Equinox.space

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall reception

  • Widely praised as one of the most impressive WebGL/Three.js experiences people have seen.
  • Strong reactions to the atmosphere: visuals, music, SFX, pacing, and voice acting all repeatedly called out as “polished” and “immersive.”
  • Many say they don’t normally play games but were drawn in and played to the end; several wanted to pay or donate.
  • Some feel the ~10-minute length is perfect for virality; others strongly want a longer, full game in the same style.

Gameplay, story, and design

  • Described as an escape-room / walking-sim style puzzle adventure on a spaceship.
  • Players appreciated intuitive level layout; several expected to get lost but didn’t.
  • Puzzles (especially the generator tiles) were praised for subtle scaffolding and hints, though some needed comment-thread help.
  • The AI assistant is widely perceived as “suspicious,” prompting elaborate fan theories about hidden agendas and off-screen lore.
  • Multiple people wish for more content: deeper subplot, more optional rooms, environmental storytelling, and additional puzzles, but accept scope limits for a two-person team.

Controls and UX

  • Mobile experience is praised as unusually smooth and well-designed for a browser game, though FOV often feels “too zoomed-in.”
  • Frequent requests for Y-axis inversion for mouse and touch, and for higher mouse sensitivity ranges.
  • Some report erratic pointer-lock behavior (snapping, drift, constant downward look), mostly on Linux/Firefox/Chrome; others on similar setups see no issues.
  • iOS users often had no sound until disabling silent mode; one rotation bug causes a permanently zoomed-in view.
  • Desire for save-state/progress persistence, jump key, and smarter click-to-walk paths that avoid walking into walls.

Technology and performance

  • Implemented with Three.js plus a custom game engine for interactions, pathfinding, and logic; assets modeled in Blender and Houdini with baked lightmaps.
  • Rendering optimizations: MRT-based pipeline for post-processing, merged static meshes to reduce draw calls, and aggressive culling of unseen rooms.
  • Asset size kept low (~45 MB) via Draco mesh compression and KTX2 texture compression; audio is the bulk.
  • Developed intermittently by a two-person team over ~1.5–2 years, totaling ~5–6 months of work.

Compatibility and issues

  • Runs well on a wide range of devices, including older phones and integrated GPUs, but sometimes heats phones.
  • Isolated stutter on specific Android models (e.g., Pixel 7 Pro), a few browser hangs when WebGL is disabled, and one dramatic macOS crash (likely GPU/driver-related).
  • Some browsers with WebGL disabled show only the spinning globe; enabling WebGL or switching browsers fixes it.