Day 174 - LiDAR Exploration Program
SPOOKY MONTH!, REDACTED, Walking Sim ·
Skeeter’s Take:
LiDAR Exploration Program was under the “Horror” tag on itch.io. While it does have elements of the surreal and the atmosphere is uncanny, the game is beautiful and peaceful.
The whole gimmick is the player is given a LiDAR Scanner and dropped into a black void where they will have to use the scanner to reveal their surroundings.
The player’s goal is to scan the six objects in the environment and get to the exit. There are no enemies, no threat, and no time limit. This is, as it says in the title, an exploration game. Your enjoyment will hinge greatly on how much you enjoy the core mechanic of scanning, walking around slowly, and looking at the pretty dots and objects appearing.
Honestly, I found this game really soothing. I kind of really dig it. Relax and Scan! Reveal a part of the world with pretty colored dots. Scan a Deer! Scan an Outhouse!
There’s a neat little intensifying mechanic where the more you scan something, the brighter it gets. I made a holy duck:
That’s really all there is to this game. I can’t really explain it, but there is a satisfaction of “revealing” the setting and items in it. Sort of like a reverse power washing feeling. All the same, I do feel like something is missing. I couldn’t tell you what, but this game could be pushed into something really great with a little extra paprika on top.There’s a lot of potential to use the LiDAR mechanic in creative ways and there’s even potential for new mechanics to be added. This is just the demo, and perhaps more ideas are introduced in later levels. I only made it to the second level (out of the three in the demo), and the only thing that changed was the color theme for the level (it was all black void/white dots) and the location. What I’m trying to say is, there are some very strong calcium enriched bones that are just begging to carry the weight of some juicy, chunky meat.
There’s a surreal beauty to the LiDAR revealed spaces and I think that it’s fun to look at! The map even updates in real time, so you can see what you’ve revealed on the map with your scanner (it’s a neat effect):
Recommend: Soft yes. I enjoyed myself and liked the core concept, but can easily understand if this is boring to others.
UPDATE: I came back and wanted to play the second level, but I couldn’t continue my game (just stuck on the loading screen) so I thought I would be funny and record a “speedrun” of the first level, which ended up taking me longer to complete than my first time through. I buried that footage and finished the second level as well. The second level adds the element of the exit gate not showing on the map, so the player has to discover it themselves with the LiDAR. There was not a third level, it was a jebait to advertise wishlisting the game on steam. Not sure if more things will be added in the promised 6 more levels, but time will tell. Still had fun.
Replay Percentage Chance: 30%
Time Played: 13 minutes
EDIT: Add 26 minutes for second play - total time 39 minutes
Sam’s Take:
The fine control you have over the scanner does a lot to give you a sense of control. You use the mouse wheel to expand the scan and cover a wider area, though with more black-space between each dot, or scroll the wheel in the opposite direction for a more intense but narrow scan. After you’ve scanned a wide area and moved forward for a while, turning around and viewing the world from afar gives a surreal sense of beauty and accomplishment.
There is something a little off about this game for me though. The Banjo-Kazooie (or Clippy as Skeeter aptly pointed out) lookin’ scanner friend implies either a comedy styling to the game, or some sort of “turn the cuteness on its head horror”, but that doesn’t exist. If it’s a horror game, why does nothing happen except relaxing scanning. If it’s a chill exploration game, why is a goofy bug-eyed personified scanner giving me tutorials? I do think this game and its main gimmick is strong enough to support a large scale exploration game, or a more traditional horror game. You could tell a story with the scanned environments, or just rely on aesthetic beauty as the main draw. I won’t armchair critic this, my point is this scanning idea and its execution are for sure strong enough to hold up an entire game, the demo just didn’t quite convince me that the dev had chosen a lane.
That being said, this is cool enough that I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and check out the full game after it releases. Even if it’s just six of these same levels it’d be worth checking out, I want it clear that I have very positive feelings towards this game, I just think it has the potential to be something really impressive, and I’d be a shame to just end up in the vast bucket of “a neat idea”.
Recommend: Yes
Replay Percentage Chance: 50% if the full game comes out at a reasonable price
Time Played: 20 Minutes
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