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Wayfinder – a relaxing 'art game' in the browser
- pier25 5y agoBeautiful stuff. Gave me huge Flash nostalgia. The JS code is unminified. It uses Three.js and Svelte. https://wayfinder.nfb.ca/src/systems/CanvasSystem.js https://wayfinder.nfb.ca/src/systems/CanvasSystem.js
- vnglst 5y agoNice find!
- lxe 5y ago403... not anymore! There is a source map however so you can still explore. Looks like it's structured as an entity-component-system project? I'm not at all familiar with game dev, but that's my guess based on the structure.
- qmmmur 5y agoReally cool to see some svelte in the wild :)
- dluan 5y agoFeels like yesterday I was playing orisinal games after school.
- raindropm 5y agoThat name brings back so much memories! ;_;
- diyseguy 5y agolooks like they took that offline - did anyone save it?
- pier25 5y agoYou can simply open the dev tools and see the source maps.
- wayneftw 5y agoAdded to my home screen on iOS so I could get rid of the address bar and bottom toolbar. Looks great and works very well! I like to play this one as well, not as artsy but super fun - https://play.gl/ https://play.gl/ - unfortunately it was not crafted as a PWA like this one.
- makach 5y agoJust blows my mind how much content you can provide through the browser. Beautiful game, and a wonderful experience. Some bugs (one of the paths lead outside navigational area) but not that bothered me particular. The browser is not a browser any more. It definitively is a multipurpose, cross platform delivery infrastructure.
- pjmlp 5y agoIt is just catching up with Java applets and Flash, or any other plugin one bothered to write.
- _benj 5y agoWow, this game is beautiful! Has a monument valley feel to it in the music and the art. I wonder what technologies where used to make this, the seamless transition between the cut scene at the beginning and the game. But it's definitively beautiful and relaxing :)
- vnglst 5y agoWayfinder was just released by Matt DesLauriers, more about his project can be found on his Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattdesl/status/1405231431970963457 https://twitter.com/mattdesl/status/1405231431970963457
- wcarss 5y agoI played the whole game before opening the credits, and while playing, I couldn't help but think of some of the other things of his I've seen over the years -- for example, I remember a different one where you just wandered in various directions as patterns formed, I think, but I don't remember what it was called -- and then lo, this was something he worked on as well! Matt's work is an inspiration. His 'Audiograph' from a few years back took me down so many good paths, learning about palette choices, 3D cameras, audio analysis, and more. His stuff is a treasure. (edit: the wandering game I couldn't recall the name of was https://bellwoods.xyz/ https://bellwoods.xyz/) 1 - https://www.audiograph.xyz/ https://www.audiograph.xyz/
- reidjs 5y agoIt's so inspiring what can be done with just the HTML5 canvas and (a lot of) time. That is one creative dude.
- johnnypangs 5y agoBeautiful game that runs really well (even on mobile), the authors should be proud!
- nurgasemetey 5y agoSo awesome, it reminds me GRIS.
- franze 5y agoSome people say they find my old Dot Dot Dot game relaxing http://lalo.li/ddd/ http://lalo.li/ddd/ Code: https://github.com/franzenzenhofer/ddd https://github.com/franzenzenhofer/ddd
- NikolaNovak 5y agoI quite enjoy it but would not call it relaxing... so clearly a valuable insight into individual psyche :->
- ehsankia 5y agoYeah it was actually quite stressful, especially with a trackpad.
- fouc 5y agoseems fine with a trackpad, but I always disable tap-to-click
- whatshisface 5y agoA great thing to add would be a dotted/transparent circle around the cursor showing the location that the object will be placed after clicking.
- hnick 5y agoI just built a nice little prison for the dot to live in. I'd guess a necessary enhancement to make it more of a game would be to have it pop the dot when it hits so you can never rest easy.
- andai 5y agoIt's probably the most relaxing form of suffering I've ever experienced.
- cs2733 5y agoIt's awesome (and relaxing), congrats
- Ashanmaril 5y agoHoly cow, this murdered my (fairly beefy) Macbook Pro in Desktop Safari. Seems to work fine in Edge (Chromium)
- macintux 5y agoWorked great on mobile Safari on my 2018 iPad Pro. The next generation of M-series chips can’t arrive quickly enough. I anxiously await my next laptop.
- stefandesu 5y agoRuns perfectly in Safari on my M1 MacBook Air.
- guilhas 5y agoLooks like the game 'Journey' 2012 I like these kind of games a lot
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y agoPlayer character looks very similar to character from the Monument Valley. I guess it is intentional.
- inigojonesguy 5y agoIs weird, I'm a forever quake fan, however some years ago I played (at a friend' house) a beautiful game where the player was the wind, there were no words, nor obvious hints, but instead a slow idea of the game goal, which was to somehow save the nature. Anybody can tell what game was that one?
- natdempk 5y agoI think this game is Flower. Played it years ago, but also the first result for "game where you play as the wind" on Google. :)
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- _spduchamp 5y agoFlower? https://thatgamecompany.com/flower/ https://thatgamecompany.com/flower/
- sogen 5y agomaybe Flower?
- huhtenberg 5y agoFlower. If you liked it, Journey takes it to the next level. In fact, this Wayfinder game appears to take lots of inspiration from both of these games. http://thatgamecompany.com/journey/ http://thatgamecompany.com/journey/
- mrtksn 5y agoSpeaking of relaxing games, have you played Little Orpheus? I made aware of it when won an Apple Design award and I assumed that Apple simply gave itself an award for publicity as it is part of the Apple Arcade. I decided to give it a try and wow! That game is something else. There's nothing special about the gameplay itself, it's even not that good but the concept of narrating your actions or having a dialog about the story and telling the story is extremely pleasing experience. Normally I would listen to podcast or open a YouTube video in the background as I play casual games. This is much better because your senses don't fight for attention priority. Then I remember, in Half Life there were parts when an outside voice would talk about something relative(g-man or someone asking you do something etc.). Every game should have a narrator or some kind of background voice taking you deeper into the story. Maybe that's part of the lure of game streamers?
- Ryder123 5y agoI haven't played Little Orpheus, but the concept of "narrating your actions sounds" like what Supergiant Games did with Bastion. I thought it was a break through in narrative gaming, and was surprised no one had copied it. I'll have to check out Little Orpheus now.
- mrtksn 5y agoIn Little Orpheus, maybe the "narrator" is not the right word. Think of it as two people having a conversation about where you are and what's happening. Now I remember, I think Max Payne also had an occasional background voice. It added so much to the atmosphere.
- mcphage 5y agoSupergiant’s most recent game Hades doesn’t have as much of a narrator as Bastion, but it does have one, and they do clever things like having the narrator accidentally tell the main character secrets (because the main character can hear the narration).
- Ryder123 5y ago
- jokoon 5y agoholding mouse down makes the whole game jerky
- spywaregorilla 5y agoyeah I found it pretty unpleasant for this reason
- fc373745 5y agotry switching from firefox to chrome
- stan_rogers 5y agoI genuinely have to wonder what sort of setup you're running. I'm getting a perfectly fluid experience using a i3 7100 with no additional graphics card, 8GB of DDR4 2100 and Firefox on Win10.
- yesenadam 5y agoAlso works perfectly on 2011 Mac mini, macOS 10.13 with Firefox.
- jsw97 5y agoI wonder if the Boards of Canada vibe is a conscious choice.
- dwighttk 5y agoblank brown screen with a little music on desktop safari
- 52-6F-62 5y agoOh it worked in desktop Safari just fine for me, but it is somewhat intensive work for my 2015 MBP
- alex_g 5y agoThis beautiful but 5 minutes in and my 2015 macbook pro cannot handle it.
- onemoresoop 5y agoThis is very a very pretty game, reminds me of quest games I was playing as a kid. Those games seem limited in capabilities but they were pushing boundaries back in the day in terms of graphics and artistry. Looking forward to see more of this. Im gonna try this on my 3 year old and see what response Im getting.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- ghostly_s 5y agodear mobile game developers: PLEASE make my initial touch the origin for movement vectors, not the character model. it's annoying having to constantly drag my finger up into the top half of the screen, breaks immersion as well as being just plain difficult when I have to obscure the character model with my finger in order to do fine movement.
- nathell 5y agoWow. That was unexpectedly, profoundly beautiful. Not so much a game as a work of art, definitely worth some time to experience. Makes me want to donate to the authors. From the colophon [0]: > Each experience of Wayfinder is as unique and ephemeral as the natural world itself. The visual assets are assembled procedurally and delivered in real-time. The lines of poetry are created with a mix of artificial intelligence, machine learning and generative processes, providing thousands of possible combinations. As such, Wayfinder is an ever-changing, emergent artwork with infinite possibilities. The generated haikus seem natural. I guess this might be one of the easiest genre of poetry for a computer to generate, with a well-trained model that can juxtapose matching lines. [0]: https://www.nfb.ca/interactive/wayfinder https://www.nfb.ca/interactive/wayfinder
- scoot 5y agoI got the same line twice in only 4 poems, so I'm not entirely convinced. I'm also naturally suspicious of anything that claims to use artificial intelligence and machine learning, as if these are two unrelated things.
- johnjboren 5y agoMachine Learning – A Subset of Artificial Intelligence[1] is a great teasing out of this concept. I feel that using them both in a game is with-in the realm of possibility. So, I am less likely to be offended until I know more. [1]https://techtiptrick.com/machine-learning-a-subset-of-artificial-intelligence/ https://techtiptrick.com/machine-learning-a-subset-of-artifi...
- shaunxcode 5y agoThis is really well done. Once I started I had to finish!
- simongr3dal 5y agoA very impressive little game, amazing what you can achieve in a browser. Another relaxing game I discovered a few years ago (I think also through HN) https://alexanderperrin.com.au/paper/shorttrip/ https://alexanderperrin.com.au/paper/shorttrip/ You're controlling a small railcar of some kind driving through villages and landscapes.
- joshspankit 5y agoSpecial shoutout to the National Film Board who’s shorts set the tone for my inquisitive life and who’s funding allowed all kinds of artists to add to our culture.
- joshspankit 5y agoFor some reason both my iPhone XS (iOS 14) and iPad (iOS 13) show a black screen with the pause, OOO, and compass at the top, some popups about moving the cursor, and nothing else. Feel like I’m missing out :(
- mattdesl 5y agoHi all - creator of Wayfinder here! Though it was very much a team effort. Happy to see this resonating with so many people. :) Feel free to ask any questions!
- coolspot 5y agoHey, great job with this one! Runs very smooth on my iPhone X. Visuals and audio are amazing! My question is, what factors made you decide to hand-craft it instead of using Unity/Unreal?
- mattdesl 5y agoI am more comfortable with JS + Three + Web than Unity/Unreal, and we had planned this as a web first experience. I also wanted a lot more control over the application than what those engines support (eg - in terms of loading, mobile, asset management, DOM-based UI, etc). In hindsight some things would have been a lot easier with a game engine!
- sizzle 5y agoThank you for such a relaxing peaceful game. What was the inspiration for this piece of art?
- mattdesl 5y agoThanks! Lots of things inspire me - Journey and Flower are obvious references, but also many other projects! I find a lot of inspiration through online illustration and generative art communities.
- tofukid 5y agoHow is it coded? Do you recommend any resources for learning about procedural generation of game worlds?
- mattdesl 5y agoIt was coded with JavaScript + ThreeJS and built on top of a custom entity component system. Lots of different parts to the game, each receiving different treatments; eg the terrain is built from a mix of voronoi cells, layered simplex noise, and poisson disc sampling. I found Amit Patel’s blog to be a great resource for this: https://www.redblobgames.com/ https://www.redblobgames.com/
- oknoorap 5y agoWow it's fun, what game engine this game use?
- erulabs 5y agoSeems to be Three.js :)
- tpfour 5y agoI get an error: Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'canvas' of null
- whatshisface 5y agoUncaught TypeError Cannot read property 'canvas' of null
- supernes 5y agoFails in Brave (Chromium 91) with shields up, here's the stack: three.module.js:21344 Uncaught (in promise) TypeError: Cannot read property 'indexOf' of null at new ch (three.module.js:21344) at ht (three.module.js:24988) at new gh (three.module.js:25021) at m (CanvasSystem.js:30) at S.addSystem (World.js:379) at be (initialize.js:112) at async onCreate (index.js:47)
- pentagrama 5y agoWow, instantly immersed to this beautiful world of calm sounds and poetry, I experienced with a smile and was very relaxed till the end. Reminds me the emotional vibes of the game Monument Valley. Love the randomness part of poetry creation, here are "my" poems :_) https://imgur.com/a/N8d7ayW https://imgur.com/a/N8d7ayW Edit: Well, I suppose that each user form a different combination of phrases in the poems, but now I'm not sure.
- systemvoltage 5y agoI find Chess pretty relaxing.
- nearmuse 5y agoIt has beautiful art, but is very empty and even as far as exploring goes, does not have enough stuff in it.
- rkagerer 5y agoNeat game, but it's annoying how I have to hold my mouse down all the time (and bad for RSI). Also the lighting is beautiful but it would be neat if it gave you cues where to go - e.g. brighten near uncollected tokens. (Edit: Just noticed the compass) The credits list some 20 people put this together. It's lovely, though kind of feels like something 1 talented and artistic developer could do as a side project...
- nirui 5y agoPlus for the cues idea too. No need to be something too obvious, maybe the direction of the wind, facing of the flowers or leaning of the trees etc. I found myself doing a lots of systematic circular scan of the entire area -- Not hard, but a bit frustrating, and it's a brute force strategy (not really fun).
- AussieWog93 5y agoAnd it runs at a solid 5fps on my 6-core Ryzen machine, despite having the graphical fidelity of a PS2 game.
- ud_0 5y agoMaybe your browser has hardware acceleration disabled or nerfed? How are other WebGL pages doing by comparison?
- fc373745 5y agothis game just made me realize how behind firefox is to chrome
- thomasfl 5y agoThe figure with the pointy hat and the soundtrack, reminds me of the game Monument Valley for iPhone and iPad by Us Two games. If you love architecture, Cornelis Escher’s art and puzzles, I highly recommend it.
- prvc 5y agoWhat is an "art game", and how is it different from a mere "game"?
- VladimirGolovin 5y agoTo borrow a definition from Andrei Konchalovsky, art is that which imparts feelings. If a game does that, it's art. Many "gamey" games don't, and this is perfectly fine. Consider two games, Inside (a great art game) and Overwatch (a great "gamey" game). Inside is much less rich in terms of gameplay, but (in my subjective opinion) does much more with feelings. Overwatch, on the other hand, is enormously, ridiculously rich in terms of gameplay, but when you're actually playing it (as opposed to viewing the art), it's more of a dopamine binge.
- meheleventyone 5y agoAll games impart feelings even Overwatch! A really common game design lens is essentially “how do we want this to make the player feel?” There’s definitely a very common set of feelings you might miss or not see as intrinsic because most games are imparting them but that doesn’t remove them from existence.
- meheleventyone 5y agoThere’s not a strong definition and most attempts end up defining regular games as well. So it’s more a self label of intent by the creators.
- Timothycquinn 5y agoThis is gorgeous. Thanks for the post. Brings back memories of watching NFBC films on reel to reel that my Dad checked out from the library. The cat came back ....
- DaveSapien 5y agoA nice wee gameplay trick I really liked was the text path projected in the direction the player is moving. I know it doesn't seem like much but it could easily be overlooked and really adds to the flow of the game. Love it.
- ohyash 5y agoInteresting how this supports both mobile and desktop non-chrome browsers, but a lot of websites with menus and tables don't play well on firefox
- Yenrabbit 5y agoBeautiful experience, and cool that so much of it is procedural.
- o_____________o 5y agoThis reminds me so much of Orisinal, a collection of Flash games by Ferry Halim. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1Y-3N6ia8I&list=PLSKYADo_SYXitE9FN5pz9zDn15D-u--xd https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1Y-3N6ia8I&list=PLSKYADo_SY... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orisinal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orisinal
- JoeAltmaier 5y agoConfused. Some wizard dude wanders around among the leaves, and nothing happens. Using the wrong browser or something?
- wackget 5y agoStrangely this gave me pretty bad motion sickness. The controls don't feel nearly tight enough (on desktop). I kept dragging my mouse cursor off the edges of the screen.
- mastrsushi 5y agoInstead of having the users finger guide the character, it should just rely on the direction the finger drags like a TouchPad. I don't like how my finger blocks the view so much.