5 ms·

Show HN: I revived a game I abandoned 5yo ago and released it for free today

55 points by joemanaco 4y ago

gamblor956 4y ago
Looks great! Will download at home. May I ask why you decided to release it for free, instead of a low price (i.e., $5 or $10)?
- joemanaco 4y ago
  My idea was to release it for free and cross-promote my other game in it I'm currently working on. But don't know if it works out, because it's quite niche.
davidpfarrell 4y ago
This game looks great and lines up well with my own day dreams about creating a pixel art platformer someday. I'd be interested in knowing more about the game engine. Thanks for sharing !
- joemanaco 4y ago
  Thank you. It's based on a private fork of this (discontinued) language: https://github.com/blitz-research/monkey https://github.com/blitz-research/monkey
nashashmi 4y ago
This reminds me of sonic the hedge hog and Nintendo games. Very eerie 90s feeling. Back then I used to think it was so awesome and now I get the feeling how much of my life I just waisted by trying to get good at a game that was not worth judging myself by.
hasbot 4y ago
Why did you abandon a (I'm assuming) nearly complete game?
- joemanaco 4y ago
  When I had it nearly finished I asked an artist if he could do a mock up. I liked it so much that I thought "Cool, I'll let him remake all the graphics quickly and release it then". Then when I replaced the graphics I continously added new features as well and a popular video game musician (Chris Hülsbeck) joined the project. Now with so much talent working for the project I felt like the gamedesign wasn't a good match for it anymore, so I basically started over (I thought about this for a month or two, then finally throw away all source code and restarted without realizing that I have basically threw a nearly finished game away). This sounds pretty dumb in retrospective, but back then I just didn't saw it.
  - qup 4y ago
    > This sounds pretty dumb in retrospective, but back then I just didn't saw it. I've said approximately this sentence so, so many times in the past year.
  - schemescape 4y ago
    That’s an impressive level of self awareness. I wasn’t able to see the flaws in my game until after I’d released it. I’m not sure if it was because I didn’t want to see them or if I was just too far down in the trenches or what.
- animex 4y ago
  Avoiding Disney-MCU Lawsuit? xD
  - animex 4y ago
    Scratch-that -- just saw the successor demo: Tiny Thor. Game looks great. I haven't had the urge to play platformers since the 80s but this one does make me look twice!
JoeAltmaier 4y ago
Neat! I'm porting a game I wrote 20 years ago (source comments date to 2002) for an early handheld. It probably didn't age as well as yours.
- joemanaco 4y ago
  Cool, which game is it?
  - JoeAltmaier 4y ago
    Lexicon You drag wooden tile letters around a grid. When words are formed the tiles burn, the ones above fall down. Try to clear the grid.
mrwnmonm 4y ago
How did that feel?
- joemanaco 4y ago
  TBH: Pretty good :) I know it's not the best game ever, but it feels nice anyway...
patrakov 4y ago
Please release on non-Steam platform (e.g. on itch.io). Some people actively oppose Steam DRM and won't create an account on principle.
- temp2022account 4y ago
  Wow, never expected to see "Gaben Newell is a big-tech consumer-control suit" from anyone around here. For what it's worth I'm a huge fan of Steam, if you want to avoid it for personal reasons just go download a copy off the devs blog (linked here: https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=73043.0 https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=73043.0)
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
  If you want to protest the existence of Steam DRM by not ever using Steam that's certainly your prerogative, but it is worth noting that the DRM offered by Steam is entirely optional for the developers. Many games on Steam contain no DRM whatsoever and Steam is essentially just another way to download them.
  - BlueTemplar 4y ago
    Related : AFAIK Steam is still not marking Denuvo as 3rd party DRM ? https://www.gog.com/forum/general/how_to_run_steam_games_offline_forever_tutorial/page1 https://www.gog.com/forum/general/how_to_run_steam_games_off...
  - joemanaco 4y ago
    I think it should be DRM free (at least I haven't opted in anywhere for it on the Steam Backend). I might consider to upload it to itch.io as well when I find some time. I also thought about if I should offer it as Download on my website, but I don't know if anyone on PC nowadays still would install games via an unknown website :-)
    - AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
      > I don't know if anyone on PC nowadays still would install games via an unknown website I do it all the time, assessing trustworthiness in a heuristic fashion. Game looks legit, website clearly belongs to who it says it belongs to, etc. What really does itch.io or Steam offer in the way of protection if a developer wants to be malicious anyway? P.S: This game and its sequel are really good, and as far as I'm aware this is the only distribution point: https://silverspaceship.com/promesst/ https://silverspaceship.com/promesst/

55 points by joemanaco 4y ago

Looks great! Will download at home. May I ask why you decided to release it for free, instead of a low price (i.e., $5 or $10)?

joemanaco 4y ago
My idea was to release it for free and cross-promote my other game in it I'm currently working on. But don't know if it works out, because it's quite niche.

davidpfarrell 4y ago

This game looks great and lines up well with my own day dreams about creating a pixel art platformer someday. I'd be interested in knowing more about the game engine. Thanks for sharing !

joemanaco 4y ago
Thank you. It's based on a private fork of this (discontinued) language: https://github.com/blitz-research/monkey https://github.com/blitz-research/monkey

nashashmi 4y ago

This reminds me of sonic the hedge hog and Nintendo games. Very eerie 90s feeling. Back then I used to think it was so awesome and now I get the feeling how much of my life I just waisted by trying to get good at a game that was not worth judging myself by.

hasbot 4y ago

Why did you abandon a (I'm assuming) nearly complete game?

joemanaco 4y ago
When I had it nearly finished I asked an artist if he could do a mock up. I liked it so much that I thought "Cool, I'll let him remake all the graphics quickly and release it then". Then when I replaced the graphics I continously added new features as well and a popular video game musician (Chris Hülsbeck) joined the project. Now with so much talent working for the project I felt like the gamedesign wasn't a good match for it anymore, so I basically started over (I thought about this for a month or two, then finally throw away all source code and restarted without realizing that I have basically threw a nearly finished game away). This sounds pretty dumb in retrospective, but back then I just didn't saw it.
- qup 4y ago
  > This sounds pretty dumb in retrospective, but back then I just didn't saw it. I've said approximately this sentence so, so many times in the past year.
- schemescape 4y ago
  That’s an impressive level of self awareness. I wasn’t able to see the flaws in my game until after I’d released it. I’m not sure if it was because I didn’t want to see them or if I was just too far down in the trenches or what.
animex 4y ago
Avoiding Disney-MCU Lawsuit? xD
- animex 4y ago
  Scratch-that -- just saw the successor demo: Tiny Thor. Game looks great. I haven't had the urge to play platformers since the 80s but this one does make me look twice!

JoeAltmaier 4y ago

Neat! I'm porting a game I wrote 20 years ago (source comments date to 2002) for an early handheld. It probably didn't age as well as yours.

joemanaco 4y ago
Cool, which game is it?
- JoeAltmaier 4y ago
  Lexicon You drag wooden tile letters around a grid. When words are formed the tiles burn, the ones above fall down. Try to clear the grid.

mrwnmonm 4y ago

How did that feel?

joemanaco 4y ago
TBH: Pretty good :) I know it's not the best game ever, but it feels nice anyway...

patrakov 4y ago

Please release on non-Steam platform (e.g. on itch.io). Some people actively oppose Steam DRM and won't create an account on principle.

temp2022account 4y ago
Wow, never expected to see "Gaben Newell is a big-tech consumer-control suit" from anyone around here. For what it's worth I'm a huge fan of Steam, if you want to avoid it for personal reasons just go download a copy off the devs blog (linked here: https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=73043.0 https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=73043.0)
AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
If you want to protest the existence of Steam DRM by not ever using Steam that's certainly your prerogative, but it is worth noting that the DRM offered by Steam is entirely optional for the developers. Many games on Steam contain no DRM whatsoever and Steam is essentially just another way to download them.
- BlueTemplar 4y ago
  Related : AFAIK Steam is still not marking Denuvo as 3rd party DRM ? https://www.gog.com/forum/general/how_to_run_steam_games_offline_forever_tutorial/page1 https://www.gog.com/forum/general/how_to_run_steam_games_off...
- joemanaco 4y ago
  I think it should be DRM free (at least I haven't opted in anywhere for it on the Steam Backend). I might consider to upload it to itch.io as well when I find some time. I also thought about if I should offer it as Download on my website, but I don't know if anyone on PC nowadays still would install games via an unknown website :-)
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
    > I don't know if anyone on PC nowadays still would install games via an unknown website I do it all the time, assessing trustworthiness in a heuristic fashion. Game looks legit, website clearly belongs to who it says it belongs to, etc. What really does itch.io or Steam offer in the way of protection if a developer wants to be malicious anyway? P.S: This game and its sequel are really good, and as far as I'm aware this is the only distribution point: https://silverspaceship.com/promesst/ https://silverspaceship.com/promesst/