Show HN: TinyCity – A tiny city SIM for MicroPython (Thumby micro console)

https://github.com/chrisdiana/TinyCity

by inflam52 • 6 months ago

142 26 6 months ago

github.com

tinfoilhatter• 6 months ago

Looks neat! Great job!

inflam5212• 6 months ago

Thank you!

allanrbo• 6 months ago

SIM=subscriber identity module. sim=simulator. :-)

inflam5212• 6 months ago

I originally had sim but HN autocorrected it. I tried to edit it back to what I had but can't seem to now.

oakwhiz• 6 months ago

HN's autocorrect seems to cause more trouble than it's worth.

hei-lima• 6 months ago

Really cool!

inflam5212• 6 months ago

Thank you!

_joel• 6 months ago

I hope it "Reticulates Tiny Splines" (good work btw)

inflam5212• 6 months ago

Haha thanks! Definitely adding that during map generation in next release.

Tiberium• 6 months ago

Small bug: the sim seems to double count residential population for taxes, industrial pop gets ignored. The duplicate logic seems to exist in UI but it's correct there.

Also I wonder if all the repetition could be reduced, or would it affect performance on MicroPython?

https://github.com/chrisdiana/TinyCity/blob/88d07cf98f13bb73...

inflam5212• 6 months ago

Yeah great catch. So I mentioned this in the README but much of the mechanics were heavily inspired by jhhoward's MicroCity. This is the same way he calculated taxes and I figured to test it out to see how it worked in game. I really liked the flow of how his game played and seems like there are some pros/cons to that inbalance.

Pros: - Makes residential population more valuable for taxes, which helps early‑game cash flow. - Encourages zoning residential since it has outsized budget impact. - Offsets the fact that residential growth can be more constrained by pollution/unemployment.

Cons: - Skews the economy away from industrial/commercial impact. - Makes budget feel inconsistent with “total population.” - Can mask balance issues by injecting extra money, making difficulty tuning harder.

gaudystead• 6 months ago

I literally JUST bought a Thumby out of a vending machine this past weekend, so this post feels a bit serendipitous for me. Thanks for sharing, and I'll have to check this out!

inflam5212• 6 months ago

Congrats! Unplayable by most means but absolutely incredible how tiny it is so I love it.

coldcity_again• 6 months ago

Looks super cool, nice job!

inflam5212• 6 months ago

Thanks!

bowlcutWiz• 6 months ago

looks awesome! can't wait to try the online version :)

inflam5212• 6 months ago

Thanks I'll post when it's available. Still waiting on the PR to merge in their Arcade repo.

JKCalhoun• 6 months ago

Is it using the 1.3-inch monochrome OLED display of the Arduboy or something smaller? (Guessing the 72 × 40 display of the Thumby?)

inflam5212• 6 months ago

This is for 72×40 display right now but I was also working on an interface layer to abstract Thumby specific functionality in order to play on potentially other platforms running MicroPython/Python. Going to try and add that in the next iteration.

westurner3• 6 months ago

There are a number of MakeCode-compatible devices with and without Microbit https://arcade.makecode.com/arcade-devices

bbcmicrobit/micropython: https://github.com/bbcmicrobit/micropython

But Pi Pico; RP2040, RP2350:

"Show HN: PicoVGA Library – VGA/TV Display on Raspberry Pi Pico" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35117847#35120403

"MaplePad – RP2040 Dreamcast controller, VMU, and Purupuru (rumble pack) emulator" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37522059 :

PicoVision

pimoroni/picovision micropython: https://github.com/pimoroni/picovision :

PicoVision enables you to create big, bold audio visual projects using MicroPython and an HDMI display of your choice.
powerful digital video stick for bold audio visual adventures, with dual RP2040 chips and a conveniently HDMI-shaped output connector to boot!
[...] dual RP2040 chips and a conveniently HDMI-shaped output connector to boot!

inflam5212• 6 months ago

Following up here, I just added a game interface abstraction to make it easier to support more devices. Planning on getting a few MakeCode-compatible devices to adapt for them.

mcsolid• 6 months ago

very cool!

Show HN: TinyCity – A tiny city SIM for MicroPython (Thumby micro console)

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