United StatesExperience the Library of Babel from the short story by Jorge Luis Borges in 3D. In the Library of Babel you can find any page of text that can be written down using the combination of the 26 lowercase letters of the English alphabet and the comma, period and space. Every meaningful and meaningless thought exists in some book on one of the five shelves on one of the four walls in one of the many many hexagonal rooms somewhere deep within the Library of Babel. But for every page of meaningful content, there are also billions and trillions of pages full of "gibberish". The librarians of this library spend all of their lives reading the books in the search for wisdom. If you meet some of them during your journey through the Library, they will be happy to tell you what they might have already found in some of the books. To make your life a bit easier, there is a built in search menu that lets you search for whatever text that comes to your mind. (Also, don't tell the librarians about this search machine of yours. They might steal it and throw you over the railing into the endless pit of darkness in the middle of the hexagons.) This 3D version is inspired by Jonathan Basile's brilliant website libraryofbabel.info. Visit the website if you are interested in the whole idea and don't forget to read the original short story by Borges. This app will make a lot more sense afterwards. The app lets you look around by moving your phone around as if your were actually inside the library. Or you can turn off this "VR" mode and use the on-screen joystick to move and drag with your finger to look around. If there are any problems, feel free to contact me.
Does this app use the same Algorithm as Basile’s Website?
When I go to a the hexagon “0” on Basile’s website, and go to Wall 1, Shelf 1, Book 1, and page 1, it does not match up with what’s in the same “location” as the app. Is there a reason there’s a difference? Great app by the way!
United StatesTake it for what it is 🤷🏽♂️
I only touched this app like once or twice and so far I’ve had interesting experiences that I am not sure if they’re were meant to be part of the app. I.e. I saw the librarians that are pointed out in the description of the app, they do share bits of information but at some point they say nothing anymore even if I restart the app.. I also decided to throw myself into the pit multiple times to see if anything happens and upon respawning into the map, I spawn to a Smokey part of the library where a couple floors down, the room was on fire. And during my adventures, the further down into the library I went, the less the books started working. And the first and second floor at some point stopped containing books, bookshelves, and was pure wall, and now thinking about it, there were only 5 floors with endless corridors, and if I tried climbing to the next floor, I would look down to the void and noticed that I never changed floors and I was stuck in the same floor. It felt like it was meant to be some sort of horror in it which kept it suspenseful, but nothing ever happens until you notice a small change and then you realize you’re not experience the app the same way you did when you first entered, yet the rooms are the same. You’re weird. You’re a weird developer. I’m looking forward to your next project.
United StatesCan you hear me?
Hello! I would like to request the changing of the librarian textures. I use the Library as a meditative place, and I would greatly enjoy a monk or a wise old man in place of the abominations that currently grace Babel’s halls. Much appreciated, Dell.
United StatesAwesome phone app idea, needs updates before I’d recommend it
This app’s aesthetic is largely based off of the poem made by Jorge Luis Borges in 1941. The attention to detail in regards to the recreation of the library itself based on its description in the poem is great. A lot of reviewers are saying that the library is creepy with its claustrophobic dark atmosphere. I feel that that’s sort of intentional to a certain point, but the giant, completely pitch-black humanoid figures idly standing in place in certain rooms I admit gives off some very creepy Slenderman vibes. Even if the models do improve in the future an option to remove them completely from the library would be nice. I’m most looking forward to future updates to this app in regards to the ease of use. There are a few issues with the UI: -you’re able to look around the room and highlight/select walls, shelves and books even when you’re currently reading a book. -It is difficult to check which wall you’re looking at without selecting a specific shelf or book in the process. -There NEEDS to be some sort of portrait mode. Landscape orientation forces the text way too small to read, and magnifying a singular page to read it more clearly makes the text way too large, making scrolling through one page take forever. -Copy/Pasting Hex data generated from the Library of Babel website to this app does not work I presume that not all of the hex data copied is getting fully pasted since the start of the block of copied hex data will match, but the ends will not. -page numbers are not clear. Since there are always 2 pages on the screen, the page number on the bottom will always be some even number, so it is not clear which page the book is referring to, so when looking for a specific page in the library, it can get particularly difficult to find where you’re at. Overall I really want to see this app work. I just hope to see most of these issues addressed in the future.
United StatesI love this but I half died
Okay I got this recently and it’s so cool and relaxing and fun. I was just wandering the halls lost in the rooms with music in the background when I come face to face with this nightmare. It kind of reminded me of those wights from the Miss Peregrines Peculiar Children book series. Needless to say, not fun. I think it’s supposed to be a librarian but it’s all black and somehow super tall and seems to stare at you. In my rush to try and get away I somehow got myself stuck in something staring at the thing and I couldn’t get out. After I left the app and came back on I was fine though. I still like it but boy I’m going to have nightmares. Maybe in the next update make them more human with eyes? I don’t really care what but I really hope I don’t find any more. My heart is still beating.
United States4.3 stars
All in all this is pretty sweet. My only point of criticism so far is with one aspect of the controls: you can't turn the view while moving.
United StatesAn oddly entertaining pastime
Whether it's the Navy Seal copypasta, the word Buffalo fifty times, the secret to unlocking Spongebob in Super Smash Bros. Melee, or the full text of this review in Latin backwards, it keeps startling me the kind of nonsense I can type in the search feature and actually have it be found. Logically, I know it has to be there, since every possible combination means every possible combination. But seeing it is still good for a laugh. I also like to make it a bit of a game seeing what the first coherent word I can find is, like it's the world's biggest word search puzzle. Or filling in the blanks like typing into the search something like, "The name of this alien character will be the next pronounceable string of eight characters after this sentence." At any rate, there's a lot of ways I can amuse myself with a visit to this library.
United States
New librarian model
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