Prism Emulator - Prototype

This game will be exactly like Voices of the Void, or it's nearest ancestor - Signal Simulator.

The idea of this game is to take a frequency spectrum analysis inspired approach to signal processing gameplay.

The game is split into 4 main panels:

1. Satellite Control and Recording Panel:

This is where you will be controlling the satellites and recording the sounds of space.

Group 3 satellites together and plug them into the discrete frequency processing module in order to take their per-frequency slopes and filter out undesired frequencies.

The slope is just the difference in amplitude between the frequencies of each satellite viewed as if they where literal points along the surface of a hill, exposing which direction up-hill is and pointing towards the peak of that frequencies amplitude.

Controls:

Enter: begin recording,

Shift: display the slope direction,

LMB: select satellites,

Space + LMB: pan camera,

CRTL + Space + LMB : zoom camera,

CRTL + G: group satellites together,

Q and E: shrink / grow the selected satellite formation.

2. Frequency Spectrum Preview:

This panel serves as a way to identify frequencies of interest within our signal-recording by wrapping it around in this coil pattern, appearing to mix-unmix and tilt in one direction as we pass over a peaking frequency.

Controls:

Q and E : wind up / down the coiling machine,

Space:  toggle the currently observed frequency for discrete processing.

3. Signal Processing Panel:

This is where we will be fully processing the recording to reveal it's full spectrum.

The algorithm that this panel uses can be programmed and optimized, but you must first unlock samples in the machine by buying and dragging keys over them.

Controls:

Q and E: wind up / down the coiling machine - and if selected, one of those circular things that you drag and drop into the coiling machine rotates instead.

drag and drop controls are used for most of the programming.

(this panel will be explained better in the tutorial)

4. Alien Image Extraction Panel:

Finally we will be extracting the alien image from the signal and viewing it.

plug a tape into the machine, select a channel and shift / paint the spectrum frequencies that seem most likely to be a part of the signal in order to enable their phasors and record directly into the tape - revealing the alien image.

Drag and drop the tape into the sell-port to get money.

Controls:

LMB over spectrum: paint the frequencies according the the selected channel,

Shift + LMB over spectrum: shift the frequency of the phasors.

...

the WASD keys move between the 4 panels.

I plan on adding a panel for transmitting signals back into space, activating events among other things.

The 3d environment will be a float snowy plane.

The tapes are 2d drag-and-drop elements until the 3d component of this game is implemented.

Game will be made available soon.

This video may be of interest: