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I've started a basic account for Niantic Studio, and I'm confused about whether this version of 8th Wall has AR capabilities.  On the 8th Wall website, most of the AR tutorials seem to assume that the user has the Pro version (the A-frame templates are not available for Basic users).

I've seen a few references to a 14-day trial for the Pro version, but I am not able to find the page where I can sign up for this.

Can someone from 8th Wall confirm whether or not Niantic Studio has AR capabilities and, if so, where can I find tutorials for this version?  Also, please let me know if the 14-day free trial for the Pro version is actually available.  

Thank you!  I'm looking forward to building an AR-enhanced game.

UPDATE:  I've discovered a tutorial for creating World Effects in Niantic Studio (I'll include the link below for other users).  I'm still curious to know if the 14-day free trial for Pro exists.

your games are keeping me from working on my next game jam submission!  i'll tear myself away until the Pirate Software jam is over...

just played another game you made for a jam:  Planet Jump.  holy cow - it's one of the coolest little games I've ever played - and you made it in TWO DAYS?  you're my hero, dude

this should be on Steam.  it's 100 times better than most of the puzzle games on there.  i don't buy many games these days, but Shadow Path is one I would be completely happy to pay for.  more specifically, the audio (effects and music) and the visuals are perfect.  the game mechanics and level design are super clever and original.  overall, either the first or second most impressive game I've tried during this jam.

very cool and polished game.  the audio is great and the 8-bit graphics look fantastic.  i really liked following that little spirit around - it got pretty challenging pretty quickly!  very nice work

unfortunately, i couldn't get past the first target.  the shooter disappeared and i became disoriented.  i can see how it could be quite fun with a little more development time!

this is such an original concept, especially the seeding part.  the visual effects are beautiful, and I love the way the UI is built into the landscape.  at first i thought i was supposed to defeat the enemies (by throwing seeds maybe?) but i prefer the idea that it's a game of keep-away.  i just had a thought:  what if you have to stay away from the enemies AND plants seeds in order to trap them - they can only move through unseeded territory.  just an idea.  nicely done!  

well done!  I think it starts to get really hard around the ‘take my wife…’ level.  Thanks for playing and giving feedback 👍🏻

interesting concept, and I like the simplicity of the visuals.  i wasn't sure how to tell how weak my battery was, so i wasn't able to plan my use of the light strategically.  is there a cue to indicate the strength of the battery?

this is such a fantastic idea for a game - and very well executed!  the graphics are quite lovely, and the puzzles are quite challenging - I like that!  it's not always obvious that the player has run out of fireflies because there's no audio cue and (more importantly) there doesn't seem to be a way to see how many fireflies are left once you've passed a certain point in the level.  also, as the comment below mentions, some music would be a nice touch.  but other than that, I was really impressed!  👍

i love the concept of releasing it in different languages - thanks for the idea!

i'd love to learn Dutch some day - right now, the only words I know are Poffertjes and Bitterballen!  is SlechtWare the opposite of GoedWare?  😉

that's true!  maybe i can release it in some other languages - that would be fun for me because it would help me learn some new words!  😊

it's a perfect little puzzle game!  it's completely unique, and I can definitely see people buying this on steam or (if you have an iOS version) the Apple Store.  for steam, you'd probably need to add some additional graphic elements, like backgrounds and a title screen, but I wouldn't even change the sprites that are already in there.  it's beautifully retro-looking.  A++

I don't mean to harp on about this (and it may have been discussed in the forums or on Discord already), but i've noticed that many games do well to avoid UI in the game itself but then write instructions (often quite detailed) regarding controls and objectives in the text below the web player or the download link. this seems to defeat the purpose of having no UI, in my opinion. I'm curious to hear other opinions about this.

Hilarious!  Not only is this a light simulator but it's a random graffiti generator.  I just keep wondering why a game with one sparsely-decorated location and one interactive element can take so long to load!  😉  

very interesting game with cool visuals and really perfect music.  i had no idea what effect blowing out the candles had, but it was kind of fun anyway!

SIDE NOTE: 

i've noticed that many games include gameplay instructions in the text below the web player or the download link. (yours is actually quite reasonable - it only reveals the controls - compared with some others that reveal both the controls AND the objective, often at length).   i feel like maybe this goes against the spirit of zero UI a bit.  it's just my opinion though; i'm not sure how the judges will view that.  [just to be clear, my game totally breaks the zero UI restriction.  I've got instructions and menus littered throughout my game.  i pretty much gave up on having no UI, so I appreciate games like yours that attempt to follow the theme.]

SIDE NOTE:

i've noticed that many games include gameplay instructions in the text below the web player or the download link. (yours is actually quite reasonable compared to others that literally describe the controls and objective).   i feel like maybe this goes against the spirit of zero UI.  it's just my opinion though; i'm not sure how the judges will view that.  (just to be clear, my game totally breaks the zero UI restriction.  I've got instructions and menus littered throughout my game.  i pretty much gave up on having no UI, so I appreciate games like yours that attempt to follow the theme.)

i didn't play for very long; sometimes it felt more like a maze than a traditional platformer.  i don't mind that, but i imagine it could get frustrating trying to find the path, especially because the radius of the light is quite small.  it was also a bit hard to see the hazards.  that said, it's a cool idea that uses the dark/light theme very well.  

really impressive game.  firstly, the navigation system is so original (and a great use of minimal UI).  secondly, the way you use the flashlight in such a unique way (as a powering tool and as a weapon, instead of a traditional light source) is refreshing.  I would totally play more levels if you ever make them!

great little game!  very polished and detailed.  i especially like the way the score is represented by street signs - nice way to use in-game elements rather than GUI feedback.  

fun contrast of friendly interaction with NPCs to brutal carnage.  all in all, a very impressive submission!

really clever, original concept, and great implementation of both themes. 

it got pretty challenging pretty quickly, but I like that in a game.   visuals were great.  only one suggestion:  when placing a lamp, maybe the LIGHT of the lamp (as opposed to the middle of the lamppost) could be placed at the cursor position.  i feel like that would be more intuitive.  other than that, i think the mechanics are great!

turns out, i needed to install winRAR, and then it worked fine!  👍

i had some trouble getting it started, but I was glad I did!  it's definitely one of the more original concepts, and I can see big potential for it.  this next line is a bit of a spoiler, so I'll encrypt it in ROT13: 

jura V ernyvmrq gung v jnf cynlvat ntnvafg n ercynl bs gur bgure irefvba bs zr, V unq bar bs gubfr 'jbj' zbzragf gung bayl unccra va terng tnzrf.

very mind-bendy.  nice work!

very cool concept for a game.  i like the visuals, audio, gameplay, and i'm very curious to play more - i hope you keep working on it!

thank you so much for the thoughtful reply!  and yes, I still really enjoyed participating in this jam; in fact, it was one of the best experiences I've had here on itch.io!  next time i will definitely try to get more involved in the community discussions here - and on discord.  i've always had a tendency to make games in isolation, but I think it would be far more rewarding to give and accept feedback, encouragement and collaboration from other developers.  

great implementation of the UI constraint and dark/light theme.  the visuals are very appealing and the gameplay was fun.  nice work!

Side Note:  because it seemed so daunting to try creating a game with ZERO UI (given my understanding of the term UI), I basically gave up on the constraint (as I saw it) and included UI elements such as menus and on-screen instructions.  My thinking was this:  if I can't do zero UI, I might as well try to make a game without unnecessary, overly expository or graphically imposing UI.  Despite that, I don't expect to score highly on the 'zero UI' rating.  🤷

P.S.  I think the word ZERO is the main issue.  it's interesting to attempt to use zero UI, but in reality, not many games other than the ones that rely on pure experimentation can meet that standard.  maybe a 'NO TRADITIONAL UI elements' theme would have been an equally interesting and challenging constraint - without leaving us all in the dark (so to speak 🕯).  we might have still been unsure about the term 'traditional', but it wouldn't have seemed like a virtually impossible challenge.

this may be more of a philosophical perspective, but I'm not sure how audio cues or haptic feedback do not qualify as UI but text does.  all are simply methods of communicating with the player.  since the above detailed guidelines were not included on the main game page and not everyone reads forum comments to fully understand the goal of the jam, I think a lot of us were confused about the theme, especially because we all have different understandings of the term UI.  I see it as simply "the way the game communicates with the user".  audio cues and other non-graphical cues are definitely UI elements if my definition is used.  it may have been helpful to specify (on the main page) that only diagetic cues (elements that the character encounters, rather than elements presented to the player) were to be user or, more simply, that GUI was not to be used, which would allow for the audio cues that you mentioned.  I don't mean to complain about the theme - in fact, it encourages a really interesting mental exploration / verbal conversation about the essence of what a user interface IS.  thank you for instigating that conversation.  I just wish the details of your guidelines had been posted within the body of the main jam page.  the only stipulation on there was "creating games without the traditional user interface elements"; that's pretty vague (traditional UI elements will mean something different to each of us), whereas the explanation for the light/dark theme was very thorough.  it never occurred to me that i needed more information from a forum post in order to comply with the hosts' vision of zero UI.

i agree that true "zero UI" is almost impossible to achieve (given how I define UI).  Maybe my idea of UI is wrong, but I see it as literally 'the way the game informs the player how to play".  pure experimentation is the only way to achieve zero UI, and I've only seen one submission that manages to do it successfully.

the trick with zero UI is, there has to be a way to inform the player how to beat the enemy.  It's frustrating to keep trying different keys or mouse clicks without any apparent effect.  i understand that you want to stick to the theme though.  and i respect that.  it's a huge challenge.  i think i've only found one game among the submissions I've played that literally uses NO UI.  mine uses UI for sure - i simply couldn't figure out to avoid it for the type of game I wanted to make.

got an error message regarding the Assets folder, so unfortunately I couldn't play it.  the candle graphic looks great, though!  🕯

That’s a great suggestion - thank you!  As it turns out, it was only an issue on one particular Mac (I don’t know why - maybe a hardware problem).  So a fix isn’t necessary.  👍

thanks!

i forgot to test on MAC!  apparently my code for accessing a certain keyboard input works on Windows but not on Mac.  Strange!  I will ask the organizers on Discord if it's possible to fix the code during the voting process

thank you for the feedback!  it's really helpful 👍

Cool!  I finished the game pretty quickly - the puzzles were fairly easy but interesting.  Love the 8-bit graphics!

wasn't able to extract from RAR.  might be an issue with my computer, but I can usually open RAR files.

i like all the little touches, like the eyes glowing in the distance and the graffiti on the rock.  the visuals are gorgeous and the atmosphere is definitely spooky.  i had some difficult finding the hotspots to light the torches.  i had to hold the torch in just the right position.  in fact, i couldn't light the torch in my left hand at all - the hotspot didn't show up.  maybe I was doing something wrong.  anyway, great job making such a professional looking game!