LudumData

View in the Depth by noagard

[raw]
made by noagard for Ludum Dare 57 (JAM)

🔎Can you find all secret of the cosmos depth?!🪐

🔭Start playing right now! On itch.io🔭

"View in Depth" is a meditative journey into the unknown, where you take on the role of an optical telescope operator, gazing deep into the cosmos. A small patch of sky has been entrusted to you can you unveil its hidden wonders? Use your instrument panel to pierce the veil of darkness and uncover the secrets scattered across the stars.

"View in the Depth" is a game about space exploration.

Your task is to control a telescope using WASD to find new objects by tracking signal strength.

Once you've located a target, lock onto it and collect the necessary data by adjusting the zoom and focus of your telescope, then send the gathered datascreen 3.jpgscreen 2.jpgscreen 4.jpg

Link https://noagard.itch.io/ld57
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/57/view-in-the-depth

Ratings

Overall 395th 3.618⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Fun 469th 3.336⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 171th 3.764⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Theme 204th 4.045⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 425th 3.673⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Audio 270th 3.602⭐ 56🧑‍⚖️
Humor 465th 2.725⭐ 53🧑‍⚖️
Mood 268th 3.845⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Given 94🗳️ 96🗨️

Feedback

Willby
08. Apr 2025 · 05:02 UTC
I looked into the depths. I didn't know what else to do with the depths
ToKto
09. Apr 2025 · 14:36 UTC
It's a cool game, I liked the sounds and the art design
Silas Reinagel
09. Apr 2025 · 14:44 UTC
Nice game! I love your take on the theme. The telescope sounds for zooming in/out were perfect!

I wish the music track was a little longer... it looped a little bit too often for my ears.
Keely-Brown
09. Apr 2025 · 14:45 UTC
Love the concept.
Great art assets - it felt like a very tangible space.

Adding some juice to the controls might help make it feel funner to do some of the actions.
Particularly sound effects would push this up a notch.

The controls could also be a bit more fun.
Turning the dial physically with the mouse might feel more consistent with the other controls.
Or making all of it on keyboard? Something about having to click on the dial to start using it felt kind of off in terms of the UX.

I liked the theme and the take on depths.
Cool stuff!
field-of-king
09. Apr 2025 · 14:47 UTC
Very awesome... I love UIs that are like this. So atmospheric (literally!). Amazing, amazing.
Yanato
10. Apr 2025 · 16:30 UTC
Relaxing gameplay and good mechanics!
sbeif
11. Apr 2025 · 08:38 UTC
It took me awhile to figur out that I didn't have to zoom all the way in, I even tried to change my mouse wheel settings to scroll by a single line because I thought I was overshooting the correct focus position :sweat_smile:
Nice relaxing and interesting experience. I feel like it could become a great observatory simulator with actual space bodies and information about them.
🎤 noagard
11. Apr 2025 · 08:49 UTC
@sbeif @yanato @field-of-king @keely-brown @silas-reinagel @tokto Thank you for playing our game!
🎤 noagard
11. Apr 2025 · 08:57 UTC
@sbeif I've been thinking of developing an observatory simulator for a while, this game jam theme was a good chance to try. Sorry about wheel, we had a problem that if you can zoom in, in any point you will find all the secrets very easily, so we decided that you need to lock on a signal from the hidden object first.
sbeif
11. Apr 2025 · 09:03 UTC
@noagard Yeah I get it, it makes perfect sense from the game design pov, I just didn't get it right away so maybe a hint on the fact that you have to find the correct zoom level instead of zooming all the way in could help. Perhaps even just increasing the maximum zoom a little bit so that you're clearly zooming too much could be helpful as I had the whole planet in my view and my first instinct was that it was the correct zoom amount.
Scott R Howell
11. Apr 2025 · 09:51 UTC
Cool stuff, likes the easter eggs, really nice interpretation of the themes, got me hankering for Elite Dangerous Scanning again :laughing: good work!
DurkaGames
11. Apr 2025 · 10:45 UTC
Great entry, love it!
Anchous Blupblup
11. Apr 2025 · 10:59 UTC
I really like atmosphere and sound design!
🎤 noagard
11. Apr 2025 · 12:24 UTC
@scott-r-howell Glad you found this!
cherrybcake
11. Apr 2025 · 13:18 UTC
Wow what an awesome concept! I had some fun playing it for sure, nice job!
LDJam user 387005
11. Apr 2025 · 13:41 UTC
Nice concept! I personally really love 3D-UI, just wished there was more feedback on press/focus (could've looked real nice when lit up).
Sadly, the focus never seemed to work for me.. thats why I would have loved to see the knobs working (the math behind that isin't too hard, and there should be resources online).
To make the game even more cozy, consider adding invaluable mechanics, eg. having a hot cocoa-machine, or some sort of fidget-toy, etc..
Also generally more screne decorations would be nice!
KeithSwanger
11. Apr 2025 · 13:45 UTC
That was a nice experience. I like the UI, and the volume slider was a nice touch!
jddoesdev
11. Apr 2025 · 18:59 UTC
It was definitely an interesting experience. It was a bit difficult to figure out how to actually play. One of the yellow indicator lights would go out if I zoomed all the way in, making me think that I had to zoom out to actually focus. I did enjoy the sound and gameplay otherwise.
DeadCode
11. Apr 2025 · 19:02 UTC
Really nice game and definitely would have not thought of something soo creative like this myself! Game was really intriguing and the music and sound design was super nice! Great work!
LDJam user 408496
11. Apr 2025 · 19:13 UTC
I loved this game!! It's so unique! I also like games that puts you into a console or inside a car pov. Well done! ![output.gif](///raw/0bb/36/z/6c04b.gif)
silkworm_sweatshop
11. Apr 2025 · 22:46 UTC
Love these little relaxing games sometimes. Instrument boards are so fun and immersive and I thought this one was very intuitive. Had a chill time with this one and the futurama reference made me laugh.
AldenWitt
11. Apr 2025 · 22:58 UTC
Cool take on the theme - I enjoyed the Futurama easter egg. Graphics were nice (full screen in the browser cuts off part of the game fyi). Simple but useable graphics, nice musical ambience.
I think it might be lacking a bit of... game? for lack of a better word. Felt like something you'd interact with in a larger game, like a more advanced version of hacking in Fallout or lock picking in Elder Scrolls. But well-executed!
mhorth
11. Apr 2025 · 23:00 UTC
This was awesome! It totally reminded me of scanning planets in Mass Effect 2. Really nicely done, and nice shader work (?) on the images going in and out of focus.

I also really liked that the UI was in game controls, even the volume slider!
🎤 noagard
12. Apr 2025 · 10:33 UTC
@kartoffel-licht Thank you for trying, sorry that focus didn't work for you, if you want you can try it now, I fixed this issue for players who can't use mouse wheel. Cocoa machine sounds fantastic!
LDJam user 387005
12. Apr 2025 · 11:02 UTC
Finally, found 'em all! :robot: (thanks, @noagard)
LDJam user 187102
12. Apr 2025 · 11:55 UTC
So satisfying! I liked it a lot. Thanks for the game!
leparlon
12. Apr 2025 · 12:56 UTC
I thought the mechanic was really interesting. It’s a chill and unique experience. Liked the telescope controls and the whole vibe. Nice work!
GRUZDID
12. Apr 2025 · 17:23 UTC
A very atmospheric game with interesting core mechanics. I liked it very much.
It would be fun to add some lighting to the "Room" for our character.
Great job!
Kseniya
12. Apr 2025 · 17:28 UTC
it's very atmospheric, I liked the technique and art, maybe I would have slightly modified the 1st plan with buttons, in more detail, but I really like everything.
Agraffs
12. Apr 2025 · 20:46 UTC
Very cool concept. Like the atmosphere the game creates. Has a really nice feel to it. Would love to see it continued agter the jam, with extra elements like having to talk to other civilisation or decypher their communication using the same principle.
All and all really good ! Nicely done !
PretendCoding
12. Apr 2025 · 21:57 UTC
Reminds me of Signal Simulator / Voices of the Void. Very enjoyable game with great (or maybe clear :rofl: ) atmosphere; nice to just vibe out looking through space.
caffeinetrip
13. Apr 2025 · 06:54 UTC
Amazing atmospheric game! The telescope controls and space exploration feeling are fantastic. Sound design is so cool. It's so relaxing to scan the depths of space! Good jobb ^^
woona
13. Apr 2025 · 07:12 UTC
I liked finding all the little secrets and references! The only thing I would criticize is the choice of font, because it gets really blurry and difficult to read.
Clear Voiz
13. Apr 2025 · 16:39 UTC
It was such a cool chill game! I loved it!!! The graphics and sound effects where PERFECT and the touch of humour when you discover the last celestial body was unexpected and fun! Amazing job <3
Emily C
14. Apr 2025 · 16:26 UTC
Very cozy game, reminds me a bit of the mini game in Among us but much more fleshed out :P
Empyreans
14. Apr 2025 · 16:58 UTC
https://youtu.be/aIYCMPWpwR0

From the stream :)

I love space! A cozy space exploration experience with a Futurama easter egg :)

~Xp
BlushingCrow
15. Apr 2025 · 10:10 UTC
I found the controls a bit difficult but the UI and design was great, especailly well done on the art front :)
VerttiXPertti
15. Apr 2025 · 10:12 UTC
I found all the 8 things after a while. I liked the systems, but I wish there were some stakes to the gameplay. There was no way to lose or be skillful or anything so the game felt a little tedious. Decent job anyways.
Tetrergeru
15. Apr 2025 · 13:24 UTC
A very cosy game! I liked the atmosphere and personally enjoyed the relaxed gameplay loop a lot. Music is very nice and relaxing
AgrMayank
16. Apr 2025 · 14:05 UTC
Looks like a great concept, and I did have some fun zooming around, but unfortunately the mouse wheel part didn't work for me, no matter what I tried :(
🎤 noagard
16. Apr 2025 · 14:11 UTC
@agrmayank Thanks for playing, ohh I'm sorry about the wheel, did you try to use mouse wheel directly on the focus wheel? Also, you can just use left mouse drag directly on wheel to rotate it
AgrMayank
16. Apr 2025 · 14:14 UTC
@noagard I did try both solutions above, but none worked for me weirdly. Not sure if it's a device specific bug or if I did something wrong as rest of the game worked well!
🎤 noagard
16. Apr 2025 · 14:20 UTC
@agrmayank sometimes players try to change focus on a small zoom and do not see the result, or it could be a strange bug, but anyway thank you for trying!
Missfire
16. Apr 2025 · 23:18 UTC
When I first saw the game, I didn't expect it to be so relaxing! I really enjoyed spinning different sliders and buttons, rather than just pressing something on a keyboard - it allowed me to really immerse myself in the game and feel this retro vibe!

For me there was a little lack of history in the descriptions of planets and ships; they seemed like a little parts from some articles. But nevertheless, I still wanted to find all the interactions and immerse myself in the atmosphere of space exploration :)

Thank you very much for the game!
I_POTS
17. Apr 2025 · 12:12 UTC
Good game! I like this gameplay!
kristinamay
17. Apr 2025 · 19:53 UTC
I liked this a lot! I love games that are just about exploration, and I enjoyed zooming around trying to find stuff. I feel like this could be the basis for a more involved game with some kind of stakes, somehow. As it stands, I could definitely see this being used as an educational game for high school students (but like with real stuff, lol). The UI was nifty too. I definitely expected to be able to use the mouse wheel anywhere on the screen, by the way, took me a bit to realize that I had to have the mouse over the wheel. Anyway, great work!
HardEggGames
19. Apr 2025 · 00:48 UTC
Everything about this game is super cool. Even though it's simple, the graphics, the sound, and the cool little lore bits on the side were a super cool addition. The main gameplay was pretty cool, and even a little challenging. I had a very nice, smooth, and fun playthrough of this game. Great game!
kaba
20. Apr 2025 · 04:55 UTC
What a novel idea and great execution! It took a little time to figure out how to balance zoom and focus, but from then the process was really smooth. After clearing all but the last one, I had to resort to just scanning the entire area systematically from side to side, but I got it eventually! :laughing: