Ask HN: What game(s) are you working on?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20735243

by jessehorne • 7 years ago

36 39 7 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I've very recently started writing a HTML5 game inspired by Teeworlds. https://imgur.com/a/0iyFmBm

I'm curious to hear what you guys are working on.

kalado4• 7 years ago

I don't really get your game. Is the block floating away and you need to keep it in the screen by shooting the hook? If yes, what decides when your hook gets loose?

I am developing my first ever game! I think the mobile gaming market is missing actual games that try something new and that are not built around milking money and putting some standard game mechanics around it.

My game is called Neon Sling: This video shows a much older built than I have right now but shows the core gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGhmjATLaSk

You can also play a more recent build from the play store:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.OlafEsSaad...

I think it is a lot of fun, although there is not much progression at the moment.

This is what I am gonna add till release: A "tutorial", I want to unlock new mechanics with every level and explain them first. Right now you start with every mechanic available and it is confusing for new player who don't even know what to do at all.

Second I want to add different ball/background skins that change the gameplay up. For example, the time power up would add one more second or each combo gives 5 points more. You can buy these unlocks with the points that act as your score. The idea was that you can experiment with different combinations to find the one which gets you the highest score. Also leaderboards are missing.

I would love if anyone wants to try it out, give feedback and/or ideas!

seventhtiger2• 7 years ago

Love the geometry war aesthetic and snappy gameplay.

seventhtiger2• 7 years ago

I'm making a persistent browser game in the vein of web rpgs.

I'm still in game design/database design which in this game are very closely linked. My goal is to be able to play the full game by invoking SQL scripts, which I'll turn into apis, and then start the web UI.

As far as theme it's spy fiction with the usual scifi/occult features. You manage a spy agency on the world map and have agents and resources of various types. You use the agents and resources to develop investigations and collect evidence. All the players' agencies are in competition for limited resources and limited rewards for solving cases.

The investigations are strictly speaking puzzles. Any investigation for which you already know the solution can be done trivially.

My goal is to create a sort of information race metagame which makes the players practice real information security and spying. The perfect result would encourage information sharing within a small trusted group of players (big enough to tackle complex investigations) but discourage information sharing in public (if you leak all your investigation solutions to gamefaqs then every single player can now progress to your level and compete with you for the next level).

It's a cute idea but I don't know how much players will like it. It already exists on some level in EVE and I'm not sure opsec is that fun.

jessehorne6• 7 years ago

I find the idea very interesting and I'm excited to see where it goes.

kalado4• 7 years ago

This sounds really cool, please start a mailing list :)

sideshowb2• 7 years ago

A spy themed social deduction game for 6+ players and one smartphone

explainer video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxaSwbv7y4k

link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.org.tropic....

kalado4• 7 years ago

Man, I love party games. I'll try it out next opportunity.

sideshowb2• 7 years ago

I forgot to say, I blogged about notation for social deduction games here https://omnisplore.wordpress.com/2019/02/02/spy-thriller/

and I'm open to collaborating to take spy thriller further.

jmiskovic2• 7 years ago

I've recently played The Witness (highly recommended) and now I'm trying to capture that feeling of seemingly chaotic things lining up perfectly, inside an Android app.

It's hard to demonstrate without having it in hands, but here's some screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/BNbv613

kalado4• 7 years ago

The screenshots don't help me figure out what you're doing but it sure is pretty!

marapuru• 7 years ago

Are you using the motion sensors to let the player 'move' the perspective to align the items in such a way that they line up perfectly in the end?

If that is the case, awesome. Great game idea! If it's not the case, maybe it's worth looking into. And also I'd like to know how you do let the player play this game.

jmiskovic2• 7 years ago

Yes, I'm using the motion sensors which gives really nice sense of depth. I'll post the Google Play link to this thread once I have first version up.

msigwart• 7 years ago

I'm working on a social drawing game called ScribbleX (https://www.scribblex.com). It's available for free on iOS and Android.

The concept is pretty simple: Take a piece of paper and divide it into three parts. Now, Player 1 draws a face on the first part of the paper, folds it over and passes it to Player 2. Player 2 then draws the body, folds it again and passes it to Player 3. Player 3 draws the legs or feet on the third part of the paper.

In the end, you unfold the paper and a funny creature reveals itself! Now imagine this, just on your smartphone – the possibilities are endless ;)

krapp• 7 years ago

I'm not working on a specific game, and will probably never finish anything worth releasing, but I am working through Godot and Unity tutorials on Udemy and the roguelike tutorial[0] I found on /r/roguelikedev. Mostly to relearn Python.

Currently I'm working on tileset loading (and eventually autotiling) with C and SDL2 and hopefully will have random dungeon generation ported over from the python version eventually.

[0]http://rogueliketutorials.com/tutorials/tcod/part-0/

aww_dang• 7 years ago

https://playerkillers.exchange

Browser based action RPG with optional cryptocurrency rewards. Kill 3 players or 33 NPCs to cashout in NANO. Bid back your NANO to resume your saved game. Authentication happens via your wallet address.

muzani2• 7 years ago

would be funny if it used XP

thedevindevops• 7 years ago

Ironically a sci-fi-style programming/hacker game, nothing fancy, dwarf fortress style graphics. Programming challenges to bring online damaged ship systems and optimise their performance. Dev has stalled a bit recently as initially it was going to be a desktop app but now I'm leaning towards converting it to online.

encypruon• 7 years ago

Nice to see someone doing something Teeworlds-related. It's become difficult to find a vanilla server with ok players on it since the DoS-attacks on 0.6 and the release of 0.7. If you've been playing CTF in the past few years there is a good chance you've met me playing as "nameless tee".

I've started to make a Tron clone where the playing field is a polyhedron instead of a plane[1] but as usual with my projects it's been lying around unfinished in a corner for quite a while now.

There is also a puzzle game about creating clones that repeat player movements starting with their first[2]. It was created for a game jam together with one other person and has also not been touched since then, although we agreed that it might be worth polishing.

[1] https://imgur.com/a/lYJ3F4t

[2] https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzIzNTUxMzIuZ2lm/347x500/9j4LcL.gi...

jessehorne6• 7 years ago

I haven't played in a long time, but I always played as "JesseH". I never got into CTF that much but enjoyed FNG and block of course. :D I tried to find a server with decent ping recently but it seems like no one is playing on them. It seems the active community is dwindling.

Your game is looking extremely interesting!

chatwinra• 7 years ago

As per some of the other commentators not too sure what's the hook for the game you're working on?

I'm developing a Real time strategy game inspired by the immune system and the science behind that.

It's called H.O.P.E Nanocell squad and is inspired by saturday morning cartoons, and RTS games like Tooth & Tail and Dawn of War 2.

https://www.indiedb.com/games/hope1

jessehorne6• 7 years ago

I'm learning to do things I've never done in a game before and the GIF I linked to shows a test I ran. If you're curious about what I'm actually going for, there are videos of Teeworlds gameplay on youtube! Check it out.

packetpirate• 7 years ago

I'm working on Grave Wave, a top-down zombie shooter with a dark synthwave aesthetic. I've got most of the core gameplay worked out, but am currently working on overhauling the game's graphics and migrating towards more of a level-based, story-based game instead of a wave-based shooter. The latest build can be found here:

https://packetpirate.itch.io/gravewave

Eventually I'm planning to get it onto Steam, but there's a lot more work to be done.

The songs are just placeholders during early development. I'm planning to overhaul those after the graphics.

More up-to-date gameplay can be seen on my Twitter:

https://www.twitter.com/packetpirate

gargarplex• 7 years ago

Cryptosnipe, a skill-based sweepstakes bot. Currently for Keybase; outcomes are decided by skillful deployment of powerups in conjunction with Keybase's provably fair randomness feature:

https://blog.codefor.cash/2019/08/09/announcing-v0-2-of-crou...

The most exciting thing is that while people have built bots to play the game, the game is still actively playable through its human UX.

Roadmap: https://github.com/codeforcash/croupier/issues

trykondev• 7 years ago

Last year I released Omnicube, a really hard block-sliding puzzle game set on a talking cube in space. I initially released it for Windows & Mac, and now I'm working on redesigning the UI to make it more appropriate for mobile devices.

The game mechanics are very well-suited for mobile devices (click & drag to move blocks), but the puzzle grids are 14x14 and with the surrounding UI in its current form, the screen is a bit too busy and it makes it difficult to click on the block you want to click on using touch controls on smaller screens like a phone. So I'm trying to create a simplified UI in preparation for releasing the game on mobile.

The game is currently available for PC & Mac on Steam[1], itch.io[2], and the Windows Store[3]. I'm sure there are some puzzle aficionados here on HN, and I would be delighted if you'd check it out!

[1] https://store.steampowered.com/app/800860/Omnicube

[2] https://trykon.itch.io/omnicube

[3] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/omnicube/9njcwkrx4mm...

prometheus76• 7 years ago

I'm working on a 2D maze game where you have to fly a ship that has asteroids-style motion and controls through a maze without hitting a wall. Hit a wall, you start maze over. As levels progress, inertia increases, walls narrow. Later levels include a maze that rotates in various ways as you are flying through it.

Most of the programs I've written up to this point have been quite small, so this is my first large, ambitious project. I'm having a good time so far.

muzani2• 7 years ago

Not exactly a game but I'm working on a random character generator that procedurally generates content from tropes.

http://random-character-generator.com

Though not originally planned to be a game, it could well be one. The engine can basically do anything that a d100 table would do and make sure the results doesn't conflict. Not just characters but teams, dungeons, building designs, town districts, plots and plot hooks, and so on.

One day, I'd love to be able to generate a full plot - hero, villain, intro scene, the call to adventure, training montage, conflict, initial defeat, climactic last battle against all odds, victory and rewards. What I'd like to do is have the users fill in a few blanks like monster type, conflict type (e.g. war, comedy, romantic) and then have the algorithm search for a story that meets those conditions, as well as the dramatic inflection points.

The bottleneck now is the speed of adding content. I'm currently retiring the current prototype to build it properly, and allow others to make their customized story content.

Darmody4• 7 years ago

As usual I have several projects started, none of them finished and probably most of them will remain that way.

One is a browser game make with node.js (there's no code yet so this could change) and websockets. It's about space exploration with a lot of RPG features like killing for loot, skills, professions, huuuuuuuuugue marketplace. Of course it's a real time multiplayer game. Trading with other players is a MUST. Every player has a limited number of professions (from simple ones like agriculture and mining to nuclear weapons manufacturing or software programming) and most of them need things that only others can provice, hence the need of trading.

Imagine an Eve Online without the 3D, where you only manage stuff and the stuff you do works even when you're offline.

The second game is a mixture of a rogulike, Skyrim with graphics like Graveyard Keeper. I won't lie. This is a tough game to code. I have the music covered but not the graphics but I'm not worried about that as the game would run with a basic tileset until late development. The problem is making it work. I don't have any kind of experience in this kind of game so I don't know. Maybe I'll use an existing engine (thinking in Godot), maybe I'll make my own or maybe I won't do anything at all. There would be no ROI in a very long time and would make unable to spend my time on more profitable things. We'll see.

jessehorne6• 7 years ago

I'd love to contribute to the first one you mentioned! How could I do that?

Darmody4• 7 years ago

Sorry, it's a personal project and I have no plans to release anything. But you're very welcome to start your own game and take all my potential players.

ponyous• 7 years ago

I'm working on a VR game that let's you feel like you have telekinetic powers. You can manipulate the objects in distance. You have to activate as many objects as possible in scene to progress.

b3b0p• 7 years ago

Hopefully I'll start something soon. I got [0] "Making Games for the NES" in the mail over the weekend.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1075952727

cableshaft• 7 years ago

My focus at the moment is renovating Proximity 2 (which I released on Xbox 360 and iPhone almost a decade ago) and cleaning up a bunch of stuff in it, including the code. I've been trying to make a sequel for awhile, being distracted by life and what tech to use, whether it should be 3D, what features it should have, etc, and the fact I'd have to start from scratch (I thought) since I had done it in XNA (and old native iOS) originally, but then stumbled upon Monogame and got the XNA game running again in less than 24 hours, so I'm going to get it back out there in the world.

It's a lot harder to find the time while juggling work and family responsibilities and a new serious hobby of board game design (I have one game signed by a publisher and have gotten interest in several other designs of mine), though, but I've made good progress.

Adding 1080p support, adding localization support, adding support for more players, adding more modes and maps, adding a single player mode, adding achievements, cleaning up the UI, and hopefully sneak in a few other things. Maybe online multiplayer, but not sure if I can support that yet (maybe a later version of it will have it).

This year has just been too crazy to hope to get it finished, but I'm hoping to get it released on at least one platform (probably PC to start) by the end of the year next year, then as many more platforms as I can after that.

Here's a video of the Xbox game if you're curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqe0hS7AvOE

Jemaclus• 7 years ago

I'm building a MUD in Go from scratch. It's similar to the Merc/Diku muds from way back when, and I'm supporting area files from those distributions so I can just load in existing areas. This is really just for fun. I'll probably never actually put it out there.

I'm also building a Tradewars 2002 clone, trying to get everything as close as I possibly can to the original. Again, probably won't get it to deployment, but it's a fun thing to work on when I'm on a plane or don't have much else to do.

flignats• 7 years ago

I actively develop an online cryptocurrency treasure hunt game: REQLoot.

It's a very simple game mechanic with some complex supporting features. There is a game play area of ~500k pixels with hidden tokens behind some of them. Users earn 'stamina' throughout the day in attempt to find the larger prizes.

It's been getting nice traction with ~100 daily active users and growing.

https://reqloot.com/#/hunt

AwesomeFaic• 7 years ago

I designed, prototyped, and tested a co-op tabletop game where players take part in a bar crawl on a randomly generated main street. There are player abilities, random events, and no two games are the same in terms of layout, bartenders, bouncers, etc. The goal is for everyone to drink from each bar and make it back before sunrise. Currently 3D printing the last version of the prototype and sending out copies to interested playtesters who I previously connected with.

I'm also actively developing a social web game where players work together to build a story by submitting words and voting in a common word bank. One of my servers is down right now so I don't have a playable link, but the game (and domain) is Rauk.us and is connected to an associated Twitter account that shares completed "stories" (@Rauk_us). I'm aiming to have the game back up next week. Developed in Node.js with Socket.io for real-time gameplay.

I've also designed & developed multiple commercial releases in the digital space (i.e. Steam + Itch.io), but since those are past projects I'll leave them out.

Ask HN: What game(s) are you working on?

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