Author here, not sure why this is posted today as this project is from 2015, but feel free check out our latest WebGL project if you liked Keep Out: https://equinox.space
I think it is because Equinox Space was posted last week and made a good splash, lot of people liked it, so someone must have explored your past stuff and found this from 2015.
Started playing equinox but constantly find myself face first against a wall and struggling to turn around and get a good view. Nav is dizzying. But I love the rendering and audio.
Sorry to hear that! There are multiple control modes so I assume you're either using the mobile version or the desktop in casual mode. We've tried our best making the experience as easy to use as possible for a variety of user profiles, but it's not perfect. FWIW, the touch and mouse-only controls are similar to Google Street View.
Yes, we relied on UA-based mobile detection which worked back then but a few years ago Apple stopped treating iPadOS as mobile, and we never patched this.
Unfortunately no! We did want to add secret stuff like hidden doors or fake walls back then, but we had to keep scope under control since that was only a promotional demo for our studio.
Edit: not sure if you're talking about Equinox or Keep out. But my answer is true for both projects. ;)
For Chromium based browsers you can use getLayoutMap() instead of prompting the user and then rely on the manual fallback for Safari/Firefox/Other unsupported browsers. In either case, detecting/asking for the layout makes sense for displaying the controls graphics but you should still ultimately use the keycodes for positional keys in the actual code so someone on the misdetected or on an unlisted layout can still use the positional keys as expected.
This API doesn't know what my keyboard layout is, and there's no way it possibly could; it's in the keyboard's firmware, not software.
Better than a fallible API that didn't exist when this was made, or a way-too-limited layout choice, would be to make it work well with arrow keys and mouse (arrows already do the basic movement), or to make the 6-key instruction screen configurable.
Adding configurability is a good additional option (even outside the layout detection) but because people like different layouts not because a few HN style folks break OS detection via custom firmware. It's certainly not a reasonable cause to redesign your control scheme around the limitation either. Something of 10%+ of internet users don't use qwerty, something of 0.01% set their layout via the keyboard's firmware.
Good note on the game being released ~2015 though, the API wasn't added until ~2018.
The TR community has a couple of websites hosting lots of great fan levels, I'm hoping to make this good enough to allow playing them straight from the browser at some point.
This is super cool and it's great! I enjoyed my brief try in the browser.
Couple feedback points: I really hate the health system. I wish it was clearer how much health the potion recovered. I'd almost have it more like a traditional unit-like health bar and the potions recover one unit. Also having the R key so close to the movement keys made me press it in a panic several times when trying to move away. ALso allowing you to use a potion when your health is full feels really cheap. Also what about purchasing such items in the store after each level?
I never really got used to the strict 90 degrees movement and my fingers constantly got confused between strafe and turn. But I'm sure I'd get used to it in time. I'm more used to the FPS movement when this is more of an arcade-style setup.
For the map, I'd recommend holding the TAB key to show it, so it's just for quick glances.
Would have appreciated a little more variety in the props, though I only played to level 8, so I'm sure more gets introduced. There were new enemy types all the time which was nice.
FWIW: I also enjoyed the game. I also got confused between strafe and turn, and often did things like bombs by accident.
My additional feedback:
* I got to level 13 or 14, and then got bored. There was no way to save, and it wasn't clear if it went on. Does it repeat forever? Is there an end.
* What would also be helpful is to understand the purpose. This type of game is the type of game I often see developed as a kids' project, where in a camp or similar, a senior developer sets up an API designed to make it easy, generates all the artwork, and then kids code the high-level logic. If it were open-source, perhaps it'd be that? Perhaps it's intended to be commercialized with more development (that'd be tough with a million similar apps)? Perhaps it's intended as publicity for the coding shop? That would be helpful to understand too when looking for feedback or when visiting.
Re. level, it ends after 15. There's a "the end" screen with a floating trophy.
I agree that it starts to feel repetitive around 13 or 14. For me the turning point was the wand, which feels a bit overpowered and like it needs a cooldown as has been pointed out. An improvement might be having bombs and arrows in the store so you can do something with the gold you keep amassing.
I like the map being a toggle, because I could navigate by looking at the map while I move around (helps with that confusion). The 3d view is needed to see items, pots, and enemies, and that's fine, but ideally those would show on the map too.
If this style of game is up your alley but you're looking for a more complete experience, then the Legend Of Grimrock series is what you're looking for: https://store.steampowered.com/sub/49358/
The mechanics is quite different here. I believe Grimrock is "I move, you move" movement mechanics, and in this, the enemies moved in real time. Subtle but completely different gameplay as a result.
This is mistaken, Grimrock is realtime. I just booted it up to confirm; I don't even see an option for a turn-based mode, which would be handy, because the game is quite challenging and without deft and constant repositioning you'll quickly become spider food. :)
Reminded me of Grimrock too, but if you also like this I'd recommend a game called Barony. Great multiplayer RPG romp that has a lot of depth and secrets to discover. Also procedurally generated.
I'm not as huge fan of the controls. I have five fingers on my left hand, and there are six buttons there, so I'm constantly moving them around, while my right hand doesn't do much. Maybe figure out a way to use both hands?
aren't these pretty stock keys for game play? i'm not a heavy gamer by any stretch of the imagination, but these controls are very familiar to me from the few games i have played
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EDIT: thanks for all the great feedback!
I did like equinox space a lot.
Also played thru equinox. Nice. Tight packages both!
Congrats on finishing Equinox!
Yes, we relied on UA-based mobile detection which worked back then but a few years ago Apple stopped treating iPadOS as mobile, and we never patched this.
Edit: not sure if you're talking about Equinox or Keep out. But my answer is true for both projects. ;)
Better than a fallible API that didn't exist when this was made, or a way-too-limited layout choice, would be to make it work well with arrow keys and mouse (arrows already do the basic movement), or to make the 6-key instruction screen configurable.
Good note on the game being released ~2015 though, the API wasn't added until ~2018.
As a rainy weekend hack I did a quick and dirty port of a fan decompile of the original Tomb Raider to WASM/WebGL a few weeks ago:
https://eikehein.com/stuff/sabatu/ (this uses alternative fan assets inspired by TR1)
The TR community has a couple of websites hosting lots of great fan levels, I'm hoping to make this good enough to allow playing them straight from the browser at some point.
Couple feedback points: I really hate the health system. I wish it was clearer how much health the potion recovered. I'd almost have it more like a traditional unit-like health bar and the potions recover one unit. Also having the R key so close to the movement keys made me press it in a panic several times when trying to move away. ALso allowing you to use a potion when your health is full feels really cheap. Also what about purchasing such items in the store after each level?
I never really got used to the strict 90 degrees movement and my fingers constantly got confused between strafe and turn. But I'm sure I'd get used to it in time. I'm more used to the FPS movement when this is more of an arcade-style setup.
For the map, I'd recommend holding the TAB key to show it, so it's just for quick glances.
Would have appreciated a little more variety in the props, though I only played to level 8, so I'm sure more gets introduced. There were new enemy types all the time which was nice.
My additional feedback:
* I got to level 13 or 14, and then got bored. There was no way to save, and it wasn't clear if it went on. Does it repeat forever? Is there an end.
* What would also be helpful is to understand the purpose. This type of game is the type of game I often see developed as a kids' project, where in a camp or similar, a senior developer sets up an API designed to make it easy, generates all the artwork, and then kids code the high-level logic. If it were open-source, perhaps it'd be that? Perhaps it's intended to be commercialized with more development (that'd be tough with a million similar apps)? Perhaps it's intended as publicity for the coding shop? That would be helpful to understand too when looking for feedback or when visiting.
I agree that it starts to feel repetitive around 13 or 14. For me the turning point was the wand, which feels a bit overpowered and like it needs a cooldown as has been pointed out. An improvement might be having bombs and arrows in the store so you can do something with the gold you keep amassing.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1601280/Potato_Flowers_in...
https://dungeoncrawlers.org/
Dungeon crawler is a much wider field than blobber is.
But it isn't.
> Subtle but completely different gameplay as a result.
It's difficult to identify "results" of circumstances that aren't true.
It uses Three.js.
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