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TinyWind: A pixel pirate sailing game with real wind physics (380k+ kms sailed)
- EstanislaoStan 4mo agoDid you get this idea from the barebones Sid Meiers Pirates battle clone that hit the frontpage a few days ago? :)
- tinywind 4mo agoHaha no it’s a funny story. I’ve been building this since early May with active captains through the last month. I randomly noticed traffic from hacker news a few days ago, turns out somebody had linked tinywind in the comments there. Love to see other people in the space!
- gaolei8888 4mo agonice one
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- tinywind 4mo agoThe 2 game modes are free to play in browser. Come join our 245 active captains, I’d love any and all playtest feedback at this stage!
- uberman 4mo agoSuper fun. How do I 'fire" though given spacebar brings up the map? Is the mouse the only option? How do I see the controls as I see the "s" key does something with the sails?
- nonamesleft 4mo agohttps://tinywind.io/wiki/briefing https://tinywind.io/wiki/briefing Shift fires.
- tinywind 4mo agoLmk if space to fire and shift for map makes more sense I wanted it to feel natural for qwerty and arrow key controls, the space felt a little clunky with arrow keys.
- airstrike 4mo agoTab and M for map, WASD and arrows for controls, space to fire seems like a good compromise
- tinywind 4mo agoI’ll be making this change! Though I’m worried it’s gonna be tougher for people to find the map and ship logs since space is a natural button to try and press early on
- duozerk 4mo agoThe whole thing should ideally have a quick modal with hotkeys when you first open it (and a small button to bring it up again if needed).
- ffsm8 4mo agoModals are the worst ux in games. If it's only a few buttons anyway you can just show them somewhere as hints while the user isn't giving input or until they used then. Eg just show a "m for Map\nspace to fire" until the user used each, hiding them each when the m/space is used respectively for that session (session storage so it shows up again if the user comes back later)
- altern8 4mo agoSpace to me means fire. You can show the mini-map in a corner, right? Why do you need to toggle it, Slither has it shown at all times.
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- TJTorola 4mo agoReally want to play this with a controller. Seems to me that a joystick to steer and another to adjust the sail would be really intuitive. Aside from that really fun, looking forward to future updates.
- tinywind 4mo agoThank you, yes! We’re planning a steam release soon where we would add controller support on launch
- rcarmo 4mo agoPretty amazing, congratulations!
- imperialdrive 4mo agoVery cool, love it!
- rsvidal 4mo agoThis is lovely. Well done.
- SubiculumCode 4mo agoIs it multiplayer or am I playing against bots? I submitted this a few days ago, so glad to see it posted again. Fun game. Funner to think I am sinking people, not bots :)
- tinywind 4mo agoBoth game modes are against enemy bot ships right now I’m working on a couple PvP modes so you can run naval battles with real captains very soon :) Thanks so much for submitting this earlier, we got a great boost!
- fallinditch 4mo agoLooks great! it's nice that you can immediately try it out
- thekevintang 4mo agoThis is awesome!
- hyperionultra 4mo agoNoice. What’s the stack?
- Skidaddle 4mo agoVery cute aesthetic and reminiscent of Pirates! I am lazy and would request a settings toggle to automatically adjust the sail angles for me for optimal speed given my bearing.
- tinywind 4mo agoWhat a flattering comparison! I’ve gotten so many requests for an auto sail trim I might have to add it in, there definitely is a bit of learning curve to battling with the wind
- dgently7 4mo agoa middle approach could be a trainer mode where you can say your desired direction of travel and the game gives you a suggestion of heading + trim. think like the driving line in racing sims, it doesn't brake for you but it helps you develop intuition of what to do when. a oldtimey map line drawn on the ocean to show where when to tack at what angle would be so nice. especially for the longer hops between islands.
- tinywind 4mo agoThis is an amazing idea, definitely going to explore this! It could even prompt you to cut upwind and dive ships effectively, there could be a lot of depth here
- dgently7 4mo agohmm yeah, take that one step farther and you have your get on the ocean fast tutorial level.. go from point a to point b. fight one ship. capture a small island. then the map opens up an you are just in the first level. ready to take on the rest. it also solves the beginner problem where if you cant kill three ships in one health bar you cant capture the island to heal and you can get stuck roaming the seas looking for places to heal. with a small (but a little far away) starter island you could retreat to heal and try again. while i have you... what does the bounty hunters thing do? i see it pop up but then nothing really happens. i keep expecting like 5 ships to try and hunt me down but nada.
- embwbam 4mo agoThis brings back some memories! I used to play the Ancient Art of War at Sea on my dad's Mac Plus as a kid. Having never sailed, it was fun to learn about tacking while trying to broadside spanish galleons. Years later, I lied about my experience to convince a resort to let me check out a tiny catamaran. I made it back to shore! One recommendation: make the boats not turn quite so fast. It allows you to outmaneuver other vessels by planning ahead or gaining speed ahead of time. I still don't know much about sailing, but I have a lot of kitesurfing experience. Do boats really travel that slowly downwind? I assume that crosswind is faster, but downwind should still move at the speed of the wind.
- tinywind 4mo agoI need to check out that game, I’ve sunk countless hours into the 2004 Sid Meiers games. Also lying to sail a catamaran successfully back to shore is such a pirate thing to do :) you’re ready for TinyWind Noted on the ship turn speeds, I’ve been playing around with larger ships having slower turn radii but I do want the naval combat to have more of a planning element (setup upwind, strafe run and fire, etc) Let me look into the boat speeds in different wind conditions. I know beam reach/crosswind is faster than parachuting downwind but maybe my downwind speed is too slow now
- embwbam 4mo agoAmazing! Sorry I meant if the boats turned more slowly I think it would encourage more planning (and the enemies wouldn’t turn on a dime either) In that mac game, there was a tradeoff between speed and the number of cannons / health too
- jupr 4mo agoThis game is super fun. Thanks.
- dgently7 4mo agothe control layout is a bit awkward on mobile. i find myself wanting to adjust both heading and trim continuously, but both controls are on the right so i cant use both thumbs. then the buttons to fire/ board are fiddly. tbh almost gave up then tried with keyboard and saw how it was supposed to go.
- kqr 4mo agoIn the settings menu you can move the rudder wheel to the left. I don't know why that's not the default.
- tinywind 4mo agoMaybe I should make it the default? When I play on mobile I only use my right thumb almost never trimming sails and steering at the same time. I totally get if people primarily play with two hands on mobile it makes sense to default wheel to the left
- JumpCrisscross 4mo agoReally cool! What did you use for the physics engine?
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- kfse 4mo agoThe boat seems to go faster with the sails on the wrong side (back winded), that doesn't make a ton of physical sense to me
- synalx 4mo agoI interpreted this as a visual bug with the sprites. As a sailor, I love seeing ads or other random imagery of sailboats that's clearly photoshopped, with sails in nonsensical orientations or completely backwards with things like flags or hair blowing in the wind.
- dole 4mo agoBe interesting to see enemies take friendly fire, and possibly suppress fire if the shot on the player isn't clear?
- macrocosmos 4mo agoI don’t seem to be able to stop the boat by sailing straight into the wind.
- maitland 4mo agoheave to
- poppingtonic 4mo agoSome zig zag motions are required to maintain velocity and the combat is fun. I like it!
- deadbabe 4mo agoWould be nice if cannons didn’t fire in directions that had no clear enemies.
- ltononro 4mo agocontrols could be easier :D
- ryandrake 4mo agoVery cute and fun looking game, but I found it very difficult. Enemies have perfect aim, and I can't hit anything. I don't think you can even heal the ship unless you happen to stumble upon just the right treasure. Do you have a difficulty slider/setting? Maybe I missed it. It feels like I'm playing on the hardest mode. EDIT: After playing around some more, yea it feels less like an action game and more like a "sailing around with nearly zero health" simulator.
- theoe93orrj 4mo ago[flagged]
- NoLinkToMe 4mo agoI thought it was quite the opposite, too easy. Your ship recharges health. Also you can claim and island and heal there. It's so easy to the point it's actually boring, I got 10 kills before I quit, never got close to dying. Hell you can even claim an island, sit there in healing-mode, while shooting down enemy ships that don't heal... A difficulty slider is a good idea though.
- ryandrake 4mo agoYea, the difficulty seems to hinge on whether or not you manage to capture an island. If you do, then you can heal your ship, at which point I agree with you--the game becomes super easy. If you fail to kill three enemies (prerequisite of capturing an island), then it becomes a "sail around at zero health" game. A "difficulty" feature could just be a toggle: Start with a claimed island, or start with no claimed island.
- agravier 4mo agoThere may be a bug, I captured an island with less than 3 kills (I didn't have more than 1 kill IIRC)
- alexaholic 4mo agoExcellent!
- taffydavid 4mo agoI love it!
- xboxnolifes 4mo agoIf you put sail adjust ments of the opposite side of the screen from the helm on mobile, its be easier to both at once.
- zhainya 4mo agoThis is great!
- _flux 4mo agoShould there be sound? I think sounds would be essential for this. Running on Linux Firefox.
- tinywind 4mo agoThere’s no sound/fx or music at the moment but we will be adding this soon! A couple very kind redditors have reached out to develop in game tracks so stay tuned
- moffkalast 4mo agoIt's definitely in dire need of some sound effects at least. Otherwise it's very neat :)
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- kordlessagain 4mo agoI used Hyperia (my terminal project) to let Antigravity take control. I think it's cheating now because it has infinite ammo. Oh my, it wired up its own autopilot and is wrecking havoc now.
- amarant 4mo agoThis is awesome! To offer some constructive feedback: the wind direction could be clearer. More particles flowing across the waters! Especially when the direction is changing. Looking up at the wind teller is unintuitive, even for this old sailor who understands where it comes from. I also didn't always feel like it mattered which direction I angled my sails, only how much I angled them. Like I could angle them for a port wind when in reality I had a starboard wind, and I'd sail just fine. In the other hand that made it easier, and it was already hard enough lol! I bet it's easier on desktop though... Edit: you should add a race/regatta mode!
- Dansvidania 4mo agoi'd suggest a big flag on the main mast of each ship so its super clear what direction wind you are sailing into :)
- amarant 4mo agoThats a great idea actually! Will fit the style as well! Neat!
- tinywind 4mo agoGreat suggestions here! I already have a streaming type flag on the Spanish galleons I could repurpose for the main user ship for better wind clarity Definitely want to make an effects pass soon to improve visual clarity of the wind sprites and other basic things like cannon fire, hits, etc
- vintagedave 4mo agoWhen I learned to sail, this is where we were taught to look: the small flag on the top of the mast.
- LoveMortuus 4mo agoYee~ And the wind indicating red strings that are attached to the sails themselves!
- tim-star 4mo agogreat game! well done.
- juleiie 4mo agoShould be multiplayer like worms io of old Seriously it would be something seaworthy. Huge success viral probably
- cfontes 4mo agoGreat one, love the astetics and gameplay. Only confusing part is healing, I don't know my health or how much healing I need to be back to 80% or something close so I can get back into battle. Also healing takes forever.
- ryandrake 4mo agoIt looks like you can't just sit there and heal (or it takes an enormous amount of time to do so) without first taking over an island. So once you get hurt down to nothing, you need to sail around looking for castaways, which heal your ship.
- fishfasell 4mo agoVery cool
- sails 4mo agoGreat! I feel well positioned to say this is great :) I’ve been hoping for something like this. My ideal: slower, more real time, full maps based on actual locations, replay specific naval battles. Multiplayer (maybe it is?), realistic fog of war. I could go on Edit: a few more. Sail trim is clunky and seems unresponsive or unclear how it maps to physics. Would be better to have trim on one side and steering on the other. Also to turn off tacking with tap. Steering too sensitive. The battles are great. (All on mobile)
- tinywind 4mo agoOh wow thanks for the great suggestions and kind words, glad you’re enjoying the game! It’s funny, your ideal scenario is almost exactly what I have in mind for the first PvP map coming soon, a slower predetermined map with historic factions/safe zones and ofc lots of combat with bots or people I can definitely revisit the trim and responsiveness. Buried in the settings in ship logs you can move the wheel to the other side, need to make that more accessible
- Account_Removed 4mo agoIf you haven't already, take a look at the game Windward. I have similar vibes when playing your game. https://store.steampowered.com/app/326410/Windward/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/326410/Windward/
- jefurii 4mo agoThis would be a different game but I'd enjoy just sailing around semi-realistic maps with realistic wind. I pixellated Hundred Rabbits simulator would be pretty cool.
- CGamesPlay 4mo agoI doubt it has an "age of sail" mod, but there's this one: https://store.steampowered.com/app/794860/eSail_Sailing_Simulator/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/794860/eSail_Sailing_Simu...
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- theoe93orrj 4mo ago[flagged]
- thedrexster 4mo agoThis game is more Golden Age of Piracy piracy than Barbary Corsair piracy -- in fact, many pirate crews engaged in proto-democracy (well before it was fashionable!) and flatly condemned slavery. 1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governance_in_18th-century_piracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governance_in_18th-century_pir...
- throw9494rirj 4mo ago[flagged]
- thedrexster 4mo agolol, brother, was that worth the throwaway? You're already flagged to hell.
- precompute 4mo agoImpressive. It loads so quickly! What was this made with?
- everyone 4mo agoNice! Feedback.. 1. show keyboard mapping on the touch controls (for desktop / laptop users ideally) 2. Make wind indicator much bigger and centrally located 3. Make cannon cooldown much bigger and centrally located
- sanghoonio 4mo agoIf you have real wind physics, might as well apply realism to turning as well, so that ships can't turn in place. Rudder should only work with applied speed.
- Jolter 4mo agoRealistically, ships should tip over if you turn you broadside into the wind with full sails.
- Dansvidania 4mo agosails perpendicular to the wind for full power? my sailing experience is dated, but that does not seem to be right to me. Don't they want a lower angle of attack? is this a specific of square sails? maybe I am not getting it in the docs Still, very fun!
- tinywind 4mo agoI’m not a sailor at all my I just demo’d this for my dad who is. He had similar feedback I need to sit down and do a sailing mechanics audit to find a good balance between arcade/realism, I think a beam reach is supposed to be faster than downwind. But my angle of attacks could be more accurate especially for upwind sailing? Here’s currently how tinywind does it if anyone’s curious: https://tinywind.io/wiki/sailing#point-of-sail https://tinywind.io/wiki/sailing#point-of-sail
- geor9e 4mo agoIn irons should be a slightly negative number, since the wind drags the boat backwards at that point. Plus it will force the player to tack back and forth, which is a fun part of sailing. I bet A.I. can tell you the angle the sail ought to render at too (unless non-moving sail was part of the cartoon aesthetic)
- tinywind 4mo agoI did that simply for arcadeyness and feel but I’m not married to it at all Giving the ship a slight constant forward moment felt nice and forgiving when testing, and user still has to tack back and forth to get meaningful enough speed to strafe a ship. But I’m definitely open to sliding the realism scale here
- TylerE 4mo agoI would advise not putting "real wind physics" in the headline when that is not a promise you can deliver on. There's nothing wrong with arcade, but when you advertise "real physics" people like me are going to expect, well, "real physics".
- mojosmojo 4mo agoAs an Aubrey-Maturin lifelong re-reader, I cannot wait to play this.
- hnthrow10282910 4mo agoThis is a lot of fun! I’ve been wanting to learn how to make pixel games like this myself. Any tips, resources you’d recommend ?
- tinywind 4mo agoI’m also relatively new here so we’re learning on the fly. I’ve been heavily activate in pixel art subreddits early on for feedback and advice especially on the procedural generation. I’ve also found some great cheap pixel assets to get started from itch.io. Good luck on your pixel adventures, love to see what you build!
- sssilver 4mo agoThis is so awesome. If you need help building a backend for it to be multiplayer, please email me and I'd love to team up (sssilver@gmail.com), I already have something that would help.
- torlok 4mo agoThere's a vague correlation between wind direction and sailing speed, but there's nothing real here. The mechanics of sailing upwind, downwind, or the cost of tacking are interesting mechanics that aren't explored here whatsoever. The dead angle on a ship with a square rig should be massive. This ship goes upwind like it has a motor.
- TylerE 4mo agoUgh, that's extremely disappointing. That's exactly the sort of thing I expected from a game touting 'real wind physics'. Glad I know not to waste any time on it now, expecting it to be something it isn't.
- Multiplayer 4mo agoIt's still quite fun. The games industry figured out long ago that realism and fun are often diametrically opposed.
- TylerE 4mo agoAs a rule, combat in game does not interest me.
- idiotsecant 4mo agoWow you should really demand your money back!
- TylerE 4mo agoI’m confused, is this HN or enforced groupthink?
- stackghost 4mo agoHN has always been notorious for groupthink.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- vrtnis 4mo agoAwesome, great execution! This could become a really cool RL environment with a headless sim and procedural voyages. Factorio has something similar with the Factorio Learning Environment SDK.
- kandros 4mo agoEven on mobile is very pleasing good job!
- youdots 4mo agoThis is inspiring to create a full on real world autonomous little sailing dude to cross the straits.
- tommica 4mo agoThat was so fun to play! Reminds me of sid Meier's pirates
- tinywind 4mo agoThank you so much! One of the best compliments I can get, I’ve sunk hours into 2004 Sid Meiers pirates
- fkealy 4mo agoPlayed on mobile. Very cool game and would love to have a go at future versions. Seen a lot of comments about realistic wind and sailing mechanics. To add to the latter building speed after you tack/jibe would be cool & realistic depending on conditions! Gusts is another way and you could have storms! Maybe you do already but I didn’t encounter them.
- tinywind 4mo agoGusts and regional storms on the map are a great idea! I’ll be adding those in
- y1n0 4mo agoThis is fantasticly fun. Nice work!
- peterdemin 4mo agoGood vibes, free things stand out. The direction of wind seems inverted. North wind is wind blowing from north to south. Also, when going into irons, the speed should drop to zero, or become negative given the sail configuration. And turns are impossible without speed.
- VTimofeenko 4mo agoThis is probably PEBCAK, but I can't figure out how to capture an island
- yobananaboy 4mo agoYou have to gain some gold first by killing ships, then once you have 3 you can sail to the island and a button pops up to capture it. Took me a bit to figure it out too. Also once you've captured an island, you can lower your sails there to heal!
- pryelluw 4mo agoGreat game! I’m bookmarking it and coming back. Reminded me of assassins creed black flag.
- asturdy 4mo agoBeautiful retro art style <3
- CommanderData 4mo agoVery cool!!! Feels very much miniclip-esq
- oldmanChen 4mo ago[flagged]
- shockwaverider 4mo agoAwesome game!! It would be nice if your mouse wheel could turn the sails instead of having to go click on the slider.
- dodu_ 4mo agoVery cool and congrats! Super huge undertaking to ship a game. Any dev(b)logs for it? Always curious how these games handle multiplayer and what engines/stack they use.
- HardwareLust 4mo agoShocking how well this works on my beat up old Moto phone, and it's fun! Well done!
- throwaway980-1 4mo agoso we're not using "Show HN" any more?
- zuzululu 4mo agoit was never a strict requirement. Show HN actually automatically does disservice as its saturated.
- SpyCoder77 4mo agoThe art, physics and interaction design in this is genuinely beautiful
- rafael859 4mo agoI just started learning how to sail, and while trying to memorize all the new terminology I was wishing for an interactive way to play out the basic processes short of being on an actual boat. All of the games I found online were far too realistic, this was exactly what I was looking for. It's already close enough, you could certainly have an "educational" mode with a little bit more jargon. Some easier ramp-up to the game would be nice (thinking a tutorial to get used to the sail controls, or maybe a mode where the sails get automatically pivoted). Overall this is great!
- is_true 4mo agoThanks. I had a blast for like 10 minutes. Sinked everyone around haha
- mickael-kerjean 4mo agoWould love to know the technical details of how you made such an awesome game
- iJohnDoe 4mo agoReally fun! Enjoyed playing.
- FacelessJim 4mo agoThis reminds me of Patrician III so much. The sailing battles had the same wind mechanics. It’s amazing, so many memories unlocked.
- btbuildem 4mo agoThis is fun! Thanks for sharing it
- jojobas 4mo agoThe sidekick ramming into you all the time and killing all speed is pretty annoying.
- pmarreck 4mo agothis is really cute (speaking as an actual sailor), but does it use actual wind physics? because it doesn’t look like it also, I need a fucking windvane, dude, please basically, what this guy said: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48546879 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48546879 The illusion (and thus the game) is ruined if you actually know how sailing works. I’d prefer something more realistic, which would make it more strategic- this is just a motorboat simulation with visual-only sails
- phaser 4mo agoI loved your game. I'm wondering about the decision of making the game with a registration on your website instead of a more traditional approach of having a standalone game. The friction point for me was having to register to save progress. I would gladly pay in Steam or itch.io for a game that i can download and play locally. I'm guessing the decision is about making a online leaderboard?
- alfirous 4mo agoI try on iPhone 8 it's feels smooth, even better than most website today. This is impressive!
- tb-now 4mo agoThis is really cool and well done. Congrats! One gotcha/ask: Can you somewhere show the keyboard controls? Maybe in the overview, once I hit the space bar? Took me a while to figure things out, I also really like the option to immediately jump into the game without first having to log in or so! How long did it take you to get this up and running, if I may ask?
- pmontra 4mo agoI played it for half an hour on a 6.1" phone. Firefox Android, it worked flawlessly. The game is fun. Some ideas to improve the UI. The wind teller is OK but instead of a line ending with a circle it could be an arrow. Furthermore there is need to have it turn around the center of the teller. It can turn around the center of the arrow and be twice as large or take half the space. The wheel is confusing and should be removed. I spent minutes attempting to turn it before realizing that I was turning the ship by touching the water where I wanted the ship to go. I know where the ship is headed to (I look at the ship) so the wheel is taking space on screen and cpu for no reason at all. Every few minutes, maybe 10, a page of instructions opened in front of the game. They were always different. I don't know if I pressed a button or if it's a training mode. The problem is that it happens out of the blue and it's not welcome. I didn't notice any indicator of how many cannonballs I have left. The black cannonballs on blue water are not very visible. I also noted 4 circles in the water in front of the ship when I fire. What are they?
- delbronski 4mo agoReally cool! I love well created web games.
- paulbjensen 4mo agoGreat game, loved taking a peak behind the scenes and seeing it was using HTML5 canvas. Will buy the game later on, especially as it's only $5 - I guess that's a latte in the US these days?
- delbronski 4mo agoIf you set a breakpoint inside any engine method in the Sources tab and then do something like: this.state.treasureEffects.cannonCooldownS = 0 Then you can easily cheat. Is there any way around this?
- Raj_Sidwadkar 4mo ago[flagged]
- queeshonda 4mo ago[dead]
- russ-curry 4mo agoThis is a really fun game, congratulations on releasing it. If I could make one suggestion - it would be awesome if you could use the mouse wheel to change the orientation of your sails rather than having to move all the way over to the right of the screen to use the slider.
- adolph 4mo agoIt does arrow left/right or a/d for tiller and arrow up/down or w/s for sail trim. If you can manage using wasd, then r will [un]furl sails. I haven't figured out the cannon button yet if there is one. Edit: r for [un]furl sails [0], also <shift> apparently fires 0. https://tinywind.io/wiki/briefing#sailing-the-ship https://tinywind.io/wiki/briefing#sailing-the-ship
- russ-curry 4mo agoThanks! I just learned that and now feel stupid, lmao.
- calimoro78 4mo agoLove this -- and plays great on desktop and mobile. I am making a different sea-faring game focused on merchant trading in the age of Marco Polo, would you mind if I asked you a few questions to compare notes on sailing and 2.5D graphics? is there a way to DM you.
- anthk 4mo agoMeh, I prefer sail(6). JK, but that Unix game it's surprissingly accurate.
- burtstanton 4mo agoooh I have something for this: only fore-and-aft sails jibe (or gybe) square-riggers wear ship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jibe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jibe
- sourcegrift 4mo agoThere's a reason these fonts have been outlawed by the ghost of Jeff Raskin. They are harder to read.