ReLuminate Echo
A beacon hunt you play with your ears. Headphones on, monitor off.
Put on headphones, then press any key to begin.
Arena
For viewers, not for players. The game is fully winnable with the monitor off.
How to play
- Put on headphones. Any stereo pair. Speakers will not work.
- Press any key. The game introduces itself and checks your headphones.
- Press Space to start a round. You get 60 seconds.
- Turn with ← and → until you hear a dry click. That click means the beacon is dead ahead.
- Hold ↑ to walk. The beacon pulses faster as you close on it and slower if you are going the wrong way.
- When the two rising notes play you are in range. Press Enter to collect it and a new beacon appears somewhere else.
- Avoid the low hums. Walking into one costs you five seconds.
Controls
- ← / → — turn left and right
- ↑ — walk forward
- Space — sonar ping (also begins and restarts a round)
- Enter — collect the beacon when you are on it
- Esc — pause and hear your score
- H — repeat the controls
Settings
- S — speech on or off
- - / = — volume down and up
- C — high contrast visuals
- D — download this session's data as JSON
What you are hearing
| Sound | What it means |
|---|---|
| Pulsing clear tone | The beacon. Its direction is where it sounds like it is; the pulse rate rises from twice a second across the arena to eight times a second on top of it. |
| Short dry click | You are aimed within five degrees of the beacon. Walk forward. |
| Two rising notes | Close enough to collect. Press Enter. |
| Three rising notes | Collected. Your score went up and a new beacon has appeared. |
| Low buzzing hum | A hazard. Steer around it. |
| Low thud | You hit a hazard. Five seconds gone. |
| Soft hiss | A wall. You are running out of arena. |
| Rising whoosh | Your sonar ping. Everything nearby answers once. |
If you are struggling
- Sweep, do not stare. Turning is the skill. Headphone audio is far better at left versus right than at front versus back, so keep rotating rather than standing still trying to judge.
- Trust the click over the tone. It is a yes-or-no signal, so you never have to judge a small angle by ear.
- If the pulses slow down, turn around. You are walking away from it.
- Lost? Press Space for a ping, or H to hear the controls again.
Everything you hear is generated in the browser with the Web Audio API. There are no sound files. Direction comes from binaural rendering, so ordinary stereo headphones are all you need — speakers will not work.