[HN Gopher] Pounce: A multiplayer stealth game about hunting / t...
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Pounce: A multiplayer stealth game about hunting / tracking
Author : underanalyzer
Score : 84 points
Date : 2022-04-18 16:55 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.pounce.sh)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.pounce.sh)
| llaolleh wrote:
| The tutorial is great. One of the best I've seen.
| underanalyzer wrote:
| I appreciate it! The tutorial was one of the most labor
| intensive parts. It's hard to explain things
| formerkrogemp wrote:
| Well that was fun.
| yonrg wrote:
| Cool! I had already plenty of fun against bots.
|
| Perhaps, creating a new game could generate a clickable link.
| This would be much more convenient to invite others.
| dwighttk wrote:
| Kinda reminds me of captain sonar :)
| ZYinMD wrote:
| After finishing the tutorial, for 10+ games I was under the false
| impression that a powerup is immediately used at the spot where
| you acquire it. I think if powerups are named "weapons", it
| should be less likely to cause this fusion for future players,
| because the word "weapon" implies that you can carry it around.
| Hammershaft wrote:
| Great game!
| thih9 wrote:
| Looks cool! Minor issue, got: "Disconnected from server, please
| reload the page", this unfortunately restarted my tutorial
| progress.
| ZYinMD wrote:
| How do I know the effect of a powerup before stepping on it?
| pouncethrow wrote:
| Cool game, nice work.
|
| Just had a bug where I was in two separate games at once against
| different opponents. Perhaps a race during matchmaking? It then
| switched between the two games when it became my turn but when it
| was my turn in _both_ , switching to the second caused my timer
| on the first to elapse since ai couldn't switch back to it after
| moving in the second game.
|
| With a little work, this bug could metamorphose a feature:
| multiple simultaneous games!
| pugworthy wrote:
| For some reason my large corporation's IT department thinks this
| website should be blocked.
|
| Can I get a description of what this is like?
| jaimehrubiks wrote:
| same here
| dsXLII wrote:
| I presume your company is using Cisco Umbrella DNS? (It's
| blocked for me too, and that's why. Umbrella has a "feature"
| that automatically blocks any newly-seen domains for the first
| few hours of their lifetime. Presumably they do some extra
| scanning of said sites, and assuming they're safe unblock them
| after a few hours.)
| jldugger wrote:
| It is a hidden movement game, akin to Captain Sonar. There is a
| square grid of tiles, and you move around it in the typical 8
| directions. Each player is told the color of tile their
| opponent moved to (you cannot reuse a square). If you move into
| your opponent, you win.
|
| You have the ability to "pounce", jumping like three squares,
| but doing so will announce your exact location, so if you miss
| you will be dangerously exposed. There are also bonus pickup on
| the map with various powerful effects, but picking them up
| exposes you, same as a pounce.
| joemi wrote:
| As a fan of hidden movement board games, I definitely like this.
| With some of the feedback/suggestions other people have already
| noted, this could end up being really great. I definitely think
| the control could use a bit of work.
| anton001 wrote:
| So cool!
|
| Spend a good 30 minutes already.
|
| I was a bit confused about the map shrinking at first, as it
| wasn't explained in the tutorial.
|
| This was my longest and most satisfying victory so far:
|
| http://pounce.sh/?replay=1210431955
| underanalyzer wrote:
| haha that is very satisfying. Also yea some things I decided to
| cut out of the tutorial because I didn't want it to be too
| long. I will add help screen which allows you to see all the
| rules anytime you want
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| I love the custom dismissive text on the "OK" buttons in the
| tutorial.
| psyc wrote:
| Great concept. I've wanted a 3D conventional-FPS 1-vs-1 tracking
| game for a long time. This is a neat board game-ization of it.
| anExcitedBeast wrote:
| I LOVE this. I'd love a correspondence mode so I can play over
| the course of a few days (or even PBeM if you wanna go old
| school).
| bitxbitxbitcoin wrote:
| This is a cool game. The tutorial was very informative and took
| <10 minutes to complete.
| i_cannot_hack wrote:
| Great game!
|
| I think the powerups seem to be bait here. I've won all but one
| of the last 12ish games by never taking any powerups and simply
| waiting for the opponent to reveal themselves by taking them. The
| only time I used a powerup was to pounce onto a bomb when I
| suspected the enemy was close and about to take it.
|
| The powerups are often useless unless you already know the
| position of the opponent, which you most likely won't if they
| don't reveal themselves by picking up one of their own or clearly
| move towards them. And when you take a powerup it's easy for an
| invisible opponent to quickly track you down and pounce you from
| an unknown/ambiguous direction without you having much
| opportunity to react.
|
| If you get a sense the enemy are generally moving towards a non-
| bomb powerup by the tiles they step on, you can even prepare for
| it by simply staying around the powerup tile and pounce them the
| moment they pick it up, without exposing yourself to any risk if
| you are wrong.
|
| If both players avoid powerups I suspect it mostly would become a
| game of chance (unless one player carelessly steps upon a
| combination of tiles that reveals their position).
|
| The way powerups permanently changes the board by marking the
| tiles is a good idea in theory, but right now it adds another
| huge weakness to using a powerup. Your opponent will be able to
| very effectively track you even AFTER you used the powerups by
| using the marked tiles in your vicinity. I would change it, maybe
| by only giving the information about the marked tiles to the
| player using the powerup.
|
| I would also make it harder to move onto tiles you've stepped on
| before, to increase the ability to narrow down an opponent over
| time even if they try to remain hidden.
| breakds wrote:
| I really like the idea of the game. Super fun!
| high_pathetic wrote:
| Need power-ups wiki.
| jsnell wrote:
| The idea is neat. The UI didn't really work for me in a couple of
| ways:
|
| - The modal input mechanism feels kind of clumsy. An extra click
| is needed for the most common move, and the buttons are somehow
| too inconspicuous. At least I kept forgetting to make the
| use/save choice for powerups.
|
| - The path of terrains/actions taken is really hard to read. I
| think it's due to overlaying the two kinds of icons on top of
| each other. It'd probably be better if the terrain was shown as-
| is, but the action type was shrunk to maybe half or third, placed
| in a corner, and with an opaque background.
| underanalyzer wrote:
| This is great feedback thanks! I very much agree with the size
| of the icons and will patch it soon
| sudden_dystopia wrote:
| Agree with this, especially the legibility of the paths at the
| top.
| sweetheart wrote:
| This is a blast! Super fun. I hope this continues to gets worked
| on, as with some polish it'd be a great game with solid
| replayability.
| underanalyzer wrote:
| Thanks! I have a lot more ideas of where to take this but
| wanted to see if there was interest before going all out into
| it. I'm excited to keep building
| pinko wrote:
| Nice!
|
| One pedantic note, hopefully helpful: "this let's you move
| further" should be "this lets you move further" -- there is no
| apostrophe in "lets" unless it's a contraction of "let us".
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > there is no apostrophe in "lets" unless it's a contraction of
| "let us".
|
| It is not obvious that the form _let 's_ is a contraction of
| "let us". For one thing, it's not generally possible to expand
| it into the notional "uncontracted form"; if the form were a
| contraction, that would be easy to do.
| stavros wrote:
| Also, "farther", unless it means you move again.
| mLuby wrote:
| Lots of fun! Pacifist run: https://pounce.sh/?replay=2480610918
|
| If it could have multiple players (even teams!) and a "spectate
| after death" mode, I could see this being a remote game night
| staple like generals.io.
|
| Other ideas - a leaderboard - achievements like "win without
| getting a powerup" or "win by moving not pouncing" - limited
| emotes like "well played" or "you got lucky" or "whoops" - offer
| to rematch
| lgas wrote:
| A leaderboard would be clutch.
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(page generated 2022-04-18 23:00 UTC)