11 ms·
It's A(door)able
- AntonShalimov 3y agoThis is the best start of the morning!
- arghwhat 3y agoOkay, you got me.
- vvatsa 3y agoya, me too. Nice job.
- phoe-krk 3y agoAdding the time limit and actually making the clock go faster when a player is (purposefully) going off the rails is a sinister trick to ensure that players get the expected ending message. Clever that the programmer throught of these cases.
- codetiger 3y agoI didn't notice that. Good one!! Thanks for sharing.
- djvu97 3y agoI tried to go wrong way and i was not able to do. Thanks for telling us
- phoe-krk 3y ago"A good programmer is someone who always looks both ways before crossing a one-way street." -- Doug Linder
- st_goliath 3y agoWell, I do always look both ways when crossing the one-way street where I live. But not because of programming experience, but because of late-night Taxi drivers who drive like Doc Brown (https://youtu.be/vHake6w4Su0?t=17 https://youtu.be/vHake6w4Su0?t=17) and believe that "reverse" is some kind of cheat code that flips the direction of the road. Also, cyclists.
- csixty4 3y ago"Three programmers come to a one-way street. The academic looks to the right, doesn't see any oncoming cars, and crosses. The corporate programmer looks to the left, then looks to the right, and then crosses. The distributed systems engineer looks to the left, then looks to the right, then looks up to make sure there aren't any planes falling out of the sky…"
- TeMPOraL 3y ago"... the hacker looks down to check for landmines and footguns, and then runs to catch up with the rest, grumbling something about computer scientists and off-by-one errors."
- yccs27 3y agoThe distributed systems engineer definitely uses a mirror to watch both directions at the same time while crossing the street. They've been caught by Time of Check - Time of Use errors before.
- troymc 3y agoIn tourist-filled parts of the world where they drive on the left side of the road (e.g. UK, Australia, Japan), you sometimes see signs reminding the tourists to look right before crossing the road.
- KineticLensman 3y agoLondon in particular has the signs ("Look left", "Look right") written in words on the road surface itself at obvious crossing points, especially near stations etc. So pedestrians look down at them as they go to cross the road.
- twic 3y agoAlthough there's just about time to make the middle of the message "fox".
- prostanac 3y agoOn the middle one they only check if you go backwards from the position of the key (I got it to work clockwise). If you continue on the intended path and then go back the clock won't go faster. You have to be fast though.
- codeflo 3y agoHmmm. I tried about a dozen times before giving up. I thought the game was broken before reading your comment. Nothing in the game visually indicates that going back is worse than going forwards. As the level is symmetrical, the distance is literally the same. A one-way door, or crumbling floor, would have been easy solutions I think.
- croisillon 3y agowell you gain speed just picking the key underway instead of stopping and going backward
- koromak 3y agoTheres momentum, turning around is much slower than moving forward like most games
- ackfoobar 3y agoBut that's not what this game is doing though. I fumbled and reversed direction picking up the key and still got to the door in time.
- Wowfunhappy 3y agoIMO, the game design mistake here was having too little momentum. There should be an excessive amount of momentum, so the player immediately understands that the levels will be impossible if they turn around.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mtmickush 3y agoThere's just barely enough time on the middle and last levels to double back even with the faster clock movement for going the wrong direction. Fun little challenge
- bravetraveler 3y agoI don't know enough about web stuff, but I wonder how much this depends on the system I got past the second one, and oddly was able to 'sit still' in the middle while rearranging my fingers for a remarkably 'long' time (couple seconds or so, hard to guage) For anyone smarter than me: I'm on Linux with Wayland and a 144Hz display, output should be synchronized if this plays a part
- the__alchemist 3y agoI now have Braid theme music stuck in my head.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- closewith 3y agoThis is real best of the web stuff.
- finnjohnsen2 3y agoThis is the link I am most happy I pressed today. Thank you for making this.
- smcl 3y agoVery cute :)
- andy_ppp 3y agoFor some reason I assumed it was to do with https://ncases.com/ https://ncases.com/ - it's unrelated!
- ciroduran 3y agoNicky Case has been doing these interactive experiences for quite a while, I love every single one of them
- favorited 3y agoOh wow, I hadn't realized that the M1 EVO had an order form already. So tempting.
- jeron 3y agoI was also wondering why an SFF PC case manufacturer was making minigames
- akshayrajp 3y agoThat's one way to make me blush while at work haha
- Gns89 3y agoaddiction level over 9000
- MC68328 3y agoIt's very coercive, and therefore insincere.
- Gravityloss 3y agoYou will let me love you!
- SamBam 3y agoNot if you think of it as revealing the sender's message, not writing your own.
- trizoza 3y agoLove that!
- mogery 3y agoawww!
- chompychop 3y agoBest thing I clicked today! Love it! I somehow expected "adding your personal message" to generate a level that would trace out my custom message though.
- Jemaclus 3y agoI assumed the same. It was fun though!
- nyc_pizzadev 3y agoI guess there is no way to play on mobile?
- nyc_pizzadev 3y agoWas finally able to play it on a desktop. Maybe having a finger moveable joystick widget would give you an equal experience on mobile.
- sriram_malhar 3y agoWell done! You got me!
- clbrmbr 3y agoBeautiful little gem. Bravo.
- brunoocasali 3y agoThat's so fun! :D
- vinc 3y agoI don't understand how to play, I seem to lose right after I get the key every time..
- drjasonharrison 3y agoor before I get the key, or as I get the key... I don't play video games at all so playing a game where I have to figure out the goal. Ugh.
- dwringer 3y agoIf it's the second frame of the three-panel strip, then, as another commenter hints, the trick is not to double back. You must complete a circuit around the map. I got frustrated and quit long before trying this until reading that comment, but it (arguably) pays off.
- vinc 3y agoIt's the first frame, I read the comments and still I don't understand. The game is too stressful for me, I give up haha
- JeanMeche 3y agoThe author has an interesting game about "trust": https://ncase.me/trust/ https://ncase.me/trust/
- DavidPiper 3y agoAdding a comment so this stands out. It's the game of Nicky's I come back to the most. A very interesting look into the game theory of trust.
- acomjean 3y agoShe has a bunch of really though provoking web mini games. I always remember "parable of the polygons" https://ncase.me/projects/ https://ncase.me/projects/ Everything seems fresh, though this door one was 2015.
- rapnie 3y agoAlso liked the Parable of the Polygons about the shape of society: https://ncase.me/polygons https://ncase.me/polygons Hell, they are all great!
- shever73 3y agoI also really like "We Are What We Behold"[0], Nicky's projects are always clever and thought-provoking. [0] https://ncase.itch.io/wbwwb https://ncase.itch.io/wbwwb
- baggachipz 3y agoThis was awesome, thank you for linking.
- tamasnet 3y agoThanks so much for sharing this, deeply impactful.
- batmansmom1 3y agoAll of the games made by them are really awesome I highly recommend
- n1c00o 3y agoThis is awesome
- dbeley 3y agoClicked for a new Mini-ITX case in the shape of a cute door(?), stayed for the kind message <3
- mavu 3y agoJust when you are thoroughly resigned to the fact that humanity is just terrible, and that a large asteroid would be just the thing the planet needs, someone comes along and puts something out into the world that is just nice and beautiful. Well, shit. And THANK YOU!
- krsrhe 3y ago[dead]
- _boffin_ 3y agoThank you
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Night_Thastus 3y agoThe art style reminds me of some classic games/animations from Newgrounds. Forgot what they were called. Pretty violent and heavy on social commentary, so it's a bit of a shock to see that style used in such an opposite way!
- makin 3y agoI think you mean the Madness series? Nick Case here was part of the same Newgrounds zeitgeist that originated it, so good catch.
- afloyd 3y agoIt is very similar to the old newgrounds series :the game:, made by Nutcasenightmare. Because Nicky Case is Nutcasenightmare
- Night_Thastus 3y agoThat's the one!
- mordae 3y agoI am showing this to kids at the game programming hobby group today. This is hilarious. I mean all of Nick's creations are dope, but this one caught me by surprise. :-)
- carimura 3y agolove it. although I thought putting my own message in at the end was going to build a map that created that message. that would be next level!
- ECBicalho 3y agoI thought the same, I even tried accessing it in guest mode, ahaha. I wonder how complex it would be to extend to custom paths, maybe create predefined paths for some ASCII characters... maybe chatGPT helps me with that <laughs>
- xutopia 3y agoThis reminds me of early days of internet when flash was starting to gain a foothold. We had so many neat things like this appearing everywhere. Surprises after surprises. Nowadays the internet is really tame compared to that.
- crazygringo 3y agoThe message at the end was cute, but playing this was infuriating. :( It took me like 20 tries just to get past the first panel, because it was buzz with failure every time I got to the door after picking up the key. It took forever to realize the buzz was from the timer, because it always buzzed once I was already at the door, like the door was the wrong goal. Then once I realized it's time-based, another 20 tries to do the second panel in a short enough time. The third panel was easy, though. So something seems to be miscalibrated. (Macbook Air M1 on Chrome, and it's not like I've got a slow key repeat configured or anything.) I get that it's trying to force you to take the shortest distance, but playing this made me incredibly angry because it felt like it was unwinnable. And when I finally did succeed on the first and second panels, it felt random -- maybe it gave me extra time or something? It's not like I got any "better" at it.
- neogodless 3y agoHuh, I didn't have sound enabled (or didn't get any buzzing) and all doors were readily unlocked on my first attempt. Have you tried upgrading your M1 processor to an AMD Ryzen? /s (sarcastic, but with love)
- SamBam 3y agoThe first panel where you literally only have to go backward then forward? There was a ton of time for me. Either something odd with your computer, or developer's timing algorithm doesn't work the same on all machines.
- neogodless 3y agoI assume you meant to reply to the same person I replied to.
- crazygringo 3y agoI'm going to guess the timing algorithm has something wonky. Because no, not enough time to go backwards then forwards.
- 3y ago
- metaljr 3y agoThis is amazing!!
- ricardo81 3y agoGood stuff, spirit of the original web.
- jaimehrubiks 3y agoI thought the custom message would generate a custom level that replayed those letters lol
- beefsack 3y agoIt appears I succeeded incorrectly, and "I C U".
- mehlmao 3y agoThis was cute. It reminded me of The Looker, a parody of The Witness. It's available free on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1985690/The_Looker/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1985690/The_Looker/
- clueless 3y agocircular based design, a mission to find a key (answer), with time constraints, and the ending message (subjective/objective)... this is a work of spiritual art!
- Alacart 3y agoAm I going crazy or were many of these exact comments posted the last time this was linked?
- EvanAnderson 3y agoI feel like I've seen this happen on HN as well. I assumed I was going crazy but I'm glad to hear somebody else has seen this too.
- gowld 3y agoWhen was that? It's shockingly not in the archives, so 'dang might have changed the date on an old submission, as he sometimes does for "second chance" (and that updated comment timestamps also, annoyingly). https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=ncase.me%2Fdoor&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
- Lewton 3y agoSometimes posts are merged, but dang usually posts when he does it, maybe he forgot?
- rahimnathwani 3y agoWhat are some other amazing sites with handcrafted experiences, similar to ncase.me and ciechanow.ski?
- ifvictr 3y agoCheck out https://neal.fun https://neal.fun!
- arbitrage 3y agooh gosh this was so great. thank you!!!! you are awesome for putting this together.
- makach 3y agoclever! I was genuinely surprised!
- oaktowner 3y agoI did it wrong! In the middle one, I didn't make a heart -- I went to and fro both on the left side, so it ended up looking more like a backwards question mark than a heart!
- Bjorkbat 3y agoLol, thanks Nicky Case, I needed that
- entropicgravity 3y agoIt's a knotA(door)able for me.
- toxik 3y agoAable?
- greenie_beans 3y agoI AM TRYING TO WORK RIGHT NOW
- 6451937099 3y ago[dead]
- EngManagerIsMe 3y agoCute! Mine said, "I 9 U!" But I see what they were trying to get me to do, cute.
- 6451937099 3y ago[dead]
- assimpleaspossi 3y agoI have no clue what's going on here. Why do people create these things and assume everyone will know what's happening.
- scubbo 3y agoIf you're talking about the game itself - because keys and doors are pretty universally understood symbols. If you're talking about the ending (no spoilers) - those symbols are also widely understood among the target audience of HN.
- assimpleaspossi 3y agoWhen I first went there, there was no key. I just went there now and saw the key. Don't know what happened before but now I get it.
- hackerting 3y agowow. so simple but fun!
- mock-possum 3y agoaw. ♥
- shreythecray 3y agoThis made my day
- firesofmay 3y agoI found out about this today; coincidentally, it was also my wife's birthday. Used it to wish her a surprise. In the end, the expression on her face was totally worth it. Thank you for making amazing interactive games as always!
- sina 3y agoAwesome! Loved it! I want to send this to more people, but I know some of them don't have access to keyboards. It would be great if people could play it on phones and touch screen devices as well :D