AUSPEX

lectronice

Hey there, here comes my latest project 🙂

Get it on Itch: https://lectronice.itch.io/auspex

To sum up, it's an experimental game hosted on Itch that will get a new level every day in 2024. I intend to post short weekly dev logs on this thread, and daily updates on my Mastodon account. Here's the description from my Itch page, which I'll link once everything is ready:

AUSPEX offers an existential crawl through daily hand-crafted levels. Set in an ever-growing labyrinth built upon iterations of itself, it's a Sisyphean quest for meaning and purpose, a blind search for new futures, bathed in ambient music.

Seven years after A Road to Awe, here comes another attempt at abstract journaling with an interactive medium, at reshaping mental states as virtual spaces, at drawing a map, no matter how cryptic, of a mind's ebb and flow.

This is meant as a loose translation of my own experiences during the year 2024, one day after the other, from January 1st to December 31st. Gameplay may vary, depending on my mood, my time, and the engine features I feel like exploring.

Using the Itch app is highly recommended to get daily updates automatically. You can also follow my progress on the RPG in a Box forum, and on the Fediverse.

I survived 365 days of stairs. More recently, I used a similar process for one month, with a bit more variety. I can do it again, even if this year has 366 days.

Don't expect anything polished. Some days will be tedious, uninspired and depressing, or worse, unkind to the player. But others might be surprising, hopeful, funny or soothing.

Nobody can tell, not even the AUSPEX, and that's the point.

Yes, it's a bit crazy. The truth is I've started dozens of projects over the years, and most of them were abandoned, or worse, put on hold, then reworked a few months or years later, then put on hold again... But this rather demanding format of pushing a new build every day just works for me, and I finally grew frustrated enough with my lack of creative discipline... So, here we go again!

lectronice

Here's a few screenshots. None of this will be in the game, but it should give a decent idea of its vibe.

PouletRoti

Can't wait, love the screenshots!

capuchinaprr

looks stunning, and the feeling is similar to that of a dream in which you are an outsider observing oneself with a stagnant environment, waiting for the release

lectronice

capuchinaprr Thanks!

capuchinaprr the feeling is similar to that of a dream in which you are an outsider observing oneself with a stagnant environment, waiting for the release

Well, it's great to read this, because you sum up very well the kind of vibe I was trying to convey 🙂

lectronice

Here's the secret URL to the Itch page for anyone who'd like a sneak peek: https://lectronice.itch.io/auspex?secret=oraaFoVSGxOAoiHwUpFT8juRLjE

Happy new year!

lectronice

The game is out! 👉️ https://lectronice.itch.io/auspex

I think I'll post a development update here every Sunday.

lectronice

So, it's been one week, and things are going smoothly so far. There's been lots of bug squashing and fixes along the way, as each new level brought various new problems, but I've managed to build a decent gameplay loop with a working light system. It's extremely simple: you need to activate a new light source or to reach an exit before your torch goes out, or you respawn at the last door or light source.

I'm using free movement mode, and while there's no jumping (yet) it can sometimes be challenging to navigate quickly without falling. I'm trying to find a balance between the urge of going fast and a more contemplative mood, since you can rekindle your torch as many times as you want.

I'm looking forward to future RPGiaB improvements which will allow me to make full use of platformer mechanics, but it was already very nice to work around the current limitations and have fun just wandering off the grid 🙂

I'm planning to add more doors in the main room: similarly to A Road to Awe, we'll need a way to access levels sorted by months and weeks, and other methods. I'm also working on combining my daily loops into weekly ambient tracks. I'd like to release a new EP every month, to build the ever-evolving soundtrack of the whole year.

Here's a screenshot of day 6, which includes basic moving platforms and buttons to activate them.

Time for another week!

lectronice

Two weeks in! There's been quite a few additions, though not always visible. New and updated code to handle the player's direction when respawning, many tweaks to manage some special case scenarios, a few failed experiments... I also played a lot with particles and created new tiles as needed.

Music was mess, though an interesting one, as I'm still learning the intricacies of the Chompi sampler I started to use on Monday. It's a lot of fun to play with, but I limited myself to resampling the previous daily loop straight from y speakers and mangling it at various speeds with a few effects. The result is mostly harsh and noisy but still quite atmospheric. It's barely listenable but like how textured and chaotic it sounds.

Next week might be a bit more pleasing to the ears, since I've finally acquired a real handpan. And oh boy, it sounds absolutely incredible.

The most obvious addition was made today, it's hard to miss... It will probably confuse people who never played A Road to Awe, but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

Here's one of my favorite screenshots of the week.

lectronice

We've reached the end of the third week, and the habit has started to form. I don't really need to think about creating a new level every day, I simply do it. Not that it's easy to do, but it's become part of the flow, part of my routine. For now, at least, because there will of course be challenging days where I'll have nearly no time to make anything, and I'll need to be prepared, ready for the unexpected... No doubt it might be fun, even if no one ever sees what happens behind the scene.

One subtle but major difference with my first year-long project is that I don't create a new level from scratch every day. I rework the previous one. Sometimes it's hardly noticeable, because I erase and rebuild nearly everything. Sometimes it's clearly an iteration of a feature I liked and wanted to explore further. It's an interesting process, because, beyond the symbolic aspect of making something "new" of whatever yesterday did bring, it's also a way of inspiring myself. Like following prompts for Inktober, except all prompts are my previous works reacting to each other. And it's oddly both mechanical and creative at the same time.

There's some kind of emergent cohesiveness here, and I'm starting to toy with the idea of adding more complex scripting that would track how many rooms were visited, how many braziers were lit, and other variables. This could have an effect on subtle parameters, maybe give access to some secret levels or special skills... Since the gameplay, while still pretty simple, is already much more complex that in A Road to Awe, I don't see any reason to not add elements that would provide a more "game-like" experience. We'll see 🙂

Here's a nice example of this week's stairs madness.

lectronice

The fourth week has ended, and I'm not sure what to say about it. Some levels have grown quite complex and bigger than previously, and I've been using diagonal tiles more often, which tends to give rounder, more organic shapes. I still have a hard time avoiding symmetry, the exception being for "ruined" levels, where I basically removed tiles at random and rebuilt quick and dirty paths through whatever was left.

One noticeable level in this regard is day 26, because the path is different depending on which door you come from. A few passages require the player to fall to a lower location, so you can't simply walk all the way to the other door and come back. That was a rather complicated design, even if the result is still quite simple. But it makes the exploration much more interesting. I really doubt anyone would play each level in the two directions, but this design approach can add a lot of personality to any level, and I'd like to pushing this concept further, at least on the days when I find enough time.

Oh, and there's the music. It still needs some work, but I've managed to build an ambient track for each week with the loops I made. It will be noisy, broken and unpolished, but also quite atmospheric, and it's certainly worth a monthly album in my opinion. I'm eager to see how the last album of the year will sound when compared to the first one 🙂

Here's a screenshot from day 26, which is the most broken level so far.

lectronice

One month done!

I'm a bit late for this report, but I've been busy trying to put together the January soundtrack as an album, which I hope to release this weekend. I also had to adapt my schedule to a few events, and as everything piled up I had little time left to write anything.

The most noticeable thing this week was probably the addition of transparent spheres and curved, truchet-like tiles which give a much more organic vibe compared to the usual "concrete ruins". I'm pushing the limits here, because the setting and the general quality of collisions for these assets are quite experimental. Toying with spheres, curved paths and pseudo-stairs mixed with marching cubes isn't exactly the easiest way to get smooth collisions. But it's fun!

The transparent rendering also creates an interesting ethereal vibe, as several tiles overlap with each other, and lights add another layer of visual weirdness. My models library keeps growing. I already have way more assets than I ever used in A Road to Awe, and at this rate, I'll have a huge collection at the end of the year. Let's just hope it won't get to bad to navigate between all of them, haha!

As you can see, this is rather different when compared to my first screenshots.

lectronice

Five weeks in...

I've been pretty busy lately, but I've managed to release the first album of the series. Here's the description from the Bandcamp page:

This is the first of the twelve albums composed with the fragmented sounds of my experimental game AUSPEX.

It tells the wordless story of my first five weeks of 2024, from January 1st to January 29th.

At the beginning of each week, I record a new loop with whatever I find inspiring at the moment. Usually, but not only, handpans and steel tongue drums. Then, every day of the week, I recycle this loop and add it to the ambient soundtrack of the game.

Each loop iteration becomes the music of a new level that I also create daily, built upon the previous one. All loops are set up in chronological order to compose weekly tracks, with a few additional effects and tweaks.

Think of it as a kind of abstract musical diary, with mangled lo-fi samples and drones, occasional ambient sounds, and an absurdly Sisyphean atmosphere.

It's available on Bandcamp of course, and also on Itch.

Regarding the game, there's now a new door for the month of February. Not much progress regarding scripting, but I added a few new tiles, and did more experiments with transparency.

This is a tunnel, or mostly several layered tunnels merging into... something 🙂

lectronice

Oops, I forgot to post this draft. Well, week 6 is done.

At this point, the project has become a bit of a big blur. But not in a bad sense. What I mean is it's more than a habit now, it's an automatism. Even if one day still means one level, or sometimes almost two when I have to get a head start for busy days, building them is seamless. I won't say effortless, because it still require some work, but the routine isn't something I have to actively think about anymore. It just happens.

I still rarely feel inspired with a cool new idea that suddenly pops out of nowhere. Most of the time, I just look at what I did on the previous day for a few minutes, then I start to build a general shape to complete or partially replace what I made the day before. At first, it always feel kind of dull, but as the level design progresses and small details are added, it feels increasingly more interesting. At least to me.

There's probably some kind of daily dopamine hit to be found here, similarly to the tedium of starting a workout then loving it in the end, no matter the actual result. Doing the thing is both a mean and an end, the real satisfaction doesn't come from making something good or polished. Doing is enough, and in a way, more, than finishing.

Here's a bunch of glass panes. It seems exploring transparency is something I'm enjoying a lot.

lectronice

Seems like I kept postponing the previous update until another update became necessary, so here's an update for the two previous weeks.

It's even more of a big blur than previously, so, what should I say... 🤔

The most noticeable addition, thanks to Justin's hard work, are moving platforms that you can now actually walk onto. This means platforms following all kinds of trajectories, vertical, horizontal, oblique, or even more complex patterns. I've barely scratched the surface, and I didn't find a way to make full use of automated looping platforms yet, but it's already pretty nice to press buttons and move all over the map!

Another interesting feature are ladders. This also opens brand new possibilities for level design. Previously, the only way to go up was to use stairs, which can be rather cumbersome. Now it's pretty easy to simply climb up whenever a bit of verticality is needed. Unlike platforms, ladders are very quick to set up once you find the right physics paramters. And to my surprise, creating a climb animation didn't take me too much time.

I should also mention glass tunnels, which are an interesting and pretty way to direct the player to specific places while preventing them from falling. I probably forgot a few things... No doubt you'll figure them out by yourselves!

I'm currently working on February's album. I hope to release it in a few days, probably next week.

Some glass tunnels (yes, this also includes stairs.)

A moving platform (see that trail of smoke?)

Climbing a ladder

That's all for now 🙂

lectronice

Here's last week report before I forget!

There's been a few interesting additions. The most obvious one is something I've been wanting to do for a while, but couldn't implement properly because of collisions and gravity issues due to how my fall system works. But with the new zones feature from 1.1, I was able to set this up properly. So, we now have... a hole! Thanks to my 6 year old kid who wanted a hole. What does it do? You'll probably figure it out very quickly if you jump into it 🙂

Next, we have some kind of high-speed mini-train, made of three platforms moving at the same time. It's a simple idea which works rather well, even if I had to tweak the speed and shapes to prevent the player from going through the collision boxes in some cases (which can still happen from time to time, but where would be the fun otherwise?)

I've also added some more medieval-looking tiles with large irregular stones, and they give that instant "old crumbling castle" vibe, which is quite different from the more concrete and brutalist appearance of the original set. I'll probably expand it, since for now there's only one archway model that I've reused everywhere.

I'm also getting close to finishing February's album. It's funny because on most days this project feels like too much tedious work, but a few minutes after opening RPGiaB, it feels easy and exciting. It's rather strange, but the dynamics work pretty well so far.

You can hardly miss the hole, it's right here in the hub.

High-speed transportation with particle trail.

Here come dungeons!

lectronice

Hey there! I've been pretty busy lately and keeping up with updates isn't always easy.

The game is going strong, though. I'm not entirely sure what's new and what's not since the last time, but every new level is still an opportunity to experiment with whatever comes to my mind.

I think we now have some kind teleporters that work like pipes in Super Mario, among other things. The same as the hole in the starting area, but connecting to another part of the same level instead of leading to a random one. More ladder-climbing madness, more medieval-looking ruins, more strange tiles... It's hard to keep track 🙂

And I've finally managed to release the second album of the soundtrack, which includes four weeks of February. It's available on Bandcamp and on Itch.

I also had an insightful thought about the game that I wanted to share here... but I forgot it. Ironically, I believe it was about memories 😂 I guess it wasn't as insightful as it first appeared to be. Oh well, maybe I'll remember it next time!

The ghost noodles labyrinth?

An extremely vertical level with loads of pipes and ladders

Rocky tiles with a hint of Minecraft flavor

♤|SODA|♤

I love how spooky this game looks!
Looking forward to seeing how this goes. 🙂

Harogat / Mani

Boy what can I say, I didn't get very far but it certainly left its mark on me.