H.E.R.A.L.D.

You are the Listener of Listening Post 4, alone in one room deep underground.

Every night your predecessors performed the same rite: turn the brass wheels to the coordinates on the prayer card, tune the dial until the green lamp holds, and confirm that the Voice still beats. Nobody alive knows what the Voice is. Nobody remembers why it must be heard.

*Tonight, it says something new.*

Find it by ear in the hiss. Hold it while you work an old terminal whose commands survive only as scripture. Your hands can't be in two places at once, and whatever you fail to keep is gone for good.

Nothing ever changes. It's only the heartbeat.

FEATURES

- One room, no HUD. Every reading is a needle, a lamp, a sound or a line of text on a CRT.
- Tactile controls: handwheels, dials and knobs you turn by hand.
- A working command line to explore, read and reply.
- A story told only through what you find, never explained.

Play with headphones. The Voice is faint.

CONTROLS

- Mouse: look around the desk.
- Click and drag: turn wheels, dials and knobs.
- Hold Shift while turning: fine adjustment, for when the signal is close and every tenth of a degree counts.
- Click the screen: lean in to the terminal and type.
- ESC: lean back from the terminal.

Made for Ludum Dare (theme: Old Tech).

CREDITS

A game by Michael "mrbandler" Baudler.

Probe images: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute, Cassini Imaging Team. Public domain. NASA does not endorse this game.

Cursors and boot sound by Kenney (kenney.nl), CC0. Keyboard sounds: Keyboard Soundpack #1 by UNICAEGAMES, CC0.

Libraries: G.U.I.D.E by Jan Thomae, MarkdownLabel by daenvil, LimboConsole by Serhii Snitsaruk, gdUnit4 by Mike Schulze (all MIT).