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December 16th-19th 2011 :: Theme: Alone
Forgotten Memories - Ludexor Studios - 48 Hour Compo Entry
Web - "Fixed" (Read Below) | Web - 48 Original | If The Server Is Down, Click Here | ~Silly Christmas Version~ | Source
Look around you. Do you see them?
Blips out in the distance.
These are all that remain of those who have long since left this place.
And when you leave, you too will leave your own.
Like a message in a bottle...
A forgotten memory...
This is what it means to be alone.
IF YOU DON'T GET IT:
NONE of the blips you encounter have been hand crafted. Every one of them has been left behind by a real person--such as you--entering the realm, and not fictional beings thought up by a developer.
There is no way to know who left them behind. No name, no link, no nothing. You explore alone. You leave alone. Despite being so close to what others have done, you never meet them, and never know their name.
The closest thing to any sort of connection you will ever have is when you leave, as a blip of your own will be left behind.
tl;dr - It's art. (Though really, it makes a LOT more sense if you read the above.)
WHAT TO DO:
Use wasd, arrow keys, or mouse buttons to move, and the mouse to look. It's recommended that you first look around to discover a blip.
Chrome highly recommended. This thing is iffy about if it wants to work with other browsers; I've had mixed success with Firefox.
OH, and for some reason the library I'm using locks your movement if you hit Q, and won't give it back. So don't hit Q. I wish I could have fixed that.
WHAT IS THIS?
Each blip is generated from previous users, based on how they explored while they were looking around. When you leave the page, your own exploration--your "memories"--will become another one of those blips.
It's rather difficult to call this a game, I suppose... I was trying to create something artsy that pushed the limits of what a game is, based on the definition that a game is an "Interactive Experience." I'm not sure how well I did.
THE TECHNOLOGY
This uses WebGL, PHP, Ajax, MySQL, HTML, and JavaScript.
Going into this, I knew NOTHING about WebGL, PHP, Ajax, or MySQL, and the last time I used HTML and JavaScript was ten years ago.
Don't ask me how I pulled it off.
Maaaaaajor thanks/credit/props to so many tutorial sites I can't even remember right now, but probably most of all to a man known as Paul Lewis. His WebGL tutorials are amazing, and not only that, but they made it possible for me to follow through with my idea. His website: http://aerotwist.com/
That said, please do try not to wreck my server. :)
EDIT - Because Internet Explorer does NOT support WebGL, I've added a notification for users that try to run the game on non-WebGL browsers. The only difference between it and the 48 Original version is the bit of code that handles that notification.
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View Ludexor Studios's journal. | View all entries by Ludexor Studios
Ratings
 | Coolness | 71% |
| #23 | Innovation | 3.76 |
| #100 | Community | 3.18 |
| #112 | Graphics | 3.48 |
| #245 | Theme | 2.93 |
| #296 | Overall | 2.79 |
| #314 | Mood | 2.41 |
| #514 | Fun | 1.98 |
| #515 | Audio | 1.30 |
| #648 | Humor | 1.11 |
Comments
Really pretty. Really interesting, but as You said not really a game. But still great job :)
Interesting concept and well executed :) Some audio to go along with this would have been amazing.. Enjoyed it.
Submit it to chrome experiments!!
This is a really great idea, I like the way you don't really know what you left behind.
I really enjoyed this, I think its a really innovative idea that generates very interesting visuals.
I love it. I'm a bit concerned about connecting to mysql as root and having the password in there, but, I imagine you obfuscated it.
I'd also love to see this thrown onto gitorius or the like so it could be forked from your original and mucked about with - the concept is so clever what with the back end remembering bits, and using that to render more stuff.
Again, I love it. And it makes me want to mess about with webgl more. Unlike most webgl bits I've looked at (iq's shader toy mostly) this is, well, understandable and not "and then I pour the magic liquid into the machine and it comes out with this raytraced stuff!"
Thank you for making this.
Great idea (it's not a game in traditional sense, but it's interesting and after hours of crunching on my jam entry i really enjoy something which just lets me lazily fly around...)
That's some spacy shit right there.
Very interesting indeed, I'll have to give 1 star for the audio though :')
Pretty cool tech demo. With a bit of ambient sound and some drugs this would be killer.
I wish the server was running, ah well. Nice fractal things anyway!
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Simply great, i hope most people understand this.. read the above description if you do not! :)