Ludum Dare #48compo

Deeper Trance

by dhim

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.55

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.92

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★4.43

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.90

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.40

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.33

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.15

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.67

Enter the Deeper Trance

This game will led you into a deeper and deeper trance* as you descend deeper and deeper through the levels.! Let the music descend infinitely until you reach the deeper trance!

You loved magic images when you were a child where you could see 3D images hidden in seemingly random arrangement of dots! You wished that this 3d images could move and lead you into their world ? This game is made for you!

*no guarantee. Some subjects are immune to trance and/or autostereogram!

You should be able to read Deeper Trance in the above image.

What is it ?

The game use the autostereogram effect to make you see a 3d paddle that you can rotate to go through slit shaped holes at it fall *deeper and deeper*.

The game in itself is a classic agility/fall-*deeper-and-deeper*-through-holes game.

The music is a shepard tone to continuously go *deeper and deeper in pitch*

How to play

* Start the game, you should relax your eyes to see at a greater distance than your screen. You should enter the image and a 3d horizontal bar should appear.
* Rotate the bar with your left and right arrows.
* Planes will move toward you, there is a slanted slit. Orient the bar to go through
* Press space to take a break

The game starts slows so that you can take your time to see the effect.
If you miss the slit, it starts over. You can see your deepest score in the menu (space bar)

Help I can't see anything but noise

The game is hidden in the noise, you have to let your eyes get lazy. I added two kinds of help
1. squint hint : display to dots that can help you uncross your eyes. You should first see them double, then align the red and blue in the middle to see : red dot, mixed/superposed dots, blue dot.
2. Cheat mode : you see the depth map. Not funny but it might help you see what is hidden

I still can't see anything: some people can't see autostereogram. I am deeply sorry, you can play in cheat mode, but it's not a fun game.

Tools and Acknowledgement

The idea of using autostereogram comes from some work I did a year ago with a my colleague William.
All code was done on Unity, the game play is in C#. I used visual studio this year.
the shader part is rewritten in HLSL from the things I did a year ago, inspired by some of the youtube tutorial from The Art of Code and its work on shadertoy. In particular the hash function is probably taken directly from there.
The music theme is an old guitar riff I played for year to warm up. It was arranged on noteflight the score is on the github page

Comments95

liammasters25 Apr 2021, 22:18

Really crazy concept! I had difficulty staying focused but when it worked it was awesome. The music fits the feeling well but the mute button doesn't seem to work.

LakshyaIsAGod26 Apr 2021, 04:17

TODO: review game

robinfaury26 Apr 2021, 06:47

I love it!
I blink just above 1km ^^

dhimauthor26 Apr 2021, 07:11

thank you both, @liammasters the mute button is working locally... I'll try a fix

BhanosTheGameDev26 Apr 2021, 07:28

Great game, it took me a while to get, what I had to avoid, but afterwards I was amazed!

Ghuyajil26 Apr 2021, 08:20

It works! Once you see the holes, the trance really gets you! Very nice!

dhimauthor26 Apr 2021, 08:24

@ghuyajil Nice!

willem26 Apr 2021, 10:11

This game literally made me cry (by staring too deeply). Awesome! And fitting music.

Do the colors change over time? It seems like it...

dhimauthor26 Apr 2021, 10:18

@willem yes the slowly evolve, it's cool that it is subtle enough or that you where in such a deeper trance that you didn't notice much

PurpledArtFrog26 Apr 2021, 10:21

Thank you very much for your entry - I hope you had great fun making it :smile:

Strained my eyes a bit on this one - interesting idea :thumbsup_tone1:

I hope you'll drop by mine and give it a spin :wink:

:purple_heart: :dart: :frog:

mdotedot26 Apr 2021, 11:02

I need to go to the optician : I couldn't see a damn thing behind those pixels. But I'm old and I could ask my grandson to have a look. Neat idea.

iovorobiev26 Apr 2021, 11:13

Wow, that was a wonderful experience, not only fitting the theme, but also extending it in a surprising way!

Runuchok26 Apr 2021, 11:38

Omg) Thats trippy!

Rolly26 Apr 2021, 12:29

:cry: I can't make it. I have spent the past half hour trying, but I really can't. Is it better in small or in full screen?

I will try again, but in the mean time, I must say it's a great concept, totally inovative! Great job! I will extend my comment soon, if I can reach the trance :)

dhimauthor26 Apr 2021, 12:33

@rolly sorry to hear that! Sadly some people can't see autostereogram...
I'd say better in full screen. Try close to the screen and get further away.

thebmxeur26 Apr 2021, 12:39

I can't see a thing. Maybe it would be nice to have a "training" where you have to put the bar vertical, than horizontal or something to see if you actually see it (sometimes I though I saw it, but not sure).

wizard sino26 Apr 2021, 12:42

I took a bit of work to see it, but once I did it was rather fun. very innovative idea.

dhimauthor26 Apr 2021, 13:06

@thebmxeur you can activate cheat mode, rotate the bar and pause with space. THen remove cheat mode

thebmxeur26 Apr 2021, 13:30

@dhim Yes but that doesn't really help. One issue is that the game is still going on (you can "die") which doesn't let you get used to it. Another issue for me is that going from cheat to no cheat I couldn't see the bar at all which make me wonder if the game is working properly on my computer.

jaybaus26 Apr 2021, 13:36

Really cool, I used to be fascinated by autostereograms when I was younger but I've never seen an animated version, let alone an interactive one! The shepard tone in the music was a nice touch too. Really innovative, well done :)

dhimauthor26 Apr 2021, 13:39

@thebmxeur. One you die the game indeed continue and nothing really change, it just go back to going slower and the score is zeroed, so if you are in it you should not loose it.
You might be immune to the effect. THank you very much for trying multiple times !

dhimauthor26 Apr 2021, 13:51

@jaybaus thank you. I came about the idea of interactive autostereogram during a research project with a colleague more than a year ago.
For the shepard tone I knew the effect going up, it was some *happy accident* to merge a descending theme I had with the concept and have an interesting result. I am the most please by the music!

kernon26 Apr 2021, 14:10

Man I wish I could see these things. Never been able to. Cheat/boring mode works great though! :smile:

dhimauthor26 Apr 2021, 14:19

@kernon yes it was a gamble to choose them to make a game for Ludum Dare. Thank you for playing still

A0m1n3Zone26 Apr 2021, 14:28

Really nice concept for the theme

xlambein26 Apr 2021, 14:33

I have a slight headache but it was worth it :D this is a really cool idea! Took me a while to get my eyes to relax enough to see the pebble (never been good at those things), and then a bit more time to really start seeing the slits. Once I got there though, it was really cool and impressive! Definitely one of the most surprising and interesting entry I've seen. Makes me want to experiment with this in future games myself

ZwodahS26 Apr 2021, 14:36

okay ... this must be the craziest idea I have seen so far.
I am saving this for later.

dhimauthor26 Apr 2021, 14:39

@zwodahs thank you!
@xlambein, source code is on github. I'll gladly help if you want to implement this kind of algorithm. I have better version and effect that I hadn't the time to implement in this LD

PookiPoot26 Apr 2021, 16:26

Man this is so trippy. Really innovative approach to the theme. Though my head slightly hurts now I enjoyed the trance you put me through.

Noel Widmer26 Apr 2021, 16:32

Thank you for the web app. The best way to share your game :D
The music just stared playing while I am writing this. Love it!

Dude, this is sick. I started in fullscreen and I never really had issues with seeing these things. But it took me about 30 seconds I think. I don't know how far I've come because the timer resets so quickly and I was still in trance mode. Would be great to have a "high score" that showed the best score at all times.

Really love the idea. I didn't know this worked on screens as well. Sick!

Edit: Oh I didn't see my score in the esc menu. Damn. This could probably be more intuitive if the high score is near the current score.

Famicon8026 Apr 2021, 16:32

oh god I'm terrible with these things, but this is such a cool idea I have to keep trying lol.

dhimauthor26 Apr 2021, 16:46

@noel-widmer you are right, or put some indication that you can escape with space.

@pookipoot, cool that you liked the deeper trance

@famicon80 good luck, really relax your eyes like seeing far away.

CharlieGray26 Apr 2021, 19:41

I've always had trouble with autostereogram images and it's even harder when it's moving so I only got to 320 meters.
But I just love the idea, this is the creative kind of stuff I like to see from gamejams.
Also nice work with the audio-illusion.

dhimauthor26 Apr 2021, 20:22

@charliegray nice that you were able to go that deep already

samguy26 Apr 2021, 20:38

This game is absolutely terrifying, I can feel myself being pulled into the sunken place

hypp26 Apr 2021, 20:51

Great idea!! Unfortunately I have never been able to see autostereograms so I had to play in "cheat mode".

japes26 Apr 2021, 20:59

This is why we do LD, to try out weird stuff like this and share it with other devs :) cool creative idea, kudos to you :)

dhimauthor26 Apr 2021, 21:05

@japes, @samguy Thank you !

@hypp, sorry you could not experienced it in full. Thank you for playing it anyway!

ForeverTrash26 Apr 2021, 21:11

Played for about 10 minutes and didn't really understand the point of the game or the objective or the controls. Just hurt my eyes staring at it for so long. Cool music though

dhimauthor26 Apr 2021, 21:25

@forevertrash Could you see the 3d effect ?

ForeverTrash26 Apr 2021, 21:59

@dhim No and I tried to use the squint setting and could only see 2 colors when it said you should be able to see three. Not sure if it's my eyes or what

DeliciousSalad26 Apr 2021, 23:03

Such a cool unique idea and take on the theme! Once your eyes adjust the way they need to this game grabs you for a while while the music also aids with the trance effect. Awesome work, I doubt there's any other game in the jam like this.

Predominant26 Apr 2021, 23:29

As an older guy with eyesight issues this was literally painful. I understand the "magic eye" approach, but trying to focus on this was genuinely painful for my eyes. Please consider accessibility in the future! Good work on the music though.

hutchings9026 Apr 2021, 23:29

Okay. This is really cool, among the highest levels of creativity. One suggestion I have is to make the objects visible with fully unfocused eyes. That would make it easier to see, but maybe that point is too different from person to person.

Occasoftware27 Apr 2021, 02:14

Thanks for the cheat mode! Honestly couldn't see a thing without it :D Cool concept and thank you for sharing. Definitely fits the theme and very creative idea.

Andreia27 Apr 2021, 03:43

This was awesome, really unique. I feel kinda inspired to try something new with the medium and out of the box in the next game jam I participate.

Colombo27 Apr 2021, 03:56

Loved the game, I used to have so many sheets of paper with designs that would pop when you lose focus. This is an amazing concept. Definitely not a game for everyone but I consider myself lucky to be able to play it

dhimauthor27 Apr 2021, 06:19

@predominant Sorry you could not see the effect! It was a gamble to use such an effect. Although I made a cheat mode for accessibility. @marcmagus suggested a blue/red variant for people that can't see the effect (but you need colored glasses )

@occasoftware thank you for playing it!

@hutchings90 Thank you!, You are right, I could have added a slider to adjust the disparity, that controls the unfocused effect. But that would have added a level of unwanted fiddling in a Jam for most people instead of playing the game. For a production game, definitively!

@andreia The shader is on the github. I'd be happy to help if you want to use such an effect.

@colombo Thank you!

BubakGames27 Apr 2021, 06:28

Great game. I like the unique idea.

KeithSwanger27 Apr 2021, 08:40

I've never been able to get parallel views to work. I find cross-eyed views much easier. I can play the game cross eyed, but obviously it makes everything inverted. If there were a way to toggle between parallel and cross eyed views, I think that would be the best of both worlds!

Really cool to see this effect in a game though. Nice job!

vilcans27 Apr 2021, 08:49

What an excellent crazy idea! Nobody can see what you're doing, so this game has a built-in privacy filter!

dhimauthor27 Apr 2021, 09:59

@vilcans I think that was the use case for the research work from my colleague a year ago

@keithswanger, ah yes, I tend to not see cross-eyed one... So I didn't think of adding the feature! Though the fact that is was a wall eyed autostereogram cross my mind when I made the squint helper and looked at my familly from behind the screen... Thank you for the suggestion, it would be quite easy to implement as well...

TheGamerASD27 Apr 2021, 11:57

Nice game! I liked the idea and how innovative it was.

FishMasterino27 Apr 2021, 12:09

Very very nice idea, but quite headache inducing :)

OMG BlackBeard27 Apr 2021, 12:59

@dhim - This is totally different concept. I never thought something like this could have been done. Very innovative

joonamo27 Apr 2021, 13:51

Oh wow, first time I see autostereogram in a game! I could have used a bit more contrast between the shades of noise, other than that it was really fun to make my paddle fall in the holes! Would be intersting if you could have other games with autostereogram support.

I would have wanted to tell everyone how deep I got, but I really couldn't read the score cross-eyed :laughing:

dhimauthor27 Apr 2021, 14:06

@joonamo Thank you for playing. Higher contrast felt more tiresome ( but maybe because I spent a lot of time pretesting ) you can press space to get to the pause menu and see your deepest score!

Jason Wilson27 Apr 2021, 15:05

I could never get those hidden 3D images to work as a kid, and I couldn't get the image to show for this game. :(

While playing in cheat mode, I didn't get a sense of depth as to where my paddle was in relation to the hole so I had no idea when I would collide. I often felt like I didn't have enough time to rotate into place.

This seems like a cool idea. I wish I could play it as it was intended.

dhimauthor27 Apr 2021, 15:11

@jason-wilson yeah the cheat mode is the depth map used to create the 3d effect, but matching the white of the paddle and the gray scale of the plateform is barely possible, while it's easy if you see the effect. Thank you for playing it still.

grena27 Apr 2021, 18:25

Wow, took me time to actually seeing the game.
At first I've put myself veeeeery close from the screen. Then I pulled back and.. WOW.

Literally first time I see this kind of experiment, "real" 3D, that's awesome. Crazy concept, I really went on a deep journey over there, thanks making me discovering autostereogram.

Kooky27 Apr 2021, 18:28

Absolutely incredible. I LOVE how you used the theme, in multiple ways!

I love your choice of using an ever-descending musical illusion to fit the theme (fantastic), and the dependence on autostereograms to fit the theme too. I've never seen those things done in a game before! :grin: Well done!

It's funny that if somebody happened across a person playing this game without first seeing the tutorial, they'd wonder what the heck was happening, and how the player knows what they're doing.

nyxkn27 Apr 2021, 20:20

What a unique experience! The theme was absolutely spot on, both with the game concept and the music. It took me a while to get to see the thing, but it all seemed very impressive when I did!

nyanpierre28 Apr 2021, 03:01

Its really innovative! good job !

axeltherabbit28 Apr 2021, 13:01

Sorry I tried for a while but I can't see anything without the cheat :(

dhimauthor28 Apr 2021, 13:11

@axeltherabbit sorry to hear that! Some people can't see them... Sometimes changing Light conditions, distance to the screen can help

Fatebreak28 Apr 2021, 15:17

Wish I could see the effect. I'm not really able to get close enough to the screen with my monitor setup. Very cool and clever idea though! Very unique! Good job!

dhimauthor28 Apr 2021, 16:23

@fatebreak, yes I'd say 50cm (20 inches) works well for me. Thank you for trying it anyways

neverautomatic28 Apr 2021, 16:52

This was a really unique experience! Autostereograms are definitely cool, and I was excited to see a game that uses them for graphics. Very clever!

zimny1128 Apr 2021, 17:43

Wow! This is just amazing! At first I thought, "Ah, well, I can't see it :( ", but then it clicked! Bravo for the idea. What a cool game mechanic!

dhimauthor28 Apr 2021, 17:48

@neverautomatic Thank you! I hope to do well in the innovation category!

@zimny11 Glad it clicked! thank you for playing

exewin28 Apr 2021, 18:05

Tried for 10 minutes, but I didn't get the effect. I think it will be fair if I not rate this game, sorry.

Rob Parker28 Apr 2021, 19:10

This was a really innovative idea. The actual game itself is simple but the mechanism to play the game really stands this out from the rest. However, that is almost it's curse as it will be a little bit of a blocker for some people (Although you clearly thought of that adding the helper and cheat mode. Nice job!)

dhimauthor28 Apr 2021, 20:07

@exewin Sorry you didn't get the effect. I appreciate you not rating. Feel free to rate the music, to increase your karma!

dhimauthor28 Apr 2021, 20:12

@rob-parker true, My goal this year was to make a game, as I tend to create experience or mood with no clear goal for the player. As I was very short on time this week-end as I was visiting familly, friends and taking care of the kid, I decided to go for a very simple(( game first, and then add something to it!

I think the effect lands itself well for simple things in the center of the screen. I tried to add more complex shapes like text, but it's quite hard to read or get. Moving around the screen also tends to break the concentration.

MicroChasm28 Apr 2021, 22:01

I love magic eyes, and it super cool to see a game use the concept. It's a simple game, but it was still an experience worth having. The music is familiar, I think I've heard it on a few other LD games before. Well done on getting this to work. Who needs VR?

dhimauthor29 Apr 2021, 07:00

@microchasm the theme is my own design, but it consist of so few notes (it's one bar repeated over and over one half tone each time ) that it might indeed appears somewhere else. The score is on the project github. The key thing is that it is always going down ad infinitum.

My GF told me it made her think of 2+2=5 by radiohead.

MicroChasm29 Apr 2021, 07:27

@dhim I’ve played so many games these past couple of days, I was trying to think of where I heard the music. Then I realized... one of the games was your game in an early build. That’s probably where I heard it, my mistake.

Triastase29 Apr 2021, 13:13

Wow, what a unique entry! I needed some time to adjust, but when you see it, it's a really cool effect (same with the music going deeper and deeper). The gameplay is of course rather minimalistic, but it's crazy to see a game in Ludum Dare that does something I've never seen in a game before! :smile:

dhimauthor29 Apr 2021, 14:31

@triastase Thank you for your kind review. Glad you liked it ! I am starting to hope to do well in the innovative section :). It was a ton of fun too make, and I am amazed by all the positive feedback from the community!

marcmagus29 Apr 2021, 17:16

Thanks for bringing your game by my stream to try out Monday Night. If you'd like to see my reaction/our discussion again you can find the highlight at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1005053844

I was disappointed I couldn't see the stereogram, but I really enjoyed the high-concept of what you were trying to do both with that and with the audio.

AniMagik29 Apr 2021, 21:56

I feel very strange for this game. Cool)

kromeboy30 Apr 2021, 15:47

Unfotunatrly I never was able to see this kind of images, but it's an original idea nontheless

vanLeiden30 Apr 2021, 20:04

Wow, that's insane! That's exactly the kind of thing I love to see in a GameJam. Amazing entry! I love everything about this.

timon1 May 2021, 13:07

Such a cool concept. Unfortunately my (nearly) one-eyed vision limited me to playing the cheat-mode, but I'm a sucker for seeing people try unique game mechanics like this!! Keep up the great work!

Ayxh1 May 2021, 13:54

Whoa, that was trippy! Took me a few minutes to really "get" the image, but it absolutely sent me in a trance!

Liam1 May 2021, 13:58

Absolutely loved it! Always had fun doing magic eyes. Really original and cool. I did read your comments that adding text was hard but I wonder if the depth you were at could be large enough to form part of the background you are falling through. It would be ace to keep your eyes unfocused and know your depth!

dhimauthor1 May 2021, 16:33

@liam, thank you! 'aybe with a 7-segment font that would be simple enough to be readable.

dhimauthor1 May 2021, 16:36

@ayxh Nice score ! I wanted to implement a global high score system this year, but didn't. Next year for sure!

dhimauthor1 May 2021, 16:37

@kromeboy, @timon Sorry you missed some of the fun. Thank you for playing anyway.

@vanleiden thank you for the nice comment!

azagaya1 May 2021, 20:24

Really nice concept! Sadly, i cannot see autostereograms (never could in my life), but I see that this should be mindblowing when you are able to see it! So I played in the cheat mode. Congrats! very creative!

JRevel2 May 2021, 18:12

I really like autostereograms, so when I saw this game featured in a stream I had to try it ! I didn't know it also worked even with animations, it's good to know. It give such a sense of depth to the graphics !
The gameplay itself is very simple but it works pretty well, I think just increasing the speed over time to make the game harder and harder would help to keep the interest of players a bit longer.

dhimauthor2 May 2021, 18:54

@jrevel Thank you for your comment ! Game speed is increasing each gate you go through. Although I tweaked it down so people could go deeper and deeper. The game is not really meant to be difficult or played for a long period of time or even multiple time. It's kind of a novelty game to experience this effect. I am glad you liked it!

NoNumbersGames8 May 2021, 21:00

An incredible experience! I used to have issues with these type of images, but your clear explanation and good implementation made it easy to see, didn't even have to use helpers.

Great idea and great execution. The subtle change/distortions as you go deeper really emphasizes the mood. Not sure if it is that or something else, but I want to continue playing it even though my eyes got tired after a couple of delves of more than 1km. Will keep the tab open to play more another day.

Also noticed it is much more difficult to see the effect during the day when sunlight is reflecting off the screen. If someone has trouble seeing it they might have better chances after sunset.

dhimauthor9 May 2021, 17:16

@nonumbersgames Thank you for your review. Indeed light condition on the screen have a big impacts it seems. I am guessing your eyes tend to focus on the reflection instead of the deeper image!

I was going to check your games, but I already did! I liked it :)

felo0713 May 2021, 14:54

I just woke up and came here to play your game, I almost fall sleep again hahhahaha maybe the music could be a little more chill! but very unique and conceptual idea, congrats!

Other games by @dhim

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★3.31

★3.58