for this when it’s relevant to the narrative. For example: what is the suit, who is piloting it, and why?

Of course, there’s also technical limitations. I don’t really like the text-to-speech synthesis that’s available, I don’t want to integrate with a third party or increase the file size of the game, etc. It’s been difficult keeping the scope of this project within reason, and a lot of ideas I’ve already needed to shelve for the next project instead.

If you haven’t done so already and if you haven’t decided on something else, I recommend making all upgrades required for other worlds be purchased in the world that comes before that one. For example, we should be able to purchase the jetpack in the first world in preparation for the second and so on where possible. This would also allow us to test them out.

I like this idea a lot! However, the first world is intended to be self-contained to work as a demo, so the limitation of just the core resources and upgrades is purposeful. The rest is subject to change, an I’m open to reconsidering, but here is my plan for getting the first few expansions out the door. They will mix and match new and existing materials, create worlds that are hard (but not impossible) to explore without a new upgrade, and have a unique material which unlocks and powers up that new upgrade after a bit of playing.

On the desert planet, the Simplex material and Wheels upgrade are what makes it easier to traverse. Then on the ice moon, it’s the Tesseract material and Thrusters upgrade, and so on. If you want a head start, then I’d recommend investing in Pneumatics and Gyroscopes to jump and climb its mountains. The Thrusters are fun, and completely change the game, but also optional!

You’ll also encounter these worlds non-linearly, in different orders each playthrough. So the upgrades won’t quite have an intended sequence beyond what you’d like or think is important for your experience.

How will blind players know about changes in the terrain like slopes caves and such?

Great question! I’m still working on this. And my views and approach evolve every time I playtest with graphics off and NVDA on.

The draw distance, other graphical elements, and how perceptions work, are deliberately designed to encourage sighted folks to use the terrain scanner to sonify the terrain. This evens the experience quite a bit. Because the desert planet is so flat, it was easy to avoid calling this out in other ways. But in other worlds it is more important to get this right.

The upcoming worlds have some audio cues associated with their terrain which helps communicate their elevation. For example, the ice in the new world creaks. And in the ocean world, there will be audio cues for the caves and their walls.

If possible, I think it’d be cool to have some fun and quirky upgrades for your suit, not entirely sure what but something to make you laugh.

I feel like every driving game needs a honk button. And a reverse tower defense level (not an explicit promise, but a threat for Side F).

Anyway, most times I take this project (and my others, and myself) far too seriously, but we’ll see! So far the writing is quite dark, but I have a lot of fun with it and inject humor where I can. After a while, stranded on an alien planet, the whimsy could certainly become more upfront than the perception I wrote and deleted where your arm fell off (for science).

Lastly, I recommend to change the sound for switching to different movement styles to something more mechanical in nature if not done already, not a fan of the one used when switching to and from wheels.

I’ll consider this! The current sound is stolen from my game E.X.O. and did not receive a facelift in this most recent update, where I redesigned almost every other sound to be unique from that game.

That’s good feedback. The manual is embedded with an <iframe> so it’s technically the same window as the game. Is there a way you’d prefer to interact with this, that doesn’t involve opening a new window? I should revisit this with a screen reader and try making it easier to navigate. At least it switches to the document focus mode.

Hey.

Thanks so much for the reply.

I'll definitely give this a try.

Since the game doesn't appear to run in a browser, would your suggestions still work?

Sorry, I don't really understand electron.