Signal Garden (Demo)

In the dark after the collapse only the clicking of the monitoring system kept you company. You tried to recollect a world...

A chill idle/clicker game. Reactivate the old systems and tune them in to your preferred palette, then watch the signals come in from the landscapes being generated. Optimized for CHROME at FULLSCREEN--there might be some weird graphical bugs on other systems, and it probably won't work properly on mobile.

This Procjam 2020 entry uses an advanced form of the engine I used in previous games. I focused this time on building a new chance modifier system for the engine that reshapes the way the different text strings can be given weight. It's also a new custom-built UI--the other goal besides building the new Chance and Inventory systems for the engines was testing how easily I could hook the backend up to a new frontend. Turns out, the system's gratifyingly flexible.

I'm considering this a demo, I think it could be expanded into a full clicker game with more build-on mechanics and there's hints of a wider story and character here but it turns out that writing a bunch of procedurally generatable text on a short timescale is Actually Kinda Tough so it's presently more a proof of concept. I appreciate any donations or any patronage. Oh and if you like the vibe of this, I have a full game in the works that uses this engine for a more narrative based experience, something more akin to A Host of Gentle Terrors but like, more polished, so feel free to follow if you want to be notified when that finally comes out. Thanks so much for playing and thanks so much to the organizers for putting Procjam together!!! :)

Predicted FAQ

Q: Is there particular content worth trying to get to?

A: I think descriptions that fit in with ruined buildings, snow and ice, and forests are all pretty nice. There's some additional content actually if you can boost the general vibes in the direction of ruins and machinery, and trees and shrubbery. Otherwise just play around and see what kind of aesthetic you can generate. I recommend minmaxing to get more distinct landscapes.

Q: Is this open source?

A: [flops around bonelessly]

Q: >:?

A: This is such a work in progress and I don't want to imply it's going to be maintained in any way BUT if you're absurdly interested in how it works and doing something yourself, hit me up I guess? and like if you do want to support my work I highly recommend backing my patreon which is how I can survive enough to do weird experiments like this, and which is how I WOULD finance an actual release of the engine, were I to do it someday

Q: Can you play this while eating a hot dog?

A: Yes that's been playtested and the game supports hot dog consumption.

Q: What about a chili dog?

A: [sucks teeth] not sure about that one champ that seems like you're shaking hands with danger (i.e. the messy chili dog)

Q: How come your mom lets you have T

A: I think we've played this bit out as far as it can go actually

Q: This doesn't work in my browser

A: Do you have a real browser or a weird cryptocurrency mining browser?

Q: I'm not using Brave you dingus

A: hmu in the comments and I'll try to troubleshoot. I think I'm not using any html5 stuff that's too outre, too gauche, too debauched and decadent, but web dev is a nightmare hellscape and it's possible there's stuff I just haven't accounted for