Exo One

[[VR] Deggial]

I linked a video to this already somewhere else, but have the feeling that this little gem deserves its own thread: "Exo One"

The game is entirely made in Unity, however features fully procedurally generated worlds including clouds & weather effects ... and the moving and flying in them, while using the landsace to your advantage (they call it "momentum gameplay". It runs at 150 fps despite the engine and the procedurally generated 3D clouds. (I forsee a bright future for ED and atmospheric effects, if this is possible with an unspecialized engine! )

While the ground itself seems quite simple (yet nice to look at), the simplicity of forms is necessary for the gameplay: buliding up "power" while running down sloops, using the power to jump and fly.
There seems to be a story to discover, but there are no enemies, no threats, no time limits. It's all about the joy of movement, about the satisfaction of interacting with the environment and using it wisely. It's a "flow"-game! (The airy guitar soundscape helps tremendeously to deliver this feeling and come into the flow.)

To me, this all looks incredible promising.
In respect to 'Exo One' itself, but also in respect to 'Elite: Dangerous' and what the future might bring (because the feasibility is demonstrated here by a small indie team).

Reveal trailer:
[video=youtube;YApVrVPiWv4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YApVrVPiWv4[/video]

Gameplay showcase:
[video=youtube;YxGLOR5aIL4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxGLOR5aIL4[/video]

Link to the kickstarter page (already funded and well into development).

Link to the companies main page. (Including dev blog for development updates.)

 

[Caramel Clown]

It's kind of pretty in a way, but I can't understand where's the game? Is this one more of those walking(rolling, lol?) simulators that are aesthetically pleasing for about 20 minutes, and then just becomes a total bore?

 

[[VR] Deggial]

As I wrote: "It's all about the joy of movement, about the satisfaction of interacting with the environment and using it wisely. It's a "flow"-game!"

Have you ever done FA-Off canyon cruising in ED?
Prepared to dock at a space station while using FA-Off to pre-align with the letter slit, slipped in without touching anything, met the perfect vector for your landing pad and made contact with a satisfying "klonk!" without wobbeling around?

Reaching this sort of perfection is very rewarding. It triggers gratification mechanisms in our brains.

But I agree, this game is not for everybody.
Or even for anybody all the time.
But as a sporadic flow experience, a game for deep relaxation, it seems perfect!

--

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to feature any VR device. Maybe, this kind of fast movement and lack of cockpit (which helps a lot to avoid motion sickness) isn't feasible for VR anyway.

Yea, but I am with you here, too - at least to some extend. That's why I direly want atmospheric gameplay in ED: to be able to fly through such wonderfull "landscapes", fight in them, mine in them, explore in them - all using the equally awesome (but completely different) ED fligth mechanics.

 

[starman]

The 'problem' was solved at start

[video=youtube;iTBvpd3_Vqk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTBvpd3_Vqk[/video]

 

[[VR] Deggial]

I know.
But this movie doesn't make any statements regarding the computation costs.

Not the general algorithms, but performance is a big issue with volumetric cloud generation. Or at least could be.
And in ED, we don't just need the general ability to compute clouds, but also to do it fast. For general gameplay purposes (there is much more going on in ED than in Exo One), but also and especially for VR.

That's why I find the 150 fps in Unity quite reassuring!

 

[Jezzah]

Dat sweater!