AUSPEX

AUSPEX offers an existential crawl through daily hand-crafted levels. Set in an ever-growing labyrinth built upon iterations of itself, it's a Sisyphean quest for meaning and purpose, a blind search for new futures, bathed in ambient music.

Seven years after A Road to Awe, here comes another attempt at abstract journaling with an interactive medium, at reshaping mental states as virtual spaces, at drawing a map, no matter how cryptic, of a mind's ebb and flow.

This is meant as a loose translation of my own experiences during the year 2024, one day after the other, from January 1st to December 31st. Gameplay may vary, depending on my mood, my time, and the engine features I feel like exploring.

Using the Itch app is highly recommended to get daily updates automatically. You can also follow my progress on the RPG in a Box forum, and on the Fediverse.

I survived 365 days of stairs. More recently, I used a similar process for one month, with a bit more variety. I can do it again, even if this year has 366 days.

Don't expect anything polished. Some days will be tedious, uninspired and depressing, or worse, unkind to the player. But others might be surprising, hopeful, funny or soothing.

Nobody can tell, not even the AUSPEX, and that's the point.

Soundtrack

• Part 1/12: aquarius.
• Part 2/12: pisces.

Controls

• WASD to move
• E to interact
• Right click or arrow keys to rotate the camera
• F12 to take a screenshot
• Esc to quit and adjust options
• More to come as the game evolves

Notes

• Updated daily, most likely after 19:00 UTC
• All versions are for 64-bit processors
• Untested on Mac and Linux (but seems to work)