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Show HN: I made a Doom-like game fit inside a QR code

(github.com)
531 points kuberwastaken | 11 comments | 18 Apr 25 16:40 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom

I sometimes pick up random projects just because I can, this was one of those times. I made it as a week long project a while back this year but never shared here, so thought to go for it haha.

I created a game inspired by Doom and the backrooms called The Backdooms under 2.4kb in minified html. (for reference, this entire post would be around 1.8kB haha) I had to use a not popular way of using GZip with Zlib headers (had to write my own script for compressing it, also in the repo) to eventually convert it a size 40 QR code that works right in your browser using Decompressionstream API.

This is of course a very oversimplified description of it, using a lot of the same technologies that DOOM had but combining it with infinite seed based map generation in 2.4kb (QR codes can only store 3kb, which includes changing formats) was pretty hard.

Here are some links about it if you want to nerd out and read more:

Repository Link (MIT License): https://github.com/Kuberwastaken/backdooms

A Hosted (slightly improved) version of The Backdooms: https://kuberwastaken.github.io/backdooms/

Game Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QWPr10cAuGc

My Linkedin post about it: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7295667...

(PS: You'd need something like https://qrscanner.org/ or something that can scan bigger QR codes and put the text data onto your browser to play it)

My Blogs documenting the process and development in detail:

https://kuberwastaken.github.io/blog/Projects/How-I-Managed-... https://kuberwastaken.github.io/blog/Projects/How-I-Managed-...

Show context
giarc ◴[18 Apr 25 17:19 UTC] No.43730024[source]▶
I scanned on an iPhone using native QR code scanner and it says "no usable data found".
replies(3): >>43730090 #>>43730091 #>>43730638 #
1. kuberwastaken ◴[18 Apr 25 17:26 UTC] No.43730090[source]▶
Hey thanks for checking it out! You'd need something like https://qrscanner.org/ because most phones suck at scanning larger QR codes.

Also, it won't work on your phone, can't put in that compatibility with size restraints, sadly.

replies(2): >>43730228 #>>43731224 #
2. iainmerrick ◴[18 Apr 25 17:41 UTC] No.43730228[source]▶
You mean the game doesn't work on mobile at all?

What kind of device do you use to scan the QR code, then?

replies(3): >>43730407 #>>43730484 #>>43731327 #
3. lelandbatey ◴[18 Apr 25 17:58 UTC] No.43730407[source]▶
You do not need to scan a QR code via a physical camera in your hand directly; any general purpose computer can run a QR code parsing program which accepts arbitrary images as input. It's so easy to do that there exist web pages which implement said QR code scanning in JS. Thus, the parent poster has recommended that you save the QR code .png file to your disk and then use such a piece of software, such as the website they linked, to extract the data encoded in that QR code.

That is how you can use nearly any general-purpose computer to scan a QR code.

replies(2): >>43730493 #>>43732524 #
4. kuberwastaken ◴[18 Apr 25 18:09 UTC] No.43730484[source]▶
Nope it doesn't, you can use any QR code scanner that takes image input! I would've loved to include smartphone controls but that would take a LOT of extra bandwidth.
5. kuberwastaken ◴[18 Apr 25 18:10 UTC] No.43730493{3}[source]▶
Indeed! Thank you for explaining this in a way better way :)
6. ascorbic ◴[18 Apr 25 19:36 UTC] No.43731224[source]▶
fwiw, it works fine with the Pixel's built-in QR code scanner. It recognises it as text, not a URL, but it can copy to clipboard and then pasting in the browser works. Obviously I then die immediately because none of the controls work, but you can't have everything.
replies(1): >>43731360 #
7. kuberwastaken ◴[18 Apr 25 19:52 UTC] No.43731327[source]▶
Hey just wanted to update, I Managed to add kind of some mobile touch support here, so if you get an alternate chromium based browser, you can put in the URI to play on mobile too!
replies(1): >>43732494 #
8. kuberwastaken ◴[18 Apr 25 19:56 UTC] No.43731360[source]▶
Hey just wanted to update, crazy timing but I Managed to add kind of some mobile touch support here because of a recent PR to FURTHER optimize it (crazy), so you can actually play it now if you figure out the controls lol
9. iainmerrick ◴[18 Apr 25 22:41 UTC] No.43732494{3}[source]▶
Nice one!
10. iainmerrick ◴[18 Apr 25 22:45 UTC] No.43732524{3}[source]▶
Or... use a URL.

I'm sure the number of people who've ever scanned a QR code on a desktop computer is more than zero, but not much more.

replies(1): >>43732566 #
11. kuberwastaken ◴[18 Apr 25 22:50 UTC] No.43732566{4}[source]▶
I think I myself brought that number into early triple digits, but I do also have a hosted version if you're interested!

The reason for doing this project isn't practicality, it's because I can