“A Dark Room” game open-sourced

https://github.com/Continuities/adarkroom

by mjn • 13 years ago

212 117 13 years ago

github.com

mjn5• 13 years ago

HN discussion of the game itself, from a few days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5961205

Ellipsis753• 13 years ago

It was written in neatly written javascript. It was already open source. :P

mjn5• 13 years ago

True, it was already source-available. That was already quite nice, especially because it meant I could fulfill my completionist urge by reading the source code to see everything that could've happened.

The change here is that it's been GPL'd, so you could (legally) build another game using parts of it if you wanted.

yarrel• 13 years ago

That's not what "open source" means.

mAritz• 13 years ago

It was however minified for at least some time. Which made me sad because it greatly limited my abilities to easily cheat.

(I did beat it without cheats but that took quite some time)

johnchristopher• 13 years ago

I was wondering if all the people that finished the game in less than 4 hours in the other thread were cheating or if I missed something.

saraid2168• 13 years ago

You couldn't send a pull request before this.

potomak• 13 years ago

Best comment: "MICHAEL IS A LAZY BASTARD AND DOES NOT WANT TO REFACTOR" [1]

[1] https://github.com/Continuities/adarkroom/blob/master/script...

S4M• 13 years ago

Maybe the lazy bastard open sourced his code so someone else would refactor it for him.

reeses3• 13 years ago

I've always been a fan of Shame-Driven Development.

mkramlich• 13 years ago

if it's consistent with TDD and RDD it means you start with shame, then go write something to feel ashamed about?

babuskov• 13 years ago

The thing that needs to be refactored is called the Observer Pattern, and it's one of GoF patterns that most professional programmers should at least know about.

By "know", I mean the mere fact that it exists. Implementation details depend on the programming language and can always be looked up.

Continuities7• 13 years ago

Yup, I'm familiar with it. I just didn't think to use it until it was much too late...

dep_b• 13 years ago

Ah great, so I can add keyboard shortcuts instead of fast clicking of ever shifting button locations and obscuring description labels.

Patrick_Devine2• 13 years ago

Sweet. Although, frankly, I can't believe how much time I've sunk into this game since seeing it on HN the other day.

It would be nice to fix the end game and add better ways of fighting the infernal Ferral Beast. Maybe a laser rifle factory?

rschmitty• 13 years ago

there is an end game?

I took off in a spaceship and dodged asteroids then it took me back to the start of the game. Did I die and miss something?

Jd13• 13 years ago

You didn't miss anything. There is no cool end, just a reset (sadly IMO).

However, "End game" usually refers to the gameplay at the end of the game, specifically in chess where you try to force mate with only a few pieces.

Jd13• 13 years ago

The Ferral beast is more easily defeated than you think, simply an iron sword plus a steel sword fairly easily does the trick. Add in a rifle and/or laser rifle and you can finish him off quickly every time.

ISL• 13 years ago

You can hold two swords?! I always just used a spear and a steel sword. Feral beasts weren't much trouble.

Patrick_Devine2• 13 years ago

You know, I thought that, but they seem to get stronger over time. Maybe I'm just imagining that, but without bolas they often seem to be able to take me down. That's even with a spear, both swords and a rifle.

I never use the laser rifle since it's a pain to get energy packs.

gregorymichael2• 13 years ago

Where did you get the laser rifle? I beat the game, went to every square on the map, conquered every suburb. Never saw a laser rifle.

adorton• 13 years ago

It doesn't have a ranged attack (as far as I can remember), so bolas should really help.

rossk• 13 years ago

"A Minimalist Text Adventure"-- What would a maximalist text adventure look like?

makeset• 13 years ago

Zork?

maxsilver• 13 years ago

Dwarf Fortress?

I guess it's not really a text adventure, but still...

saraid2168• 13 years ago

Dwarf Fortress is probably a textbook example of anti-minimalism.

dhotson• 13 years ago

Maybe something like roflbalt?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoHmJfXqwbM

https://github.com/pda/roflbalt

:-P

Jd13• 13 years ago

Dunno, but if you are a frequent online gamer you probably know that 'minimialism' is a frequently used tag over at Kongregate and that there many other minimalist games that are not text adventures.

Notable examples:

Momiga (http://www.kongregate.com/games/Rogerup/momiga) - one button, one dot

Midas (http://www.kongregate.com/games/wanderlands/midas)

This is not a minimalist game (http://stormalligator.com/this-is-not/)

Pretentious game (http://www.kongregate.com/games/keybol/pretentious-game)

treerex• 13 years ago

Any of the later (or heck, even the earlier) Infocom text adventures are far from minimalistic. And contemporary interactive fiction written with Inform quite complex. Far more so than this.

olgeni• 13 years ago

ed?

ctdonath• 13 years ago

The Matrix? ("Blonde, brunette, redhead...")

qznc4• 13 years ago

Nowadays, I imagine Cypher playing Dwarf Fortress in that scene. "Blonde, brunette, redhead dwarfs..."

Aardwolf• 13 years ago

It already was open source by looking at the js code in the browser when I played it this weekend, at least I remember looking in the source code to find the chance of the Wandering Master appearing (which is, btw, around 1/Nth chance every 3-6 minutes while you're in the firelit room where N is amount of event types, 6 or so iirc)

Does uncompiled JS count as open source or not? Seems to fit the definition to me at least. Or is change history required as well to really call it open source?

davexunit• 13 years ago

Does uncompiled JS count as open source or not?

No, it doesn't. The license indicates if it meets the requirements to be Free Software and/or Open Source Software. Was there a license header in the JS files?

Spittie• 13 years ago

Just because you're able to see the source, it doesn't mean that it is open source.

An example is the recent release of the Adobe Photoshop 1 source code. You can see it, but it's not released under an OSS license.

To be considerate Open Source, code has to respect those criteria: http://opensource.org/docs/osd

PhearTheCeal2• 13 years ago

9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open-source software.

So, under this definition, the GPL isn't an open-source license.

reeses3• 13 years ago

Change history is not required.

eru2• 13 years ago

Though highly appreciated nowadays, if you want to comply with the spirit of the open source licences and not just the letter.

iM8t• 13 years ago

This is great news. Now we will be able to implement our own ideas and make the game even more awesome.

Why not implement another planet after the UFO? Heck, lets build a whole star system with many possiblities to choose from.

vanderZwan• 13 years ago

We'll end up with an ASCII version of Spore, won't we?

saraid2168• 13 years ago

I hear a challenge.

tomrod• 13 years ago

I'm okay with so long as we leave DRM at the door--or make it the boss to beat.

willvarfar4• 13 years ago

It runs entirely in the browser? Then why not put it in a gh-pages branch so it can be played too?

I did this for my ludum dare text adventure:

http://williame.github.io/ludum_dare_23_tiny_world/

mjn5• 13 years ago

The canonical playable version is already hosted online on his own site: http://adarkroom.doublespeakgames.com/

willvarfar4• 13 years ago

But if he puts it on gh-pages then the forks are also playable online.

Bit late now, perhaps.

Jd13• 13 years ago

Ok, so I just played through your game since you put the link here.

Qs:

(1) are you supposed to interact w/ the NPCs? Only substantial interaction I noticed is when you turn on the lighthouse and the pirates run away

(2) Looks like you don't need to solve any of the puzzles to win the game?

(3) Seem to be a lot of unneeded items also?

In general, a bit confused. I never did anything w/ the brick, the rake, the racket, the music, or moby dick, and yet managed to win the game it seems.

willvarfar4• 13 years ago

Thank you for playing!

We made it for a Ludum Dare contest http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview... which has a 72 hour deadline and we simply didn't have time to finish it, basically. So theres lots of started plot twists which don't get used or go anywhere, e.g. we added the NPCs but didn't get a working conversation system in there.

There are plenty of surprising problems in making this game; here's a write-up: http://williamedwardscoder.tumblr.com/post/21865366869/how-t...

Thx again for playing! You might like some of our other LD entries: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/author/william_edwards/

daturkel• 13 years ago

Proud owner of pull request #1. Hoping people will make really cool contributions to the game.https://github.com/Continuities/adarkroom/pull/1

Continuities7• 13 years ago

Merged, my man.

Dove4• 13 years ago

There's either a bug or an easter egg with the Mysterious Wanderer / 100 furs.

The rest of the mysterious wanderer encounters have expectation zero. Give 100 wood, 1/3 chance of 300 wood, 2/3 chance of nothing. Same with 500 wood -- 1/3 of getting 1500 back. And 500 furs.

But 100 furs has a 1/2 chance of giving 300 back, making it a good investment.

(events/room.js:361)

etjossem2• 13 years ago

I'm pretty sure it's intentional, and in the source we can see that the mechanics are the same for wood and furs. Both mysterious wanderers will accept 100 units and have a 50% chance of returning with 300. Average marginal return per event: +50 units. You learn over time that this is generally a good deal, and you begin to trust the NPC.

Eventually, the player may get greedy. You'll try giving a mysterious wanderer 500 units of a resource in order to speed up the process, under the assumption that the odds are the same. At this point, there is a 70% chance that the wanderer will be tempted to abscond with your (relatively large) investment. Average marginal return per event? −50 units.

And that's why "builder thinks he isn't to be trusted"!

Dove4• 13 years ago

Oh, I see. I misread the "100wood" one. You're right.

aaronsnoswell2• 13 years ago

I played the game through and never realised the wanderers could be trusted at all - I gave them resources a few times, but never got a return!

dakimov• 13 years ago

Why is this important?

lnanek2• 13 years ago

Reading code is a much better way for a developer to learn than reading articles IMO. Of course writing is even better...

eru2• 13 years ago

Of course writing is even better...

I don't think you can compare. There are things you can only pick up from learning from other people (or re-inventing everything yourself), and there are other skills you have to develop yourself.

mjn5• 13 years ago

I'm not sure I'd say it's important, in the way that Blender getting open-sourced was important or anything like that. But it's a game that a lot of HN readers liked when it was posted a few days ago, and now the source is available under the GPL, so I thought people might be interested. Not so much a major news story; more of an FYI kind of submission.

Dove4• 13 years ago

Okay, so I finally get to see what baited traps do: they double the output of the trap. And I finally get to see what traps drop!

So now, I can label the trapper (assuming I have 9 traps and check them regularly (trapper can't make bait for 10)):

    Income/10 sec:
    
    Fur:	0.5	
    Meat:	0.25	
    Scales:	0.1	
    Teeth:	0.05	
    Cloth:	0.065	
    Charm:	0.005

Which is surprisingly competitive with the hunter. I think I'd rather have the hunter once I have my charm and better sources of teeth, scales, and cloth.

Jd13• 13 years ago

What better sources of teeth and scales are you referring to? Harvesting them from wandering beasts seems extraordinarily tedious and time-consuming. Converting to them from fur requires an incredible amount of fur.

Dove4• 13 years ago

I meant manually hunting. I usually wind up with more teeth and scales than I can use without particularly seeking them out. Though I guess I don't buy things with them a lot.

The one time I did buy alien alloy from the store, I didn't have too much trouble farming 750 scales from big lizards, though. I could bring in 30 or 40 scales per trip. I didn't time myself, but the trips themselves couldn't have been more than a minute or so in duration. It was definitely tedious, but not totally unreasonable.

Traps are a poor source by comparison -- 20x to 40x less efficient per time spent. Admittedly, they're passive. Sort of.

kybernetikos• 13 years ago

This game really impressed me.

The scope was amazing, the contrast between where you start and how it ends, the hints of disaster and questioning of your own identity. I found that it brought out the superstitious in me - I never knew why it was important to keep the fire lit and the room warm, but I made sure that it was. I didn't know what charms did, but I tended to take one with me when I went exploring.

The only slight disappointment I had with it was that I was expecting it to be much more story driven, but while there were hints of a story that emerged, I would have liked more.

Did you take builder with you when you left? Were you really part of the alien menace that strip mined the planet? Do you feel different now after having bootstrapped civilization amongst these people? Where did builder learn so much? Did anyone ever catch those creatures in the store room? Will the planet recover? What will you do next?

grannyg00se• 13 years ago

I had a great time trying to figure out whether it was worth carrying 10 rifles on an expedition or just one. Same with steel swords. I think my standard outfit ended up being one rifle (plenty of bullets) and five swords - though I'm still not sure if it makes much of a difference.

I can't imagine how long it would take to complete the game without cheating. I would manipulating the localstorage database from time to time.

gliese1337• 13 years ago

Approximately 6 hours, not counting the overnight break while I slept and let it just sit there accumulating resources.

I made a lot of non-optimal decisions the first time through, though, seeing as how I had no idea where it was going. That combined with the sleeping time means I have very little idea of the minimum time required to play it straight through.

anigbrowl2• 13 years ago

I think I put in 6-7 hours over a few days.

reledi• 13 years ago

If I'm not mistaken, carrying more of the same weapon doesn't give you any benefits, it only means you get to carry less of other items. I looked at the JS code while playing and found the amount of damage each weapon does. In battle, this amount of damage was dealt when carrying multiple of the same weapon or just a single one.

Carrying one of each weapon does make a huge difference though, because you get new attack buttons.

aaronsnoswell2• 13 years ago

I put in around 12 hours over two days, interspersed with watching movies while I waited for resources to accumulate.

clarkmoody• 13 years ago

I too had a bit of a jaw-drop moment after I discovered the space ship and reset the game. I saw each bit of story in the more menacing light you suggest with your last-paragraph questions.

Bravo on the entire game's concept and execution. I'm excited to see what develops from this open-source phase.

saraid2168• 13 years ago

I'm excited to see what develops from this open-source phase.

I don't think he was a plan; in his blog comments, I was the only one who suggested that he put it on Github and I have no intention of making any contributions. If anyone else is moved to, there are a few ideas:

1) the obvious: bug fixes, UX improvements, clearer text.

2) modding.

He's got enough there to be used as an engine for a similar kind of game.

Continuities7• 13 years ago

Honestly, putting the source out in the open is kind of terrifying. The code was written without the expectation of a global code review. I regret so many lazy shortcuts and the general lack of solid architecture now...

jffry• 13 years ago

There will surely be a lot of discussion of your code, but it's still awesome that you put this out there under an open source license.

anigbrowl2• 13 years ago

Hey it worked. My only gripe was with a few (very minor) aspects of the design, like not being able to stop and eat meat after a fight, or dying of starvation despite carrying a large amount of fresh meat. I noticed a couple of tiny display bugs, but none that interfered with operation. It may have been prototype-level code, but I played through to the end which is something I don't usually bother to do!

anandkulkarni• 13 years ago

Thanks for doing this! It'll be a lot of fun for folks to fork.

dangayle• 13 years ago

It was a white screen with text, and you managed to get a whole lot of picky Hacker News nerds playing it. You deserve kudos just for that :)

gregorymichael2• 13 years ago

Understandable given the HN crowd. Try to focus on the fact that you did an incredible job. At the end of the day, the purpose was to create an entertaining game. Me and a whole bunch of others gave you 6-7 hours last weekend, and I am not easily parted from my hours. I haven't been captivated by a game like that in a decade.

Good job.

zhemao• 13 years ago

Ugh, I knew I shouldn't have looked at these comments. You guys totally spoiled the surprise. =P

synchronise• 13 years ago

It's a great game, but I wonder why the GPLv3 was chosen, since it's incompatible with GPLv2 only code and various other licenses.

Continuities7• 13 years ago

Honesty: I know nothing about open source, and obsessively take the newest version of everything.

frisco• 13 years ago

You should reconsider. GPLv3 has much stricter "copyleft" requirements that make it difficult to use GPLv3 code with code under less radical licenses.

qznc4• 13 years ago

I made this wizard for choosing a licence. Might help you.

http://beza1e1.tuxen.de/licences/

Cogito2• 13 years ago

I added some simple click handling to the world map to hopefully enable continued play on mobile devices. Pull request here[0].

By clicking on the north of the map you move north etc. Might be improved by making it relative to the player, rather than the centre of the map.

You can play through the game with the changes here[1].

EDIT: It was better measuring the click relative to current location, so I changed that in the PR.

[0] https://github.com/Continuities/adarkroom/pull/7

[1] http://cogito.github.io/adarkroom/

joshuak• 13 years ago

Thanks! Yes this is the most important first fix. Never underestimate the volume of iPad only users. ;)

Cogito2• 13 years ago

No worries :)

Would love feedback on the interface if you are able. The interface feels pretty good with mouse, and seems like it would translate well to iPad, but I won't be able to test myself for a few more hours.

I thought about adding separate buttons that could be clicked, but decided that clicking on the map was more intuitive and fit with the game better.

siddboots• 13 years ago

If you die of starvation or thirst more 10 times, you learn to survive twice as long without food and water respectively.

Now, someone tell me how to rid the village of thieves.

scott_karana• 13 years ago

If you wait long enough on the Village screen, they catch the thief. You can either execute him, and get a lot (or all?) of your goods back, or you can learn from him, and get "Stealth", which makes for less wilderness encounters.

Zarkonnen• 13 years ago

This is really cool - Continuities: how interested are you in merging in additions to the game? I'd quite like to add raiders and medicine.

Continuities7• 13 years ago

I'm all for expansion, so long as the general atmosphere is maintained. Also, while I intend to maintain control over what gets published to adarkroom.doublespeakgames.com, I have absolutely no problems with other people publishing their own forks with different artistic visions.

“A Dark Room” game open-sourced

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