Explore a procedurally-generated world of synthesized sounds in this submission for Ludum Dare 45. Soundsearcher is designed for playing with your eyes closed. Headphones are strongly recommended.

Enjoy the game? soundStrider is its full-featured successor with binaural modeling, convenient bookmarks, and over sixteen times more sounds.

How to Play

You start with nothing. The world is filled with harmless creatures, atmospheric sounds, and things to collect. Each play is randomized. Reload to start over.

Simply hover or tap the edges of the interface to move and orient yourself in the world. Limited gamepad support is provided for controllers that have one or two analog thumb sticks. Keyboard users can use WASD for movement and QE or the arrow keys for orientation.

More information

Status	Prototype
Platforms	HTML5
Release date	Oct 06, 2019
Author	shiftBacktick
Genre	Adventure
Tags	Atmospheric, audio-game, Casual, Experimental, Exploration, Ludum Dare 45, Minimalist, Non violent, Procedural Generation, Walking simulator
Average session	A few minutes
Inputs	Keyboard, Mouse, Xbox controller, Touchscreen
Accessibility	Blind friendly, Textless
Links	Source code

Comments

Crossfire2713 years ago(+1)

I'm using a basilisk-browser and win8.1-laptop, I notice the audio and starting the game, I also tap the edges but somehow they highlight but no object like just emptiness being there?

Also "wasd"-keys on keyboard weren't working any better, could there maybe be a small map for noticing which areas were explored there?

shiftBacktick3 years ago(+1)

Hi! Thanks so much for playing. I haven’t thought about or maintained this one in a while. Gave it a spin in Basilisk. Audio performance struggles a bit compared to Chromium and gets crackly as it goes on. I’m aware this could be better optimized, but I wish the browser had good WebAudio debugging tools to understand further.

I will say this is a short, 5-minute experience. The objective is to pick up the beeping objects, the first being footstep sounds, so it’s pretty quiet until you grab them. Then you’ll find a compass which always points back to your campfire. There are a few other musical items to find as long as you keep moving in any one direction. I do like your idea for a map, I tried to achieve that with soundStrider’s breadcrumb system, but I’m afraid I can’t give much energy to this project right now.

One thing I can look into is packaging up a desktop build with Electron to provide the intended experience.

Cheers!