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Recompile – a 3D Metroidvania-inspired hacking adventure game

81 points by laktak 6y ago

laktak 6y ago
I like the ASCII Art of PhiOS in the game, more here: https://youtu.be/AesJLSI3D-I?t=375 https://youtu.be/AesJLSI3D-I?t=375
- devindotcom 6y ago
  Oh man. I've been fantasizing about an ASCII-based windowed UI like this for years. I want this to be a real thing.
  - bitwize 6y ago
    ASCII-based windowed UIs were things, especially Turbo Vision and the like for DOS. The game's UI reminds me of certain old DOS programs that predate even Turbo Vision, notably COMPRESS (actually a disk defragger, not a compression program) which would put up a text-based "graphical" representation of your disk and animate the blocks being shifted around, in a format that was legible even on an IBM MDA monitor for true monochrome cyber goodness.
chmod775 6y ago
While the game looks like a great piece of art, I'm not sure how this game specifically is relevant to HN. There's a lot of video games out there and this community typically doesn't upvote or discuss game releases. Was there some previous discussion of this on HN? Any dev blogs with interesting technical insights? What's special about this?
- SonOfLilit 6y ago
  Apparently all the puzzle and creature logic is built with in-game logic gates that you can modify. Also, it's pretty and many of us like the aesthetic.
- karamazov 6y ago
  From the hn guidelines: "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity." A strong ai / hacking-themed game fits the bill.
  - chmod775 6y ago
    I think misunderstood my post. I wasn't trying to debate whether this is off-topic or on-topic, but rather why this particular game is being upvoted when games on /newest generally get ignored. In case there was some interesting dev-blog or somesuch being posted here earlier, I just didn't want to miss that.
jkinudsjknds 6y ago
Looks like this game features some neat procedural animation. Nice
tomasreimers 6y ago
As an aspiring game dev, I can't help but click on these posts haha :) The art in the trailers is beautiful, and I like the programming theme. One thing I can't figure out is how much of that programming theme is simply used as a muse (portal) and how much of it is intended to teach the player something about computers (redstone in Minecraft). For example, "every single environmental feature, including power grids, locked doors and even huge enemy spawning machines are all powered by intricate, interconnected logic gate circuitry." does that mean the game will implicitly teach the player about basic rules of logic? Demorgan's and so forth? Another bit that caught my interest was "the game’s entire narrative takes place within 1 second of real time." Is there user / system time as well? Or is this just a plot point?
- SonOfLilit 6y ago
  In this thread, laktak posted an interview that includes a gameplay demo that shows basic interaction with the logic gates. It doesn't look on the redstone side of the spectrum, sadly.
  - jtms 6y ago
    That’s a shame - building logic gates from scratch in red stone was pure joy and absolutely changed the way I think about computers
    - em-bee 6y ago
      yup, fond memories from my highschool computer classes. we built logic gates with transistors on handcrafted wooden circuit boards. i don't think i realized the implications then, but over time as i learned programming and other things about computers, i always felt that it gave me a better understanding of what actually goes on behind the scenes. in particular it drives home the reason for why computers work in binary
      - jtms 6y ago
        Wow, I wish I had been exposed to this stuff in high school - I had already gotten well into my professional career when I found "Code: the hidden language of computer hardware and software" by Charles Petzold and it was just eureka moment after eureka moment reading that and then building the gates, adders, memory, etc from the diagrams in the book via redstone. One of my favorite learning experiences of all time!
WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
For the record, I am buying this because the cube enemies remind me so much of Code Lyoko that I want to relive those memories in a video game. Not because it looks awesome in all the other ways :P
kozziollek 6y ago
Aww... I thought HN post was triggered by it release (or at least date), but sadly this is not a case. BTW, how not-released game can have so many awards already?!
Ace17 6y ago
No GNU/Linux version, for such a geeky theme ? The game uses Unity3D, it might only be a matter of ... recompilation :D
- viraptor 6y ago
  And testers running the whole thing on a new platform at the very least. I'd like to see it on Linux as well, but let's not underestimate the time required.
- 1MachineElf 6y ago
  Via Twitter, I've asked them if they plan for this to work with SteamPlay/Proton.
- bitwize 6y ago
  Even the geekiest game programmer acknowledges that all the tooling, support, and money is on Windows, and Linux just isn't worth the extra effort.
  - Ace17 6y ago
    I agree: if you only consider extra revenue, it's not worth the extra effort. And yet, GNU/Linux is supported by many commercial games: Amnesia, SOMA, SpaceChems, Towerfall, Braid, HyperLight Drifter, Shovel Knight, Undertale, VVVVVV, Hollow Knight, Overload, WarGame Red Dragon ... So there must be something else there than extra revenue.
- golergka 6y ago
  > The game uses Unity3D, it might only be a matter of ... recompilation :D It's not. It's a matter of porting, QAing, and then indefinitely supporting a platform that will not bring enough revenue even to cover the developer's time.
  - krzyk 6y ago
    For AAA titles I could understand that, but for indies? They won't sell that much Windows copies, so having a Linux option is always good (see other indies, like Factorio, Oxygen not included, Hollow Knight).
bitwize 6y ago
As the author of a far less ambitious hacking-themed platformer (currently in development), this looks flipping sweet. Thematically it reminds me of Rez, in which you also play a digital construct exploring the metaphorically rendered insides of an incipient AI, and Rez is like my favorite game ever. I can't wait to see this new take on the theme. I bet even Tetsuya Mizuguchi himself is watching this with interest.

81 points by laktak 6y ago

I like the ASCII Art of PhiOS in the game, more here: https://youtu.be/AesJLSI3D-I?t=375 https://youtu.be/AesJLSI3D-I?t=375

devindotcom 6y ago
Oh man. I've been fantasizing about an ASCII-based windowed UI like this for years. I want this to be a real thing.
- bitwize 6y ago
  ASCII-based windowed UIs were things, especially Turbo Vision and the like for DOS. The game's UI reminds me of certain old DOS programs that predate even Turbo Vision, notably COMPRESS (actually a disk defragger, not a compression program) which would put up a text-based "graphical" representation of your disk and animate the blocks being shifted around, in a format that was legible even on an IBM MDA monitor for true monochrome cyber goodness.

chmod775 6y ago

While the game looks like a great piece of art, I'm not sure how this game specifically is relevant to HN. There's a lot of video games out there and this community typically doesn't upvote or discuss game releases. Was there some previous discussion of this on HN? Any dev blogs with interesting technical insights? What's special about this?

SonOfLilit 6y ago
Apparently all the puzzle and creature logic is built with in-game logic gates that you can modify. Also, it's pretty and many of us like the aesthetic.
karamazov 6y ago
From the hn guidelines: "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity." A strong ai / hacking-themed game fits the bill.
- chmod775 6y ago
  I think misunderstood my post. I wasn't trying to debate whether this is off-topic or on-topic, but rather why this particular game is being upvoted when games on /newest generally get ignored. In case there was some interesting dev-blog or somesuch being posted here earlier, I just didn't want to miss that.

jkinudsjknds 6y ago

Looks like this game features some neat procedural animation. Nice

tomasreimers 6y ago

As an aspiring game dev, I can't help but click on these posts haha :) The art in the trailers is beautiful, and I like the programming theme. One thing I can't figure out is how much of that programming theme is simply used as a muse (portal) and how much of it is intended to teach the player something about computers (redstone in Minecraft). For example, "every single environmental feature, including power grids, locked doors and even huge enemy spawning machines are all powered by intricate, interconnected logic gate circuitry." does that mean the game will implicitly teach the player about basic rules of logic? Demorgan's and so forth? Another bit that caught my interest was "the game’s entire narrative takes place within 1 second of real time." Is there user / system time as well? Or is this just a plot point?

SonOfLilit 6y ago
In this thread, laktak posted an interview that includes a gameplay demo that shows basic interaction with the logic gates. It doesn't look on the redstone side of the spectrum, sadly.
- jtms 6y ago
  That’s a shame - building logic gates from scratch in red stone was pure joy and absolutely changed the way I think about computers
  - em-bee 6y ago
    yup, fond memories from my highschool computer classes. we built logic gates with transistors on handcrafted wooden circuit boards. i don't think i realized the implications then, but over time as i learned programming and other things about computers, i always felt that it gave me a better understanding of what actually goes on behind the scenes. in particular it drives home the reason for why computers work in binary
    - jtms 6y ago
      Wow, I wish I had been exposed to this stuff in high school - I had already gotten well into my professional career when I found "Code: the hidden language of computer hardware and software" by Charles Petzold and it was just eureka moment after eureka moment reading that and then building the gates, adders, memory, etc from the diagrams in the book via redstone. One of my favorite learning experiences of all time!

WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago

For the record, I am buying this because the cube enemies remind me so much of Code Lyoko that I want to relive those memories in a video game. Not because it looks awesome in all the other ways :P

kozziollek 6y ago

Aww... I thought HN post was triggered by it release (or at least date), but sadly this is not a case. BTW, how not-released game can have so many awards already?!

Ace17 6y ago

No GNU/Linux version, for such a geeky theme ? The game uses Unity3D, it might only be a matter of ... recompilation :D

viraptor 6y ago
And testers running the whole thing on a new platform at the very least. I'd like to see it on Linux as well, but let's not underestimate the time required.
1MachineElf 6y ago
Via Twitter, I've asked them if they plan for this to work with SteamPlay/Proton.
bitwize 6y ago
Even the geekiest game programmer acknowledges that all the tooling, support, and money is on Windows, and Linux just isn't worth the extra effort.
- Ace17 6y ago
  I agree: if you only consider extra revenue, it's not worth the extra effort. And yet, GNU/Linux is supported by many commercial games: Amnesia, SOMA, SpaceChems, Towerfall, Braid, HyperLight Drifter, Shovel Knight, Undertale, VVVVVV, Hollow Knight, Overload, WarGame Red Dragon ... So there must be something else there than extra revenue.
golergka 6y ago
> The game uses Unity3D, it might only be a matter of ... recompilation :D It's not. It's a matter of porting, QAing, and then indefinitely supporting a platform that will not bring enough revenue even to cover the developer's time.
- krzyk 6y ago
  For AAA titles I could understand that, but for indies? They won't sell that much Windows copies, so having a Linux option is always good (see other indies, like Factorio, Oxygen not included, Hollow Knight).

bitwize 6y ago

As the author of a far less ambitious hacking-themed platformer (currently in development), this looks flipping sweet. Thematically it reminds me of Rez, in which you also play a digital construct exploring the metaphorically rendered insides of an incipient AI, and Rez is like my favorite game ever. I can't wait to see this new take on the theme. I bet even Tetsuya Mizuguchi himself is watching this with interest.