The six directions: North, South, East, West, Anth and Kenth

April 23, 2024 9:56 PM

On Steam right now is a game that lets you play Mini Golf in four dimensions, called, naturally, 4D Golf (Steam, $20). I don't mean in the sense that time is a fourth dimension, it's set in a fully 4D world: you decide which slice of it is revealed in the visible 3D world at any time. Here's a trailer. (1 1/2 minutes) Here's Youtuber Icely Puzzles playing the beginning of it. (43 minutes) Here's the video devlog. It's from CodeParade, who also made the hyperbolic plane exploration game Hyperbolica. At the end of the release announcement video, its creator mentioned that there is a secret feature in 4D Golf that makes it even more bizarre, but telling its existence is a pretty major spoiler....

The spoiler (in rot13): Ng gur raq bs 4Q tbys vf n svir qvzrafvbany tbys zbqr. CodeParade discusses how he implemented it here. (11 minutes, link is spoilerly)

posted by JHarris (15 comments total)

boy, this is the sort of game that I occasionally wish I were the sort of person who played them, heh
posted by DoctorFedora at 11:08 PM on April 23 [5 favorites]

I clicked through to another streamer playing the final level, which is very colourful and psychedelic. As he’s rotating through the fourth dimension trying to find the hole, fluorescent shapes melt into and out of existence. “Ok, nothing weird here…” he said. Uh huh.
posted by Probabilitics at 11:26 PM on April 23 [2 favorites]

I adore hyperbolica, will be picking this up tonight.

I'm not spoiling it for myself, but if the creator did some non Euclidean stuff in for dimensions I will be really happy.
posted by Hactar at 3:26 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Fools, everyone who's anyone knows that the fifth cardinal dimension can be found on the zorth axis!
posted by mephron at 6:46 AM on April 24 [3 favorites]

Fools, everyone who's anyone knows that the fifth cardinal dimension can be found on the zorth axis!


Damn it, you beat me to it!
posted by notoriety public at 7:00 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

if you play doubles is your partner edwin abbott abbott?
posted by lalochezia at 7:03 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

I like to think of myself as a smart person with a fairly advanced conceptual framework. Then someone tries to explain how to visualize higher dimensions, and I feel like a Golden Retriever trying to understand classical architecture.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:27 AM on April 24 [6 favorites]

Anyone played it? Is it fun? The concept is certainly cool.

The videos for 4D Golf reminds me a little bit of Viewfinder, another game that has you solving puzzles by manipulating the view. In that case though it's more 3d to 2d, the game is mostly about lining up things with forced perspective. It's quite well made and fun, even has a good story.
posted by Nelson at 7:45 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Hyperbolica is a delight. It's a small thing, but I especially loved that the minimap could toggle between different projections of hyperbolic space, with some being more or less useful depending on the context. I've started 4D Golf but haven't got very far yet -- I've yet to put in the time to get acclimated to the mechanics (the different view modes definitely help).
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 11:08 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

I like to think of myself as a smart person with a fairly advanced conceptual framework. Then someone tries to explain how to visualize higher dimensions, and I feel like a Golden Retriever trying to understand classical architecture.

My brother is a topologist. When he was in graduate school, getting ready to go start his post-doc, I asked if he could explain his work in terms a humanities major like me could understand. He started by saying, "OK, so take a sphere, right? Now, if you fold it --" and, seeing the look on my face: "Don't try to imagine it!"

Half an hour of very dense explanation later, I asked, "OK, have we finished your undergraduate work yet?"

"Almost!"
posted by nickmark at 11:09 AM on April 24 [5 favorites]

Outside In
posted by hortense at 3:09 PM on April 24 [5 favorites]

Outside In
posted by hortense at 3:09 PM on April 24

Great video, but I raise you Turning A Sphere Outside In
posted by lock robster at 6:39 PM on April 24 [5 favorites]

When will we get 5D Golf With Multiverse Time Travel?
posted by Phssthpok at 11:22 AM on April 26 [1 favorite]

Oh god, I just reached the 5D levels, this is too hard
posted by Phssthpok at 11:16 PM on May 1 [1 favorite]

(shhh... spoilers!)

Well it's been a while since the release now.
posted by JHarris at 3:13 AM on May 2