Earth Analog

This is a wonderful, unique game with the exact 'weird space' flavour I'm attracted to. But it's also so incredibly unrefined, it essentially ruins the whole thing. There are SO many frustration factors that ruin the immersion and the fun that in the end I can't help but give this game a negative review. I also don't think the game can be fixed without some very major restructuring; something that is unreasonable to expect from a small developer. My main gripe is the wonkiness of flight. After 12 hours, I'm still not sure if I understand how it works. It's nothing like the classically Newtonian flight games like KSP. Let me see if I can explain. You have two speed modes: slow and fast. You can switch between them at pretty much any time, which feels like you're switching some constants of the universe around. Suddenly everything is behaving completely different. And considering that everything is HUGE (as it should be!), you'll want to use the fast mode more often than not... except it's incredibly easy to gain too much speed and crash. You can switch to slow mode when you're about to crash, and then somehow the universe just... slows you down to a manageable speed, but that not only makes no sense, it's also very clumsy. But that's not all. There's also a third navigation mode - cruising on dark energy. You can only use it in presence of dark energy, it doesn't cost fuel which is a big advantage, and it's the fastest by far. It's like slingshotting yourself to a different part of the planet. Sweet deal, no? The problem is, the dark energy is always relatively close to a hard surface. Either water (no, you can't submerge, it kills you) or simply rock or equivalent. In other words, the game incentivises you to fly close to a hazardous surface at speeds where crashing into said surface is a very real possibility. I died so. Many. Times. Just trying to fly around. Sometimes there are some weird anomalies that change the shape of the surface, or cause tidal movements, or shift the dimensions in an unpredictable way, and that's where the wonky controls really get in the way. Don't get me wrong; these moments are amazing, emotional and unpredictably brilliant. But this game is not equipped to handle them well. If only your starship had some kind of anti-crash shield or the controls made more sense... if only. Then there's the general wonkiness of the design and the UI. Operating your ship is a chore, and the world behaves in a very scripted way. For example, an anomaly will only activate itself if you follow this certain story piece. It makes no sense from a "explorer of the universe" point of view. To make things worse, the game encourages you to follow the story, as that's what often unlocks the uniqueness of the place - but sometimes the story piece is just a portal to the new system, and you have to either make your way back (sometimes impossible due to threats), return later - which due to story reasons you don't want to do since the Earth is dying and you're flying in cryosleep while long months pass - or just accept that you'll miss on some upgrades. Very frustrating for a curious explorer. When things go well, the feeling of wonder and mystery is delicious. Sadly, it quickly gets smashed into pieces by the jank and the inconvenience. However, I dare say - check this game out if you think you can stomach the jank. I thought I could; and I did, for some 12 hours. Not more, though. There is some ingenuity on display. For that alone this game is worth at least a cursory look. Perhaps one day a worthy successor can come and finish what this game started. Hope that helps!

If you've ever wanted to gaze around in wonder while you pilot a spaceship through the intimate innards of 3D Mandelbrot-like fractal spaces and landscapes, then this is an AMAZING game for you. If you want realism and AAA polish, then maybe look elsewhere. Spoilers below, but no more than you can already see in the promotional screenshots and videos. You begin around a very regular-looking world, with a massive sense of scale, allowing you to cruise over genuinely planetary-sized rugged mountains and roiling oceans. The flight model is unusual. It tends towards the janky simulation end of the spectrum (which I personally love), rather than polished AAA motion. Throttle steps from 0 to 10, for slow maneuvering. Toggling on "full thrust" amplifies those throttle steps by 10. All of this is sorta-Newtonian when far above the current planet (but still gently capped to stop you hurtling off uncontrollably into nowhere), but slowed by atmospheric drag when near a planet. Controlling this is massively aided by a magic "retro" thruster, which dramatically slows you down relative to the nearest planet surface - useful for rapid deceleration, or just hanging stationary amidst rock formations. Then you have a "boost", which is only active when you are very close to a planetary surface, such as when hugging a canyon wall. As you proceed, you soon encounter other planets which are substantially weirder, along various different axes. Sometimes the mountains form impossible shapes, sometimes they float in the air over a howling storm of fog. Others have large moons that generate tides, pulling the oceans up into reaching colossal, planet-sized waves many miles up into the air. Sometimes the oceans retreat, turning lakes into a cavern system that riddles the planet to the core. The planets depart radically from spherical. Some are crystalline, breathtakingly austere, others are organic and creepy, such as the infinite ranks of unsettling organics culminating in a continent-sized mountain we call "planet broccolli". Still others seem to be artificial megastructures, perhaps embedded through an otherwise regular planet. It gets much weirder from there. I'm going to hold off on mentioning some of the things that happen, because when you see it, when you're flying through the middle of it, it's really mind-blowing. Every time you get used to the weirdness, the game injects a whole other level of unexpected, unsettling impossibility. A few lightweight missions, find-quests, and resource gathering are wrapped around this. Very occasionally, they require you to fly the ship fairly rapidly, with some skill - e.g. avoiding weird phenomona, or finding a route around the fractaline madness that is flat enough that you can hug the surface and use "boost" to get somewhere quickly. But this is rare. Usually, you drift around at your own pace, and the quest is essentially just excuses to keep one exploring the variety of planets. Honestly, half the time I play this game I'm just picking random planets to zip through canyons or drift around fractal cave systems. No, this isn't "realistic", in a narrow, barren, "hard SF" sense. But it is shockingly, startlingly, wonderous. The game has the feeling of having been written by a small, very dedicated, team of geniuses. They didn't have massive resources to make everything polished and perfect. There is superficial but glaring jankiness here and there, such as hyperspacing into an asteroid field clearly flies you through about a hundred asteroids on your way in. But what the team DID have is massive ambition, to do something very unlike any other game you've played, and they clearly felt it was important to experiment, to push gameplay and experience to the limit, and beyond, and then beyond again.

I had a very good time with this title. I think its a little misunderstood and a project like this from a solo developer deserves support. I'm impressed with the 2.0 update and covered it on YouTube here https://youtu.be/EgiR8XFVTqY?si=oZv46B1Liv79N9SZ

There might be mysteries and sights to see in this game. But I will probably never know, because I barely made it out of the tutorial. This is so bad. It feels like the devs wanted to make this game as unplayable as possible. I have a tip for the devs to make it even worse: put a green head in the corner of the screen that constantly tells you "Where did you learn to fly?".

You can tell this game wants to be WAY more than it is. It wants to be that space game YOU want to play. I don't think it's enjoyable, but I really implore the effort. This game deserves a team that can take it to the next level. It's not scratching the itch I'm looking for, but it's definitely the game that WANTs to be the scratch to that itch. I need it to be playable with xbox controls, which I don't see it is or at least not right away. I feel like I'm being too critical, because I'm looking for that game that's a good mix between X4 and Elite Dangerous. I want a procedural galaxy, with procedural planets, I want a good station platform and trading system, I want Newtonian flight, I want single player. I want no story, just let me find my own story. Survival. Craft. I don't want to be dogfighting everything in space. I want this developer to know I want this game to be the game I want. It's not that.... but I want it to be. Keep my $25. I hope you can make another attempt that isn't so exotic (dont give me newtonian flight, then put weird flying cubes), is more realistic, and is the multi world flight sim I want. I dont know if I recommend this game. I'll say yes, but I don't think it's enjoyable.

ストアページを見てかなり気になったので買ってみたのですが、それなりに人を選ぶ作品ですね。 GLSLシェーダーをゴリゴリ書いてたり、レイマーチングで様々な3Dフラクタル体作ってはニヤついてる人なら惹かれるものがあるかと思います。 ゲーム自体はよくある6DoFスペースフライトシムでフリーロームできるサンドボックス的なものを想像してたのですが、実態としてはメインストーリーラインを沿ってゲームを進行していくNo Man's Sky風のゲームでした。（正確にはバック航行は不可、上下左右のストレイフ軌道はかなり遅いなどの制限がある準6DoF） 直近のVersion 2.0から実装された要素が大きいようで、旧バージョンのレビューだと飛行感の悪さやチュートリアルが乏しいことなど指摘されていましたが、Version 2.0からチュートリアルの導線がより明確に整理され、重力・大気層影響下の宇宙船の操作感、離着陸のメカニズム、航行のために自転車操業でリソースを集め、スキャンなどを通じてミッションをこなして進行していく要素などいろいろと変更が加わりました。プレイ感としてはノマスカに寄った（というかかなり影響を受けた）仕上がりになっています ただノマスカと比べて各要素は薄味で、豪奢なゲーム体験は期待しないほうがいいです。 バグとしては、システム側のキーバインド競合、メニュー表示中のカーソルフックの一貫性のない挙動、画面遷移などの瞬間に死亡したときなどに起こる操作不能に陥る症状など、UI/UX周りの不備が多くストレスがたまります。 チュートリアルを消化している最中でも、リソース採掘パートでLayer(岩層)に合わせてタイミングよく任意のボタンを押す音ゲーみたいなものがあるんですが、採掘開始と同じキー（逆噴射/Retroにバインドしたキー）を押すとミス判定にされ、表示上成功判定という不自然な動作で惑わせてきます。ミスカウントの音かどうか、成功している場合は採掘速度が上がるかどうかなど補足説明はないので、「あっこれ失敗してるのか」と気づくのも遅れました。全体的にこういう系統のバグが多いようですね。 また、Version 2.0の目玉である基地作成モードも、ブロック配置とブロック削除でモードが独立してて切り替えるのが煩わしいし、UI文字は小さく、画面下部のショートカット表示と画面上部の現在何モードなのか表示していて、HUD上の視線誘導があまり上手でないのが気持ちよくないです。 ゲームエンジンとしてはフラクタル構造体を現実的な計算コストで衝突判定を完結するように調整されていて、SDFモデルをカメラで見てる部分だけ滑らかなポリゴンメッシュに変換し問題なくポストエフェクトがかかってるので見た目もそこまで悪くないです。 衝突判定においては「Marble Marcher」というオープンソースのゲームが存在し、Earth Analogは技術的に同様のことをしているか「Marble Marcher」の手法を参照していると思われます。「Marble Marcher」は3Dプログラミング系Youtuber兼ゲーム開発者のCodeParade氏が公開したで、氏本人が衝突判定をどう実現したかなど動画で解説してるので、技術詳細が気になるのであれば見てみるとよいでしょう。

This game is wonderful, and is absolutly worth a purchace, but its not the game I bought. its very fun popping from planet to planet, harvesting resources, exploring the planet's texture and unique mechanics. But I much preferred the hand crafted linear experence, and would have liked the freeform exploration to be unlocked after that initial storyline as a reward. I cant find the torus planet, I cant find the portals that pop you between areas after you find everything there. I miss the almost horror element when the warning system starts going off and you have to figure out whats about to happen. It feels like the developer listened to the community a bit too hard and gave up their initial vision in a drive to appease them, with heavy influence from no mans sky. I have 0 intrest in base building or analyzing alien life, the flight has been simplified to the point I find it kind of boring seemingly because people didn't want to learn it (please make this a toggleable option), the procedural planets lack character since they dont end up being different enough vs the hand crafted algorythems, I would personally prefer being able to backdate to the older version of this game.

Niet slecht qua beleving maar ik moet nog het een en ander uitzoeken wat na het vinden van de beacons en de reparatie het volgende is. Eerst heel de planeet voor 100% in kaartbrengen, daarna de maan en hoe zit het met de surrealistische werelden van in de trailer? De graphics zijn ok maar niet meer dan dat tot hier toe. De geluidseffecten zijn minimaal en de muziek ook. Een duimpje omhoog maar je moet wel geduld hebben en deze is een walking/fly sim in space.

The controls are absolute dog water

Visually this is impressive, but it plays like a tech demo with a thin veneer of game plastered over the top. Possibly the worst UI/UX ever; using the "ship functions" on its computer is painful, and things are anything but intuitive. Just figuring out what controls there *are* is hard enough, let lone how to use them. That said, once you've slammed your face into a wall enough times to figure out how the controls (sort of) work, you can have some fun flying around some amazing environments. There might just possibly be something deserving to be called a game in here, but seriously this is only recommended for the flying. In space this works as you'd expect, but in atmosphere its an odd sort-of-flight-dynamics, sort-of-arcade-game mix that doesn't quite work. The physical modelling is also odd; you can slam through an atmosphere at stupid speeds near ground level, but take damage at lower speeds in the outer shell of atmosphere as you enter it from space. Interaction with navigation beacons (finding these and going from one to the next is the "game", BTW) is inconsistent; if you get close, land, then take off again it sometimes triggers, other times you have to jump out of the ship and... do... something (never worked out quite what it was that triggered the beacon event to progress the "story"). But it is kinda pretty, and flying around inside hollow fractal planets is fun, I guess. 5 out of 10?