HTML Zoolux Eternum [v0.1.1] [Grimward]

[An Anon Anon]

Great to see this updating so quickly, and the concept is interesting.

I do feel as if it's at an awkward halfway point, though. The women being killed off hits a bit of an ick factor for some, and I'm concerned that unless you alter it to them being infertile (eggs permanently scrambled, irradiated womb, etc), rather than dead, you may not hit mainstream appeal, and without making it more of a focus, you won't attract the snuff fetishists.

 

[GrimwardGame]

Great to see this updating so quickly, and the concept is interesting.

I do feel as if it's at an awkward halfway point, though. The women being killed off hits a bit of an ick factor for some, and I'm concerned that unless you alter it to them being infertile (eggs permanently scrambled, irradiated womb, etc), rather than dead, you may not hit mainstream appeal, and without making it more of a focus, you won't attract the snuff fetishists.

I don’t currently see another way to solve this. In this world, humans are considered a resource - and that’s one of the main reasons behind the ongoing exploration. If “human resources” aren’t depleted during gameplay, then finding just one would be enough - there’d be no reason to keep searching. And yes, the same fate awaits the men too! The stage of the game I’m currently working on includes planets like these as well.

The problem with the alternatives to death that you suggested is that, sure - from a lab experimentation standpoint, they might render a person “unfit” or unusable. But that doesn’t stop from continuing to experiment on them randomly across other planets - if you know what I mean

Technically, you could say our heartless Zenthari hero simply leaves the humanoid behind after the experiment — but that still results in death, even if I don’t spell it out.
That said, if this feels less disturbing for the audience, I could go with this approach.

 

[GuardianSoul]

Honestly while the snuff aspect is off-putting for me as well, I don't think it's something that needs to be removed from the game.

It fits with the tone and narrative, and while I don't think it's a vital piece of the setting like you said it slots in neatly with how humans are viewed in the world. That gritty, dark aspect is going to appeal to some people. Is it going to keep it out of the mainstream? Maybe, potentially even probably, but I think a niche hit with a devoted fanbase is much better than something textureless that's aiming towards as broad appeal as possible.

If it becomes an issue it should be possible to add a toggle in a menu somewhere to hide the descriptions of the human perishing on the planet. Yes they will eventually die anyway if you stop and think about it, but there is something to be said for keeping that out of the reader's direct view if that makes them uncomfortable.

Edit to add: one thing to consider is adding a warning about it during the introduction. You mention the story being twisted, and it has some dark tags on the main page here, but warning the reader going in so people who are disturbed by that content can back out wouldn't go amiss.

 

[Deadheads401]

trying to hack a humans spaceship but the game refuses to accept the code. The gif shows 7v93 but it keeps telling me im wrong. Bug or am I stupid?

 

[QOfTheContinuum]

trying to hack a humans spaceship but the game refuses to accept the code. The gif shows 7v93 but it keeps telling me im wrong. Bug or am I stupid?

Its case sensitive its all caps

 

[Mister Wake]

Hell yeah, this game is awesome!
I love the concept, I love the gifs, I love the execution!
Sixty unique planets of 0.1's version? More than most!

I look forward to future updates!

 

[GrimwardGame]

trying to hack a humans spaceship but the game refuses to accept the code. The gif shows 7v93 but it keeps telling me im wrong. Bug or am I stupid?

Sorry about that! Starting with the next update, I’ll make sure the codes work with both lowercase and uppercase letters.

 

[Easy Pete]

wow. great work, looking forward to more updates!

 

[TheoPo]

Still needs work with making planet exploration more fun but super great so far

 

[hatass]

This is absolutely fantastic. It's fun, surprisingly engaging, a ton of potential content to explore, good scene variety and taste. Also a very nice and elegant mechanism of avoiding unwanted scenes in favor of gathering resources and unlocking future scenes that way. I think there's a ton of potential for interesting ideas and expansion down the line.

My only pieces of feedback besides the mentioned UI improvements (though I find typing the coordinates is a bit of a nice immersion factor, though please make the Enter key work as confirmation) would be to list credits/sources somewhere, to consider including sound into the videos and to make sure to avoid spaghetti early own since in theory you can scale up a lot and it'll be a big hindrance later on. For instance, don't copypaste, use variables instead, otherwise you'll run into trouble quickly, like OBJECT ID for 0017 has a typo in it. For planet descriptions you should use a widget if you aren't already.

 

[Mister Wake]

I actually had so much fun playing this last night, I must ask:


What program is this made on?
I'd like to try my hand at making a shitty knockoff (for free) of this game's most basic concept of visiting planets by inputting the number coordinates. It genuinely is so simple, yet enjoyable to see what to see is on the next planet.

 

[hatass]

I actually had so much fun playing this last night, I must ask:


What program is this made on?
I'd like to try my hand at making a shitty knockoff (for free) of this game's most basic concept of visiting planets by inputting the number coordinates. It genuinely is so simple, yet enjoyable to see what to see is on the next planet.

It's made in Twine (the Sugarcube flavor of Twine).

 

[hatass]

I’ve created an alternative version of the travel system. Hopefully, it’s now easier to use and more intuitive - no typing needed! Anyone who feels like testing this version and sharing their thoughts is more than welcome. No need to start over!
What’s new:

• The planets are now grouped in sets of 20 for easier navigation.
• You can simply click to travel with your mouse — no manual input required.
• If a planet is important to your mission, its icon will automatically change once visited.
• A new UI indicator has been added that shows the last visited planet at all times — so you always know where you left off!

Thank you in advance for any feedback! I don’t plan to expand the world further until the foundation feels solid.
If this version makes things clearer and easier for you, I’ll stick with it moving forward.

Zoolux – New Travel Interface

Not a huge fan. One, it takes away some mystery of exploration when you see the options, especially grouped like that. Two, I can type faster than I can scroll and find an item among a bunch of similar looking ones. "Last seen" is an improvement for sure.

Here's my proposal:
Keep the input, but make it a numeric field, it should have those up and down arrows allowing for incremental input. Keep the entered value stored there between passages, and that's your "last visited" implemented organically.
Save *notable* planets after they're visited in the visual menu like you implemented, basically like the current log.
Or, if you want to keep it fully visual, at least highlight already visited planets with a different icon (maybe add a halo or something).
Anywhere we see planet coordinates they should be a clickable hyperlink leading to that planet (unless movement is explicitly not allowed in that scene). This includes the log for example. I think it's easiest implemented with a span tag looking up a passage by object number.

 

[hatass]

Other optional suggestions with ranging complexity:
A history of travel (a simple list of links is sufficient)
A way to bookmark a planet (basically saving it into a travel log with a note attached)
A gallery of seen content (though it also reduces the mystery and the replay value)

As a design suggestion I personally think playing off humanoid scarcity is good (forcing player to choose whether to get a scene or save the humanoid for another scene in the future - this is both excitement of gambling and an increase in replay value).

Getting custom coordinates you wouldn't be able to find by brute forcing as quest rewards or easter eggs.

On the other hand, somehow encouraging exploring random sectors of the galaxy (I suppose the easiest way is the bounties with a range as you've already done) rather than an incremental search would be great.

Potential procedural generation of "worthless" planets would save you a lot of headache on producing that filler content but it would require some ingenuity (one example I could think of is generating parameters like temperature, toxicity, whatever and then having a bunch of "planet classes", maybe a list of "special features" so it's more exciting). There should be some guides online on this.

 

[QOfTheContinuum]

Is the Thief scanning content not complete because i get an error at the second scan site:

 

[GrimwardGame]

Is the Thief scanning content not complete because i get an error at the second scan site:




View attachment 5039586

Try reloading your save, skip planet 0057 and head straight to 0059. That might prevent the issue from happening. If the bug shows up again, I’ll upload a fix later.

 

[GrimwardGame]

Other optional suggestions with ranging complexity:
A history of travel (a simple list of links is sufficient)
A way to bookmark a planet (basically saving it into a travel log with a note attached)
A gallery of seen content (though it also reduces the mystery and the replay value)

As a design suggestion I personally think playing off humanoid scarcity is good (forcing player to choose whether to get a scene or save the humanoid for another scene in the future - this is both excitement of gambling and an increase in replay value).

Getting custom coordinates you wouldn't be able to find by brute forcing as quest rewards or easter eggs.

On the other hand, somehow encouraging exploring random sectors of the galaxy (I suppose the easiest way is the bounties with a range as you've already done) rather than an incremental search would be great.

Potential procedural generation of "worthless" planets would save you a lot of headache on producing that filler content but it would require some ingenuity (one example I could think of is generating parameters like temperature, toxicity, whatever and then having a bunch of "planet classes", maybe a list of "special features" so it's more exciting). There should be some guides online on this.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I’ve decided to focus first on making the interface fully user-friendly, offering more options. I believe that’s the right path - better to get it done now so I don’t have to deal with it later. After that, I’ll focus on the content.

 

[QOfTheContinuum]

Try reloading your save, skip planet 0057 and head straight to 0059. That might prevent the issue from happening. If the bug shows up again, I’ll upload a fix later.

cant complete 57 even tho i find the spot the thief is in then 59 throws the error

 

[Chickenvagina]

Super interesting but having to put in the planet numbers over and over and over is awful.

I'd much rather have a "visit random planet" button or something,

 

[GrimwardGame]

cant complete 57 even tho i find the spot the thief is in then 59 throws the error

The issue is that you went back from 57 using the Back button.
If you drag the slider all the way to the end and wait for one second, you'll see a message.