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Show HN: made a html5 game, polished it many many times (hotbazooka.com)

211 points by bazookaBen ↗ HN
hi all,

I've always wanted to make my own game, but couldn't afford a thousand-dollar adobe (flash+photoshop) license.

I'm not a talented programmer, have no degree in CS. But I understand some elements of design.

So I got me a copy of ImpactJS, and after about 5 months of steep learning curve (at least for me), I managed to come up with a game.

I also integrated it with a highscore and badge system, similar to what you get at Kongregate. You need to login with Google/OpenID to earn badges/scores.

link is: http://www.hotbazooka.com/privatejoe

hope to hear some feedback/questions from you guys!

118 comments

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bazookaBen
the game was tested on

Chrome 10 Safari 5 Firefox 4 Opera 11

some users with IE9 reported some errors, I couldn't debug because i'm on OSX. Please let me know if there're any cheap methods to get an IE9.

dangrossman
> Please let me know if there're any cheap methods to get an IE9.

VirtualBox/VMWare/Parallels. Install Windows in a VM then install IE9.

pedrokost
You may want to use the up arrow to jump. Using X for jumping and C for shooting is a bit confusing.
philbo
That's interesting. I actually found having the jump and shoot actions over on the left hand quite intuitive. I'm now wondering whether left/right handedness or some other physical factors are involved in this...
forensic
Just make UP work in addition to X. This way users with built in reflexes won't feel punished.

Also, make space work for jumping too. I hit space a few times causing me to skip down on the page.

You don't need to advertise these additional key bindings, but since they are very common in other games a significant portion of players will automatically use them.

Other than that, very well done!

bazookaBen
thx, updates made to the game! Key UP and Space now makes you jump.
barrkel
X and C are also not in convenient places for Dvorak users, and I imagine for some other international keyboard layouts.
bazookaBen
what keys do you suggest for Dvorak? let me know..
barrkel
Arrow keys, space, control, shift etc. are all normal, but I guess how capturable those are from JS varies. Making them configurable?

Qwerty X maps to Dvorak Q; Qwerty C maps to Dvorak J. That is, listening to Q and J when the user is using Dvorak, as X and C on a Qwerty keyboard.

bazookaBen
its pretty capturable. Ok the idea to configure keys make a lot of sense!
Natsu
I would have made space shoot, too, incidentally (arrows + space should be the same for just about every keyboard out there), but configuration itself is a great idea.

I also wish that the length of time you held down the jump key controlled the height of your jump rather (up to a maximum, obviously), rather than one-size-fits-all jumps, but that's minor.

Play an old NES game that used that system like Super Mario Bros. (any of them) then play your game to see how much more in control you feel.

Seldaek
If you use keyCode instead of charCode I think you'll get the same result on every keyboard layout, but of course if you tell people to use C, it means the key where C is on a US keyboard, not really the key where a C is printed. I believe Dvorak users are conscious enough to understand that though.
waterhouse
(Dvorak user here.) I've played many Flash games in which the keys were WASD, but they actually worked the same even if I didn't switch the layout back to Qwerty. And then I've played games in which it did matter which layout I used. I suspect there's one set of functions that receives keypresses, and another that looks at more raw device input. Perhaps there is a way to do the same thing here?

That wouldn't work with a physical Dvorak keyboard, though (as opposed to my Qwerty keyboard, with the input layout on my operating system set to Dvorak). Do you have one, out of curiosity? (And, hmm, you could make WASD--or X and C here--work as desired on a real Dvorak keyboard by making it handle keypresses rather than device input and then setting the layout to Qwerty.)

foxhop
You should allow the user to customize the keyboard, I prefer 'awsd' for movement and 0 and . as nintendo's 'A' and 'B' buttons. It maps better in my brain.
base
I didn't find immediately that the C was to jump. The keys should appear in the beginning.
treyp
pretty awesome job. fullscreen or a larger playable area would be nice.
creativityhurts
Very nice, I second that fullscreen or a larger playable area would be nice.
bazookaBen
the thing is, if I make the screen larger, the game will lag (lower FPS). Below 45 fps, the game isn't that fun to play.

I do realize that old NES games can be fullscreened any time of the day. Wish I could do that in my case.

TomasSedovic
Speaking of FPS, I honestly don't understand this: why is it that 25 frames per second is okay for movies but not for games?
jws
There is generally about a one frame deep pipeline between the user interface and the rendering so you end up with more like a 100ms delay which is two human reaction times and enough to feel unresponsive.

Story of old: in the 90's, when the radiology transcriptionists were moved too far away for RS232 to reach their computer, and they were put on LAT devices (8 serial ports to Ethernet with crazy complicated optimization to multiplex traffic from all 8 into the same packets) their duplicate key errors and general frustration went up. Working from audio, they watched the screen and if the delay was ever perceptible they would restrict a key. Allen ended up writing them an editor that worked in half duplex mode (local echo).

ynniv
Also an image on film is the integration over the time the shutter was open, causing a very smooth motion blur. Games don't naturally have this motion blur, so low frame-rate movement appears choppy.

Sometimes film makers reduce the length of integration (time the shutter is open) to produce a choppier scene. This was prominently featured in action scenes of the movie Gladiator. Many people did not like the effect because, like a low frame-rate video game, it was harsh and disorienting.

seanalltogether
Because movies show motion blur which makes things appear more smooth. Most games just show static snapshots of moments in time and it makes motion jerky as a result.
amourgh
Nice job.Can you please tell me what you used to code it:RoR,Python or just HTML5 only.i have an idea to develop something like that.
de90
Not OP, but he used the Impact engine (Javascript) to do this.
amourgh
what is Impact Engine?a js library for games?
nolok
Yes: http://impactjs.com/
vinilios
any good open source alternative ?
NewHighScore
I have been looking for a good alternative to impactjs too. The one that I have been playing with is called Easel.js - http://easeljs.com/
bazookaBen
i used to play around a lot with Akihabara (free & opensourced). The lack of a good map editor made me switch to ImpactJS
sorenbs
Have a look at craftyjs.com - not very mature, but moving fast, and really nice to work with.
Dfkit
I would suggest to take a good look at LimeJS.
mrspeaker
Not to be a downer (I'm sure there was still a lot of work in it), but when it loaded I thought "oh, it's just Biolab disaster" (the first demo game of impactjs: http://playbiolab.com/). I think this game is just a "reskin".
GvS
Nice oldschool music. Where did you get it?
aberkowitz
The best part about it was that I forgot it wasn't Flash.
bazookaBen
thanks! it took a lot of integrating+checking+debugging, making sure the loading doesn't break halfway. Look and feel are my top priority
philipDS
Super awesome! Reminds me of my old NES games :)
joakin
Shouldnt this load on the iPad ? It stops at 25% of the loading
bazookaBen
nope it won't load on an iPad.

Sound is not well built on the iOS/Android browser, so I figured, if the game is going to suck anyway, might as well don't build it for mobile.

riskish
this is awesome. Nice work. What tools did you use?
bazookaBen
tools:

ImpactJS Google Appengine + Python for hosting and achievement system GIMP for graphics TextMate Switch for Mac (to reduce the bitrate for the audio files)

xiaoma
Out of curiosity, how many of you worked on it and how long did it take? I can imagine just the sprite artwork alone was a good chunk of time.
[dead] captainbenis
Dude - awesome! It reminds me of rick dangerous. Really nicely done. :) Badges are cool, are they a part of impact? You should submit this to reddit /r/webgames - they'd dig it more than these guys.
mkilling
Really really great game! You should make the rewards for freeing a prisoner appear instantly, waiting for those items to appear kills the pacing of the game somewhat.
esschul
The key binding is the same as in biolab disaster. And it sort of looks the same. But awesome-awesome. Multiplayer coming soon?
bazookaBen
i think multiplayer requires some node.js magic. Don't have a clue how that works!

the forums at ImpactJS had some discussions on node.js, will have a look

pablasso
The fact that you can run out of ammo may made it a little too punishing for a game like this.

It's addicting anyway, but it could be even more.

woogley
Decent game overall, but I hope you plan on switching out the Advance Wars sprites with something you own in the future. (or use resources from sites like http://opengameart.org/)
wazoox
Fantastic job! The only downside is the limited game area size, but it's really pretty and funny.
ct
Very cool dude! Congrats on finishing it. This is motivating me to start on a game also this weekend :)
bazookaBen
try ImpactJS! best thing that ever happened to me.
random42
$99 seems pretty steep (for a beginner). Any alternatives?
bazookaBen
it's the best you've got out there. The framework is organized, there's an awesome map editor, and the community is growing.
pornel
Just a general advice for writing HTML games: remember to preventDefault() on all keyboard-related events (keydown, keypress) for all keys you use when your game has focus (add tabindex to your canvas so you'll get focus/blur events).

Otherwise browser's shortcuts could interfere with your game. I have Opera customized with 1-key shortcuts (with no modifier key) and that's a minefield in games that assume keyboard is all for them.

mattdeboard
Yeah, bummer. Hit X and the tab closed. Fun game though, kudos.
bazookaBen
hmm preventDefault() was not built into the older Operas.

apparently the guys fixed preventDefault() on Opera 11.10, as explained here: http://impactjs.com/forums/help/binding-keys-in-opera-not-wo...

pornel
preventDefault() worked in Opera since ancient times. However, Opera took default action on different event than other browsers (keydown instead of keypress if I remember correctly).
thepsi
Nice game - how much work is something like this?

I like how the controls/movement are precise yet just forgiving enough.

Only thing, I'm not hearing any music (Chrome 11 beta, OS X).

julian37
I'm running Chrome 11 beta on OS X and I can hear the music.

Game has a great old school flair btw, well done!

bazookaBen
the music server overserved its quota. for a 300kb song file, it reached 1 GB pretty fast!
bazookaBen
I;ve just increased the quota, it's running great
bazookaBen
about 3 months of work (from the very beginning of opening the manual)
allenp
I like the meaty sound it makes when a shot hits. More meaty sounds might be good.
nicetryguy
i like it!

Needs a shorthop bro. Jump continues only if jump button is being held. check any NES / SNES Mario for an example

aniket_ray
Doesn't seem to be working on my XP SP3 + Chrome 10. I'll give it a try later on my Ubuntu and Win7, if they work any better.
thamer
Your App Engine app is over quota, game.min.js can't be loaded: http://game1-main.appspot.com/baked/game.min.js
bazookaBen
ok i allocated additional bandwidth, the game should be up and running with full music! Enjoy!
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perivamsi
It still isn't working. Any mirrors? Reading the reviews below, I can't wait to try this!
bazookaBen
hmm i think you need to clear your browser cache before trying again. (this will retrieve the latest version)
davorak
The music goes a way when I switch tabs! It is a shame more games do not do this.
bazookaBen
yup, it's a design decision. I hate it when games keep playing/running when i'm on another tab. Makes the laptop warm.