Env - Abstract survival game

Env is a first-person abstract survival platformer game

The foundation of the gameplay is a physics simulation in which I generate a very large flat grid of brick shaped objects, which get pulled apart / sucked up by 2 different physics actors with different behaviors - one a giant beam in the sky sucking things up, and the other a ball which flies around pulling everything in toward it. These are implemented with a modified version of Circular Gravity Force by Lanemax (http://u3d.as/content/lane-max/circular-gravity-force/4tu)

You play an insignificant avatar in first person, and you have to move around this environment, not falling into the 'water' whilst collecting bits of 'food' in order to not starve, and grabbing bits of 'tech' to upgrade your speed jump, making it easier to not die!

IndieDB page is up, with downloads for PC Mac

Additionally, the code I've written for this project can be seen here in case anyone is interested, excluding any code from standard packages / paid-for packages

 

Well that is original, I have to give you that. Also it is like orgasm for my eyes watching that ray wrecking havok.
If I might add, I think that the sphere though it's pretty un-interesting compared to the ray. Maybe you should design them like Yin-Yang.
One destroying the lands and the other trying to pull it back together. An eternal strife between the two.
I think it will be a challenge to make it optimized, entertaining and long enough to keep the player satisfied.

 

Hehe thanks primus88

I like your suggestion, I did originally plan to have it so you could directly reverse the effects of both the beam and the sphere. I quickly realised that idea, like yours, would probably make it more fun, but it wouldn't be coherent with theme - there aren't 2 opposing forces, there is nothing trying to pull it back, and the changes are irreversible. I'm not trying to make money with this, so I'd rather the meaning of it be internally consistent then the whole game be more entertaining. That can come later

That said, I'm certainly not trying to avoid it being entertaining! It's been... challenging to keep it optimized, draw calls are super low if shadows are off, but the physics calcs are obviously fairly significant. All the pieces in the grid are Kinematic until they are being affected by one of the actors, which pretty much saves the day. As far as being long enough, you have to survive for 6 minutes for the game to end, it's not intended to be long, but its challenging enough that it'll likely take a good few runs to complete

 

I just had an eye-gasm. Awesome, glorious!

/follow

 

Thanks johnb2, glad you liked it
I'm happy to provide eye-pleasure whenever/wherever possible

 

Very cool!

 

Insanely cool : D

 

Thanks guys

I've updated the OP with links to playable builds. Would really appreciate some feedback!

 

I LOVE IT!!!! It's looks great and is a great idea!!! My suggestion make sure the distance between platforms is not farther than the players furthest jump. That might mean putting a clamp on the distance of newly created objects!!! HOwever, I haven't played it yet, but willl

AGAIN, LOVE IT and thank you for the code!!!!

 

Very cool concept, I can see how this could be adapted to become an analogy of.. Life and death, perhaps. Or the finality/inevitability of dying. It might sound like quite a depressing theme, but with the right visual style and atmosphere, it could turn into something very intriguing. Artsy even, for lack of a better word. I dig the world destroying super beam, it's equally fascinating and terrifying.

 

@ Kinos141 - Glad you liked it Thanks for the suggestion, when the game starts all the pieces are together in a block, and they are moved around dynamically when being affected by the physics - so the distance between them is not something I intend to try and control



@ Perpetual Diversion - Thanks! I'm no visual artist, so I don't really know how to represent this kind of theme as a visual style. I am a programmer however, so I've worked instead to represent the theme in the behaviour interaction of the gameplay systems. I'm not opposed to having a visual style to back it up, but I lack the skillset needed for it, however I do like your suggestion (I'm definitely into depressing themes ).

It does, however, already have an analogy - my impression of our environment the forces acting on it changing it - to represent the kind of theme your suggesting I would re-design the mechanics to support that. That being said, I'm really glad to see someone takes a different interpretation of it! Thanks again

edit: btw I checked out your site, some really good looking stuff there, do any of those projects have playable builds available?

 

@Adrianis: Me too, depressing themes are strangely compelling. Not in a depressing way though, more like in a fascination-way.

Oh yeah, that makes sense now that you mention it! That's the cool thing about subtle/interpretative themes, people project different meaning to it. Most often something that is similar or at least relatable to the actual theme.

Thanks for the comment and for taking a look at my site! The only one I've got a build for is Mortal Spire. I might be able to get a build of Eira's Tale up too, the rest are WIP or lost in the void somewhere.

 

Wow. Phenomenal. Well done!

Seriously, that's so awesome and yet simple that I want to riff on it myself.

 

I've only seen the video but I will try it out once i get back home. So simple but so awesome! dem physics

 

Simply Awesome. I'll give you that!

 

Thanks guys, really pleased to hear people like it

@angrypenguin - Sounds good, please do! I'd be interested to see what you come up with

@sti4thewin - Cool! let me know what you think of the game when you do


I'm currently testing a final build, representing about 7 weeks worth of work, which I'll post up when it's done, along with a new video.
It has mostly the same features as the build in the OP, with some tweaked gameplay, extra sounds, slightly better performance some bug fixes.


For anyone that has not already, go read this thread, the advice there is invaluable

 

Looks really cool Adrianis. Grats!
Gigi

 

Rad.

I'll finish my current project first, but I really do love this idea, and I've already come up with a couple of mechanics which I think would go really well with it.

 

Just updated the OP with new links to the (tentatively) finished build, give it a go let me know if you have any issues / suggestions / feedback
Should hopefully have a new video of a complete playthrough up soon! Been delayed by the start of a new project on a new frankly incredibly exciting engine (sorry Unity, I still love you I'll be back for you )


@ Gigiwoo: Thanks, I appreciate it!

@ angrypenguin: Awesome, let me know what you come up with! It'd be cool to see, and maybe we'll get some cross-pollination of ideas going

 

It looks great! Good luck!

 

Thanks mate. I'm loving the look of Breed, good luck to you too

 

Updated the OP with a new video of a shortened version of the 'final' build. Of course, as soon as I decided it was final made the video I noticed a few annoying little things that totally-don't-need-but-will-be-anyway fixed
Currently waiting for an IndieDB page to get authorised, during which time I'll make a few small changes do the final builds, then upload post a link

 

This sounds like a great game. However I feel that the new name is a bit too long. I feel it should be shorter, maybe stick with Env. I'm only one person so don't change your mind just because of me. This is just my opinion! Good luck on the project though

 

I think 'ENV' (all capitals) is a far more catchy name than 'Do you think the end of the world is coming'.

 

+1 I agree with this

 

This is crazy! Reminds me of This is the End.

 

Yeh, I think you guys are totally right. I want to try and make long names work, but this isn't right game or name for it Thanks

 

Updated OP with a link to the IndieDB page, it has a download for PC 64bit.
32bit Mac downloads should be available shortly

 

Looks really interesting! Still waiting for the 32-but or the Mac build before I can try it though.

The sphere seems to not have much of an effect. Might be neat if it did repulsion instead of attraction and would go above and below the surface leaving gaping pits/mounds. Sometimes it could travel just under the surface for that sandworm/tremors effect.

There is something really compelling about how the physics is frozen--almost like time is stopped--in between the actions of the destructive forces. You get these interesting snapshots of destruction. I'm probably going to have to "borrow" (i.e. steal) from this idea at some point in the future. Not quite sure how yet.

 

Thanks TheShane, the 32bit Mac builds are up now!

Sounds like that suggestion for the sphere could be cool but, it acts the way it does now for a reason, changing it would change what it represents and I don't particularly want to do that

The objects being frozen when not affected was originally a technical necessity (for performance reasons), but your right the effect is compelling I grew to like it over the course of development

 

Very original concept! Adrianis, you should make it into fully fledged game Just imagined the possibilities and I think it may become something very compelling.

 

Thanks Spelle, if I can think of a good way to expand it, I will

 

Very cool idea, good luck with that project!

 

Looks fun to play once the real graphic is there.

Somehow it remind me of "The Reaper" when they attack the Earth in Mass Effect 3.

 

Thanks anszwa

You might be waiting a while for 'real' graphics
(I think it's as real as it's gonna get)

 

Well, I'll keep myself busy while waiting. Haha

 

Simple but fascinating! Very cool idea, it truely has a uncanny atmosphere, i like it!

 

Very cool, I feel like the giant attractor beam could be a great element for an alien abduction horror game, randomly appearing and trying to absorb you.

 

so simple but so fun?

 

Love what you did here. Just mind boggling.

 

Thanks guys, I appreciate it

It's been out for just under 2 weeks now and I'm pretty pleased with the progress, few but good ratings, and some websites blogs have written unsolicited posts about it (including a spanish website that appears to be re-distributing it with their own installer, which is weird and slightly annoying, but flattering).

I'm confident that I know what worked and what didn't, now just need to figure out how / when to expand on it without detracting from what worked well, which is proving to be pretty difficult. There's a bunch of things I wanted to say with it that I didn't get in there with this first run, expanding on making more clear the core metaphor is going to be... challenging, what with no experience in the matter very few good examples to look at. Fun to try, though!

 

Amazing concept, and very well executed!

This is great as it is... although once it's finished, I'd be curious to see a remake with some form of graphics implemented! See land and debris getting pulled by fancy beams, and such!

 

Markiplier played it

 

Yeh right, thanks for letting me know. All the peaks troughs on the IndieDB stats page from previous weeks is now pretty much a straight line in face of the wall of downloads after this video.

Gotta love Lets Play'ers

 

This is awesome. Very simple and original but fun and interesting. xD