Sightline [DK2 support released]

Frooxius

I'm excited to announce that the crowdfunding campaign for SightLine has launched!

Official website  |  Facebook Page

Help us make this reality! Share and comment!

As a special treat, he's the last part of SightLine Prelude, finishing the surreal sci-fi short about the events before the story of SightLine.

Also I have made new topic for the development of the full game after VR Jam, so you can get updates and continue discussion here:
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=6896

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Get 1.2 Windows build (DK2 support)

Also SightLine is now on Oculus Share
https://share.oculus.com/app/1380132786019bpblgi7ldi

Update: Because I would like to make SightLine into a full blown game, I'm considering launching an IndieGogo campaign, but I could use some advice. Would you mind answering some of the questions in this post?

Hello,
I would like to share my Oculus VR jam entry with you - a game prototype named "SightLine", based on a principle that as soon as anything exits your field of view, it can change!

Official website (in construction)
Facebook page

Description

Our universe is volatile. Anything can be happening in places you're not observing. But laws of physics ensure, that whenever you look back, everything will be nice and consistent. In this game, laws of physics are broken.

The moment you look away... anything can change. The moment an object leaves your line of sight, it can vanish or change into something else.

Will you make sense of this unstable world and use the volatile nature of the environment to your advantage, to solve puzzles and get to the end?

Sightline is an environmental action/puzzle game prototype made specifically for
Oculus Rift VR jam developed with Unity and thus supports Windows, Mac and Linux

2nd milestone video
Note: It lacks some of the polish and changes in the final build, I didn't have time to make or even upload (I have 0.6 Mbps upload >.>) new trailer, but at least you'll have some surprises while playing ;-)

Download
Windows (Final VR jam prototype build - 1.0) (~150 MB)

Soundtrack (On SoundCloud)

Works with keyboard/mouse and Xbox 360 controller.

Credits
Created by: Tomas "Frooxius" Mariancik (that's me )
Music by: Ondrej "Sakabi" Pultar
Voice by: Julian Ceipek
Also I used a bunch of creative commons/free assets, they're listed in the README file included with the game.

I'll be happy if you share your thoughts, constructive criticism or just any comments! ^^ The last 3 weeks were quite tense, I worked as much as I could on this and I hope that I'll at least stand a small chance And hopefully that you'll find it fun :-)

Rocket

An game based around object permanence, what a fascinating and original concept. Good luck with it.

Punkerella

That is a super interesting concept, and I think changes like that might be really sort of fun and disturbing considering how "real" and "solid" things feel in the oculus rift. It would be interesting to make a game where you had people try to figure out what had changed. Especially in small things like a bowl in a kitchen turning to a vase or something. Almost like the craziest spot the difference game

Peejle

Very interesting, especially the non-Euclidean "portal' effect in the 3rd vid.
That has to really mess with your head in the Rift.

Peejle

Edited to reflect actual vid

Frooxius

Thanks you for comments :-) Yeah, I feel that it's much more mind messing in the Oculus than it is on the screen, both because of the natural head tracking and sense of being in the environment itself.

Peejle: I'm not however sure what you mean by "non-Euclidean 'portal effect'"? It's all Euclidean, things just change when you don't see them. If you mean that blueish thing where you can see the same scene reflected, that's just a mirror, which is going to be part of one of the puzzles.

Punkerella: That's interesting idea, although I'm currently going in a bit of a different direction with the puzzles, but comparing what changed mind be interesting element to add, although I have to think how to integrate it with the game.

Peejle

Frooxius wrote:

Peejle: I'm not however sure what you mean by "non-Euclidean 'portal effect'"? It's all Euclidean, things just change when you don't see them. If you mean that blueish thing where you can see the same scene reflected, that's just a mirror

Doh! Sorry for not paying closer attention. :oops:
Jumped to a conclusion that yours would be the first project to do this in the Rift:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xFbRecjKQA
Your vids show massive potential though, Euclidean or not.

Peejle

centurionwithatophat

I really like where this could go

Frooxius

centurionwithatophat: Thanks! ^^

Peejle: That's okay, that video doesn't really explain that much rather than just show what I'm playing with, so it's not completely clear.

Yeah, these non-Euclidean designs are also interesting and mindmessing, but they were already done in some games and they're not what I'm going for.

My game is completely Euclidean, but things change when you're not looking at them, even if you're standing in the same place.

Frooxius

Hello! I've put up a new video, showing a simple puzzle with the game mechanic:

roguebot

That's really cool and eye opening. It's easy to forget that not only does VR give you ability to "create" a reality, you can alter that reality at will. Very exciting stuff.

whoisonline

Wow .. you know, from watching the vids, I'm starting to get excited about your work. Great concept in general and it seems to be original in terms of all the demos and games I've seen.

Please let me know if you need some testers .. I'm eagerly awaiting to check your environments out.

Arowx

Great idea!

This reminds me of the tests done with eye tracking where elements from a picture/scene can be moved and changed when the user isn't looking at them and they don't notice.

So do these rooms belong to a in/famous illusionist then?

Frooxius

Thank you all, I'm glad you like it! :-)

Here's another teaser vid, it's a first segment of the game, but mostly just a model showcase/test (there's bunch of things that aren't supposed to be in that scene). It doesn't show an actual gameplay yet.

LucidReality

From what I've seen, it kind of reminds me of Anti-Chamber (which is rift enabled now) because of all the reality-bending components. Looks awesome!

Netherion

If you have ever seen Doctor Who you may have heard of The Weeping Angels that are quantum locked so they can ONLY move when you aren't looking at them.
I think of that when I see your game... MAKE IT HORROR STARRING WEEPING ANGELS!!!!

LucidReality

Netherion wrote:

If you have ever seen Doctor Who you may have heard of The Weeping Angels that are quantum locked so they can ONLY move when you aren't looking at them.
I think of that when I see your game... MAKE IT HORROR STARRING WEEPING ANGELS!!!!

Also, the nurses from Silent Hill :shock:

inmediastudio

Very interesting!!

fonefen

is difficult to cause feelings with this concept. :roll:

Frooxius

lgv212: Thanks! Anti-chamber is based on non-euclidean designs, so it's a bit different, but the reality-changing element is in my game as well, but in a bit different way.

Netherion: Oh yeah, I know Weeping Angels (I'm actually quite a Dr. Who fan :-) ), but I'm planning a monster that you actually don't have to look at to survive, so it's a bit different. And will be part of a puzzle.

fonefen: I'm not really sure what do you mean by that.

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Anyway, I uploaded my 3 screenshots for 1st milestone. They're not that much and not particularly revealing (I've been working mostly on the puzzles and not graphical side yet), just showing a few locations, but... here they are if you want to look:





Now I'll go to get some actual sleep for one day xD

Frooxius

No feedback on the screens? :-(

Anyway, I made new video, showing the portion of the starting scene (without voice actor yet):

Punkerella

Your progress looks great so far

I wouldn't worry about lack of feedback, I know that Booradley and I are starting to have trouble keeping up with all the great projects people are posting. Have to spend at least some time working on ours instead of hanging out on the forum

kblaney

This looks great. Lots of neat effects you have going on here. Also, you score points with me as a math guy for pointing out that what your doing isn't actually non-Euclidean.

How do you plan to handle player training? Similar games like Antichamber and Portal had a pretty significant tutorial sections (in the latter most of the game is a tutorial) before really letting you run free to really play the game. These are not easy tasks to grasp.

Also, what are you using to develop this? I'm really interested in how you pull this effect off. Hopefully after the jam you will tell us.

Birchmountain

A really interesting concept! What i think would add a lot to the experience is if you filled the scene with small changes that occurred more frequently. When looking at the demo it felt weird that only the major objects changed, and because it's such a cool effect, you want to see it as much as possible. It's a lot of work but i think it would improve the experience greatly!

So far the demos looks great and i'm looking forward to playing it, Good luck!

Frooxius

Thanks!

kblaney: I plan to introduce the concepts slowly, without being much of a puzzle yet and also give some hints in the narration. There's not much room/time for making proper training sequences and testing (I probably won't even have that many puzzles done), so I hope that judges won't get lost, but I think the prototype will be relatively short. Hopefully that'll be enough to show the potential of the concept.

Anyway, I'm developing this in Unity, which makes it quite easy to implement the effect.

Birchmountain: Thanks! Yeah, I plan to add more changes, but not at the start yet, so it's not too confusing, but they will soon intensify, so don't worry :-)

kblaney

Frooxius wrote:

kblaney: I plan to introduce the concepts slowly, without being much of a puzzle yet and also give some hints in the narration. There's not much room/time for making proper training sequences and testing (I probably won't even have that many puzzles done), so I hope that judges won't get lost, but I think the prototype will be relatively short. Hopefully that'll be enough to show the potential of the concept.

Anyway, I'm developing this in Unity, which makes it quite easy to implement the effect.)

Well I see the potential even just in these few short videos, especially for something horror related or completely abstract, so I'm sure that will come across to the judges.

whoisonline

The potential is great. Puzzles and fantastic graphics !

Frooxius

Thanks! Here's updated video of the first scene. I'm sorry I don't have more now, but there was a power outage and I couldn't work for half a day :-(

Frooxius

Here's another video showing continuation of the first scene and some bigger changes :-)

rompergames

Very strong concept. Using the main input of the Rift in such a creative and unexpected way to show off the potential of VR. I'm impressed.

Fartshock

God, this is so cool. I love everything about it. Best of luck on your progress!

getnamo

Very very cool.