SightLine - Game where reality itself is broken - Live on IndieGogo! news

Enter a world where the reality itself is deteriorating. A mysterious infection is spreading through the Solar System, breaking down the laws of physics and taking away the consistency of world around them.

Humanity has abandoned Earth and built HeLiOs, an enormous station submerged under the surface of the Sun. A temporary refuge where they urgently try to find the secrets behind the reality splinters. You must make sense of the volatile world you have been thrown in, as things can change by simply looking away, and survive long enough to unveil its mystery and save humanity.

SightLine is a sci-fi story driven, environmental action puzzle game, based on our award winning prototype from the 2013 Indiecade VR Jam. With unique core gameplay mechanics designed to craft a surreal and unique experience, Sightline will be far from reality you are familiar with.

How do you play?

SightLine is a game you play by looking. The moment an object leaves your line of sight it can change into something else. The whole scene around you can completely transform by simply turning around. To survive in such world, you need to be looking at the right place in the right time or averting your eyes when the situation calls for it.

You will be able to utilize a variety of tools to help you cope with this world, from simple things such as a flashlight, hand mirror or binoculars, to more complex items such as 3D holographic cameras or light spectrum filters. No moment in SightLine will be the same, and you'll have to constantly figure out what's going on.

What’s the storyline?

While the narration of surreal segments is poetic and philosophical, the storyline unveiling aboard the HeLiOs is rooted in solid reality and proper reasoning. A striking contrast between fuzzy poetry and hard sci-fi, yet more connected than you might think.

The volatile nature of the world of SightLine allows for unique style of storytelling, covering broad spectre of topics, themes and environments, throwing you into deadly situations only to make them vanish like there was never even a sign of threat.

SightLine strives to keep you guessing what’s going on right until the end, not knowing what’s real. Is there some reality behind the dream-like worlds? Are there just illusions on the star station? Support the game and you will know!

How it started?

SightLine started as a prototype developed for a 3 week VR jam held by Oculus Rift and IndieCade by Tomáš Mariančík - a hobbyist developer - with the help of Ondřej Pultar and Julian Ceipek, who provided music and narration respectively.

Thanks to the very positive feedback from the Oculus & IndieCade judges, but also other developers and players, SightLine is now on a track to become a fully fledged game. By supporting the development you not only help us bring a polished unique experience to you, but also turning passionate hobby into a full time work.

Download and play the prototype yourself!

The prototype is freely available, both in VR and on the computer screen, so you can try the game concept for yourself! Give it a try!

What’s planned for the full version?

The prototype tests only the basic concept on a few ideas and scenes. We plan to vastly expand the game mechanics and storyline, so there's a lot you can look forward to:

• Full Sci-Fi Story: Onboard the star station HeLiOs, the mystery behind the seemingly nonsensical behavior of the world and broken laws of physics will be revealed and explained in a rational way with many references to real science.
• New Expanded Game Mechanics: We're building many more puzzles around the concept of lacking object permanence and plan to utilize specific angles of your gaze as well.
• New Tool System: To get through SightLine and its environments, you will have to use a variety of tools (hand mirrors, flashlights, even a simple cardboard box to hide things in!) to progress.
• Better Visuals: The graphics in the prototype were patched quickly from combination of self-made models and free assets. Thanks to your funding we can bring aboard skilled graphic designers to give SightLine its own unique visuals to please your eyes.
• High Quality Audio: The prototype suffers from lower quality audio due to time restrictions of the VR jam. With the funding voice actors will be paid and higher quality audio equipment used. The full version will also continue to feature interactive music that changes as you play through the game to give you the feel of whole orchestra following your actions!
• Action Scenes: SightLine won't feature only bizarre puzzles. You'll have to defend yourself and neutralize variety of enemies. By using similarly bizarre methods of course :)

Supported platforms

The full version of the game will support at least following platforms out of the box:

Support for other platforms might be added as well thanks to multi-platform magic of the Unity, however cannot be guaranteed at this point.

Supported devices

SightLine is developed primarily as a VR experience, but it will be playable on on regular screen as well (with certain head controls "emulated" through keyboard and mouse). Using Oculus Rift however is recommended for maximum immersion, but if you don't have one, you can still play the game as you would any other.

Following devices will be supported out of the box, more can be added later:

• Oculus Rift
• Virtuix Omni: alternative for movement
• CastAR with VR clip-on: alternative to Oculus
• Regular computer screen: Head-tracking controls emulated with keyboard/mouse/game-pad

What are others saying?

SightLine received quite positive feedback from the players and won 3rd place in the open call category of the VR jam held by Oculus and IndieCade. Here are some things people said:

Oculus & IndieCade VR Jam

SightLine is a 3rd place winner in the three week VR jam held by Oculus and IndieCade! Here's what the judges had to say

Sight Line was a contender due to the interesting way gaze direction is used as a game-play mechanic. Beyond just changing the world depending on where you look for dramatic effect, the game actually uses player gaze as a game-play element to solve puzzles and interact with the world. Coupled with an interesting metaphysical theme, Sight Line stood out amongst other VR Jam entries.

IGN

In an IGN article by Craig Pearson, SightLine was named as one of 10 games, that will make you want an Oculus Rift - a big honor to the game. Here's an excerpt of what he had to say:

Sight Line realises unreality in the best possible way, keeping track of your gaze and allowing things to happen just out of sight, creating a world that can change in the blink of an eye or the turning of your head.

Players, Reviewers & Community

SightLine was also positively received by other players and reviewers. Here are just some of the things they had to say:

VR Brotherhood: SightLine on the Oculus Rift! A Quantum Experience

Wow, that was absolutely amazing. Those experiences right there is what virtual reality is all about. Um... I'm lost for words. That was... *gestures mind-blowing*

Okay, so this is the kind of experience I want to have on the Oculus Rift. This is the kind of experience that's not possible without this type of technology. You know, as much as it's fun to get shit scared of you at a horror game, you know, I don't feel like I'm really gaining anything from that kind of experience.

AlongCameJosh: Oculus Rift - SightLine MINDFREAK GAME + FACECAM

That was pretty cool. That game was really creative and interesting. Oh man, it just so beats a horror game.

It's like a dream almost. It's like a bad dream, but also good dream. In the way that those spikes were going to get me and it's like look down and look up and it changed into a fan and I look down and the floor was fine. It's just so cool! They need to do more stuff like this, it's so cool and innovative.

emart: Mind Blown in SIGHTLINE on the Oculus Rift: Full Playthrough

That was awesome. Way cooler than I expected it to be. I remember seeing trailers for it and I was like... eh looks alright. Yeah, way cool, if you have a Rift and you haven't played this game yet, I'd recommend it. I'm sure a lot of you already played it, but it's about time I already did, because that was cool. I kinda already said it, it's trippy, it's awesome. Thumbs up for me, I think it's great.

What are the funds needed for?

Developing a polished game requires a lot of passion and time. And while we have more than enough of the first, the second is much more scarce resource. By pledging you enable us to work on title full time and set the ball rolling on the development of SightLine.

• Graphic Artists
• Voice Actors
• Licensing costs for other assets and tools used to build the game
• Living costs
• Fulfilling the perks

Main Goal

Our main task it to bring you an unique game filled with as many different experiences as we can, while telling a story that's combination of hard sci-fi and dream-like surrealism. The campaign provides us with basic funds to complete the basic game.

However our plan is to get the development rolling and acquire more funds along the way, to bring you even better and more richer experience, by building a fanbase for this game. We're people who work on this out of passion, which is why we need your help.

How can you help?

There are several ways you can help make this project reality. Even if you don't have money, you call tell about it to your friends and spread the word.

Pledge

Financial support will help us significantly to get the project going and find more talented people to help us build a high quality experience. And you of course get digital download of the game! If you can spare a little bit more money, you can pick a higher pledge and get a special reward in addition to the game itself. Check out the rewards on the IndieGogo page!

Alpha/Beta testing and feedback

To ensure high quality of the end product, alpha and beta testers are needed to catch all the pesky bugs and also provide feedback on playability, difficulty of challenges and places where players might get stuck. You'll also be able to make videos of the progress of all the new stuff before everyone else and generate some buzz!

If you want to help us out, grab the alpha access perk to get access to frequent development builds (any higher perk also grants you alpha access). And there's something in it for you as well: Your name will be in the credits of the game as a thanks for your exceptional support!

Of course if you don’t like spoilers and prefer to play the whole game in one go you should probably wait for the full version.

Share

The more people know about the game and campaign the better, so share with everyone you know and even with people you don’t know! Like the game on Facebook, share it on Reddit, YouTube, Twitter and all the other places. Even if you can’t actually pledge, you can still help immensely by bringing in people who can.

Join the team!

We are looking for people who could lend their skills and abilities to make this project happen. If you think you can join the development (or if you know someone who might be interested), write us an email or private message. Specifically we are looking for:

• Graphic designers (3D modeling of all kinds)
• Voice actors
  • Scientists (can be male or female, specific voice doesn’t matter, but you should be able to “sound smart” and handle some technobabble lines)
  • Various supporting roles for a few lines (different voices, male and female)
• PR (if you have experience with marketing games and spreading the word about them, you might be of help)

Questions and feedback welcome!

If anything is unclear or you have any questions, feel free to contact us or post a comment. Any kinds of feedback is also most welcome!