6 ms·

Web-based typing game from the maker of Minecraft, using Unity3D

51 points by JoeCortopassi 13y ago

slosh 13y ago
what is this man doing to my brain!!!!!!
oakaz 13y ago
I only see a blank page
- switch33 13y ago
  Download the Unity Web Player browser extension. http://unity3d.com/webplayer/ http://unity3d.com/webplayer/
  - oakaz 13y ago
    No.
  - simplexion 13y ago
    As long as you aren't using Linux... Fail.
- krasin 13y ago
  based on the capturing the requests sent from this page, it tries (and fails) to offer to install Unity3D plugin.
- camus 13y ago
  me too , with a message telling me i have to download and install something to access the content , how is it web based ?
switch33 13y ago
God darn it Notch. This is gonna make people have forced tunnel vision! My record was 37. Though I only played it for a few minutes. It's just too damn fast and annoying on your eyesight.
DanielRibeiro 13y ago
He also uploaded just the fractal-like animation: http://trom.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com http://trom.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com It seems like there is a Ludum Dare event going on: https://twitter.com/notch/status/328290085487398913 https://twitter.com/notch/status/328290085487398913
hcarvalhoalves 13y ago
It's actually harder to read than to type correctly. I only got to 48 before it turned unreadable. Cool idea though.
frakkingcylons 13y ago
Fantastic, using Unity which isn't available for Linux. Hardly deserving of "web-based".
- derefr 13y ago
  Unity has an Google Native Client target which runs on Linux Chrome. They also recently got Unity compiling to asm.js, so as soon as that's more widely supported, Unity will be "web-based" in the more ideal sense.
  - NotOscarWilde 13y ago
    I do believe that doesn't change anything; having it available on a proprietary 32-bit application that happens to run on Linux does not make it web-based. As a person who still uses Firefox (on Linux), denoting "works in Chrome only" as "web-based" reminds me too much of the good old IE days.
mtgx 13y ago
It requires a Unity plugin.
nilkn 13y ago
I'm confused about how to play. I keep scoring around 45-50 when I just get Overflow even though everything seems to be fine. It definitely seem I'm typing the letters far too quickly, but if I type them slowly I get Underflow or something.
- kevingadd 13y ago
  There's a buffer of characters at the bottom left and if it gets too full you get overflow. Hit 'enter' to flush it. (Yes, this is confusing)
  - nilkn 13y ago
    Oh, wow, I had no idea you had to hit 'enter' to submit the buffer you'd typed.
make3 13y ago
uhh. 183. This game is so addictive. don't forget to hit 'enter' about every four words to prevent overflows. more words between 'enters' gives incrementally more points, it seems.
archagon 13y ago
Super Hexagon combined with a typing tutor? Awesome! Love the animation, too.
jbrooksuk 13y ago
33, then it hurt my head.
rdl 13y ago
This is cute, but not a very good game. I have no problem typing quickly enough to keep up, but I can't easily read the characters on a gray background, moving around, to get past 50 or so. I get that they're words, so as soon as I can figure out the word (2-3 characters in, since it's usually the same word), it's easier, but still, meh. And a game where a single error is "start over from the beginning" is a non-fun game, generally.
- sambeau 13y ago
  "And a game where a single error is "start over from the beginning" is a non-fun game, generally." Before the 1990s nearly all computer games worked like that. Most only ever gave you 3 lives many started you from the beginning again each time you lost a life. These are widely recognised as some of the most fun computer games in history.
  - rdl 13y ago
    There is a difference between dying in a game, and making a single mistake. Failing to jump at the optimal moment or kill a single enemy with your first shot is 'making a single mistake'. Virtually every game which is any fun gives you some opportunity to correct that without dying, let alone without returning to the beginning. I assure you I've played plenty of pre-1990 video games.
    - derefr 13y ago
      Ever played a shmup (e.g. Gradius, Touhou)?
      - rdl 13y ago
        Neither of those, but plenty of others (galaxian, contra, etc) Missing a single shot on a target isn't fatal; getting hit could be, but even then there were usually intermediate points/levels or some other way of making replaying it interesting (non deterministic enemy movement or whatever in some games)
  - 13y ago
csallen 13y ago
196! The key is to recognize that there are a limited number of words you type. The first one is always "drop", and then it seems to randomly choose from "harmony", "eternal", "gnostic", "clean", "universe", "fractal", etc. Once you play enough times, you'll start to recognize the words before they fully appear. Also, try to press enter every 4 words for the biggest bonus possible. If you've gotten a lot of short words recently, you can probably enter 5 words before encountering the overflow error.
just2n 13y ago
"Web-based" "install now!" No. Stop it.
- wfn 13y ago
  "Web-based [...] using Unity3D" If you didn't have a Flash player and the game was made in Flash (surely that would meet one's expectations for a "web-based game", or at least until very recently) and you didn't have a Flash plugin, would you complain as well?
  - mtgx 13y ago
    I think we're trying to move away from plugins, not go back to them.
    - pjmlp 13y ago
      Desktop, see no plugins.
  - 6ren 13y ago
    One problem with Unity is lack of a linux plugin (whereas Flash has one). Is it "web-based" if it doesn't work everywhere the web does? But whatever your answer to that theoretical question, in practice, I cannot play Unity games because I'm only using linux machines. IMHO not being able use a platform is reasonable cause for complaint.
    - hatu 13y ago
      Unity has Linux exporting but that's for stand-alone games only, the web plugin isn't available.
    - __--__ 13y ago
      Is Flash "web-based" if it doesn't work in iOS?
  - just2n 13y ago
    That no longer meets my expectations of a "web-based game." I would consider my expectations fairly realistic. I also believe most have always referred to games that use Flash as "Flash games." When Macromedia Flash originally became popular, it solved quite a few very real problems in existing browsers. SVG support was nonexistent. JS performance was horrific which prevented smooth animations. Browsers were VERY inconsistent about how input was handled, and CSS-assisted DOM rendering was extremely awkward, slow, and browser-specific. There was no real "video" or "audio" support. You embedded a video or audio object and hoped the user's browser had a codec available to decode it, and that was a whole world of WTFs indeed. It provided a means of DRM, which is apparently important to people who have too much money and still want more. Last, but certainly not least, there was no way to establish a real-time duplex connection with a server (full TCP access is still not possible without experimental flags, but WebSockets allow most of the needed functionality). Flash completely filled the multimedia-on-the-web niche. It was such a fundamentally missing piece that it would be eventually shipped with many browsers, and some (Chrome) even included their own Flash players. It became so fundamental, it was ported to almost every major platform. I'd argue it became a de facto, proprietary, web standard. In this case, Unity3D is a game engine that's meant to target many platforms. It isn't "web based," it's just something that happens to be running in a browser plugin. I thought for a moment that this meant Unity3D was building for HTML5, but alas, the plugin plague continues. And to be fair, Flash is almost completely obsoleted by current HTML5/CSS3 features, but will likely outstay its welcome in the name of backwards compatibility.
Aardwolf 13y ago
All I see is a white page...
- gingerlime 13y ago
  same here. Tried using both chrome + firefox on xubuntu 12.04...
- csense 13y ago
  I can confirm this on Firefox and Chrome on Linux Mint 14. Notch needs to get back to work on 0x10c [1] [1] http://0x10c.com http://0x10c.com
tomjen3 13y ago
Loading Unity player chrashed my (chrome) browser.
oellegaard 13y ago
I'm disappointed that I used 5 min to install Unity3D to see this.
Gallefray 13y ago
Where's the downvote button?
Keyframe 13y ago
Broken. Input doesn't work on OSX 10.7.5/Chrome. It did for a few keystrokes and then died, doesn't work after refresh or anything. Concept reminds me of a game I played on Amstrad-Schneider cpc 464. It was a space invaders game with your spaceship being in several positions at once. Each position corresponded to a key on keyboard. When you pressed it, you fired a shot and corresponding key for that spaceship slot was changed. Essentially, that's how I learned to type fast.
Kiro 13y ago
Am I the only one being very underwhelmed by this simply by the fact that it's from Notch? The bar is set so high and this feels like something made by someone doing a Unity tutorial. I know it's a skewed way of thinking but I can't help it.
Luc 13y ago
Listen up you extremely cantankerous lot, it's the submission's title that is 'wrong' in calling it web-based, not the fact that it uses a Unity plugin. I am amused by the wisecracks calling Notch's work a failure because of a small inaccuracy in the submission title.

51 points by JoeCortopassi 13y ago

slosh 13y ago

what is this man doing to my brain!!!!!!

oakaz 13y ago

I only see a blank page

switch33 13y ago
Download the Unity Web Player browser extension. http://unity3d.com/webplayer/ http://unity3d.com/webplayer/
- oakaz 13y ago
  No.
- simplexion 13y ago
  As long as you aren't using Linux... Fail.
krasin 13y ago
based on the capturing the requests sent from this page, it tries (and fails) to offer to install Unity3D plugin.
camus 13y ago
me too , with a message telling me i have to download and install something to access the content , how is it web based ?

switch33 13y ago

God darn it Notch. This is gonna make people have forced tunnel vision! My record was 37. Though I only played it for a few minutes. It's just too damn fast and annoying on your eyesight.

DanielRibeiro 13y ago

He also uploaded just the fractal-like animation: http://trom.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com http://trom.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com It seems like there is a Ludum Dare event going on: https://twitter.com/notch/status/328290085487398913 https://twitter.com/notch/status/328290085487398913

hcarvalhoalves 13y ago

It's actually harder to read than to type correctly. I only got to 48 before it turned unreadable. Cool idea though.

frakkingcylons 13y ago

Fantastic, using Unity which isn't available for Linux. Hardly deserving of "web-based".

derefr 13y ago
Unity has an Google Native Client target which runs on Linux Chrome. They also recently got Unity compiling to asm.js, so as soon as that's more widely supported, Unity will be "web-based" in the more ideal sense.
- NotOscarWilde 13y ago
  I do believe that doesn't change anything; having it available on a proprietary 32-bit application that happens to run on Linux does not make it web-based. As a person who still uses Firefox (on Linux), denoting "works in Chrome only" as "web-based" reminds me too much of the good old IE days.

mtgx 13y ago

It requires a Unity plugin.

nilkn 13y ago

I'm confused about how to play. I keep scoring around 45-50 when I just get Overflow even though everything seems to be fine. It definitely seem I'm typing the letters far too quickly, but if I type them slowly I get Underflow or something.

kevingadd 13y ago
There's a buffer of characters at the bottom left and if it gets too full you get overflow. Hit 'enter' to flush it. (Yes, this is confusing)
- nilkn 13y ago
  Oh, wow, I had no idea you had to hit 'enter' to submit the buffer you'd typed.

make3 13y ago

uhh. 183. This game is so addictive. don't forget to hit 'enter' about every four words to prevent overflows. more words between 'enters' gives incrementally more points, it seems.

archagon 13y ago

Super Hexagon combined with a typing tutor? Awesome! Love the animation, too.

jbrooksuk 13y ago

33, then it hurt my head.

rdl 13y ago

This is cute, but not a very good game. I have no problem typing quickly enough to keep up, but I can't easily read the characters on a gray background, moving around, to get past 50 or so. I get that they're words, so as soon as I can figure out the word (2-3 characters in, since it's usually the same word), it's easier, but still, meh. And a game where a single error is "start over from the beginning" is a non-fun game, generally.

sambeau 13y ago
"And a game where a single error is "start over from the beginning" is a non-fun game, generally." Before the 1990s nearly all computer games worked like that. Most only ever gave you 3 lives many started you from the beginning again each time you lost a life. These are widely recognised as some of the most fun computer games in history.
- rdl 13y ago
  There is a difference between dying in a game, and making a single mistake. Failing to jump at the optimal moment or kill a single enemy with your first shot is 'making a single mistake'. Virtually every game which is any fun gives you some opportunity to correct that without dying, let alone without returning to the beginning. I assure you I've played plenty of pre-1990 video games.
  - derefr 13y ago
    Ever played a shmup (e.g. Gradius, Touhou)?
    - rdl 13y ago
      Neither of those, but plenty of others (galaxian, contra, etc) Missing a single shot on a target isn't fatal; getting hit could be, but even then there were usually intermediate points/levels or some other way of making replaying it interesting (non deterministic enemy movement or whatever in some games)
- 13y ago

csallen 13y ago

196! The key is to recognize that there are a limited number of words you type. The first one is always "drop", and then it seems to randomly choose from "harmony", "eternal", "gnostic", "clean", "universe", "fractal", etc. Once you play enough times, you'll start to recognize the words before they fully appear. Also, try to press enter every 4 words for the biggest bonus possible. If you've gotten a lot of short words recently, you can probably enter 5 words before encountering the overflow error.

just2n 13y ago

"Web-based" "install now!" No. Stop it.

wfn 13y ago
"Web-based [...] using Unity3D" If you didn't have a Flash player and the game was made in Flash (surely that would meet one's expectations for a "web-based game", or at least until very recently) and you didn't have a Flash plugin, would you complain as well?
- mtgx 13y ago
  I think we're trying to move away from plugins, not go back to them.
  - pjmlp 13y ago
    Desktop, see no plugins.
- 6ren 13y ago
  One problem with Unity is lack of a linux plugin (whereas Flash has one). Is it "web-based" if it doesn't work everywhere the web does? But whatever your answer to that theoretical question, in practice, I cannot play Unity games because I'm only using linux machines. IMHO not being able use a platform is reasonable cause for complaint.
  - hatu 13y ago
    Unity has Linux exporting but that's for stand-alone games only, the web plugin isn't available.
  - __--__ 13y ago
    Is Flash "web-based" if it doesn't work in iOS?
- just2n 13y ago
  That no longer meets my expectations of a "web-based game." I would consider my expectations fairly realistic. I also believe most have always referred to games that use Flash as "Flash games." When Macromedia Flash originally became popular, it solved quite a few very real problems in existing browsers. SVG support was nonexistent. JS performance was horrific which prevented smooth animations. Browsers were VERY inconsistent about how input was handled, and CSS-assisted DOM rendering was extremely awkward, slow, and browser-specific. There was no real "video" or "audio" support. You embedded a video or audio object and hoped the user's browser had a codec available to decode it, and that was a whole world of WTFs indeed. It provided a means of DRM, which is apparently important to people who have too much money and still want more. Last, but certainly not least, there was no way to establish a real-time duplex connection with a server (full TCP access is still not possible without experimental flags, but WebSockets allow most of the needed functionality). Flash completely filled the multimedia-on-the-web niche. It was such a fundamentally missing piece that it would be eventually shipped with many browsers, and some (Chrome) even included their own Flash players. It became so fundamental, it was ported to almost every major platform. I'd argue it became a de facto, proprietary, web standard. In this case, Unity3D is a game engine that's meant to target many platforms. It isn't "web based," it's just something that happens to be running in a browser plugin. I thought for a moment that this meant Unity3D was building for HTML5, but alas, the plugin plague continues. And to be fair, Flash is almost completely obsoleted by current HTML5/CSS3 features, but will likely outstay its welcome in the name of backwards compatibility.

Aardwolf 13y ago

All I see is a white page...

gingerlime 13y ago
same here. Tried using both chrome + firefox on xubuntu 12.04...
csense 13y ago
I can confirm this on Firefox and Chrome on Linux Mint 14. Notch needs to get back to work on 0x10c [1] [1] http://0x10c.com http://0x10c.com

tomjen3 13y ago

Loading Unity player chrashed my (chrome) browser.

oellegaard 13y ago

I'm disappointed that I used 5 min to install Unity3D to see this.

Gallefray 13y ago

Where's the downvote button?

Keyframe 13y ago

Broken. Input doesn't work on OSX 10.7.5/Chrome. It did for a few keystrokes and then died, doesn't work after refresh or anything. Concept reminds me of a game I played on Amstrad-Schneider cpc 464. It was a space invaders game with your spaceship being in several positions at once. Each position corresponded to a key on keyboard. When you pressed it, you fired a shot and corresponding key for that spaceship slot was changed. Essentially, that's how I learned to type fast.

Kiro 13y ago

Am I the only one being very underwhelmed by this simply by the fact that it's from Notch? The bar is set so high and this feels like something made by someone doing a Unity tutorial. I know it's a skewed way of thinking but I can't help it.

Luc 13y ago

Listen up you extremely cantankerous lot, it's the submission's title that is 'wrong' in calling it web-based, not the fact that it uses a Unity plugin. I am amused by the wisecracks calling Notch's work a failure because of a small inaccuracy in the submission title.