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Show HN: Hypatia 0.2, a 2D adventure game engine

191 points by lillian-lemmer ↗ HN
Hello, Hacker News!

My name is Lillian (see: http://about.lillian.link/), and I just released version 0.2 of my MIT-licensed game engine, Hypatia(http://lillian-lemmer.github.io/hypatia/).

Hypatia is a game engine for single player 2D action adventure games. You can use it to make a game like Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. Hypatia is aimed at non-programmers and programmers alike.

I'm seeking any sort of feedback.

Hypatia supports FreeBSD first, but has great support for just about any platform (https://github.com/lillian-lemmer/hypatia/wiki/Platform-Support). Maybe that fact should be more front-and-center? I'm not too worried.

Hypatia is currently in alpha. Though, the wiki does elaborate on how nonprogrammers can use Hypatia to make a game (https://github.com/lillian-lemmer/hypatia/wiki/Nonprogramer-Guide).

If you're interested in contributing, I could really use people testing it out, making their own scenes, tilemaps, and such, proofreading documentation. Here's a list of ways you can support/contribute to/help Hypatia (includes donations): https://github.com/lillian-lemmer/hypatia/wiki/Support-the-Project.

Website: http://lillian-lemmer.github.io/hypatia/

GitHub: https://github.com/lillian-lemmer/hypatia

Wiki: https://github.com/lillian-lemmer/hypatia/wiki

My major contact methods:

@LilyLemmer on twitter

lillian.lynn.lemmer@gmail.com

There are tons of ways to get in contact with me, see what I'm up to, or just get personal with me. Here's a list of pretty much every online account I own for Hypatia or otherwise: https://github.com/lillian-lemmer/hypatia/wiki/Profiles.

Thank you for your time!

42 comments

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hundunpao
Adventure and Action Adventure are completely different things in my book.
joncameron
I agree that it's misleading based on the title. On the site and in the text above it's more explicit about being a Zelda-like engine for action adventure games, and it looks like an awesome project. I clicked the link expecting something like Adventure Game Studio, though.
lillian-lemmer
Oh, thanks you two, I totally will make double sure to say "action adventure" in the future. :)
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reedlaw
I like how this is aimed at beginners (non-programmers). Although I don't think it's really possible for a complete neophyte to pick up this project and make something, it seems like it could become a part of an even more basic course. I find a lot of "beginner" resources make far too many assumptions. Today I was working with some students who had never used a keyboard before and I tried to find a typing tutorial they could use but most of them assumed too much. It's OK to have intermediate resources but they should at least point to more basic information. For example, a typing program is far more useful with a picture of a hand over the keyboard in the home position. It's even better with animation to show the proper fingering.
lillian-lemmer
You're right, I really need to have videos, and more in-depth instructions with pictures included! Not only that, but I really need to get workin' on my GUI-based editors. :) Thanks for your advice. I took it to heart.

It's aimed at nonprogrammers and programmers alike, actually. ;D

mistagiggles
GUI-based editors/viewers should be your next goal if your want to capture non-programmer users. People who don't program are far less likely to be comfortable poking around in text files and matching numbers to pictures etc.

Seems like a nice engine though, I'll have a proper look later

lillian-lemmer
Totally is my next goal! :D I agree whole-heartedly with what you're saying. :)

I'm really glad you think it seems nice. I eagerly await to hear what you think.

trishume
Neat! I like the idea of having both programmer and non-programmer customizability: it invites collaboration as well as people who start as non-programmers to expand their skills.

Side note: clever website domain (http://about.lillian.link/), I like it. The site itself is nice too, particularly the embedded video of Hypatia is much better than a long description.

lillian-lemmer
Oh, I developed/designed it in VIM myself, so thank you so very much! That really pleases me to hear that. It's also responsive. :D I'm really glad you like the giant GIF. ;3

Yes, I would have to agree with you regarding your point.

mattisdada
Looks good so far! Have a look at unity for inspiration for gui, I've seen plenty of non programers use it very effectively because of how user friendly it is
lillian-lemmer
I'll make sure to sample the field. I'm kinda drawn to how OHRRPGCE works and looks. I guess it kinda scares some people, though. :) I'll definitely put a lot of work into doing research for the UI. I'll give Unity another try. Though, I'm not quite at the GUI/editor phase, yet.
lnanek2
Doesn't seem to support iOS, so I wouldn't recommend it for any development where you are hoping to earn money, but could be a fun thing to play around with and learn, maybe, I guess.
nekopa
Holy shit! What happened to PC and console games!?! That $40+ Billion from last year are not to be had any more?
Mikeb85
Honestly, PC is the best place for indies these days. Mobile (iOS included) is dominated by a few big companies churning out free-to-play titles...
lillian-lemmer
That's okay, this is a project of love. :) If it isn't absurd I'll start supporting iOS with Kivy, which I happen to know absolutely nothing about.
Arjuna
First off, Welcome to HN!

This is really cool, and... what an awesome first post! I'm probably biased, but I love seeing game-related "Show HN" posts!

Wishing you all the best!

P.S. dang is one of HN's admins/moderators. dang, if you're out there, a kind request to add "Show HN" to this post, if possible.

@lillian-lemmer, just so you know, the latest "Show HN" posts will surface here: https://news.ycombinator.com/show . This link ("Show") is at the top of the page.

lillian-lemmer
Thank you, Arjuna!

I'm really glad you enjoyed the post and the software. :) I'm sorry I neglected to utilize the "Show HN" feature. I'll be sure to utilize it in the future!

[dead] PharaohTools
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[dead] PharaohTools
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mhink
This brings back SO many memories of the earliest "programming" I ever did: RPG Maker 2000. The stuff I wrote could barely even be called 'games' (after all, I was about 12 years old), but it's where I first experienced that magical 'spark' where you realize "Oh, MAN. So, you're telling me I can just write down what I want to happen, and the computer will DO it?!"

And from there, the rabbit hole just got deeper and deeper. :)

lillian-lemmer
YES, EXACTLY, I feel like this project brings me full circle--OHRRPGCE got me into programming, and now I made my OWN game engine. :) Communities are beautiful like that.
zlatan_todoric
Very interesting at first sight. Brings back memories of good old games :)

Just one suggestion, I think you should avoid the installation scripts for distros, and leave them to package maintainers (I would for example love to see this properly in Debian). Also the windows zip in demo would probably be patched out (maybe you should make it a separate download on your website).

Keep the good work! All best.

zem
good stuff indeed :) brings back fond memories of that class of game.
lillian-lemmer
Thanks! You know I still play my Game Boy Color? I've been beating Oracle of Ages/Seasons for the billionth time lately.
mtrpcic
Is there any idea of what kind of performance a game framework like this gets on various platforms? I've been curious about PyGame for a long time, but it always felt like it wasn't capable enough for even a moderate indie game. I'd love to see some benchmarks (how big can maps be? How much memory does the average map size take? How many animations can happen on one map at once before things slow down? etc.). I've made game engines as toy projects in the past, and this looks super interesting. Thanks for sharing!
lillian-lemmer
Don't worry, there will be the inevitable benchmarks, graphs, etc. :) Benchmarking is definitely an important component. The demo actually filled with animations (the water) and I have a color palette cycling animation generator which runs at tilesheet load, and just considering the way the system is built to use subsurfaces of a master tilesheet, and to use cached animations (so that tile x becomes animated when referred to), I don't think I'm too worried. So, so far so good! It runs on my computer pretty well: http://www.microcenter.com/product/429997/vivopc_vm40b_deskt...

I should really try making an absurdly detailed and animated, large map. :)

Thank you for some really awesome questions! I'd love it if you were to tinker with it yourself. :) I'm really glad you got a kick out of it. Thank you for your time and thoughtful questions.

EDIT: Oh, just to clear something up, you know that Pygame is a Python wrapper SDL plus some other low level libraries, right? http://www.pygame.org/wiki/about reads:

"Uses optimized C, and Assembly code for core functions. C code is often 10-20 times faster than python code, and assembly code can easily be 100x or more times faster than python code."

blingojames
Loved the general idea and the non-programmer manual. Would also love if it will be ported to http://www.pygame.org/project-Pyjsdl-2888-4709.html in the future, so it could be played from browsers.
lillian-lemmer
That's a tremendous idea! I'll definitely consider targeting the browser, what a fun thing to think about! I'll mull that over. :)

Also, I'm really happy you like the concept and I'm even happier that you enjoyed the non-programmer manual I wrote. <3 It feels really good to give back, full circle, with a game engine which can be used by nonprogrammers, after all, OHRRPGCE got me into programming. :)