Dreamcast-Talk.com

-- Description --

Summoning Signals is an strange resource game for the Sega Dreamcast. The player takes care of a solar panel installation in order to receive cryptic transmission from unknown locations. The well-being of the systems depends on the player interactions and will affect the quality of the received messages. Every received transmission is logged, forming an evolving tale of strange gestures.

The artist's game uses a carefully curated selection of words and structure to create the chaotic yet evocating radio transmission. This limitation creates cohesion between the different characters and forms an impossible mythology where birds, metals and electronic devices cohabit or conspire together

The work draw influence from single resource games and forces the player to make his own interpretation on how the game system works. While most strategy games depends on knowing what each resource does and how to achieve your goal, Summoning Signals goals are uncertain and speculative




-- Released Version --

v03 (Jan 2020) - ALPHA DISC
- Massive game mecanics overhaul, everything is partially implemented
- 3 areas to discover (shed, crash, mountains)
- Complete radio system upgrade. Still a W.I.P.
- Intro screen
- Dynamic asset loading between area

v02 (March 2019)
- Fixed one visual issue + some weird text generation issue.

v01 (March 2019)
- Original release.


-- Future Version --
- Main game loop fully implemented
- Audio back in the game
- VMU support (save/load)
- New font (?)


-- Distribution --

You can download the game in .CDI format over at https://magnes.itch.io/summoning-signals
The game has been tested on real hardware using a burned CD or GDemu. Redream will also work.

The final game is planned to be distributed commercially through Retro Surge Game / The Bit Station in late 2020.

Thanks

lerabot wrote:I've recently had the opportunity to showcase some work in a gallery, and decided to take some time to work on a new project using Reaperi Cycle's engine.

It's more of a generative art piece than a full fledged game, so please take it for what it is. It's not a fast paced experience, it's actually pretty slow, but there's some small underlying things that can make the whole thing quite fun and suprising.



https://magnes.itch.io/summoning-signals

The project is avaiable as a .CDI file. You can burn it the same way you would for any other game. It works well in Redream aswell. I've never tried with GDemu and all those things.

Hey, thanks for this. I gave it a shot yesterday, although I'm not quite sure what to do. I managed to transmit a few messages but by around day 14 the TV started charging veryyyyy slowly and I wasn't able to make any transmissions by nighttime - what should I do??

Does the game end? If so, how does one "complete" the game?

Thanks for this, always love new and creative games

It's about as much as you can do, starting a new game will produce different kind of messages.
The slow charching was because of "bad weather"... each new cycle will update the weather, which right now will influence the recharge rate and how easy it is to pick up messages.

This was more tuned to a "gallery" setting in terms of gameplay, so people discovering the piece for 5ish minutes. This thing was made very quickly for an art show after I realized that my previous project was not satisfying. This being said, I've received interesting feedback that make me want to expand this project a bit further. I wont give topo much details now because my main focus is Reaperi Cycle, but let's say that this might not be the final version of Summoning signals.

Thanks for trying it out dave! I know it is not a "traditional" game in anyway and more of an art experiment so I'm glad you take some time to try it.

Hey there lerabot just tried it and I gotta say I enjoyed it alot. Gotta sit down and play it longer when i have the chance. You got that dos surrealistic game era look down that i like so much on this and reaperi cycle. One thing though playing this game made me realize it needs a sound track akin to that of the old webtv midis (not an actual criticism , more like my imagination going wild) and it would be perfect. Hopefully you would continue this project eventually , think you might have a winner. Wouldnt mind seeing this in a physical case on a mini cd.

For the music example : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVySfMJl_Ak
like 37:04/Waiting game would suit it perfectly.

Thanks all for the kind reply,

I've recently started to play with this again. Here's a couple of thing that I'm working on:

1 - Some sort of narrative
2 - We recorded all the words in the game to add a vocal component to the received message.
3 - There's a second area done, and at least another one coming.
4 - The solar panel and radio system can be upgraded. Doing will will make the transmission longer, recharge the battery faster, etc.
5 - I also added a weather system. The radio system is greatly affected by the weather.
6 - Music. and sound design. There's SOUNDS now!

Also, I've made a itch.io page where I post some updates.

I know it's been a while, but I've progressed quite a bit with this...



The game is going well and we released a alpha preview for you to try on our Patreon.

If you want to see more, we post some picture and update on our twitter as well.

lerabot wrote:I know it's been a while, but I've progressed quite a bit with this...



The game is going well and we released a alpha preview for you to try on our Patreon.

If you want to see more, we post some picture and update on our twitter as well.

I love that someone is making something very different to what is usually released!

dave_van_damn wrote:

lerabot wrote:I know it's been a while, but I've progressed quite a bit with this...



The game is going well and we released a alpha preview for you to try on our Patreon.

If you want to see more, we post some picture and update on our twitter as well.

I love that someone is making something very different to what is usually released!

Yes it's very cool to see this geting better and better..

This is looking great!