7 ms·

Show HN: (my first webapp) An HTML5 platform game stage design community

61 points by ttbmike 14y ago

iag 14y ago
Not bad for your first web app. I'd recommend that you work on making it easier for the user to play the game right away. Every click the user makes will result in a dropoff in conversion rate. Otherwise this is pretty interesting! Keep at it!
- ttbmike 14y ago
  thanks! yeah, a more interactive front page is in the works -- we're hoping to let the player jump into the game with minimal fuss. stay tuned!
  - jiggy2011 14y ago
    Did you use an existing game engine to build this , or was it something custom?
    - ttbmike 14y ago
      the client-side javascript is written from scratch -- so if there's any wonkiness with the physics (especially with the moving crates), it's my own fault. it probably would have been faster to use an existing engine (i'm sure there's many), but i wanted to take on the challenge myself.
- jnorthrop 14y ago
  Data point of one warning: I played through a couple of rounds without too much difficulty and I haven't spent any amount of time playing games in about 10 years. I was able to jump right in. That was fun!
AskHugo 14y ago
Played through the tutorial, it's pretty good save for the moon gravity jumping.
- ttbmike 14y ago
  hah, yeah, the physics was a lot of back and forth for us. we tried to match the original super mario bros. physics, but clearly we're still missing the mark. the plan is to update our engine periodically with versioning control, so we can fix issues without breaking old stages. thanks for the feedback!
  - 1qaz2wsx3edc 14y ago
    http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2007/mariogravity.shtml http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2007/mariogravity.shtml
    - ttbmike 14y ago
      wow, that's going in my bookmarks. video game research -- every day i learn something new.
  - MichaelJW 14y ago
    Also check out Steve Swink's Principles of Virtual Sensation[1]. (Ctrl-F for [Mario].) [1]: http://www.steveswink.com/principles-of-virtual-sensation/ http://www.steveswink.com/principles-of-virtual-sensation/
    - ttbmike 14y ago
      Thanks for sharing! It's really fascinating for me to learn more about the psychology behind playing games. Much like traditional art, it's all about evoking the desired emotion from the players, with sense of control being a critical one.
michaelkscott 14y ago
The "(my first webapp)" in the title feels a lot like a link-bait. Surely this isn't the first time you wrote HTML, CSS, and Javascript, right? I mean this could very well be honest, but I really don't think it belongs there. (I could be wrong.) http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- ttbmike 14y ago
  this is my first time posting to hacker news, so sorry if i made any faux pas. i've done html and css before, but i started learning javascript/node.js a few months ago. my background is in hardware engineering at apple (with some experience in C and java), and recently i've decided to get into software/web app development (with this being a project to sink my teeth into). needless to say, i'm not a fan of javascript :-)
  - michaelkscott 14y ago
    No apologies needed :) The term "webapp" was just a bit too general.
jiggy2011 14y ago
This is an excellent idea, you should definately work on this some more. It has a lot of appeal because it is social and creative too. It also brings back memories for me, I loved to play with level editors for games in my younger years. I think though that you should allow people to play a level without signing in. The gameplay does feel a little slow and generic though, you should work on making that more fun and a little more polished. For a well polished 2d game have a look at Cavy Story.
- ttbmike 14y ago
  thanks! the toolset is extremely bare-bones right now, somewhat in the spirit of "launch and iterate". we're trying to gauge what percentage of the population is interested in stage design (vs. just playing). as for the player logins, i want to keep an identity because the main value-add of our game is the player stats tracking and replay footage. cave story is a huge inspiration, and i hope someday we can enable folks to build their own cave story-like experience.
user23409 14y ago
The logging in barrier is a deal breaker for me. Not saying you shouldn't keep it, just letting you know that some people will not get past it because they don't want to.
- kjhughes 14y ago
  I think he allows a reasonable experience prior to having to log in. I watched his overview video (nice job), played the first level, and started designing a level without having to log in. Requiring account creation to save a level seems fine to me. Overall, nice job, ttbmike.
kenrikm 14y ago
It needs a keyboard to play however I could not find a way to bring up my iPad keyboard so it does not seem to be iPad compatible?
- ttbmike 14y ago
  Currently it is desktop browser only. If there's enough traction and the concept is proven, we plan to look into porting it to iOS / Android / etc. We'll see!
  - TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
    Don't port it, it would be better if you could just add on-screen controls.

61 points by ttbmike 14y ago

iag 14y ago

Not bad for your first web app. I'd recommend that you work on making it easier for the user to play the game right away. Every click the user makes will result in a dropoff in conversion rate. Otherwise this is pretty interesting! Keep at it!

ttbmike 14y ago
thanks! yeah, a more interactive front page is in the works -- we're hoping to let the player jump into the game with minimal fuss. stay tuned!
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  Did you use an existing game engine to build this , or was it something custom?
  - ttbmike 14y ago
    the client-side javascript is written from scratch -- so if there's any wonkiness with the physics (especially with the moving crates), it's my own fault. it probably would have been faster to use an existing engine (i'm sure there's many), but i wanted to take on the challenge myself.
jnorthrop 14y ago
Data point of one warning: I played through a couple of rounds without too much difficulty and I haven't spent any amount of time playing games in about 10 years. I was able to jump right in. That was fun!

AskHugo 14y ago

Played through the tutorial, it's pretty good save for the moon gravity jumping.

ttbmike 14y ago
hah, yeah, the physics was a lot of back and forth for us. we tried to match the original super mario bros. physics, but clearly we're still missing the mark. the plan is to update our engine periodically with versioning control, so we can fix issues without breaking old stages. thanks for the feedback!
- 1qaz2wsx3edc 14y ago
  http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2007/mariogravity.shtml http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2007/mariogravity.shtml
  - ttbmike 14y ago
    wow, that's going in my bookmarks. video game research -- every day i learn something new.
- MichaelJW 14y ago
  Also check out Steve Swink's Principles of Virtual Sensation[1]. (Ctrl-F for [Mario].) [1]: http://www.steveswink.com/principles-of-virtual-sensation/ http://www.steveswink.com/principles-of-virtual-sensation/
  - ttbmike 14y ago
    Thanks for sharing! It's really fascinating for me to learn more about the psychology behind playing games. Much like traditional art, it's all about evoking the desired emotion from the players, with sense of control being a critical one.

michaelkscott 14y ago

The "(my first webapp)" in the title feels a lot like a link-bait. Surely this isn't the first time you wrote HTML, CSS, and Javascript, right? I mean this could very well be honest, but I really don't think it belongs there. (I could be wrong.) http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

ttbmike 14y ago
this is my first time posting to hacker news, so sorry if i made any faux pas. i've done html and css before, but i started learning javascript/node.js a few months ago. my background is in hardware engineering at apple (with some experience in C and java), and recently i've decided to get into software/web app development (with this being a project to sink my teeth into). needless to say, i'm not a fan of javascript :-)
- michaelkscott 14y ago
  No apologies needed :) The term "webapp" was just a bit too general.

jiggy2011 14y ago

This is an excellent idea, you should definately work on this some more. It has a lot of appeal because it is social and creative too. It also brings back memories for me, I loved to play with level editors for games in my younger years. I think though that you should allow people to play a level without signing in. The gameplay does feel a little slow and generic though, you should work on making that more fun and a little more polished. For a well polished 2d game have a look at Cavy Story.

ttbmike 14y ago
thanks! the toolset is extremely bare-bones right now, somewhat in the spirit of "launch and iterate". we're trying to gauge what percentage of the population is interested in stage design (vs. just playing). as for the player logins, i want to keep an identity because the main value-add of our game is the player stats tracking and replay footage. cave story is a huge inspiration, and i hope someday we can enable folks to build their own cave story-like experience.

user23409 14y ago

The logging in barrier is a deal breaker for me. Not saying you shouldn't keep it, just letting you know that some people will not get past it because they don't want to.

kjhughes 14y ago
I think he allows a reasonable experience prior to having to log in. I watched his overview video (nice job), played the first level, and started designing a level without having to log in. Requiring account creation to save a level seems fine to me. Overall, nice job, ttbmike.

kenrikm 14y ago

It needs a keyboard to play however I could not find a way to bring up my iPad keyboard so it does not seem to be iPad compatible?

ttbmike 14y ago
Currently it is desktop browser only. If there's enough traction and the concept is proven, we plan to look into porting it to iOS / Android / etc. We'll see!
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
  Don't port it, it would be better if you could just add on-screen controls.