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Show HN: Fly By – retro biplane flying game

• nometalalchemis 15d ago
  What a cool game!
• scandox 12d ago
  It's no Sopwith
  • cube00 12d ago
    The Sopwith Camel, flight simulator memory unlocked.
  • esafak 12d ago
    I was expecting this before I clicked on the link and I was not disappointed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopwith_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopwith_(video_game)
• superkuh 12d ago
  It is fun. Now make it multiplayer over websockets/etc with some dev controlled signalling server (who peers register with/etc) and STUN check to get peer IPs locally.
• Kuyawa 12d ago
  Loved it. That's exactly what AI should be used for. Something that would take us one month at least, full of bugs, AI now delivers in less than a day, ready to ship This is the essence, AI is a super power, the world is ours
  • ricardobeat 12d ago
    Something that would take us one month at least, full of bugs, AI now delivers in less than a day, full of bugs
  • krapp 12d ago
    >This is the essence, AI is a super power, the world is ours Don't me overdramatic. The guy who made Flappy Bird did it in a weekend without AI. A simple game like this wouldn't be difficult in any modern framework. That it can be vibe-coded in less than a day isn't really much value.
    • michaelteter 11d ago
      It now exists. It did not exist before I “made” it. For me it has value, because it is something I wanted to play.
  • tom_ 12d ago
    Well I dunno, man, this looks like the sort of amusing prototype I'd expect to take a couple of days - though not to understate the value of getting it in 4 hours (and probably with less than 4 hours' continuous effort from the human). Iteration time is an important factor! (Regarding the parting shot, I find myself once again, for the numerousth time, reminded of this curious lobsters comment that I'm having difficulty forgetting: https://lobste.rs/s/omq8rt/vibecoding_gets_emacs_patch_rejected#c_oa5cks https://lobste.rs/s/omq8rt/vibecoding_gets_emacs_patch_rejec... - perhaps not quite entirely directly germane here, I don't think, but, still, somehow, not quite entirely directly not.)
    • karthink 12d ago
      > Once the user is sufficiently (l)ionized, they're no longer receptive to neutral positions. Every step in this argument (particularly this one) seems tenuous at best, and in need of citations.
      • deleted 12d ago
        [deleted]
• Suhinnall27 12d ago
  This was a nice game. It would be cool if you added some more purpose to landing the plane, like if the fuel and throttle were limited, making it actually useful to land it. Overall great game and enjoyable. Also would be nice to get some extra points for doing loop-de-loops or tricks with the plane. A shield power-up is also a great idea.
  • michaelteter 9d ago
    Yes, you're right - I need to improve the whole ground experience. The plane does gradually use fuel, but you're vastly more likely to crash before you run out of fuel. Landing and pausing on the runway refuels the plane, but the control behavior on the ground sucks.
• krapp 12d ago
  The fake scanlines and position of the UI elements make them difficult to read. The plane is too slow and its turn radius is too tight, the physics (if there are any) need to be improved to give a sense of weight and velocity to the plane IMO, and that probably necessitates a bigger playfield. Also it feels like it really needs a gun (edit: OK it does.) Overall it feels like an OK prototype but I agree it needs more polish. That said, HN is traditionally for sharing code with the community. Maybe for AI submissions people should share their prompts? I don't know. I'd ask to see the code but since you didn't write it you can't really discuss it.
  • noir_lord 12d ago
    > I don't know. I'd ask to see the code but since you didn't write it you can't really discuss it. Brusque but not inaccurate, Welcome to our future I guess.
  • amazingamazing 12d ago
    > I don't know. I'd ask to see the code but since you didn't write it you can't really discuss it. Huh? Why do you believe this? ever take a literature class? Regarding scanlines, there is a setting to turn them off.
    • krapp 12d ago
      Literature is written by human beings, and if the author was in the class I expect they would be able to discuss their process and methodologies. But the entire point of using an AI to generate code is not to pay attention to any of that. The author of AI generated code did not write said code and cannot therefore provide any insight into the process or methodology beyond "here is the prompt and model I used." Nothing that would be of value to the few of us left on this site who actually care about such things. Nothing, in other words, to gratify intellectual curiosity. Also regarding scanlines, fake scanlines shouldn't obscure UI elements or make them difficult to read. Actual scanlines on actual CRTs didn't do that.
      • amazingamazing 12d ago
• tonetheman 12d ago
  [dead]
• tom_ 12d ago
  If you pick up an additional machine gun powerup, the plane should fire more bullets simultaneously.
  • Configure0251 12d ago
    or fire bullets for longer, perhaps. it seems like in this case, neither happens.
• zwayhowder 12d ago
  This took me back to my first PC gaming experience at age 6ish. Circa 1988. Nostalgia unlocked!
• Ozzie-D 12d ago
  [flagged]
• kingforaday 12d ago
  Anyone else remember Sky Kid? Great game and this reminds me of it. Thanks for sharing.
• JKCalhoun 12d ago
  Badass.
• wetpaws 12d ago
  [dead]
• fhn 12d ago
  I like it, reminds me of the old arcade games. I'd rather use left and right keys instead of up and down but no big deal.
• jaylau47 12d ago
  Maybe this is intentional, but the up/down controls felt a bit counterintuitive to me. Up makes the plane go down, and down makes it go up - is that by design?
  • askvictor 12d ago
    That's how a real plane's control works, so many games do the same.
    • jaylau47 8d ago
      Yeah, that makes sense. I've never flown a plane or played this kind of game before, so it felt a bit unusual to me at first.
    • kqr 12d ago
      Indeed. Trim wheels when rolled upward trim for higher speed, i.e. nose down. Wait, this agrees with GP's experience but not mine. Did OP invert it?
  • trencedamp 12d ago
    When you're in a cockpit you're pushing the stick forward to dive, up key on the keyboard is often what we use to represent that but it's not a perfect analogy.
• Walf 12d ago
  I'd rather see AI being used to generate new games for old platforms (console emulators) than these faux-retro things with mixels, inconsistent graphics styles (some blocky bits, some curves), and rotation of squares. Constraining the canvas to a low-res pixel grid would be an instant improvement. The recent post https://airport.apunen.com/ https://airport.apunen.com/ does a decent job of this but it, too, has an odd mix of modern aircraft sound fx and vintage biplane graphics. It doesn't feel very retro because it's full 3D rather than limited 2D sprites of a 3D scene.
  • leothetechguy 12d ago
    I'd rather not see AI being used to generate new games for any platform. I'm not gonna read something nobody bothered to write, and I'm not gonna play something nobody bothered to write. AI has no taste and it's not a matter of post training because the Taste is the human component and actual effort put into something.
    • deleted 11d ago
      [deleted]
• therein 12d ago
  That was relatively fun but there should be a penalty for flying upside down and backwards, it should lose altitude or something.
• maxbond 12d ago
  I had a lot of fun, the scan line effect looks really good and the obstacles are interesting and challenging. I'd have liked to use my game controller, there's a browser API for it. And to have changed my control settings. I thought both mobile and desktop controls were good though. I've been working on a browser game too lately. It's a pretty great environment to work in. Three.js + WASM have cured my desire to learn Godot, at least for now.
• mikepalmer 12d ago
  Love the flight dynamics, super fun game!! Now can you make GTA VII??
• torranx 12d ago
  tried it and liked it but I wouldnt call it retro, at least by the looks of it
• diazc 12d ago
  Awesome!
• nnevatie 12d ago
  Triplane Turmoil was better.
  • michaelteter 11d ago
    Many games are better. Many comments are better too :).
• mikepalmer 12d ago
  suggestions: switch L-R directions like Defender dogfights with the red baron vertical and horizontal (have to stall through them) hoops ability to shoot up buildings levels with different goals... then you fly somewhere else to the next level. aircraft carrier landings other/faster planes some of the text in the UI is too small, old games just had 1 font. braking at landing is confusing... too easy to accidentally switch to full throttle
• byako 12d ago
  stall warning, angle of attack and wind dynamics in a balloon popping game, that is a lot of commitment to the flight model. respect.
  • kqr 12d ago
    What is the wind dynamics? I would have expected to climb when the headwind increased but I didn't. I also didn't manage to stall, only invert when I went out of bounds.
• contingencies 12d ago
  For further inspiration, check out Wings of Fury, an old DOS game. https://www.myabandonware.com/game/wings-of-fury-ta https://www.myabandonware.com/game/wings-of-fury-ta Apparently a newer 'inspired by' successor is https://store.steampowered.com/app/1371710/Rogue_Aces_Deluxe/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1371710/Rogue_Aces_Deluxe...
• kqr 12d ago
  Like many side scrolling airplane games, the object controlled in this game behaves a lot more like a rocket than an airplane. I suggest learning a little about the physics of airplanes[1] to improve the feeling of flying. I made a prototype[2] once (not working on mobile, unfortunately) to show what can be done, and it takes getting a lot of details right![3] [1]: http://av8n.com/how/ http://av8n.com/how/ [2]: https://xkqr.org/flightle/ https://xkqr.org/flightle/ [3]: https://entropicthoughts.com/sidescrolling-flight-simulator https://entropicthoughts.com/sidescrolling-flight-simulator
  • trencedamp 12d ago
    Second this. I've been trying to build a casual flying game in unity and getting the physics right is hard. What I found particularly hard is simulating accurately how gravity works against the aircrafts momentum, and trying to get stall and recovery right
  • michaelteter 9d ago
    The goal was to make a game similar in look and feel to an old console game I played when I was a kid. Just like with many arcade racing games, the physics are not intended to be hyper-realistic. I do love realistic physics in flight/driving sims, but that just wasn't my goal here.
• sahilramani 11d ago
  Concept and visual look is great! Controls need a little work.
• scrolling 11d ago
  Cool, but work with AI to figure out gravity and stalls better.
• hydropax 17d ago
  The scan lines are a great touch. It makes it feel truly retro
• carlbvt 17d ago
  nice!
• vunderba 16d ago
  Nice job - it kind of reminds me of the rocket barrel levels in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. Feedback: Consider playing with the physics of the plane depending on your pitch, so that some parts of some levels might require you to deliberately pitch down for a few seconds to build up some "stored speed".
  • michaelteter 16d ago
    It basically does this. If you are in level flight or a dive, you increase speed up to a certain max (level flight max is less than dive max). If you climb, you bleed off speed. To reach high balloons, you often need to build up more speed before you can climb high enough. There's probably room for improvement, but it's already enough fun that I can play it for several minutes at a time. Now I'm trying to decide if there's anything else of value to add - without making it too much of anything. I think I'm about finished now.