←back to thread

Show HN: Bubbles, a vanilla JavaScript web game

(ehmorris.com)
201 points ehmorris | 6 comments | 13 Mar 25 17:48 UTC | HN request time: 0.606s | source | bottom

Hey everybody, you might remember my older game, Lander! It made a big splash on Hacker News about 2 years ago. I'm still enjoying writing games with no dependencies. I've been working on Bubbles for about 6 months and would love to see your scores.

If you like it, you can build your own levels with my builder tool: https://ehmorris.com/bubbles/builder/ and share the levels here or via Github.

1. mjburgess ◴[13 Mar 25 19:01 UTC] No.43356278[source]▶
A touchpad seems to really cripple the gameplay -- one idea could be to ask what device players are using and make slight adjustments. For touchpads, moving the cursor is slower, and the drag-pull mechanism doesnt really work -- and its easy to misclick a drag.

Some rougelike mechanics would also make it possible to naturally level the gameplay -- ie., the more failures a person has the more metaprogression they get, so worse players unlock a natural easy mode.

replies(3): >>43356315 #>>43356401 #>>43356631 #
2. ehmorris ◴[13 Mar 25 19:05 UTC] No.43356315[source]▶
Yes desktop is extra challenging. On mobile you can spam slingshots with all 10 fingers but on desktop you’ve got to be leet fast.
replies(1): >>43356352 #
3. mjburgess ◴[13 Mar 25 19:11 UTC] No.43356352[source]▶
Perhaps create mirrored slingshots with keys?

ie., if I hold a,s,d,f,g then I get 5 mirrors of my touchpad, and holding eg., a/g places two at the edges?

4. dylan604 ◴[13 Mar 25 19:17 UTC] No.43356401[source]▶
I walked through the demo thinking that was a decent demo. Then round 1 and nothing was the same.

I was playing with a magic touch mouse, and have decided it was not designed for that interaction. Assuming designed for mobile and us desktop users are just square pegging a round hole.

replies(1): >>43356497 #
5. ehmorris ◴[13 Mar 25 19:28 UTC] No.43356497[source]▶
It’s easier on desktop if you stick with slingshots and make your window fairly narrow
6. flanbiscuit ◴[13 Mar 25 19:48 UTC] No.43356631[source]▶
> and the drag-pull mechanism doesnt really work

Doesn't work for me at all on both Firefox and Chrome (latest versions for both) on MacOS using the touch pad. I can't get past that screen on my laptop. Had to open it up on my phone to see what comes after.

Otherwise it's a fun challenging game