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 ;)***
| Status | In development |
| Platforms | Windows |
| Rating | Rated 4.2 out of 5 stars (68 total ratings) |
| Author | colorfiction |
| Genre | Adventure |
| Made with | Unity |
| Tags | 3D,artgame,Exploration,First-Person,nature,Non violent,Open World,Surreal,Walking simulator |
| Average session | About a half-hour |
| Inputs | Keyboard,Mouse,Xbox controller |
| Links | Steam |
| Mentions | itch.io Recommends: fresh releases, hidd... |
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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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 :(
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 :)
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?
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 :)
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
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 ;)
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!
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 :) 
