Comments on: Aether

By: M. P.

M. P. — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:51:21 +0000

Thanks for the hints Will, I had in fact figured how to travel from planet to planet, it was being on the planets that really made me queasy – especially the one where you fall inside it, walking around on the core is at such an incline that the rotation of everything around you is ridiculously fast!
I hadn’t figured out the crystals puzzle, although I got the other 3 planets on my own (well… on the water planet I didn’t really figure out what to do, I thought it would be sometihng about pulling the submerged and surface planetoids togehter or something, but I ended up solving the puzzle correctly completely by accident). I reckon there should have been slightly more clues as to what yuo should do. On most planetoids the interactive and non-interactive objects looked identical, so, while I don’t think he should’ve signposted them, a little more guidance when you DO do something right would be helpful. For instance, [MILD SPOILERS] a stronger auditory cue when you eat a fish (I comlpetely missed those, until I accidentally ate the last one!), or, instead of a “ding” when you latch onto a crystal there could be a continuous sound, which stops when you hit the ground, so as to hint to you that you need to stay airborne.

By: spd from Russia

spd from Russia — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:42:18 +0000

cute and sad

By: Bobsy

Bobsy — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:37:01 +0000

Anyone else get massive lag on the downloaded version? It’s really rather grating.

Oh, and the small planet with the happy moon? I have idea what to even do there.

By: Lunaran

Lunaran — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:28:23 +0000

I’m glad you posted about this, I played it this morning and loved it.

But I feel like there are some out there that can appreciate something honest that has a lot of heart.

I did.

By: hidden_7

hidden_7 — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:21:19 +0000

Spoilers

I saw how Earth diminished with each investigation as kind of the idea that experience gives you a fresh perspective on previous problems. Since this seemed to be childhood issues and not lasting life long depression, it’s that going out in the world and doing stuff diminshes the problem you once thought so big.

Of course that’s not supported at all by the ending text.

By: etoile

etoile — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:00:02 +0000

Me neither, apparently. Pretty though.

Also, the message I took from it was that Space Nessie can cure depression which doesn’t really seem right to me (although LSD has been investigated as a treatment).

By: Will

Will — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:31:41 +0000

Gets a LOT easier once you figure out the use of ‘up’ and ‘down’; i.e. that they work to swing you up and down as well as just make you jump. You can also spin around and around on an object to build up speed, and use this to easily escape from gravity. Don’t just swing like a pendulum, fling yourself around and around.

Once you can move with extreme ease, the game feels really nice :-)

SPOILERS !!!! Exclamation mark!!

Jump on the moons and they will crash into the planet. DING!

Eat the little fish underwater by swimming into them. DING!

Get inside of the planet via the surface-mouth, then swing from one crystal to another. They chime as you swing on them. Not sure exactly what did it, but after 10 seconds or so of swinging… DING!
For this planet, spinning round and round is really KEY for when you want to get back outside. Spin until you’re going fast, then let go and you’ll shoot up high enough to catch a cloud easy. Note: You can go outwards from any point in the crust.

Around the small gas giant, there are little asteriod-smiley-faces that beam down some aura. Attach to their FACES, swing round and round (left, left up, up, up right, right, right down, down, down left, left…) until they explode and fall down. Keep finding them and doing this til… DING.

Go back to starting small ice planet.

WIN!

Edit: Added tip about spinning, and Theory has no joy in his life.

By: M.P.

M.P. — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:53:41 +0000

Walking around the tiny round planetoids gives me motion sickness :( Also I fell down a hole into the inside of one of them, meaning I’ve got an even smaller sphere to walk on exacerbating it. I can’t explore long enough to find a way back out cause I get queasy!

By: The Shed

The Shed — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:42:05 +0000

Very nice. Simple stuff is simply the best, all the simple games I can think of have stuck in my mind- Breaking the Tower, I mean I’d PAY to play a full game of that. Theres no obvious reason for the satisfaction it brings, it just is. It makes the impact of the game far more profound if it’s short and concise- like a poem.

By: mrrobsa

mrrobsa — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:55:14 +0000

At first I milled around and enjoyed the swingamathing, I travelled as far away from everything as I could til my character was off screen and all the markers converged as one.
Realising there wasn’t anything to find I reversed course and aimed for planet yellow at a kajillion miles an hour, where, upon impact I realised there were some problems to be solved, but I couldn’t seem to interact with much. I guess I got a little bored/frustrated and I almost *almost* quit.
But I’m glad I didn’t. I grasped the puzzle aspect, and with a bit of exploration, discovered what I could affect in the game. Playing the the game through to it’s conclusion tied it all up for me and I found it to be a charming and thoughtful piece of work.

By: Gap Gen

Gap Gen — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:42:03 +0000

Heh. It’s a pretty cute game. And yes, puzzle.

By: Kast

Kast — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:13:46 +0000

Something went poof? That’s more than I got. I visited the four or five planets, saw a lot of depressed mirrors of the boy’s mind and thought I’d seen it all.

Wait, puzzle?