The Sands of Voltark
A downloadable game for Windows
"Welcome to Voltark, prime meridian in our sector's strategic proton fuel cell network. As part of your work rotation it is imperative to follow all operating procedures to mantain liveware optimization. Failure to comply will result in automatic demotion of family unit benefits..."
- Voltark Mining Corp, Orientation Booklet, Edition 252B.
Upon crash landing on this desert planet you have the choice to explore its beautiful steppes or systematically stripmine its resources. Choose wisely..
"This world is pretty fun to explore, especially with the large amounts of electricity you are pushing through it."
WASD - to move,
Space - to jump,
Shift - to run,
Right click - to zoom,
F - to take a photograph,
Left click or E - to interact.
Esc - to access the menu.
"While generally known for its vast Wireless Network of Oxidizing Proton Pumps that power everything in our system from industries to the trimensional viewer in your unit, Voltark is also an amazing ecosystem full of radiant life. It's natural flora and fauna thrives on the wireless emissions from the Proton Isopatch. Make the best of an inconvenient work rotation and enjoy some sightseeing..."
- Voltark Mining Corp, Orientation Booklet, Edition 252B.
Music, Art and Programming by @colorfiction
for any questions feel free to email me here
Remember to choose wisely, initiating the mining sequence will have irreversible consequences!
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***The Demo features the whole experience limited to 15 minutes of play time, after the timer expires the experience concludes. If you enjoy the work and would like to play longer consider purchasing the full version ;)***
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $1 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Download demo
Comments
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wont let you walk into the golden ocean as the melancholy of the desolate environment overcomes you, literally unplayable 10/10
Me: I feel so bad for the plants here.
Also me: Builds lots of large factories.
Hey there! I purchased TSOV for Mac today and then realised the Special Edition is Windows only - will there be a Mac one at any point in time? Also - what is the difference between the full game and the demo (which runs on Big Sur 11.4 btw :) Cheers!
Heya! I'll push an update of it for Mac this week, I don't really have a way of testing mac builds anymore so stopped developing for it but no problem uploading an experimental build and we can see if it works :)
Awesome! Looking forward to it :)
Beautiful and energetic ! Played on Mac mini M1 8GB
Beautiful game! So atmospheric. Thank you so much!
How do I play this outside of VR? Every time I launch it boots into my headset and I can't play in pancake mood :c
Hey! Just fixed this in 1.3, hadn't realized the XR settings where enabled, should be working normally now :)
Awesome :O thank you. You should totes make a VR game/port at some point in the future tho ;P
This alone makes for great scenery porn, and appeals well to me, as a traditional artist. The warm hues really make it pleasing for the eyes who embark on it, even old people.
Hey! I just wanted to say that you did really good job making this game! It's really aesthetically pleasing, and it's well made. I love the stuff that you're doing!
The atmosphere is pretty good. I believe this can be a very impressive solitary adventure with a bigger story.
Thank you so much :) I totally agree! Def want to return to this project at some point and expand it.
Loved the art style on this one. That alone made it an enjoyable little diversion to explore. Also, thanks much for the native Linux build. Ran fine for me on Kubuntu 18.04 LTS. Even supported my Steam controller (pretending to be an XBox controller via SC-Controller).
Thank you! That's great to hear it ran great on Kubuntu and even with the steam controller :)
im kinda confused? i mean i got an ending? pressed all the doodads and then folllowed those pylon thingos and whent up to a pillar????? idk seems sketch...
Did you get the spaceships leaving cinematic when you reached the door of the pillar? Theres 3 other endings to be found in the game.
yep i got that one, is there any other backround info other than the instructions? like what are the cities? why is this place abandoned?
Oh cool! Ok so you made those cities. By interacting with the panels you decided to start the mining sequence which makes voltark an economic hotspot and in the game spawns all those growing cities. They're not there unless you interact with the panels. Similarly there are other endings and big changes to the world based on things like this. eg if you start mining all the flora and fauna dies, so you won't find any of that anymore and the place gets all foggy and barren. But yes there is an interesting backlore about the universe, the planet and the mining corp but unfortunately there just wasn't a budget to implement it for the time being :(
Just one question, I've heard of or seen creatures in trailers or other players' reports but I haven't seen any while playing myself. How can I find creatures in the game?
Activating the panels has effects on the local ecosystem, to find most creatures reccomend exploring from the very start and not engaging with the first panel by the spaceship. They're also scattered far and wide so might require some treking about :)
Looks like a nice game, but the fact that I cannot even set the mouse sensitivity, the introductory text disappears before I had time to read it and that after a restart I need to watch the whole intro again turned me away.
Hey thanks for trying it out tho! Yes this was my second game and hadn't quite grasped how to do those things yet. Thankfully I've had the opportunity to learn more since and when time allows patching my past releases, no eta yet on Voltark but those three basic features and an actual options screen is the plan :)
tried the game, but couldn't figure out if i was supposed to be able to interact with the panel because i couldn't interact with it. advice?
Oh that's a bummer! So you couldn't click on the flashing buttons like seen on some of the streams below? Trying to figure out what it could be and two things pop up; 1. are you using an ultrawidescreen monitor? Just got one and noticed this bug happens sometimes (trying to solve it). 2. are you using a controller?
The problem is probably in the computer. My computer is old, which makes it a bit laggy. We will be replacing the graphics card in it soon, so I think that might fix it. I don't think I am using an ultra-widescreen monitor, and I am not using a controller.
Ahh yea that might be it, have you tried downloading the earlier version? It might work better but it's very different tho. Either way ps: !!and this is a huge spoiler!!: not interacting with the panels is the "good ending" )
yeah i kinda knew that from the comments and story. cool idea tho. great game btw
thank you!! Hope you get to enjoy it someday and stay safe :)
I had a rocky start at first. When the instructions disappeared, I found something to click, but I think I blew myself up and possibly the planet. I saw credits, but wasn't sure if it was the ending or beginning, since it was so short, then the application closed. I figured I just screwed up, so restarted the game.
When I reopened it, the intro was a little different. Then I was on the world and there was nothing but empty expanse and sun. I thought, is this some sort of permadeath, there's nothing for me to return to since I blew it up the first time? I wandered around a bit without seeing anything, then exited.
I was about to uninstall but decided to check the comments. Clearly there was a lot I hadn't seen, so I restarted it again and it worked, the intro was back to normal and I'm exploring.
Was my second play session a bug or intentional? Hopefully this isn't a spoiler.
Hey! Thanks so much for playing!!! Haha wow yes that reopen experience sound like a very unique bug and I'm thinking it might have been the savegame system that I had originally put in place but though I fully removed? Will have to look into that. However the first experience was intentional, there's multiple endings hidden in the game that are triggered by clicking and have their own small cutscenes followed by the game closing itself. Thanks for bringing it to my attention tho, will be updating soonish then haha :)
I just ran into the empty expanse bug on my first playthrough good to know it works after a restart.
Thank you so much!! :)
This was a fun experience. Nice work.
Thank you!! Glad you enjoyed the game :)
stunning game! i finished the drilling area, got a bit confused when i found the giant ball and puddle of electricity, wasnt sure where to go until i found a line of pipes, followed those for a while, was a bit quiet but the gizer things looks really cool, the music was nice and the place looked beautiful but it did get a tad dull, anyway i found myself here! i thought i would try climb to the top of that ball but ended up finding the credits, thanks for making this stunning game! im quite excited to see where you go with it :D
Thanks so much!! Glad you found one of the endings :) There's two more ;)
Hey all, I just did a video myself on this beautiful game! This was a very fun and atmospheric game. I left my feedback in the video as I played:
Hey! Thank you so much for the video and the comments, I really appreciated it :) So glad to hear that you got those emotive goosebumps, that's something I've always strived to evoke and love the feeling myself when enjoying media, so again that's awesome to hear haha. Btw there's two more endings hidden away in there ;)
What?? No way! I will try and take a look at finding them, any hints so I don't just aimlessly wander in the desert?
I would love to play the game but I have a 64bit system and the linux programm is only for 32bit. Normally this would work but there is a problem with libmono and since it is part of Unity I can't replace it. Would love a 64bit port
Hey! No problem I'll upload a 32_64 Universal Linux build asap, thanks for bringing this up! :)
It was beautiful, thank you.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!!
I first found your work on Twitter, so I did a video on becalm. Loved the visuals but felt pretty limited exploration-wise. This was a nice change of pace. Being able to freely search around this world was really nice. Audio and visuals were great! Unfortunately I never found the sand worm, even after looking for a decent while. It would be neat if there were some secrets to find or more variation as you travel further from the center, also I accidentally left the game immediately by interacting with the ship, but those are my only complaints. Nice work with it. Looking forward to lots more from you in the future!
Very chunky
100% Fueled by MOUSAKA
first comment in 215 days
first reply in 215 days! Wooo :)
I activated all the pumps I think and went to the giant ball of electricity. Is there an ending?
Hey! Not at the moment, it's more of a permanent vacation place haha. I am working on one tho :)
The visuals are absolutely amazing, great job!
Thank you very much :)
I climbed to the top of the big mountain...
... and I made a friend!
Great fun :)
Oh wow, didn't think somebody was going to climb the gigantic pyres, nice job!! Haha glad you made a friend :) , they're very curious creatures and albeit an accidental electrical zap or two they're harmless lol
Great work, had a nice time exploring. I enjoyed the atmosphere, especially the sound.
Thanks Leaf! Glad you enjoyed the experience, and thank you for creating this amazing community where we can all share our work :)
Nice experience! I definitely need to wander a lot more now ^^
Thank you! You should try out the other games I've made :)
This was such a great experience, thank you for making this! I'm not sure if I saw all there was to see, but I truly enjoyed playing through it. The atmosphere, music, and sound design were all fantastic. I ended up walking deep into the desert, until the suns were behind me. Stumbling upon that golden sea was a nice surprise :)
Thank you very much!! So glad you found the ocean :) Just remembered I forgot to add the waves sounds :p oops haha, I'll patch it in soon. Did you find the weird electrical creatures in the trees? They're harmless but curious litte creatures haha :)
I did! They were adorable :) Although I might have tried to feed them to the white orb...
Great little project. Nice.
wobblyfootgamerThank you! Glad you enjoyed it and loved the short video!