[HN Gopher] Show HN: Asterogue, my sci-fi roguelike, is now play...
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Show HN: Asterogue, my sci-fi roguelike, is now playable on the web
Author : chr15m
Score : 230 points
Date : 2024-11-08 07:43 UTC (15 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (asterogue.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (asterogue.com)
| chr15m wrote:
| Asterogue is a "juicy" graphical coffeebreak roguelike I made
| that is pretty much directly inspired by the original Rogue in
| terms of scope and features. You descend 17 levels into the heart
| of an asteroid to find The Orb and save the universe. There are a
| bunch of different monsters which get progressively harder as you
| descend. Instead of magic there is technology and you can pick up
| nanotech items and beakers of chemicals to buff your character
| (or hurt them if you get unlucky).
|
| I built Asterogue over the course of a couple of months while I
| was bored on a break from work due to illness. The game was
| always built with web tech but I only released it on Android and
| Windows at first because that seemed to be the right way to
| release a game. Well I recently realized maybe the right way is
| the wrong way. Maybe this web thing really is catching on. So now
| I'm trying out a web release to see if I can make it easier for
| more people to play Asterogue. So far this is working well and
| the game is getting more daily players than it ever did as a
| native app, which I'm very grateful for!
|
| For the web based version I am trying a new payment model. The
| original Asterogue was like most other games in that you simply
| buy it in the app store or on Itch and download the game. This
| time around I am trying a new experiment with this and instead of
| buying a downloadable binary, you can play the first few levels
| free in your browser and then you pay one-time to unlock the full
| game online if you want to continue. I think this strikes a nice
| balance for players as you get to try it out and only continue if
| you're actually into the game once you have picked up the vibe. I
| haven't really seen this done before with web based games so it's
| all a bit of an experiment.
|
| This release also includes a bunch of fixes and new features
| based on feedback I received from players after the native
| version was release.
|
| Anyway, I hope you enjoy my little roguelike game. Have fun!
| joshstrange wrote:
| Quick question, does purchasing the game from your website also
| give you the windows version as well? I'd like to see if I can
| run it on my steam deck but it's not clear to me if you only
| get the browser version or not. The Itch.io page for your game
| mentions the windows and Linux packages (and it's cheaper?) so
| I wanted to check before buying.
| chr15m wrote:
| No it is only for access to the web version at this point,
| sorry!
| codingbot3000 wrote:
| It is fun, nice one :-)
| modeless wrote:
| Glad to see more web games! The zero install/instant load
| aspect is such a huge advantage for the web. I am interested to
| see people's experience with monetization on web vs app stores.
|
| These days it's possible to do almost any mobile game as a web
| game. I recently discovered this very polished (despite the
| cartoony graphics) battle royale:
| https://gooberdash.winterpixel.io/ and the creator has an HN
| post describing how they did it (Godot with wasm threads):
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40372308
|
| Another good source on the technical aspects of porting to the
| web is Sebastian Altonen, a very good graphics programmer who
| works at a company called HypeHype doing a kind of TikTok-but-
| Roblox hybrid. He is currently porting from WebGL to WebGPU and
| posting a lot about it here: https://x.com/SebAaltonen
| animex wrote:
| Would love to hear a bit about the tech stack or engine you
| used (if any)!
| modernerd wrote:
| They reference these on the site's about page:
|
| https://chr15m.itch.io/roguelike-browser-boilerplate
|
| https://ondras.github.io/rot.js/hp/
|
| https://www.oryxdesignlab.com/products/tiny-galaxy-tileset
|
| https://nostalgic-css.github.io/NES.css/
|
| https://sfxr.me/
| er4hn wrote:
| This is a really neat game. I love how you're showing that you
| can build fun small games on the web. I always toy with the
| idea of doing gamedev and seeing things like this are both fun
| and inspirational.
| kleiba wrote:
| Looks awesome, I really enjoy the atmosphere of the game.
|
| This being Hackernews, there's is generally a great interest in
| both the technical as well as the business side of projects
| such as this. Would you be ready to share some insights into
| how well a game like this (which is targeting certainly a
| niche) can do financially, both with respect to the investment
| as well as the revenue side of things?
|
| Sorry if this question might be out of your comfort zone.
| hmcq6 wrote:
| It was pretty jarring when the game stopped 3 levels in to ask me
| for money. I guess it technically says "3 free levels" on the
| splash screen. Perhaps OP could use the word "demo" somewhere in
| this post.
| chr15m wrote:
| Thanks for the feedback, I will update the landing page with
| make it clearer the full game is paid. I also added this
| paragraph to my post which hopefully makes it clearer:
|
| > For the web based version I am trying a new payment model.
| The original Asterogue was like most other games in that you
| simply buy it in the app store or on Itch and download the
| game. This time around I am trying a new experiment with this
| and instead of buying a downloadable binary, you can play the
| first few levels free in your browser and then you pay one-time
| to unlock the full game online if you want to continue. I think
| this strikes a nice balance for players as you get to try it
| out and only continue if you're actually into the game once you
| have picked up the vibe. I haven't really seen this done before
| with web based games so it's all a bit of an experiment.
|
| Thanks for checking it out!
| Evidlo wrote:
| The popup should show after clearing some goal. Up to level 3
| all I've done is picked up items and slain a few small
| animals.
| sigseg1v wrote:
| I think something about the timing of it feels off to me as
| well. I'm no stranger to payment screens; I grew up playing
| shareware floppies. I think the difference is that, let's take
| a game like Monster Bash for example: you can play up until you
| beat the first boss, and it feels pretty epic, and then there
| is a splash screen after the epic boss fight which is
| essentially a "You think that was awesome? Want more? Mail us
| at XYZ for Episodes 2, 3 and 4 to discover the rest of the
| journey."
|
| I totally mailed them and had to have more of that.
|
| For this I'm not sure because I don't suggest changing the game
| drastically, however it feels like there should be some epic
| fun thing _first_ , usually after an hour or so, and then right
| after that is when you ask the player if they want more. In
| order for them to pay they would probably need to feel like
| they already got a very good amount for free and that they now
| feel generous. This is a cute game but I'm not getting that
| feeling so I struggle with this.
|
| For the creator: please don't take this as anything negative
| about the game! It's fun and I like it. But monetization is
| hard and I'm just offering my previous experiences where I've
| personally seen it work successfully.
| dave333 wrote:
| Wonder if OP has given any thought to an ad supported version
| for the cheapskates among us :-)
| jcalabro wrote:
| Love the 8-bit Holst :)
| davedx wrote:
| I love rogue games and recently spent an unreasonable amount of
| time trying to beat Angband (and failing). This is refreshingly
| simple, very playable on mobile too. Good luck!
| debo_ wrote:
| If anyone else wants to ride the angband-family-of-games train,
| join us at angband.live :) A bunch of angband variants are
| available to play in-browser!
| debo_ wrote:
| I love the aesthetic.
|
| Couple nits:
|
| I have no idea how I expected the browser back button to work,
| but whatever it did do surprised me a bit. During gameplay, it
| might be nice to have an "are you sure you want to go back?"
| before it exits.
|
| I'd recommend running spell check on your in-game messages. I
| already saw "Weilding X" instead of "Wielding X"
|
| I'll give it a further go.
| chr15m wrote:
| I just grepped the source and wow, literally every instance of
| wielding is spelled wrong, including variable names. I've
| updated it, thank you (will push it once HN is done thrashing
| my VPS). Will also have a think about how to improve the back
| button thing!
| debo_ wrote:
| At least you're consistent! :)
| debo_ wrote:
| I just did a quick run down to the paywall, and it's fun!
| Good coffeebreak game, and I like the vibe a lot. I'll buy it
| shortly.
|
| I'm not sure if more mechanics show up later in the game, but
| this feels like the kind of game that needs traps or other
| landscape threats, even if they're 100% detectable. Maybe
| there are cooler / more complicated items coming, but the
| tactics so far are pretty light.
|
| I personally also have qualms about tiled roguelikes that
| don't let you move/attack on diagonals, but I understand
| wanting to keep the keyset simple.
|
| I was a bit confused by the sight radius at first, because it
| was hard for me to distinguish which parts of the map were
| uncovered and which parts were covered but black because of
| the background. I wonder if you could add some sort of
| transparent "fog" or something over unsighted areas, so that
| you still see the space background but also make it clear
| that tiles have not been sighted.
|
| Hopefully this stuff helps.
| hinkley wrote:
| The number of RPG players who think they're playing a 'rouge'
| is too damn high. It feels almost atmospheric that wield is
| misspelled.
| cengen wrote:
| Great game! I like to experiment with different game frameworks
| myself (currently on pico8). What "web tech" did you use to build
| it?
| debo_ wrote:
| It gives you a list of the tech in the About section when you
| first start the game.
| cengen wrote:
| Aha thanks!
| chr15m wrote:
| It's HTML, CSS, and vanilla JS (except for the ROT.js library
| which is fantastic!).
| kemotep wrote:
| Chris is also the developer behind rogule[0], a daily roguelike
| dungeon in a similar style as wordle or tradle type games.
|
| Absolutely been enjoying it the past year.
|
| [0]: https://rogule.com/game.html
| n4r9 wrote:
| Second that. Been roguling almost daily. It's great although
| I'm now finding it's either a bit too easy, or impossible.
| skarlso wrote:
| Exactly. Sometime I'm surrounded completely without changes
| of going around something with two three level 5-6 creatures
| in the beginning at level 3.
| chr15m wrote:
| Glad you're enjoying Rogule, thanks for playing!
|
| It's amazing to me how often I hear things like this even
| though the level gen hasn't changed. I think maybe what
| happens is people get really good at it and can then only be
| defeated by really hard levels or unlucky combat rolls.
| n4r9 wrote:
| Yeah it's because of figuring out some strategy. Probably
| difficult to avoid that while keeping to the minimalist
| vibe of the game.
| kemotep wrote:
| Adding potions/scrolls with random effects could mix it
| up. Maybe more of a fog of war/roaming monsters too?
| Rhapso wrote:
| Sound settings should not wrap back around to max when you hit
| the "volume down" button a lot.
| chr15m wrote:
| Thanks, will fix!
| cassianoleal wrote:
| Probably not related to this game exclusively but whenever I
| click on the screen, Firefox selects the canvas and the entire
| map gets a blue screen on top. Is there some way to modify this
| behaviour?
| martinkallstrom wrote:
| How do I descend after clearing a level?
| hirako2000 wrote:
| There is a stairs looking square in each level.
| Steuard wrote:
| There were easily visible stairs in my level 1 and level 3,
| but on level 2 I walked around the whole map twice without
| finding them. Possibly I was just being oblivious, but I
| eventually tried moving sideways onto what I thought was a
| slightly odd looking wall segment (I wish I remembered what
| exactly made me think it looked odd), and suddenly I was on
| the next level.
|
| I don't know whether somehow the stairs icon just blended in
| with the walls unexpectedly well and I managed to not
| recognize it in that context (which seems possible but hard
| for me to believe, given how much time I spent walking in
| circles looking for stairs), or whether something odd was
| going on with the icon being different or distorted for some
| reason.
| JohnDeHope wrote:
| It was fun :)
| swayvil wrote:
| Hey this is pretty nice.
|
| Played it on my phone.
|
| No minimap. Got lost. Starved.
|
| Controls were surprisingly ez.
|
| Catchy music. Good ui. Pretty graphics.
|
| I dig it.
|
| I assume that you are familiar with DCSS.
| jbellis wrote:
| On the subject of scifi roguelikes, I've sunk 700+ hours into
| Jupiter Hell. I've been playing roguelikes since the original
| Rogue in the 80s and I think JH is the GOAT: skill tree that
| rewards experimentation, learning curve that never feels unfair,
| and that "just one more level" itch propelling you forward. Add
| in a fresh take on ranged combat mechanics, a strip-it-to-
| essentials design (a winning run takes me ~3h on Ultraviolence),
| and a legitimately good custom 3D engine, and you have something
| that I think will be recognized as a classic for years.
|
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/811320/Jupiter_Hell/
| swayvil wrote:
| You are me. Will check JH. Thanks.
| j_crick wrote:
| Quite surprised to see JH mentioned here, it's a great game!
| Also in some way it reminds me of Heat Signature, which is not
| the same game at all, and yet somehow has the same kind of vibe
| for me.
| waihtis wrote:
| Bought it after 5 minutes of play. Cool ambiance, great UI, will
| get a broader play in later!
| CatAtHeart wrote:
| One suggestion is to allow for HJKL or WASD movement. Arrow keys
| are fine and intuitive, but not in the best location. I remember
| playing nethack years ago and it had the HJKL system.
| hinkley wrote:
| I wonder sometimes how much playing moria drew me to VI over
| emacs.
|
| Emacs' dealing poorly with choppy internet connections was the
| main reason I went back to vi very quickly after trying it, but
| it wasn't the only reason.
| imp0cat wrote:
| Great use of "Jupiter" by Gustav Holst on the main screen! Strong
| Bluey vibes. :)
| xivusr wrote:
| Love the music retro look and feel. Awesome work here!
| bryceneal wrote:
| I enjoyed it, though for my taste it was maybe a little too
| simplistic and easy. The original rogue is before my time, but at
| one point I got very hooked on brogue
| (https://sites.google.com/site/broguegame/) and this reminded me
| very much of that.
| hinkley wrote:
| If a game called 'brogue' doesn't teach you to understand a
| colloquial Scottish accent and slang, I don't even know what
| we're doing here.
| jamalaramala wrote:
| One thing that I really liked was the "discoverability" of the
| user interface.
|
| I started to walk around, picking things up. Then, I noticed a
| little "i" on the bottom left. I typed "i", and it opened the
| inventory. Very good!
|
| Now, the "i" was replaced by an "x". I really expected that "x"
| would close the inventory... but it didn't. :-(
|
| Unless the "x" letter is reserved for something important, it
| would be nice if it could be used to close dialogs!
| themanmaran wrote:
| Also wish "i" wasn't the only way to open inventory. It feels
| awkward having to move my hand from "i" to the top row numbers,
| then back to the arrow keys.
| johtso wrote:
| Loving it so far!
|
| My only comment is that it feels like there are too many items
| for the amount of inventory space.
|
| There will be rooms completely littered with boots that you just
| walk past. Every time you see something interesting like a potion
| you have to first chuck away a pair of boots before you can pick
| it up and drink it.
| j_crick wrote:
| I've been Rogule-ing for so long that I'll just buy it as a big
| thank you.
|
| Also, why the gear cannot be dropped and only destroyed? :(
| gavmor wrote:
| Wow, wonderful! Love the rendition of "Jupiter". Really a
| delightful experience.
|
| On mobile, I'd prefer movement on the left, and inventory on the
| right.
| pmontra wrote:
| A nice game.
|
| But when I drop something by clicking on the red X button, the
| item should drop to my feet and not become permanently lost. If
| the game can't stack items, it could go in a random nearby space.
| If there are no empty spaces, I can accept that I can't drop it.
| Oh, I didn't check if monsters can step above items.
| philsnow wrote:
| Thanks for this! Some notes:
|
| - food clock is kind of arbitrary (I went four levels without
| finding any food), or else I'm just not diving nearly fast
| enough.
|
| - game crashed when I descended from level 16
|
| - the only difference I can figure out between various monsters
| are: some are stationary, some wander, and some chase you. I
| can't tell whether they all steal money from you or steal items
| or just some of them.
|
| Fun overall, I'm happy to have paid the $5 just for the chiptune
| Holst.
| ktbwrestler wrote:
| I love the 8-bit holst soundtrack. Great work and feel for the
| game!
| tunnuz wrote:
| I'd love to be able to make stuff like this, very cool!
| lairv wrote:
| Spamming arrow keys makes you move faster than simply holding
| them down, this is pretty frustrating
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