What a refreshing game! I enjoyed the atmosphere with the music the most.
The scanner visuals were also awesome and I like that it also affects gameplay with the way it can stop moving platforms.
That being said, I felt a lot of the jumps were kinda tight, especially considering it was the start of the game. My main frustration came early on with the first bird section, not realizing the bird momentum carried throughout your jump. Maybe that was my bad on that one.
Otherwise, I like it! I was constantly motivated to find the next screen to go to and finding secrets like getting out of bounds.
How were the scanner visuals made? My guess is linecasts animated with a sine wave and colored based on the sign of the wave. Would love to know more.
thanks for playing! ^^
The first bird room has been a source of frustration for some players, but I'm at odds with it atm - it seems to partly work because it in fact should teach that momentum is preserved when jumping from a moving platform. That being said, it shouldn't do that through frustration, though! :D
And then, the scanner lines!
They are 8 lines (4 red, 4 yellow) that increase in length by 2 pixels every frame until they collide with something. The rotation angle phi_i of an individual ray i is calculated with
phi_i = phi_0 - phi_max * sin(0.02*t + pi/8*2*i)
where phi_0 is the center direction (that the player can manipulate), phi_max is the half of the ray cone "width" angle and the sine term changes per time t and ray i.
So your guess wasn't that far from the truth!