
Mission: Translate an interstellar message, using the universal languages of math & science.
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About
The Message from Deep Space is an odyssey of puzzles. Take the role of the mission's Translator, working alongside a scrappy band of scientists, and venture headfirst into the world of deciphering an alien language --- completely from the ground up.
Set in 1973, Earth is the recipient of a meteorite that broadcasts radio waves. In the role of the mission's Translator, the player is responsible for designing responses to the meteorite's transmissions, which, if correct, will elicit new messages from the meteorite. Only through this radio wave dialogue will patterns, words, syntax, and meaning all take form, leaving but one question:
What is it the aliens want to say?
Translate an alien language
Learn about an alien civilization
Interface with a retro computer
Manage a user-driven dictionary
Design radio transmissions by frequency
Collaborate with scientists that respond to your actions
+1000 in-game dialogues
+30 minutes OST
+30 hours of gameplay
Inspired by The Golden Record aboard the Voyager I space probe, The Message from Deep Space takes a realistic approach to deciphering an interstellar message. Beginning with the limited universal constants available to technologically advanced civilizations, the message spans a range of real-world fields of math & science. Decoding the message is tough, but with the support of the game's meticulous linguist, the single-minded computer programmer, and the affable astronomer, it is a challenge fit for anyone with Curiosity and Perseverance.
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Reviews
Themes across 1061 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
Reviews
I've had some facination about learning a realitsic alien language from nothing after hearing about the voyager's golden record many years ago, and I'm glad someone's actually made this into a game. That alone makes this worth looking into, but the story told with the translation team adds quite a bit of extra perspective and an emotional connection to the translation. As for actual puzzle gameplay, I'd say this game is divided into 2 main parts: the STEM and conlang portions. The STEM portions, speaking as someone from a STEM background, is excellent (besides some minor pacing issues I'll get into later). It's like speedrunning basic physics/chemistry/computer science courses from nothing. There's a lot of guidance from the characters if you were to get stuck, and the game's built in reference system tells you everything you need to know if it's not your thing. Granted, I feel it does kind of spoil some of the puzzles, but I think that's an OK compromise for the most part. This is one of those puzzle games where you should probably be playing with pen and paper and calculator, even though the game technically provides those even the game admits using a real calculator is going to be easier. If you'd rather have a more casual puzzle game this is probably not for you. Once the game has defined enough language from universal constants, it starts to drift into conlang territory. I quite struggled with this portion: Eventually you have some 200 or so word vocabulary, very open ended questions/sentences, and a grammar that's all becoming quite hard to keep your head wrapped around. The game also seems to lose some polish here: The characters talk much less, give much fewer hints when they're (for me at least) sorely needed, and some oversights/bugs become aparrent, like a lack of search in the dictionary or transmissions. I feel that later section, the conlang stuff, could use some TLC. Maybe Collins could update an alien grammar guide in the reference tab (or provide a template for the player to start making their own notes in), or Bautista (who does a LOT of work in the first half of the game, only to do basically nothing in the second) could provide more compiler tools to translate the alien syntax into something more human readable (e.g. postfix to infix), like he did with the base 8 to base 10 conversion. I understand that this game already delves quite deep into compiler territory for people who don't have a computer science background though - I could see some people getting tripped up by how the game already treads ambiguous words due to its support of no spaces between words. It could also kind of break the fun of working with an alien language I guess. There's also some pacing issues, as sometimes you do kind of get stuck doing a lot of the same stuff over and over as the meteor tries to make sure you understand a concept well enough, but then in the conlang section it seems to go so quick that I'm no longer sure most of my words are correct, as their definitions depend on other words which themselves have only had very few, cryptic examples, with not much help from the rest of the in-game team. I needed some fan-made guides/hints to see the end of this game, but I'm still glad I played it. The first half alone is a facinating view of how language can be built from nothing but basic math and universal constants.
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Languages: English
Hours played at review time, across 1.1K reviews with recorded playtime.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
[h1][b]Traduisez un langage extraterrestre grâce aux maths[/b][/h1] [b]Présentation[/b] Ce billet est une première présentation à chaud. Le jeu vient à peine de sortir et je souhaite profiter de son engouement actuel pour vous le faire découvrir. Bien que je n'en sois qu'à mes débuts, le titre m'a emballé, et les retours enthousiastes de la communauté vont dans le même sens. Fidèle à mon objectif de mettre en lumière des jeux de puzzle, je tenais à saluer le travail original de ce créateur indépendant. Le 29 juin dernier paraissait [i]The Message From Deep Space[/i], un jeu indépendant publié par le développeur connu sous le nom « Appleinmypants ». [i]The Message From Deep Space[/i] n'est pas le premier titre publié par ce jeune développeur, mais c'est son premier jeu édité sur Steam. Par le passé, il avait sorti quelques projets, dont [i]Survival of the Fittest[/i] et [i]Pingu Jisho[/i]. Cayden (le prénom du jeune développeur) a eu l'idée de ce jeu en regardant une vidéo YouTube de la chaîne Vsauce intitulée « Messages for the Future », dans laquelle sont traités les sujets des capsules temporelles et de la sonde [i]Voyager 1[/i] (lancée par la NASA le 5 septembre 1977). Cette dernière est à présent l'objet artificiel le plus éloigné de la Terre (à plus de 24 milliards de kilomètres). [i]Voyager 1[/i] transporte un message (appelé le « Disque d'or ») qui, souhaitons-le, pourrait un jour être compris par des extraterrestres (il s'agit de sons, de musiques et d'images de la Terre). C'est donc cette vidéo qui lui a donné l'idée de la thématique : la communication entre les humains et une forme de vie extraterrestre. Il ajoute plus loin dans une entrevue disponible sur YouTube que son père l'a aidé, étant, selon ses dires, un excellent modeleur 3D. Pour ce qui est des recherches scientifiques, le développeur affirme que certains experts pourront trouver quelques inexactitudes ici et là, mais qu'il s'est documenté en profondeur (notamment via Khan Academy). Il continue d'ailleurs à lire et à se renseigner sur ces sujets. [b]Notre rôle dans le jeu[/b] Dans [i]The Message From Deep Space[/i], nous participons à une mission se déroulant en 1973, accompagnés de quatre collègues (Douglas Doppler, Bryan Bautista, Carrie Collins et Alan Akers), et notre rôle est celui de traducteur. Lors de la mission, nous recevons des messages extraterrestres et devons y apporter les réponses adéquates. Bien qu'il s'agisse d'un jeu indépendant très léger sur le disque dur (moins de 286 Mo une fois installé), l'ambiance rétro est très bien recréée, avec une bonne musique d'ambiance (composée par Cayden lui-même dans FL Studio) et les fameux postes informatiques à écriture verte sur fond noir. [b]Est-ce un jeu pour tous ?[/b] J'avoue que lorsque je m'y suis lancé, j'ai rapidement été intimidé. En lisant quelques commentaires, j'avais peur de ne pas avoir les bases nécessaires pour y prendre réellement plaisir, mais en réfléchissant un peu et en regardant d'autres personnes y jouer sur YouTube, j'ai eu un déclic et j'ai réalisé que le jeu était moins intimidant que ce que je croyais. À ce sujet, le développeur indique en entrevue : [quote]« I do not want background knowledge to be a blocker to playing the game »[/quote] Les seuls prérequis reposent sur des notions de base en mathématiques. Le jeu a d'ailleurs été réalisé grâce à beaucoup de retours de joueurs, ce qui l'a aidé à peaufiner ses énigmes (afin qu'elles ne soient ni trop saugrenues ni trop évidentes à résoudre). Pour donner un exemple rapide sans rien divulgâcher, si je dis 2 BLOU 2 BLA 4, 3 BLOU 3 BLA 6, 4 BLOU 4 BLA 8, vous savez que BLOU = PLUS et BLA = ÉGALE. Notre mission est celle du traducteur. En résumé, après y avoir joué, j'ai réalisé que le jeu était beaucoup plus accessible que prévu. Sur une note très subjective, malgré l'aspect minimaliste du titre, l'ambiance est excellente et on se sent vraiment investi d'une mission : celle de traduire les messages et d'y répondre. Les puzzles sont originaux et créatifs. Je m'arrêterai ici pour les détails afin de ne gâcher aucune surprise. Comme cela a été dit dans d'autres évaluations, si vous aimez les jeux de réflexion, que vous êtes fasciné par les mathématiques et la physique, et que le sujet d'une possible vie extraterrestre vous intéresse, vous aimerez vraiment votre expérience. Sur la page Steam, le développeur indique que vous en aurez pour environ 30 heures et plus, et je vois cela comme un minimum. Au rythme où je vais et au vu des nombreux actes (12), j'en aurai pour au moins le double voire le triple. Et à ce prix, c'est réellement une bonne affaire. Pour conclure, notez que le jeu est uniquement disponible en anglais. Cependant, comme les énigmes reposent principalement sur les mathématiques, il reste très accessible même sans tout lire. Ce type de jeu peut d'ailleurs être une excellente occasion de perfectionner son anglais, d'autant plus qu'avec l'IA et Internet, obtenir une traduction se fait en un clin d'œil. Si vous hésitez encore, sachez qu'une démo gratuite est actuellement disponible sur Steam. [-------[]--]Originalité [--------[]-]Histoire [----[]-----]Graphiques [------[]---]Effets sonores et musique [---------[]]Valeur pour votre argent [-------[]--]Qualité des puzzles [-------[]--]Niveau de difficulté
This game is not for everyone. It's so not for everyone that the achievement I got on steam for beating the game was a rare achievement, with only 8.7% of players doing so. This game is not for everyone for a lot of reasons, but there is one glaring one. It's about establishing communications with aliens, from scratch. This, naturally, means an absolutely absurd amount of math and science. If you do not remember your high school education you will struggle with this game. There is a hint system, but it is not kind and not lenient. You will have to think through your assumptions and recheck all your work several times. But if you make it past the math, you begin to build a vocabulary. And from vocabulary comes communication. I love this game too much to say anything more than that. I will most likely write a full spoilers review in the near future, as a love letter to this once in a lifetime game. But for now I'll leave it with this: This game is not for everyone. But it was for me. If you think there's even a chance it could be for you, please try it.
Finished the game after 25.3 hours, (pretty good imo). Pretty difficult game as a whole but is a type of puzzle rarely seen in gaming or otherwise. This game is more enjoyable if you have at least a small understanding of chemistry physics and math but is not required due to the reference page it gives you. Incredibly good!
I watched Project Hail Mary and thought ♥♥♥♥ was sweet.
结束了😭😭😭 酣畅淋漓的体验,推荐任何有中学知识的人去玩,如果知识不够多看游戏内置的资料也是可以的。不会英语随时截图翻译就好,绝对值得。剧情对话要好好看,只要不是IDEA里面主动点出来的我觉得都不算提示。 几个要注意问题: 1.外星语有语法错误,或者说是前后一致性欠佳,导致到最后几题都没有缕清语法,会被语法卡住 2.中间一道题很明显出错了 3.个别需要跟外星人对电波 4.最后结局注意用英文键盘,不能用中文输入法
One of the most creative and unique logic games I’ve ever played. Funny, engaging and can make you feel both as an idiot and a genius (which is a staple of a great logic game if you ask me). Clearly made with a lot of heart and creativity. Easy recommendation if you enjoy piecing together a mystery, helped me fill the hole left by Outer Wilds (which is the highest praise I can give to a game) and left me feeling similarly empty afterwards. Try it, don’t be afraid to ask for help on Discord if you get stuck and support the dev - they deserve it!
I never thought so much could be said with just numbers. I don't think I'm even halfway done and when I look at where I am and where I started I am shocked. This is a great game that gets you to solve some really cool/impressive puzzles!
It's really good so far. I peaked at achievements and was shocked how many puzzles there were when i felt like i must be getting close to the end. The team banter is actually well written and has gotten a laugh out of me more than once. Especially for the team members who seem incompetent until the subject matter is within their expertise and they naturally show their depth of knowledge. Every time I felt "man couldn't we just program the computer to do _____" there was an update from the comp-sci member to do that! If your favorite part of Hail Mary was the translation program and wondering what it might be like to figure that out yourself, then just pay the $9-10 and have fun! ---- I do really wish the whiteboard interface had like basic MS-Paint like tools or a "snap" feature... I *REALLY* would love if it had a "draw" tab where you could put tables of equations or somethin to draw them. The game's Music is *REALLY GOOD*... all two songs of it. After 7 hours or so I've had to put on spotify while i play which isn't a huge deal but more variety would be great. A really good game that excels at exactly what it promises to be.
Only 75 transmissions, already a banger. No skill issue for the moment but I'm sure it will come soon enough
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