[HN Gopher] Wayfinder - a relaxing 'art game' in the browser
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Wayfinder - a relaxing 'art game' in the browser
Author : vnglst
Score : 283 points
Date : 2021-06-16 18:51 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (wayfinder.nfb.ca)
(TXT) w3m dump (wayfinder.nfb.ca)
| Ashanmaril wrote:
| Holy cow, this murdered my (fairly beefy) Macbook Pro in Desktop
| Safari.
|
| Seems to work fine in Edge (Chromium)
| mrtksn wrote:
| Speaking 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?
| eps wrote:
| > _That game is something else._
|
| That game is an Apple Arcade exclusive. The end.
| Ryder123 wrote:
| I 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.
| mcphage wrote:
| Supergiant'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).
| mrtksn wrote:
| In 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.
| pier25 wrote:
| Beautiful 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
| dluan wrote:
| Feels like yesterday I was playing orisinal games after school.
| lxe wrote:
| 403... 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.
| vnglst wrote:
| Nice find!
| qmmmur wrote:
| Really cool to see some svelte in the wild :)
| wayneftw wrote:
| Added 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/ - unfortunately it was not crafted as a PWA like
| this one.
| [deleted]
| makach wrote:
| Just 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.
| guilhas wrote:
| Looks like the game 'Journey' 2012
|
| I like these kind of games a lot
| nathell wrote:
| Wow. 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
| scoot wrote:
| I 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.
| dwighttk wrote:
| blank brown screen with a little music on desktop safari
| 52-6F-62 wrote:
| Oh it worked in desktop Safari just fine for me, but it is
| somewhat intensive work for my 2015 MBP
| _benj wrote:
| Wow, 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 :)
| simongr3dal wrote:
| A 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/
|
| You're controlling a small railcar of some kind driving through
| villages and landscapes.
| vnglst wrote:
| Wayfinder was just released by Matt DesLauriers, more about his
| project can be found on his Twitter:
| https://twitter.com/mattdesl/status/1405231431970963457
| johnnypangs wrote:
| Beautiful game that runs really well (even on mobile), the
| authors should be proud!
| wcarss wrote:
| I 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/)
|
| 1 - https://www.audiograph.xyz/
| reidjs wrote:
| It's so inspiring what can be done with just the HTML5 canvas
| and (a lot of) time. That is one creative dude.
| shaunxcode wrote:
| This is really well done. Once I started I had to finish!
| Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
| Player character looks very similar to character from the
| Monument Valley. I guess it is intentional.
| jokoon wrote:
| holding mouse down makes the whole game jerky
| jsw97 wrote:
| I wonder if the Boards of Canada vibe is a conscious choice.
| nurgasemetey wrote:
| So awesome, it reminds me GRIS.
| franze wrote:
| Some people say they find my old Dot Dot Dot game relaxing
| http://lalo.li/ddd/
|
| Code: https://github.com/franzenzenhofer/ddd
| graedus wrote:
| Delightful! Really challenging.
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| I quite enjoy it but would not call it relaxing... so clearly a
| valuable insight into individual psyche :->
| ehsankia wrote:
| Yeah it was actually quite stressful, especially with a
| trackpad.
| fouc wrote:
| seems fine with a trackpad, but I always disable tap-to-
| click
| ralusek wrote:
| I just immediately trapped it in a tight circle and then kept
| replacing the circle.
| sixothree wrote:
| New to me. I like it.
| viach wrote:
| But does it Save The Nature?
| david927 wrote:
| Fantastic. I love it!
| paxys wrote:
| This reminds me of the Flash games I used to make back in the
| day
| novosel wrote:
| Great concept, love it.
|
| But yeah, it works only with a mouse/tablet interface.
| Wondering whether 1to1 mapping of the (input device)TOscreen
| makes a difference. Where dragging, multiple repositioning of
| the cursor, targeting the position brakes the fun.
|
| hypothesis: it is fun when you can match the movement of the
| ball with your input device. (speed, resolution, smoothnes)
| cs2733 wrote:
| It's awesome (and relaxing), congrats
| nukst wrote:
| I just finished the 3rd day at my new job, and I'm feeling a
| bit overwhelmed. I want to thank you for making this game and
| posting it, I don't know what exactly but it has what I need at
| this moment.
|
| I don't want to be disrespectful to OP but my PC is too old to
| run their game.
| alex_g wrote:
| This beautiful but 5 minutes in and my 2015 macbook pro cannot
| handle it.
| onemoresoop wrote:
| This 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.
| inigojonesguy wrote:
| Is 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 wrote:
| I 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]
| _spduchamp wrote:
| Flower? https://thatgamecompany.com/flower/
| sogen wrote:
| maybe Flower?
| huhtenberg wrote:
| Flower.
|
| 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/
| nomel wrote:
| On a similar vein, and the prettiest mobile game I've played,
| Sky: Children of the light.
| marshray wrote:
| Sky is a treasure.
|
| Avoid spoilers until you've played it all the way through!
| inigojonesguy wrote:
| Thanks everybody, indeed, that's it!
| mattdesl wrote:
| Hi 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!
| ghostly_s wrote:
| dear 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.
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