What Is Somewhere Else?

First devlog!

I was going to post a massive explanation of shadows and why I spent so much time getting them to work for the latest update, but my browser crashed and I lost the whole thing. Word to the wise: do not type your devlogs directly into the itch.io devlog page. Type it somewhere else first

Anyways, it gave me some time to reflect on what a first devlog ought to be about, and shadow maps probably isn't it. Instead, let's talk about what's even going on in this game.

This isn't actually really a game right now, this is a tech demo, but a game will eventually probably maybe come from it. The game will be called "Somewhere Else." I don't charge anything for this demo, but if you care enough to read this and want to see more, consider leaving a comment to let me know this interests you, or maybe even hit that donate button. I'd love to quit my dayjob some day for this.

Somewhere Else is a simulation of a world that has 4 dimensions of what's called "Euclidean Space." For the purpose of this devlog and all future devlogs "the 4th dimension" refers to this extra spatial dimension and not the time dimension. "W" refers to this same dimension. The point of the game is not just to be a fun puzzle. There have been lots of fun puzzles in 4D space in recent years, and the novelty is only as strong as its obscurity. Somewhere Else is about something else. Some day, I want this to stand as a game that can teach you how to understand and intuit a 4 dimensional world. The game will be in a first person perspective, and will show you the world in a way that would be fitting for a truly 4-dimensional person. This game is not a 3D subset of a 4D world, but a fully continuous 4D world.

I've heard and read so many statements that we simply "aren't meant" to understand higher spatial dimensions. That it's "impossible" to learn how to navigate a 4D space. Not only do I disagree with these statements, I think it's a symptom of a problem that plagues society at every turn.

A long time ago, I started trying to learn how to program. It was also impossible. I couldn't do it. Someone I respect told me I wasn't the "kind of person" who could be good at programming. I just wasn't meant to learn. Fortunately, by the time I heard that statement out loud, I had done something to protect myself from it. I learned something else.

In high school, I struggled to learn how to understand music. I could play a little bit of piano, but I didn't know how it worked. It was impossible to learn. I wasn't meant to learn it. I "didn't have it" as they say. But I joined the school band anyways as a percussionist. I practiced every day, and I like to think I got pretty good. More importantly, I grew to understand how it works. It was supposed to be impossible. I wasn't meant to learn it, but I did anyways.

I'm a programmer for a living now.

There's an idea I'm here to challenge. It's an idea that throughout history has been perpetuated as a means of keeping people down. 

I call this idea "kinds of people"

Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, if you believe you're a kind of person who simply can't learn something, I challenge you to learn something impossible. I'll do whatever I can to help you through it, because everyone needs to know that the human mind is capable of learning anything that can be learned.  It doesn't matter who you are. You don't have to be someone else to go Somewhere Else.