5 ms·

Ask HN: What's the most beautiful web game you've seen?

• Davertron 3y ago
  Maybe a bit of a stretch as a game, but Townscaper is absolutely gorgeous: https://oskarstalberg.com/Townscaper/ https://oskarstalberg.com/Townscaper/
• taoufix 3y ago
  Fantastic Contraption. The original flash game. http://fantasticcontraption.com/original/ http://fantasticcontraption.com/original/
• simonsarris 3y ago
  Not quite a game, but I've always loved the art of Short Trip: https://alexanderperrin.com.au/paper/shorttrip/ https://alexanderperrin.com.au/paper/shorttrip/
  • moritonal 3y ago
    Came looking for this answer.
• nidnogg 3y ago
  I'm a huge fan of A WAY TO GO [1], which is not exactly a game but I find it very mesmerizing. [1] http://a-way-to-go.com http://a-way-to-go.com
• theflyestpilot 3y ago
  Look for things on threejs.org
• _neil 3y ago
  Light on game mechanics, but I'd say Bellwoods[0] is elegant. Wayfinder[1] has a similar vibe/mechanic (same author). [0] https://bellwoods.xyz/ https://bellwoods.xyz/ [1] https://wayfinder.nfb.ca/ https://wayfinder.nfb.ca/
  • calflegal 3y ago
    wow.
• hi 3y ago
  Universal Paperclips[0] - no slick animations, but elegant and thought provoking. Inside[1] - slick animations and very elegant. [0] https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/ https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/ [1] https://playdead.com/games/inside/ https://playdead.com/games/inside/
• factorialboy 3y ago
  Airmash was amazing. Does it still exist?
• samanbb 3y ago
  This game is 100% HTML, CSS, and JS (no canvas or web GL): https://store.steampowered.com/app/1769640/Wilderplace/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1769640/Wilderplace/
• samlinnfer 3y ago
  flOw: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(video_game)
• INTPenis 3y ago
  I don't know about beautiful but one I keep coming back to when I want to waste a few minutes is sandtrix.[1] 1. https://mslivo.itch.io/sandtrix https://mslivo.itch.io/sandtrix
• Osmose 3y ago
  I dunno that it fits under "elegant" but visually https://corru.observer/ https://corru.observer/ is one of the most striking web games I've ever played, and it's entirely built using vanilla JS and CSS techniques.
• mortallywounded 3y ago
  https://thedangercrew.com/ https://thedangercrew.com/ It was built with HTML/CSS/JS (React). It uses divs for everything and doesn't render everything into a canvas.
• bluepoint 3y ago
  I don't really play games, but I spent a fair amount of time on sandspiel (I saw it on hackernews a few times). https://sandspiel.club/ https://sandspiel.club/
• fidotron 3y ago
  Doubt this is what you mean but I recently did an excessively polished Reversi implementation: https://luduxia.com/reversi/ https://luduxia.com/reversi/ This is a mobile friendly custom renderer, with FXAA, depth of field, subsurface scattering etc. and I still got more headaches from CSS than anything else. (The other game https://luduxia.com/whichwayround/ https://luduxia.com/whichwayround/ is the same engine). The whole thing was a proof of concept to understand the current challenges with the space.
  • redbell 3y ago
    +1, The 2nd game is truly funny. I love it!
    • fidotron 3y ago
      Thanks! That would make us about the only people apparently! Coming from native apps the tough lesson of this exercise is just how disposable websites are from an end user perspective. It really is not enough to have something for people to play with, you must give them a reason to come back again.
• bitwize 3y ago
  Bastion had a Chromebook version.
• RockRobotRock 3y ago
  I really like that game where you just drive. Don't remember the name but pretty sure I found it on HN.
  • smegsicle 3y ago
    some desert bus remake?
  • haunter 3y ago
    Slowroads? https://slowroads.io/ https://slowroads.io/
    • RockRobotRock 3y ago
      yes thank you
• kdamica 3y ago
  I'll posit Every Day the Same Dream, more for the music than the visuals: https://www.molleindustria.org/flash/index.html?file=/swf/edtsd.swf https://www.molleindustria.org/flash/index.html?file=/swf/ed... Back in the day I would keep this game open so the music would keep looping while I worked.
• tombert 3y ago
  As part of a Humble Bundle promo about 9 years ago, they released DustForce using asm.js, running fine in a browser. That game has really nice animation and, in my opinion, very pleasing color choices.
• personalityson 3y ago
  https://ompuco.itch.io/i-am-not-what-remains https://ompuco.itch.io/i-am-not-what-remains
  • DonnyV 3y ago
    This game doesn't make any sense. What am I supposed to do?
    • personalityson 3y ago
      Not a game per se, just watch
• cacois 3y ago
  Honestly, Z-Type blew me away the first time I saw it: https://zty.pe/ https://zty.pe/
• haunter 3y ago
  Slowroads, I play it once a week for a half an hour or so. It's very zen and incredibly well done https://slowroads.io/ https://slowroads.io/ (bottom left you can change scenery, car etc.) The technical writeup was posted here once afaik https://anslo.medium.com/slow-roads-tl-dr-a664ac6bce40 https://anslo.medium.com/slow-roads-tl-dr-a664ac6bce40
• Willamin 3y ago
  A Dark Room is pretty high up on my list. While it's a very bare bones interface, its visual design is intentional and consistent through different stages of gameplay.
• naet 3y ago
  In the days of flash it was far and away the collection of games on Orisinal: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orisinal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orisinal Unfortunately the site is no longer up with flash having been sunsetted, but you can still find the collection on the internet archive or other places. It takes a little more effort to set up than it used to but they are still playable if you're dedicated. https://archive.org/details/orisinal-morning-sunshine https://archive.org/details/orisinal-morning-sunshine -- I have an unfinished personal project of a game built with the Rough.js library for a hand drawn feel (everything is drawn programatically, there are no sprites or images) and I think it looks not bad. Since I had a baby it's kinda on hold indefinitely, but it is playable on desktop and mobile, and I almost finished a decent level editor for custom courses: https://squigglegolf.com/ https://squigglegolf.com/
  • calflegal 3y ago
    yo this rocks.
  • kinderjaje 3y ago
    Just had a fun with your golf game. Cool one!
  • finnh 3y ago
    I loved Winterbells on Orisinal, looks like it's playable at a number of sites still.
  • Hakeemmidan 3y ago
    Squiggle Golf is fun! Would be great if users could opt-in to get emailed with the new level once it's ready. You can bcc all of them in a single email to avoid costs (I'm not sure if this would work).
    • naet 3y ago
      Thanks a lot! I think the current setup generates the level based on a hash of the date, so you should get a new level at your local midnight hour based on your browser's reported timezone. There might be some small issues around daylight savings times or leap seconds since it was pretty quickly hacked together. You can play the game completely offline as a PWA and still get a new level every day (and you can in theory also play an infinite number of past and future games if you just change the url params). It was inspired by the pre-NYT Wordle where the game was always playable offline and you still get the same game as everyone else that day, but instead of using a fixed number of possible words/games, it makes levels with a seeded PRNG using the date. If I find the time to work on it again I'll add the level editor so people can share custom levels, and a backend so you could sign in and share your levels or daily scores. But with my growing family I'm too busy for the foreseeable future, so it may remain as just the proof of concept that it is right now.
• moritonal 3y ago
  The tradegy is that most of the games I world suggest were in Flash. A generation of art lost due to bad standards. A time where the demo scene sat alongside the web creating these constricted dedications to tiny bandwidths.
• topherjaynes 3y ago
  Beautiful from a simplistic and deep philosophical understanding, but Everyday the Same Dream(2009?) by Molleindustria Games was the first video game I saw that was like, whoa, that's deep, and helped me understand it more as an art form. The ending is very dark as well. https://www.molleindustria.org/everydaythesamedream/everydaythesamedream.html https://www.molleindustria.org/everydaythesamedream/everyday...
• ajkjk 3y ago
  Somewhat related question, how do people find good web games anymore? In the old days you would peruse the highest-rated stuff on websites with Flash game collections (Miniclip, I think EbaumsWorld?) These days I'm aware of itch.io, but most of the games are... small and not very good? I would love to have a curated list of good ones instead of sifting through piles of hobby projects. My ability to find "good" games on Steam, as opposed to just... games, is really bad also. I don't know if it's Steam's fault or my fault. But I just want to play good games and I just want to be able to find games that are good in the same way another game is.. Basically how do I find more lovingly-crafted top-down RPGs where you get stats and level up and stuff? I literally don't know?
  • basseq 3y ago
    Or perhaps: are there good web games anymore? Whether it's consumer trends or technical accessibility, it seems to be more of a "wasteland" than it was 10 years ago. [Old man shakes fist at clouds.] Meaning more "small and not very good games" or a focus on simpler concepts à la Wordle. Did developers move to mobile? Was there something about Flash that reduced the barrier to entry that we have lost? Did consumer preferences change? Is this all anecdote and the indie game scene is thriving?
    • fidotron 3y ago
      I spent many years in mobile and then recently decided to try the web stuff. I believe the web is now Wordle or bust, by which I mean you need a wordle type sharing mechanic or you will not get repeat players. Players of webgames seem overwhelmingly to jump from one to the next, and while it is easier to get that first play session than from mobile app stores it is much harder to get them back. This is not helped by monetization on the web being awful. An exception to that is the crypto space, which seems to not generate too much money either and suffers from the related phenomenon of players involved mainly to acquire things to express themselves. Some form of UGC seems a necessity moving forward. Flash represented a very fixed target that was easy for everyone to reason about. (On mobile this is one reason iOS is much easier than Android). Typically the game itself wouldn’t even resize, it was just hosted on a page that did. It got a understandably bad name with tech people but as an art tool with programming embedded it was actually very good, just not a secure delivery platform. The result is the web has barriers of entry low enough to keep competition insane while being complicated enough to deliver premium experiences on that it is practically impossible. Not a winning situation.
• flarion 3y ago
  Achievement Unlocked, 2008 Simplistic Elegant. https://armorgames.com/play/2893/achievement-unlocked https://armorgames.com/play/2893/achievement-unlocked
• gwnywg 3y ago
  Entanglement by gopherwood studios https://entanglement.gopherwoodstudios.com/en-GB-index.html https://entanglement.gopherwoodstudios.com/en-GB-index.html
• mediumdeviation 3y ago
  CrossCode runs on HTML5 canvas and nw.js. Not only is the pixel art really good, the game runs incredibly well even on low speced PCs given its unique stack, even though it is fairly demanding since both combat and puzzles requires fairly strict timing. https://store.steampowered.com/app/368340/CrossCode/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/368340/CrossCode/
• faxmeyourcode 3y ago
  Toss the turtle doesn't fit your aesthetic but the mechanics were unique and so fun to play as a kid
• reidjs 3y ago
  Shameless self plug, but if you like minimal/retro aesthetic check out Van Life Game https://vanlifegame.com https://vanlifegame.com
• DonnyV 3y ago
  Blitt TD - tower defense game. It very well done. https://shotty.itch.io/blitt-td https://shotty.itch.io/blitt-td
• tropsis 3y ago
  There was a beautiful game like the ones you mention that I found once on /r/webgames . However, I am unable to find it again. It was about roaming around a forest, and it was changing with the seasons.
  • memalign 3y ago
    Was it this: https://wayfinder.nfb.ca/ https://wayfinder.nfb.ca/ ?
    • tropsis 3y ago
      Yes! Thank you so much!
• ttepasse 3y ago
  It may not me the most slick and elegant, but it had a very nice, minimalist design, and I deeply enjoyed the gameplay. Continuity was a small platformer, in which you needed to rearrange the levels in the form of a sliding puzzle. It was programmed by some Swedish students and published as a Flash game on Kongreate. In 2010, the same year, in which Steve Jobs published Thoughts on Flash. Thankfully the guys programmed a sequel for iOS, Continuity 2: The Continuation. It was even better than the original, using the iPhones rotation sensor for additional gameplay options. With iOS 11 Apple removed support for 32-Bit-Apps, book burning a huge part of iOS's early legacy of creative games, including Continuity 2. Lesson: Never trust Apple with games or with history. Some Screenshots and a game trailer of Continuity in this article: http://devmag.org.za/2011/05/02/how-are-puzzle-games-designed-guy-lima/ http://devmag.org.za/2011/05/02/how-are-puzzle-games-designe...
• opyate 3y ago
  I like cywall by Kenta Cho. The one-button approach is refreshing to explore as a gamedev who tries to cram everything in. https://abagames.github.io/crisp-game-lib-games/?cywall https://abagames.github.io/crisp-game-lib-games/?cywall He wrote a lot of words on small game development: https://abagames.github.io/joys-of-small-game-development-en/ https://abagames.github.io/joys-of-small-game-development-en... (PS I liked cywall so much, I'm made a clone: https://opyate.itch.io/paddles https://opyate.itch.io/paddles (audio not working yet, sorry)) And hopefully this doesn't suffer from HN hug 'o death, but here's some more of his games, implemented with all sorts (HaXe, Flash, JS, etc): http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/ http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/
• lylejantzi3rd 3y ago
  Canabalt: https://adamatomic.com/canabalt/ https://adamatomic.com/canabalt/ and Zero Man: https://zeroman.space/ https://zeroman.space/ edit: How could I forget auditorium? https://store.steampowered.com/app/205870/Auditorium/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/205870/Auditorium/
• mgdlbp 3y ago
  Solarmax 2 made the strongest aesthetic impression among the flash games I can recall - abstract, well-eased animations (including map transitions), strong lighting to avoid the Flash sprite look, and a soundtrack of piano and strings. The creator's site is still around and has a video: http://nicotuason.com/solarmax2.html http://nicotuason.com/solarmax2.html The sound design also stood out to me even among proper RTSs: in particular, the appropriately distant explosions that aren't irritating when repeated. Stereo panning was an interesting touch. That was the tail end of Flash, so it was cross-platform (Adobe Air) and doesn't run in Ruffle. The mentioned Monument Valley reminds me of Wonderputt. There was a whole genre of those 'elegant orthographic' Flash games.
• velcrovan 3y ago
  Super Press Space to Win Action RPG