[HN Gopher] Paper Apps
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Paper Apps
Author : bluebirdfirewin
Score : 494 points
Date : 2025-02-06 07:58 UTC (15 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (gladdendesign.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (gladdendesign.com)
| gmuslera wrote:
| The dungeon one "procedurally generated" reminded me of
| https://xkcd.com/221/
| tempodox wrote:
| They didn't say _what_ procedure was used to generate the
| dungeons :P
| hk__2 wrote:
| The key part is you need a "pencil dice" to play these.
| andrewflnr wrote:
| Or regular dice, presumably. Or a regular pencil with 1..6
| written in its sides with a sharpie. You can also make a
| spinner with just a few lines and a paper clip.
| duxup wrote:
| Not unlike "AI". I know a few companies that just sort of
| rebranded their old process or service as "AI" ... it hasn't
| changed in 10+ years.
| hexmiles wrote:
| I love paper tools and games.
|
| Another one that i use is: https://davidseah.com/productivity-
| tools/
| hassleblad23 wrote:
| This looks incredible.
| SirFatty wrote:
| I posted the same link then had to delete because I didn't see
| your comment. Been a fan of David Seah for about 10 years.
| johnwayne666 wrote:
| Interesting idea. There are also solo board games that can be
| carried in your pocket. Some of them listed here:
| https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/273744/small-box-solo-gam...
|
| Recommendations are welcome :)
| WillAdams wrote:
| Interestingly, that was one of the original considerations for
| _Magic: The Gathering_ --- but somehow, my main (Commander)
| deck has become an unpocketable behemoth which is tedious to
| shuffle and which requires a box containing:
|
| - play mat
|
| - dice
|
| - counters
|
| - tokens
|
| (and constant supervision since I had to add a rider to my
| insurance policy 'cause while my Elvish Archers are no longer
| in it, some rather valuable cards from when I first started
| playing are still in it)
| iimblack wrote:
| Onirim is good but the phone app is better since there's so
| much shuffling. Cursed?! is one of my favorites. Galdors Grip
| is really cool in that you can play it in hand, you don't need
| a table, so you can play it anywhere.
| Skinney wrote:
| Pretty much love all the Simply Solo games from Button Shy
| Games.
| 2mlWQbCK wrote:
| There is also a geeklist for just dungeon-crawling games played
| with pen and paper:
|
| https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/274219/pencil-swords-and-...
|
| And some "Roll and Write" games in general:
|
| https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/213815/roll-and-write-gam...
| Edd314159 wrote:
| "Paper Apps" seems like an overly snobby and infantilizing term
| for something we already had a term for: Puzzle Books /
| Notebooks.
| VyseofArcadia wrote:
| It does on the surface just seem like it's selling those sudoku
| and crossword puzzles you see at the grocery store checkout to
| people who aren't grandparents. But also, that's like comparing
| the modern board game scene to Monopoly and Candyland.
| addandsubtract wrote:
| "Apps" is just our current Zeitgeist term for products.
| Facebook, Reddit, newspaper... are now "apps". You don't have
| to like it (I don't either), but just like the term "meme" has
| evolved from an "animal/person with bold text on it" to mean
| any joke or popular concept, "app" has transcended the phone
| realm.
| zmgsabst wrote:
| "Meme" predates the internet, with both animal/comic captions
| as a means of culture and popular jokes/concepts being
| examples.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme
| Retr0id wrote:
| > the term "meme" has evolved from an "animal/person with
| bold text on it" to mean any joke or popular concept
|
| It's actually the other way around, "meme" existed in the
| general sense for many years before internet-image-macro-
| memes became a thing.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme#Dawkins
| floydnoel wrote:
| sure, let's take advice about words from the person who
| doesn't know the definition of the ones they are using.
| flpm wrote:
| It's a satire about the world of app-everything we live in
| today. The notepad of the past is a non-software Notes app
| today
| SkyBelow wrote:
| When I hear Paper Apps, I'm expecting something with a decent
| bit of complexity. Likely some number crunching, maybe needing
| an external source of RNG, using multiple pages. It says to me
| that this is something significantly more than what I would
| find in a puzzle book. If I open it up and it is a standard
| puzzle book, I would be disappointed.
| pmkary wrote:
| This is both very funny and very sad :)
|
| Paper is its own thing. if you think about it, the todo list in
| the computer was first a skeuomorph of the paper one. Now people
| have become so alienated from the paper that someone has brought
| their computer todo to the paper :))))
|
| Not only this does not promote the paper, but is a huge promotion
| for the computer! By being a constant reminder to the notebook's
| owner: "this is not a computer", one will have no choice but to
| keep thinking of all the things they miss in their todo from a
| dynamic medium :))))
| Raztuf wrote:
| >A skeuomorph is a derivative object that retains ornamental
| design cues (attributes) from structures that were necessary in
| the original.
|
| Thanks for the new word !
| andsoitis wrote:
| Skeuomorphism:
| https://www.nngroup.com/articles/skeuomorphism/
| FrustratedMonky wrote:
| A skeuomorph (also spelled skiamorph, /'skju:@,mo:rf,
| 'skju:oU-/) is a derivative object that retains ornamental
| design cues (attributes) from structures that were
| necessary in the original. Skeuomorphs are typically used
| to make something new feel familiar in an effort to speed
| understanding and acclimation.
| cowsandmilk wrote:
| I don't think this is sad at all. And I'm not sure how this can
| be described as bringing computer todo to paper.
| Retr0id wrote:
| It's just a matter of framing. If "paper" is your starting
| point, a computerized todo list is "paper, but smarter". If a
| computerized todo list is your starting point (which for many
| it is), then paper is "computers, but dumber".
|
| It is a little sad (in a nostalgic sense) that paper
| apparently becomes more marketable when contrasted with the
| features of computers (apps specifically), rather than as a
| product in its own right.
| svrtknst wrote:
| for given values of "smarter" and "dumber". i've yet to
| encounter a smart digital to-do system. most are terrible
| and pretty dumb. a paper todo is pretty much as smart as
| you make it.
| paxys wrote:
| We had something else before paper, and we'll have something
| else after the computer. Being sad over technological progress
| is a fool's errand. It'll happen whether you want it to or not.
| And you always have a personal choice to use whatever tools you
| want.
| viccis wrote:
| When it comes to skeuomorphism, this really is the last stage
| in the precession of the simulacra. First you have the original
| thing based in reality (writing todo notes on paper). Then you
| have the first order unfaithful copy (skeuomorphic imitation).
| Next you have the second order version that masks the absence
| of the original thing (removal of skeuomorphism and integration
| of other functionality, you're no longer using a computer to
| replace writing down notes, you're using it in its own right).
| Finally, you have the pure simulacrum with no relation to
| reality whatsoever. That todo notepad pretending to be a
| computer app that doesn't exist when actual notepad-like games
| (like crosswords) still exist.
|
| Not so much sad as just kinda funny I think.
| wwilim wrote:
| Don't think about the elephant
| nyclounge wrote:
| Don't think it is sad at all. Glade to the reverting from
| digital to analog. To be honest we don't need digital stuff, a
| lot of just makes people lazier.
|
| Hope in the future people will always have a physical counter
| part (Certificate of Deposit) for their IMPORTANT digital
| assets such as money.
|
| Projects like this help people to move some of the important
| items to physical medium. If needed they can take a pic of the
| notepad as a history. Seems like the ultimate killer app to me.
| Xorger wrote:
| I'm honestly annoyed by the whole "anti-digital" thing. Like
| sure, it's good to take a break, but what's wrong with
| technology? It being more efficient is a good thing. It's
| like saying glass windows are bad because you can look
| outside without having to open them.
| jjice wrote:
| These are neat, I've been seeing them around the web for a week
| or so now. That said, I've actually come around in the other
| direction. I was big on paper for lots of things, but have
| recently begun using my phone more for things like notes and
| todos.
|
| The main reasons are searchability and archivability. My todos
| are always there, I can modify them, and they reach out to yell
| at me at the appropriate times. My notes done get lost in my desk
| anymore and take up no space.
|
| I still like paper for fast writing and then I just port that
| over to my digital notes later.
|
| I'm sure these are great for limiting distractability, but I've
| found that switching to an iPhone and not having my notifications
| in the top bar of my phone, along with having some type of focus
| enabled most of the day helps me not get distracted while taking
| care of something separate.
| ggbjr wrote:
| So much hate. These are great for those of us interested in
| introducing a little more analog into the lives of our teenage
| kids. I'm re-upping now.
| hugs wrote:
| Speaking of teenage kids, these could also be useful in places
| where computers/phones are not allowed (like
| backpacking/camping trips or in school). Most likely, they'd
| rather play card games, but this might provide a nice
| alternative and is easier to pause and get back to a task than
| card games.
| lifefeed wrote:
| I had the Dungeon Notebook. It was fun. I played it until I got
| bored, which was quick, then gave it away.
|
| The ability to "give away" these little games are part of the
| fun. I'd like to see a game like this where "giving it away" is
| part of the game. Something you can pass around a school or a
| con. Like an analog version of Chain World, which was a mini-
| Minecraft-on-a-USB-stick that you were supposed to pass on.
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_World )
| jacoblambda wrote:
| Subnautica has a somewhat related concept which is that at the
| end of the game you have the ability to send a single time
| capsule to the maps of new players. They contain text, a
| picture (taken with the in game camera), and a handful of
| items.
|
| It's a cute little feature that allows you to send something
| helpful (or just amusing) to the next generation of players.
| lifefeed wrote:
| I got a little fish in my first capsule (along something
| useful that I can't remember, maybe a suit). I kept it the
| whole game, then passed it on in my own capsule. It's silly,
| but I still think about that fish.
| cbm-vic-20 wrote:
| Sounds like a NetHack "bones level" that gets created when
| you die, and may appear in someone else's game. Full of
| cursed items, of course.
|
| https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Bones#Description
| IgorPartola wrote:
| Nothing like finding your own bones and being attacked by
| your ghost.
| rkowalick wrote:
| Sounds like the nethack equivalent of seeing bad code,
| running git blame
|
| and finding out it was me.
| mhb wrote:
| Wait until you hear about PaperBooks. They're like a Kindle
| download except, once you finish reading one, you can give it
| to anyone else to read. And BookNotes are completely portable -
| anything you write in it stays with the PaperBook and can be
| read by any other person.
| benbristow wrote:
| You're going to be blown away when you hear about DRM free
| eBooks and LibGen...
| tutuca wrote:
| I believe he was being sarcastic and talking about old
| fashioned, actual paper books.
| benbristow wrote:
| Nothing gets past you!
| cafeinux wrote:
| Reminds me when in school I had to do a presentation
| about ways to defend against malware. I showed a few
| software examples (among other things) and ended with
| "the most powerful anti-malware ever, compatible with
| every other anti-malware, adds a strong security layer to
| them, protects your passwords, prevents you from opening
| spam, from clicking unknown links, from replying to
| phishing, almost impossible to uninstall by a hacker, and
| lots of other powerful features: Common Sense(tm)".
|
| One of the other students came to me after class and said
| "hey, that last software seems really promising, but I
| never heard about it. What was it again?"
| SpaceNoodled wrote:
| You should have asked them how they managed to uninstall
| it.
| patcon wrote:
| As the sort of absent-minded human who (no matter how
| much I learn) will always have a deep-seated irrational
| fear of being "that student", I must say: sick burn
| rchaud wrote:
| This reminds me of a scene in Parks and Recreation where a
| local fashionista in a small town is pitching the latest
| evolution of almond milk and oat milk....beef milk.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMIW2tBpnDI
| itishappy wrote:
| Scrawl it! *thump. clap. thump thump clap thump*
|
| Erase it! *thump. clap. thump thump clap thump*
|
| Pass it! *dun dun dun dun dun dun*
| rel wrote:
| Found these a couple weeks ago and bought the golf PDF for my
| <7y/o nephew and he was initially hesitant but then thrilled once
| he understood the basic premise. Didn't have the heart to start
| teaching him A* and manhattan distance, that'll come later.
|
| I'm glad the creator made this and am looking forward to seeing
| more of these
|
| Side note, these reminded me of pocket mod which I absolutely
| loved using 15 years ago https://pocketmod.com/
| hassleblad23 wrote:
| The idea is interesting.
| robbomacrae wrote:
| I wish there was a bulk buy discount then these would make for
| awesome party bag fillers at my kids birthday parties. Much
| better than giving out candy...
| rickspencer3 wrote:
| $4.99 impulse buy. I bought a pdf to put on my remarkable 2 for
| my next plane trip. I hope that doing it this way doesn't violate
| the spirit of using paper :)
| funksta wrote:
| I think the reMarkable is very much in the spirit of using
| paper, despite it being electronic. It's quite a fun little
| gaming device: https://hyperpaper.me/blog/fun-and-games-on-eink
| caycep wrote:
| I wonder what the trademark situation is on apps named
| paper...I've had at least 1 Dropbox owned paper app and a
| drawing/painting app of the same name
| bencyoung wrote:
| Personally I think this is a really cool idea:
| https://experiments.withgoogle.com/paper-phone. Both mildly
| mocking and thought provoking at the same time!
| jldugger wrote:
| This looks a lot like the hipster PDA from two decades ago:
| https://lifehacker.com/printable-hipster-pda-104799
| threeio wrote:
| I realize its insane, but I used that Hipster PDA workflow
| for about 3 years before moving back to a digital workflow..
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipster_PDA for more details
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| I love writing and continue to explore various writing tools
| (pen/paper), and digital. Right now, I use a mix of digital and
| physical tools -- fountain pens, paper notebooks, and devices
| (iPad/iPhone/Mac).
|
| - Commonplace Notes: I almost always start in a physical
| notebook. I then transferred (typed) this to my digital version
| for more permanent reference.
|
| - Journal: I write a lot. I moved to all digital about 10 years
| ago but moved back to physical about 5 years ago. I really love
| the tactile feel of the paper kicking back to my fountain pen,
| and I believe I will maintain my journal in a physical notebook.
|
| - Temporary Notes/Quicknotes: I used both a pocket notebook and
| the usual digital notes on the device available with me at that
| time. These notes are considered ephemeral and the useful info is
| moved to the Commonplace Notes or the Journal. I write almost all
| physical meeting notes in a physical notebook with a pen. They
| usually end up being the reference that gets circulated to the
| participants.
| aquir wrote:
| Very clever idea, looks like fun!
| foenix wrote:
| Hi Tom!
|
| I went to school with Tom. He's one of the first legit nerds I
| ever hung out with. Glad to see his business featured on HN!
| dole wrote:
| Perfect site design, concept and pricing, much luck, forget the
| haters.
| turnsout wrote:
| Ha, this is awesome! Reminds me of "Real Apps" from New Girl [0]
| [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_(New_Girl)
| latexr wrote:
| I really like the idea. I have some notes/suggestions.
|
| I only saw the GALAXY video and my immediate thought was that I
| wouldn't want to scribble over the levels. I understand that's
| kind of the point but I'm confident I'd enjoy replaying the same
| level to "speed run" it or giving the books away to someone else
| later. What I think could work is a detachable acetate sheet to
| place over pages. This way you can play it over and over.
|
| I would ask that you make it obvious somewhere the places you
| ship from. Reason being I'm in the EU and having anything shipped
| from the US always bites me, to the point I just refuse to do it
| now because it's never worth the cost and stress. Things often
| get stuck in customs, and if I can get them unstuck at all I need
| to pay insane taxes. Being able to verify the shipping origin
| would help.
|
| One game that could be fun is something inspired by ChuChu
| Rocket. I remember as a kid liking to solve the puzzles, and once
| I imagined drawing the harder ones on graph paper so I could
| solve them on the go.
| jldugger wrote:
| Well, acetate sheets are pretty easy to find and cut. Consider
| it an optional DIY project? =)
| bityard wrote:
| If the creator shows up (or if anyone else knows), can you shed
| some light on how exactly the Print and Play editions work? The
| product pages do not have enough information, unfortunately.
| After you pay, do you just get a static PDF with X number of
| pages? Or do the PDFs contain Javascript to generate new levels?
| Or does the website generate your PDFs for you, with a random
| seed if you ask it to? If so, how many times can you do it?
| clifdweller wrote:
| the pdf are all seed 0 for each game so a static pdf same thing
| you would get if buying a printed book but set to seed 0
| flpm wrote:
| We (me and my 8 year old) loved the Dungeon one and really
| enjoyed, as a carry-with-you-for-when-you-are-bored item.
|
| Also cool is their d6 pencil, so you can roll a dice without
| having a dice, very smart idea.
|
| I am really inspired by ideas like this: you can generate
| engagement with simple things like a piece of paper and a pencil.
| And despite some of the comments, I love that they call it an
| "App" because it makes you think what is an app after all: the
| code? the fact it runs on a phone? or that fact that it is
| readily available to engage when you are bored?
| nonethewiser wrote:
| The d6 pencil is a very elegant design
| ajot wrote:
| I used to do something similar in high school, with Bic pens
| and pencils that have a hexagonal section.
| deadbabe wrote:
| I would love if the pencil had a spinning sort of top instead so
| you can quickly and discretely make rolls instead of having to
| throw it around and make a bunch of noise and commotion.
| lacoolj wrote:
| and we have officially come full circle
| mrdoornbos wrote:
| I have several of these. They are great on the go.
| jldugger wrote:
| The games are conceptually neat but I find the randomness added
| by die rolls a detraction these days. Just give me puzzles I can
| perfectly solve!
| adamtaylor_13 wrote:
| I found that Into The Breach really scratches that "give me a
| puzzle I can perfectly solve" itch.
|
| Definitely worth checking out if you're into puzzle games. If
| you have a Netflix subscription you can play for free on iOS
| and iPadOS (unsure about other platforms).
| jldugger wrote:
| Yea, I uh, already have that one =)
| Levitating wrote:
| Reminds me of 6x6 tales[1]. Also anything sold on the
| PNPArcade.[2]
|
| [1]: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/307996/6x6-tales [2]:
| https://www.pnparcade.com/
| tunesmith wrote:
| The best "Paper Apps" concept I've ever experienced was the "Ace
| of Aces" series of books, published by Nova. Two books, one for
| you and one for a friend, in a airplane dogfight, where through a
| complicated page-flipping mechanism, you each see your own first
| person view of the other person's plane.
| gmurphy wrote:
| I brought the print-and-play GALAXY PDF for my son - he loved it
| and spent the next ten hours playing it, barely stopping to eat.
| Seemed like a good mix of mechanics and modern videogame
| progression rewards.
|
| The shipping to Australia is a little pricy, but I aim to buy a
| set of the physical versions (they're each randomized) to use as
| flashbangs for future boredom.
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(page generated 2025-02-06 23:00 UTC)