Plonat Atek by s-ol

[raw]
made by s-ol for LD 38 (COMPO)

Plonat Atek is a polar-coordinates Breakout clone that is played by viewing the Audio output on a Vectorscope/Oscilloscope.

It also features an audiovisual (8-beat :stuckouttongue:) soundtrack and sound effects! Since what you see on the 'scope is the sound, the sound effects double as visual feedback/impact effects and the soundtrack has been hidden in the graphics.

Here's a video of what it looks and sounds like:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=SIQAk9_nc-s

The project was built in PureData, a visual programming language for audio, or a digital modular synthesizer if you will. It requires a few modules from zexy, an extension to vanilla PureData (I have created this in pd-extended). I will also provide a .wav upload for those who cannot or don't want to run PureData but want to check if that sound-is-image thing is really true :wink:

Downloads, Source + Instructions

...all on itch.io

Follow me on twottr!

Ratings

Overall 24th 4.12⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Fun 208th 3.304⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1th 4.76⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Theme 183th 3.625⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 49th 4.208⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Audio 8th 4.348⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Mood 75th 3.727⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 34🗳️ 19🗨️

Feedback

pta2002
23. Apr 2017 · 21:12 UTC
This is awesome! Good job!
Epicsoft
02. May 2017 · 01:27 UTC
Fine game, great in 48 hours
mahalis
02. May 2017 · 01:53 UTC
This is incredibly clever—I’m amazed it’s possible to make comprehensible visuals and reasonably-tonal sound out of the same stream of data. Great work.
KnightOwl
02. May 2017 · 02:08 UTC
Very cool concept. It could use a fully integrated UI to control the experience and visually showcase what is going on between what you are seeing and hearing. Not to demean how science-cool the concept is, but this is something I could see becoming an addictive phone app for geeks of all disciplines.
🎤 s-ol
02. May 2017 · 21:15 UTC
@knightowl what do you mean by 'control the experience'? There is some minimal integrated UI, the three/two/one dots in the paddle (that are supposed to be properly centered but aren't) are the health display for example.
those-30-ninjas
02. May 2017 · 21:18 UTC
WOW, This is super cool. I have never seen anything like this. Great job.
Geckoo1337
02. May 2017 · 21:22 UTC
Incredible project. I have no clue about how you did that, but it's just awesome ++
samlo
02. May 2017 · 22:39 UTC
This is insanely cool, I've been watching on Twitter for a little while. I just want you to know you've inspired me to make an oscilloscope emulator in Unity
Kurt Roembke
03. May 2017 · 02:39 UTC
Ah!!!!!!!!!!! You're my hero.
juan
03. May 2017 · 17:30 UTC
I just love these osciloscope things, it just blow my mind everytime I see what you can draw with these things!
Sadly, the emulation don't looks so great as it shiver quite a lot, making it hard to see what is happening
But there the same problem with other osciloscope visualisation projects, so it's not really relevant to point this out: It looks great on a real one for sure.

Very original project, i really want to learn more about all of these sound programming stuff now :D
🎤 s-ol
03. May 2017 · 21:50 UTC
@samlo: thanks! Definitely look into upsampling, that's what makes the dood.al vectorscope so good, and it would be really nice if you find a way to make it auto-bind/register a loopback interface so it works without people setting up a virtual audio card just for this.

@juan: which emulator did you try? The one in then Windows package is quite bad, as I note in the Instructions on itch.io, but the one at https://dood.al/oscilloscope/ is really good, but requires a bit more set-up unless your sound card has 'stereo-mix' or you have a good audio setup already.
Or check local ads/craigslist for a used analgo osci :stuck_out_tongue:
sgstair
04. May 2017 · 06:13 UTC
Really neat and original idea. The gameplay is pretty minimal, but I'd love to see this idea get developed further.
Iwa
09. May 2017 · 11:58 UTC
Great job! I'd love to try it.
ghostbomb
10. May 2017 · 11:29 UTC
This looks really cool.
BlackRose
12. May 2017 · 00:50 UTC
Its look great! Its a fun game and a funny concept ^^
🎤 s-ol
14. May 2017 · 15:38 UTC
@iwa it should be rather straightforward to try with the instructions on itch, albeit in a software emulated Oscilloscope of course.
wolderado
14. May 2017 · 17:34 UTC
This is super cool! How did you do that in 48 hours :smile:
filipeabelha
14. May 2017 · 17:42 UTC
Loved it! Very nice game! Congratulations!
kl0z
14. May 2017 · 18:06 UTC
Man... this is a fucking masterpiece, love oscilloscope art, I have one but currently not here, I will play it on the oscilloscope!! Really nice work man!! Congrats!
Kaisean Games
14. May 2017 · 18:12 UTC
You are insane. I. N. S. A. N. E. :)

I can't play it obviously, but it seems great nonetheless.

It must have been interesting 48 hours.

Well done.
pascalman
14. May 2017 · 19:21 UTC
It's so cool! It's funny! It's simple and beautiful in the same time! Great for compo!
jelch
14. May 2017 · 19:41 UTC
I was able to get it running in my schools electrical lab. Absolutely awesome! Bravo on doing something so unique.![20170514_122618_Burst03.jpg](///raw/6fb/1/z/4537.jpg)
juanorloz
14. May 2017 · 19:59 UTC
Great idea, more analog games please!
puppetmaster
14. May 2017 · 20:04 UTC
This is a very unique way to play a game. I like how you have added the gravity curve to the ball. This game should have his own categories. Well done!
🎤 s-ol
14. May 2017 · 20:47 UTC
Thanks for the kind comments everyone!

@jelch that's super cool, most likely the second piece of hardware ever this has been played on! Waiting for @kl0z to claim the next :stuck_out_tongue:

@puppetmaster: the curve actually comes naturally with polar coordinates. I was actually thinking about amplifying the effect but the way I hastily implemented the hit-detection made it risky to change it late into the project.
Jon Tiburzi
14. May 2017 · 22:02 UTC
I once made some music with function generators and oscilloscopes...it was really hard and sounded awful. But making A GAME for an oscilloscope????? That's next level right there. 10/5 innovation.
Takusan
14. May 2017 · 22:36 UTC
Okay, you've done something I couldn't even try during LD. I've done my share of coding on oldschool machines (Atari, C64 and Amiga), but this takes the cake. It looks awesome, and the sound really adds a great vibe... I'll just leave my rating for you guys. You're nerds among nerds, 10/10 :)

@jon-tiburzi actually that's a funny story - first video game was made for oscilloscope, look it up. Yet nowadays, it's indeed an real innovation... again. Fun times :D