#Oniri app

[ceasendesistbitch]

If you need a solid app for dream journaling, interpretation or even Lucid dreaming try Oniri.

The journal function is incredibly detailed and provides statistics. And interpretations are AI driven so it can get surprisingly in depth (always take AI with a grain of salt tho.)

Honestly, it’s probably one of the best apps I’ve used for any reason.

[hslvrs]

you guys if you wanted to have a lucid dream as a method to shift i suggested you to download apps Oniri, it's really worked!! you can write down your dream journal in there and also you can enable their reality checks, ngl after 3 days doing that i've been having lucid dream after a few months not having it

[solshifts]

how does one lucid dream?? and how are you able to shift by lucid dreaming??

Hey !! Thanks for asking ♡ Lucid dreams for me are complex but once you get the hang of it, it can be super easy !!! There's a few ways on how to do a lucid dream!! I'll explain what I do and then I'll add some other methods on how to get lucid in your dreams!! Please bare with me because this will be a longgg post!! Just want to give you guys the best info that I can. What I first recommend is downloading Oniri! Oniri is a dream app specifically for lucid dreaming! It can send you reality check reminders, and you can even document your dreams(which is something you want to do for lucid dreaming). ♡ For reality checks, you can set how often you want to get them in the app for example, you can get them every 30 minutes.. 1 hour etc;!

What to do to lucid dream: ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ 1. Set your reality checks for every hour! I usually try to aim for 15 - 20 reminders a day so your consciousness can replicate what you do in real life and can induce a lucid dream. Reality checks can be as simple as counting your fingers and after you've counted all ten, push your finger through your palm and saying "am I dreaming?" ,and if it doesn't go through, then you're not dreaming yet! What reality checks do is they get your body in the habit of doing this motion and then end up doing it in your dreams! When your finger goes through your palm, you'll automatically realize your dreaming and boom! Lucid dreaming! ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ 2. Say affirmations through out the day!! This has helped me a ton with lucid dreaming because I expect myself to get lucid. I usually just say "I will lucid dream when I go to bed tonight" ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ 3. Go to bed at a good time!! YES I'M LOOKING AT YOU... I sometimes go to bed around 10:30 pm if I'm trying for a lucid dream that day. ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ 4. write your dreams down!! As much as you can in Oniri, even if its the littlest detail, it'll help you start to remember more and more!! The oniri app also has a write down your dreams reminder that you can set when you wake up but be quick because you can forget your dreams very quickly when you wake up! This will also help your dreams become more vivid and more lifelike!! ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ 5. Pick what method you want to use to induce a lucid dream!! Theres several methods in how to induce a lucid dream! The way I use is right before I go to bed I usually say to myself "I will know I'm dreaming tonight" over and over and over until I have fallen asleep. Then, when I randomly wake up in the middle of the night, I say it again when I'm super groggy until I pass out and this is how I usually induce a lucid dream for myself! The other ways on how to get into lucid dreaming is the Wake back to bed method (WBTB), and the MILD method ( which I use) ! I hope this answers the first question! ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶

˚　　　　✦　　　.　　. 　 ˚　.　　　　　 . ✦　　　 　˚　　　　 . ★⋆. ࿐࿔ 　　　.   　　˚　　 　　*　　 　　✦　　　.　　.　　　✦　˚ 　　　　 ˚　.˚　　　　✦　　　.　　. 　 ˚　.　　　　 　　 　　　　 　

As for shifting with lucid dreaming, this topic can be a little tricky! It's not as easy as shiftok makes it look but, I'm willing to work with you guys and help you through it! ♡ First off, do NOT say that you're dreaming out loud in your dream, you subconscious will most likely get angry at you (weird right?) and the people in your dream will also get mad at you and it can actually take you out of lucidity. ♡ Once you have realize you are lucid dreaming, try the best you can to ground yourself so you don't launch yourself out of a lucid dream. Transport yourself to a very calming place! Like a field of flowers! and while you're there, I usually spin in a circle and tell myself that I'm grounded to my lucid dream for now! ♡ Now what's controversial is the whole portals thing, in my opinion, portals NEVER work. I have tried, and I quite literally got bounced right out of the portal like a whole trampoline. What I usually try to do before I get out of dreaming and wake up is, I spin in circle and tell myself affirmations for shifting(can be whatever you prefer :) ). This has made it so much easier for me to not wake up. Once you feel kind of a drop, just know you're shifting but continue to say affirmations!! ♡ You'll eventually shift to your DR self's dream and wake up in your dr!! I hope this has helped, and I'm sorry for the long explanation<3 Feel free to ask more question if you have any more!!―୨୧⋆ ˚

[maebyshifting]

hi mae, idk if you've talked about this before but how did you learn to lucid dream? did you use any specific methods?

this is such a good question and i love talking about lucid dreaming so here’s the journey to when i went lucid for the first time!

i’ve known about lucid dreaming since i was in middle school and was never able to do it so i just gave up. fast forward to my senior year of high school (about 2 years ago) i made some friends who lucid dreamt a lot and started to follow their advice.

when i can, i try to write down my dreams when i remember them, or at least talk to someone about it. another thing i did was reality checks every 1-2 hours for maybe a week or two before i went lucid. the reality checks i did included pushing on a table/wall, poking my hands, looking at a clock, and thinking to myself “i am not dreaming right now.”

after about a week or two of doing that i lucid dreamt for the first time! i was in my room looking at myself in my mirror and i had long hair (for context i had cut it to a pixie cut a couple months prior) and i pointed at myself and said out loud “i don’t have long hair, this is a dream.” and tried to shift from it! i’ve gotten very close with the lucid dream method, but have yet to shift with it.

from there, i’ve gone lucid from once again having long hair when it was short, recognizing a dream was just way too weird to be real, and most recently i went lucid because i recognized someone in my family that had recently passed was walking down the street.

i still do reality checks from time to time when i can remember, but for the most part just recognizing patterns in my dreams and being persistent has helped me! some good apps to help with dream journals, reality checks, etc. include lucidity and oniri! both should be free to use :)

i know some people use like wake back to sleep for both lucid dreaming and shifting but i never really used any methods other than doing reality checks and writing down my dreams so i’m not as knowledgeable on that

[hailey-333s-blog]

ive been trying to lucid dream, and have been using an app called oniri to begin lucidity checks, but ive never even gotten close 😭😭

idk if i’m just not putting enough intention into lucid checks bc i do them then basically forget abt it right after… i even have this tea that’s supposed to help, and i do get rlly vivid dreams, but never realize im dreaming 😭😭

does anyone have any tips or recommendations for me to do???

[mershifts]

whats a good way to lucid dream tonight as a beginner

i saw this late sorry : (

doing reality checks ! i use an app called ‘oniri’, which gives me notifications reminding me to do reality checks ! this really helps as i’m someone with bad memory 😭

also affirmations such as : ‘i’m a master lucid dreamer / i’m a master at lucid dreaming’, work so well for me ! i just tell myself before bed that i’ll remember to do reality checks in my dream. i hope this helps ! ^^

[oniri-game]

Oniri Islands soon on Kickstarter!!!

Dear everyone, we have a HUGE announcement for you:

🚀✨🎉 We will be officially live on Kickstarter on March 16th!!! 🎉✨🚀 

We are so excited to show you the rewards we crafted with love for you! <3 Meanwhile here comes the official Oniri Website!

Please share it to spread the news far! A big thanks to Florian Zumbrunn for the development 💻👌

Stay tuned on Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, many news & surprises for you pretty soon!

[sacramentonewsjournal]

Easy methods to Say Goodbye a puzzler about loss of life and its acceptance is releasing subsequent month on Android and iOS

Final 12 months, unbiased builders Florian Veltman (Monument Valley) and Baptiste Portefaix (Oniri Islands) introduced they had been working collectively on a recreation known as Easy methods to Say Goodbye, a story puzzle that offers with the themes of acceptance and shifting on via poetry. At the moment, the builders revealed the sport will lastly launch on November third. A brand new teaser was dropped right this moment as nicely. In Easy methods to Say Goodbye, gamers will discover themselves a couple of moments after their loss of life in a form of limbo, the place they need to recount their journey as they enter right into a world unknown to them. The one option to the opposite facet is to just accept what’s occurred. It sounds simple on paper, however accepting your individual loss of life? That’s sure to be tough. Gamers should make the ghosts realise that what occurred can’t be modified and that the one manner is ahead. Solely then, will they make it to the opposite facet, the place quite a few spirits await. Describing their ideology of utilizing loss of life within the recreation, Florian Veltman, mentioned: “Grief is a common expertise distinctive to every particular person, and one which evokes robust feelings. Nonetheless, in most video video games, it’s lowered to a violent act: loss of life is used as a metaphor to point to the participant in a particularly binary manner that he loses or wins, that he exists or doesn’t exist anymore. We wished to method the topic in a extra refined and optimistic manner, with sensitivity.” Crossing over might be powerful. Gamers should make use of various components positioned on a grid to be able to information the ghost to the exit image. Naturally, this fashion is filled with obstacles together with different ghosts who couldn’t get to the opposite facet and won’t let anybody else go. These unking ghosts are known as spleens and so they appear to be underneath the management of the wizard, a being about whom not a lot is understood. His affect, though, might be seen all through the world of Easy methods to Say Goodbye. App Retailer pages ought to be right here quickly, till then, try their Discord server to remain updated. Additionally, check out this record of one of the best puzzle video games to play on cellular! Originally published at Sacramento News Journal

[gameosity]

http://gameosity.com/2017/03/15/oniri-islands-preview/

I was first introduced to Oniri Islands as a cooperative mobile board game for kids at GDC. I’m not sure if I agree that it is a board game, but I do think it is a great cooperative kids game with loosely related board game elements. In Oniri Islands, two players take on the roles of Mina...

[barbosaasouza]

A Tale of Two Cities: Exploring the Future of Play in Switzerland

Our young medium is ever forward-facing. There is so much – both technically and artistically – that hasn’t fully been explored yet. Video games are like a map with lots of white spaces, and how we fill these spaces will shape the future.

On a trip to Switzerland, I visited two schools that try to tackle this challenge, each in their own way.

The Game Technology Center (GTC) is part of the Department of Computer Science of the ETH Zürich. Their aim is to research a way of using games for science and education, and transferring this technology to the game industry. To this end, they are currently exploring Augmented Reality as a playful tool with real-world applications. AR might not be as fancy a technology as VR, but it is easier to implement in an everyday context.

Projects that are currently being worked on are an AR guide for museums that offers a more hands-on experience than an audio guide. It adds interaction to the usually-passive reception of art by allowing you to explore the different stages of restoration that a piece of artwork went through, or adding playful and sometimes funny commentary to other pieces of art.

Another project is an AR coloring book: after coloring a picture, you can scan it in the app and have it come to life in 3D – looking just like you designed it! The aim is obvious: getting children to stop staring at screens all day, while at the same time acknowledging that you can actually do some pretty cool things with those screens.

Most impressive might have been a drag and drop game designing tool that makes use of AR. Think of it as the good old Klik & Play construction kit, only that you can take pictures of real-world objects and drawings with your tablet and incorporate them into your game right away. This tool, developed by the team of Dr. Stéphane Magnenat, is surprisingly easy to just pick up and play around with. Creating a fully working Space Invader clone with custom graphics in five minutes? This is how you get kids interested in creating games.

Every year, students of the GTC show off their projects in a big ceremony. Some of these projects attract enough attention for commercial publishing, such as the cooperative railroad building game Unrailed, which recently got picked up by German publisher Daedalic. In any case, the GTC’s approach seems to be in exploring the potential of existing technologies and working your way up from there to create innovative games with real-world applications.

A whole different approach is taught at the other end of the country in Switzerland’s francophone part. A three-hour train ride away from Zürich, at the Haute École d’Arts Appliqués (HEAD) in Genève, students can get a master’s degree in media design. One of the subject’s focal points: games. The school’s approach is notably different to the usual game design education. These students are not game designers in the usual sense; they are designers who happen to make games. They tailor their individual learning experiences to their needs, starting with their project in mind and working from there while teaching themselves the technologies they need. This leads to a variety of wildly different results.

Take Ghofran Akil’s Unresolved, for example. The game, which is her master’s thesis project, deals with the so-called enforced disappeared. These are people who go missing during war and conflict. Following Ghofran’s travels to the Lebanon and interviewing affected families, the project underwent different designs until settling on its final, text-based form.

Unresolved puts you in the shoes of different family members of an enforced disappeared, making decisions that affect the flow of the story. You start as the wife of a disappeared, but you jump back and forth in time during the game, exploring the effect such disappearances have on generations of family members. This is not a game you can win. There is no miracle rescue at the end, no closure for any of the characters. It is a frustrating, ongoing dilemma which affects millions of people today.

Other projects use multi-monitor setups, self-made devices as teaching tools, or they attempt to transfer Swiss literature into gaming form, using a slew of different approaches and tools. Tourmaline Studio’s Oniri Islands, a cooperative tablet game using smart toys, is one of these games that even saw a commercial release. In any case, it is all about the idea at the center of each project, with the particular technologies being of secondary importance.

There are whole branches of game development out there that don’t get a lot of coverage. For these to receive both funding and attention is important. Even if they enjoy less visibility than commercial games, they push our medium forward in ways that may be felt further down the road. Whether these are truly the future of play, the future of interacting with games and gamified programs, or the game designers of tomorrow –  all this remains to be seen. What is most important is that games are thriving in all kinds of ways and that the blank spaces on the map are filled with fascinating, varied works.

[DISCLOSURE: travel and accommodation for this trip were paid by Presence Switzerland.]

The post A Tale of Two Cities: Exploring the Future of Play in Switzerland appeared first on Indie Games Plus.

A Tale of Two Cities: Exploring the Future of Play in Switzerland published first on https://superworldrom.tumblr.com/

[lesastucesdejm]

Oniri Islands : le jeu mêlant jouets et App iOS sera au salon Kidexpo jusqu'au 4 novembre

http://dlvr.it/QqD29X

[symbianosgames]

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

Earlier this year I got a rather excellent email notifying me that I'd been selected to show EXO ONE in EGX Rezzed's Leftfield collection, a curated selection of indie games. I had set my expectations and hopes for Rezzed to go something like this:

Have some fun at the event

Meet some cool new people

Hopefully appear in at least 1 or 2 articles

See old friends and family

All of those things happened + more!

Day 0

The day before Rezzed, things started off super rocky. As I arrived to set up and test the game, it was rendering with a pure black sky. I had backup builds, but this appeared to be more a bug or incompatibility with a graphics card. Luckily, I checked the build logs and pasted the error line into Google and one other person reported the same issue, solved by downloading the 2010 Direct X SDK.

The phew'ing was deafening. Almost paid $1500 for a ticket to Rezzed to look at some other people's games!

Hard to know if I should have brought the entire project over somehow, incase this was a problem I needed to fix in Unity, then rebuild. I'd of had to fix it on the PC that was running the game (remember I flew to London from Australia), download Unity, etc, then only have a few hours to get it working before the show. Hard to know if I should have brought the entire project over somehow, incase this was a problem I needed to fix in Unity, then rebuild. It'd be awkward to fix it on the PC that was running the game (remember I flew to London from Australia), download Unity, etc, then only have a few hours to get it working before the show.

I put my poster up, chatted with a few people from Leftfield and grabbed food with Jai from FINIFUGU. Here's the poster at my station, drawn by Tim McBurnie:

Day 1

Used my London coffee app to find ONLY THE BEST coffee, in this case, the closest was LMNH Kitchen (look mum no hands). Truly an important step that cannot be overlooked!

Bumped into Andreas of Promoter app fame, who thought I was the event organizer, David Hayward (this seemed to happen to numerous, different people throughout the event, which was odd). Andreas was also showing his game, Future Unfolding.  I had some really amazing moments after playing it for just 10 minutes. His description goes like, "Future Unfolding is an action adventure that is all about exploration. Your goal is to unfold the mysteries and solve the puzzles hidden in the beautiful landscapes around you. There are no tutorials, and no one is telling you what to do." I definitely advise not to look at trailers or anything before playing.

We had breakfast/coffee here on all three days and I really enjoyed chatting game dev, promoter app/biz stuff and events in general. It was nice to start each day at Rezzed with such great food, coffee and company! Andreas is a real dude, and his app looks quite good too, I'll probably try it on the lead up to EXO ONE's release.

This was just one of many real-dude encounters I had during the show. I'm not sure what it was about all the people in Leftfield, but I seemed to get along really well with everyone. In particular, since they shared my wall/opposite wall, I got to chat a lot with Jai, the guys from Alpixels (A Place for the Unwilling) , Joe from Four Last Things, Richard Boeser from Chalo Chalo , the PjamaLlamians who are making Flotsam, and the girls from Oniri Islands. Some of these peeps I felt an instant connection with, and it makes me kinda sad they're now on the opposite side of the world.

This first day was kinda quiet, and there was occasionally some down time, but it was nice to be able to ease into things. I had one press meeting that went well and resulted in me appearing in this:

Honoured that EXO ONE is part of @eurogamer's "eight of the best games" from @EGX Rezzed! https://t.co/mWZ0QrtLKJ #indiedev #egxrezzed

— Jay Weston (@JayWeston) April 2, 2017

After the first day I went and met an old Londonian friend for drinks, but I was so dead from not taking a break all day that I had to return to home base and eat, immediately followed by sleep. Didn't seem to get much in the way of jet lag, luckily.

Day 2

This was a little busier than Day 1, got lots of good feedback, ideas, etc, all of which I wrote down during the day. Had another press meet up today which resulted in EXO ONE being included in this article, which painted the game in quite a glowing light!

All the reasons I loved Rezzed 2017: https://t.co/RFPJ6epsTw http://pic.twitter.com/PKp2mJK3nm

— Waypoint (@waypoint) April 3, 2017

Then this happened:

This is the Outside Xtra trio who came and hooked up their gear to do a bit of an impromptu Let's Play of the game. The video isn't out yet (and there was some sound technical issues) but I can't wait to see it. Outside Xtra have quite a fan following, and during a 'meet' event at Rezzed I heard they had a line that stretched half of the building. After the day was over, there was the The Rock Paper Shotgun drinks night, and a bunch of the Leftfieldians went out for dinner beforehand, which was at an old pub overlooking the Thames. Then I met and hung out with another old friend from when I used to live in London, who introduced me to some cool people.

I didn't do much in the way of networking with press, though.  I couldn't shake the feeling that I'm trying to befriend them partly to improve my chances of them writing about my game. Maybe a missed opportunity, I dunno. I seemed to do fine regardless.

Day 3

This was the busiest day, and I'd often be standing a couple rows deep behind my game. I'm still told Rezzed is a pretty quiet event in the scheme of things. Again, nice to just ease into my first big event instead of DIVE in the deep end. Met up with and hung out with a couple more friends and contacts on this day as well. Despite the larger numbers of people, I possibly talked to players less because I was just pushed back (or wanted to get out the way so others could watch). So it wasn't manic or anything.

Had dinner after with some Leftfielders again then I was convinced to attend the after party, which was good fun with yet more games in every room. Checked out some of the retro games and played a bit of Joe Bain's new game, Yucatan, which was super madness fun! There was some crowd based game in another room I think, but didn't get to see it!

Press

I think my press strategy was pretty 'normal'. I suppose I often thought I needed to be doing some secret tricks or 'know people' or something special to really get noticed and stand out, etc. But now that the event is over and I got basically the best response I could have ever hoped for, I guess the basics worked pretty well. Before the event, I made the following Rezzed trailer that I pinned to my Twitter, saying I'd be at Rezzed, along with my email address (no it wasn't even spammed):

[embedded content]

I emailed around 20 writers/game sites/YouTubers with somewhat personalized emails (more so if I knew more about them) saying essentially, "come play EXO ONE at Rezzed Leftfield", and included the above, very short video. Got 2 solid meeting times, maybe 2-3 "I'll come over at some point, whenevzies" and a bunch of ignores. Some ignores ended up turning up regardless, but I don't know whether that was from my email or just because they happened to be in Leftfield.

I talked to a handful of other developers in Leftfield about their press outreach efforts, and most did nothing at all, so if that was common within Leftfield or Rezzed in general, then contacting the press potentially puts you a step ahead just by pressing send. I ordered 3 t-shirts online which I could have spent too much time on, but ended up just using my EXO ONE logo on the front and back, with "developer" written on the back, so if anyone was looking to chat with the developer, they could easily spot me.

Press Stealth Abilities

Something I noticed about press at the event was that almost all of them (unless I'd set up a meeting) liked to fly in under the radar and play without me spotting/recognizing them. That worked for a few people who I saw write/tweet about the game afterward, but otherwise, if I recognized someone I just said so. Otherwise, I'd risk being weird (sorry, person I was totally weird to!). I imagine this is done so the developer doesn't bug them too much or affect their play experience any more than it should. Generally, I just said something like, "the tutorial is kinda bad right now, so if you need any help lemme know", then I left them to it.

I definitely felt that fan-boy factor a little with some people I met, but I had some great chats with press, gamers and devs alike. For the most part, with press, they'd come play the game, ask between 0 and a dozen questions then take off pretty quickly. Wasn't overly hard, and while I practiced a bunch of practice answers to questions, many never came up. After the event, I wrote and thanked anyone who wrote about EXO ONE, if I had their email address/Twitter.

Tweets 'n Articles

Here's most of the press/tweets I got during the event and after:

Rezzed people. If you've not seen Exo One, go see Exo One.

— inside number nein (@MikeDiver) March 31, 2017

Today at Rezzed I played alien planet explorer game-in-progress EXO ONE by @JayWeston: https://t.co/rj0Y0B6v9a http://pic.twitter.com/Zm5E6fFRZz

— Electron Dance (@ElectronDance) March 30, 2017

EXO ONEis awesome! Super chill and mysterious. One of the best at #EGXRezzed https://t.co/5fJ1DI0QH4 via @JayWeston

— Gliphyx (@gliphyx) April 1, 2017

The Leftfield Collection is always a treat at #Rezzed, and I’d really recommend seeing Exo One - bit of a stunner: http://pic.twitter.com/Gq79cwklC8

— Matthew Reynolds (@Crazyreyn) April 1, 2017

Exo One: This feels SO great to play, nails that feeling of speed and momentum. https://t.co/pg5vcWFxmz http://pic.twitter.com/4voCNiqhvm

— Terry (@terrycavanagh) April 1, 2017

Damn it, I didn't meet Terry! Terry is one of these darned people who don't use a photo on their Twitter profile, I didn't recognise him! I do recall seeing he was showing his game before flying over, but slipped my mind once I was there. I may have met him or Ruari as I recall one of the State Machine (his game) devs chatting to me. Tried to go play before open one day but someone was on it. Huge fan of Super Hexagon, so would have liked to have gone and been a weird fanboy/say hi briefly :P

Exo One was so much fun! - https://t.co/oPjlGeaBgZ http://pic.twitter.com/6iKFi1G8eY

— Rock Paper Shotgun (@rockpapershot) April 3, 2017

Rezzed 2017: the 12 most interesting games on show at the festival https://t.co/v1AAPLWtJa

— The Guardian (@guardian) April 3, 2017

We hit up #EGXRezzed and things got really trippy... https://t.co/RjRSJ6djr0 ft. @alightinchorus @PolyphoniaVR @exoone @JayWeston http://pic.twitter.com/bZ4oM1i6BT

— Laced Records (@Laced_Records) April 5, 2017

Not bad!

Biz Cards

Ordered about 500 and used a quarter of them, mostly taken by gamers. I put a screenshot on the front and some words (game name, my name, contact details) on the back.

Newsletter

One small error perhaps I could have improved would have been some way to sign people up to the newsletter at the event. The Flotsam guys had some kinda small iPad with a sign-up form on it, others went for the handwritten method. I guess the handwritten way stands out as being a mailing list quite obviously due to the email addresses on it, while the iPad kinda requires prompting ("hey you, sign up for our newsletter?").

I'm not sure how many people went home then signed up for the EXO ONE mailing list, but over the entire event I added about 80 people to my list. Really don't know if this is "good" or not.

Resources I Used

I'm a big fan of both Thomas Reisenegger's games PR/Marketing videos on GDCVault, and Indie Game Girl, who did a specific games event article/slide show. 

[embedded content]

Maybe just search for Thomas on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thomas+reisenegger

Emmy's site is http://ift.tt/WoIuHR

General Help

Before the event, I asked everyone I knew for advice, including some people I didn't know. This resulted in a couple of meetings that might not have otherwise happened, various tips/tricks for events, who to look out for (I hadn't heard of OutsideXtra for example), introductions to press, how to keep my expectations realistic for a single, small-ish event and more.

What did I learn about EXO ONE?

The biggest stand out problem with the game was the first tutorial level, which is going to be getting some major love and redesigning soon. The camera I'm using hates the kinds of movement you can do in the starting level, and I throw a bunch of controls at the player and pray they remember (they never do). So this resulted in many players not 'getting' the game as they were missing pieces of the puzzle. Most people that I helped out ended up getting the hang of it, and luckily all press did too.

I got mixed feedback on the story, but I'd say fairly overwhelmingly in favor of keeping the story as-is, but also some very convincing "you should make it less literal" arguments. Also received a handful of comments that there were too many controls. Mentioned this to some other Leftfielders and of course heard the opposite, "I had no problem with the controls". Simpler is definitely better, but I feel like I might be able to remove at least one control combo (like holding two things to glide up for example). Thankfully most of the feedback hit exactly the mark I was going for, with comments like:

That was super relaxing

It was mesmerizing

The sense of speed and feeling you get when you reach the clouds is amazing

I could just watch it all day

Like the Adelaide games event before (AVCON), people sat to play and didn't want to get off. I should have forced an end timer on the demo as people had to wait ages to play in some cases. I was lucky the musician, Rhys, told me to shorten the first level, since even after doing so, people sometimes asked me if they could ever reach the transport structures in the distance. A classic example of the game developer being too good (fast) at their own game.

Quick Notes on Other Games

Since this post is getting long... Quick bullets on other games (I mentioned Future Unfolding above) that were near me and I played in Leftfield.

Oniri Islands

Great multiplayer iPad game that uses physical chess-like pieces (cute little figures) to move characters around on screen. Great for playing with kids.

Flotsam

While seeming pretty early days, I'm super pumped to see where this 'floating base builder' goes.

Four Last Things

Very charming, funny writing and simple point n click adventure, using classical/famous artworks.

A Place for the Unwilling

Intriguing 'mini-society' and village full of characters whom you interact with and have influence over/effects on during 'end times'. Great spooky vibes!

Chalo Chalo

Super fun party multiplayer game that isn't instantly recognizable as being hilarious fun, but totally is!

Everything

Those rolling quadrupeds... I saw some really, really weird stuff happen in this game during the event! I jumped on for 2 minutes, but think I need to have a proper go and hear the narration/music to really get into it.

Special Thanks

...to David Hayward for organizing the event, it went off without a hitch! And thanks to SEGA for sponsoring Leftfield. It really was an amazing event, surrounded by awesome people and great games! With any luck, I'll bump into some of my new friends again at another games event... *sniff*!

Edge

I've left the best till last! I'm wildly excited to announce that next month (May) EXO ONE is getting a 2-page preview in Edge magazine! So pumped! I'm not a huge games magazine reader, but whenever I do pick one up, it's always Edge!

Next - Kickstarter

I've increasingly gone from 'maybe doing a Kickstarter' to 'probably doing one' to 'doing one' to 'most likely doing one in May'. It takes time to build up the courage, you see. I'm going to get some advice on exact dates, but that's my current thoughts. I'll be announcing an exact date soon, so if this is something you're interested in, you can sign up to my newsletter below:

[solshifts]

Hey I'm new to shifting and lucid dreaming, I wanted to know how to lucid dream without doing methods like the WBTB method. Like a method that can be done while sleeping.

Hey! Sure! I'd love to tell you of the way that I do that works!⋅˚₊‧ ଳ ‧₊˚ ⋅ As explained in my lucid dreaming method post, I use an app called oniri! With this app you can set regular reality check reminders (please do this!! It's important) and also you can wake up and write down your dreams in a journal! (also super helpful!) Doing the writing your dreams down will either help you find a pattern in reoccurring dreams or even help with how vivid your dream can get! Reality checks can actually help you get lucid in a dream and I explained how in that post that I made! For the method that I usually do is I usually go to bed at a reasonable time(10:30 at the latest) and I make sure I am super tired and super worn out before! When I hop in bed and on the brink of falling asleep I usually say to myself (UNTIL I PASS OUT) "I will know that I am dreaming) Literally over and over again until I'm gone! If that doesn't work, literally wake up at any point of the night and DON'T GO ON YOUR PHONE. Immediately go back to bed repeating the same thing you were saying before but a second time! This usually gets me into a lucid dream or my reality checks do! Don't get discouraged if this doesn't work the first couple of times because it mostly won't! It takes a few tries but I'm sure with practice you'll get it! Happy shifting!! ‧₊˚🦋✩ ₊˚☁️⊹♡‧₊˚

[oniri-game]

Oniri Islands bientôt sur Kickstarter !!!

Chers tous, nous avons une annonce TRÈS importante à vous faire:

🚀✨🎉  Nous serons sur Kickstarter le 16 mars!!! 🎉✨🚀 

Nous sommes surexcités à l'idée de vous montrer les récompenses que nous avons préparées rien que pour vous ! <3

En attendant voici le site Officiel d’Oniri !

N'hésitez pas à le partager pour que le plus de personnes soient au courant ! Un grand merci à Florian Zumbrunn pour le développement 💻👌

Suivez nos comptes Tumblr Facebook, Twitter ou Instagram, on vous réserve pas mal de news et de surprises très prochainement !

[oniri-game]

Oniri Islands funded with Kickstarter ❤️

Dear friends,

Last month Oniri was totally funded thanks to our awesome community! We are truly grateful for this amazing support! Oniri will become a reality ❤️

With our hearts filled with joy we will be able to carry on with the game production (app) and start the toys manufacturing! We will keep you informed here as we progress in the development and share with you some sneak peeks.

Don’t hesitate to tell your family and friends that it is still possible to preorder the Oniri game box via our Backerkit eshop. As you can see you can preorder The Game Box, the Artbook and the Collector Figurines Desert Edition: there are only 29 units left for this collector item!

The Oniri Team ❤️

[barbosaasouza]

A Tale of Two Cities: Exploring the Future of Play in Switzerland

Our young medium is ever forward-facing. There is so much – both technically and artistically – that hasn’t fully been explored yet. Video games are like a map with lots of white spaces, and how we fill these spaces will shape the future.

On a trip to Switzerland, I visited two schools that try to tackle this challenge, each in their own way.

The Game Technology Center (GTC) is part of the Department of Computer Science of the ETH Zürich. Their aim is to research a way of using games for science and education, and transferring this technology to the game industry. To this end, they are currently exploring Augmented Reality as a playful tool with real-world applications. AR might not be as fancy a technology as VR, but it is easier to implement in an everyday context.

Projects that are currently being worked on are an AR guide for museums that offers a more hands-on experience than an audio guide. It adds interaction to the usually-passive reception of art by allowing you to explore the different stages of restoration that a piece of artwork went through, or adding playful and sometimes funny commentary to other pieces of art.

Another project is an AR coloring book: after coloring a picture, you can scan it in the app and have it come to life in 3D – looking just like you designed it! The aim is obvious: getting children to stop staring at screens all day, while at the same time acknowledging that you can actually do some pretty cool things with those screens.

Most impressive might have been a drag and drop game designing tool that makes use of AR. Think of it as the good old Klik & Play construction kit, only that you can take pictures of real-world objects and drawings with your tablet and incorporate them into your game right away. This tool, developed by the team of Dr. Stéphane Magnenat, is surprisingly easy to just pick up and play around with. Creating a fully working Space Invader clone with custom graphics in five minutes? This is how you get kids interested in creating games.

Every year, students of the GTC show off their projects in a big ceremony. Some of these projects attract enough attention for commercial publishing, such as the cooperative railroad building game Unrailed, which recently got picked up by German publisher Daedalic. In any case, the GTC’s approach seems to be in exploring the potential of existing technologies and working your way up from there to create innovative games with real-world applications.

A whole different approach is taught at the other end of the country in Switzerland’s francophone part. A three-hour train ride away from Zürich, at the Haute École d’Arts Appliqués (HEAD) in Genève, students can get a master’s degree in media design. One of the subject’s focal points: games. The school’s approach is notably different to the usual game design education. These students are not game designers in the usual sense; they are designers who happen to make games. They tailor their individual learning experiences to their needs, starting with their project in mind and working from there while teaching themselves the technologies they need. This leads to a variety of wildly different results.

Take Ghofran Akil’s Unresolved, for example. The game, which is her master’s thesis project, deals with the so-called enforced disappeared. These are people who go missing during war and conflict. Following Ghofran’s travels to the Lebanon and interviewing affected families, the project underwent different designs until settling on its final, text-based form.

Unresolved puts you in the shoes of different family members of an enforced disappeared, making decisions that affect the flow of the story. You start as the wife of a disappeared, but you jump back and forth in time during the game, exploring the effect such disappearances have on generations of family members. This is not a game you can win. There is no miracle rescue at the end, no closure for any of the characters. It is a frustrating, ongoing dilemma which affects millions of people today.

Other projects use multi-monitor setups, self-made devices as teaching tools, or they attempt to transfer Swiss literature into gaming form, using a slew of different approaches and tools. Tourmaline Studio’s Oniri Islands, a cooperative tablet game using smart toys, is one of these games that even saw a commercial release. In any case, it is all about the idea at the center of each project, with the particular technologies being of secondary importance.

There are whole branches of game development out there that don’t get a lot of coverage. For these to receive both funding and attention is important. Even if they enjoy less visibility than commercial games, they push our medium forward in ways that may be felt further down the road. Whether these are truly the future of play, the future of interacting with games and gamified programs, or the game designers of tomorrow –  all this remains to be seen. What is most important is that games are thriving in all kinds of ways and that the blank spaces on the map are filled with fascinating, varied works.

[DISCLOSURE: travel and accommodation for this trip were paid by Presence Switzerland.]

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