Notch's next game is an MMO • Hacker News Board

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#61

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Apr 03, 2012, 11:41 PM UTC

zackham wrote: post #8

endianswap wrote: post #4

Technology of note: "The computer in the game is a fully functioning emulated 16 bit CPU that can be used to control your entire ship, or just to play games on while waiting for a large mining operation to finish. [...] The cost of the game is still undecided, but it's likely there will be a monthly fee for joining the Multiverse as we are going to emulate all computers and physics even when players aren't logged in.…

Backstory is cool too and coincidentally appropriate for parent's username: "released, compatible with all popular 16 bit computers. Unfortunately, it used big endian, whereas the DCPU-16 specifications called for little endian. This led to a severe bug in the included drivers, causing a requested sleep of 0x0000 0000 0000 0001 years to last for 0x0001 0000 0000 0000 years."

[deleted]

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#62

Post by kersny » Tue, Apr 03, 2012, 11:41 PM UTC

samlittlewood wrote: post #46

lt wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He tweeted this picture while debugging the CPU a couple weeks ago: http://i.imgur.com/DhmFp.png Sounds like fun.

That looks like 6502! - see http://www.6502.org/tutorials/6502opcodes.html If he sticks with that, there are good few cross dev. tools. (even C ISTR)

It started out as a 6502 (https://twitter.com/#!/notch/status/184910008037818369), so I'm sure they're quite similar.

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#63

Post by emeltzer » Tue, Apr 03, 2012, 11:42 PM UTC

w1ntermute wrote: post #58

I hope the graphics don't suck, like they do in Minecraft. I know it sound superficial, but graphics do matter. Minecraft succeeded despite its graphics, not because of them.

Strongly disagree with this. Minecraft's graphics are a direct consequence of what the game IS (i.e. a world made out of large-ish blocks). More realistic (that is, less stylized) textures look strange on top of huge blocks, and anything that obscured the block structure of the world would have made Minecraft a worse game.

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#64

Post by ghayes » Tue, Apr 03, 2012, 11:43 PM UTC

w1ntermute wrote: post #58

I hope the graphics don't suck, like they do in Minecraft. I know it sound superficial, but graphics do matter. Minecraft succeeded despite its graphics, not because of them.

This is a refreshing comment. We can say the same about a lot of websites. I should note, however, this runs abut to the concept of UI versus UX.

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#65

Post by gavanwoolery » Tue, Apr 03, 2012, 11:44 PM UTC

We are in the year 281 474 976 712 644, but there are only 16 bit computers on the ships? Anachronism!!!

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#66

Post by jiggy2011 » Tue, Apr 03, 2012, 11:45 PM UTC

tesseractive wrote: post #53

jiggy2011 wrote: post #22

I hope this will be like EVE Online but actually fun. When I played EVE, I always thought that a programmable ship would be fun. Although there is a risk that programmers will get an unfair advantage. On the other hand it may get more people interested in programming. I wonder if this will ship with an interpreter/compiler for any language or whether you will have to write ASM? Surely won't be long before there is a…

> When I played EVE, I always thought that a programmable ship would be fun. Although there is a risk that programmers will get an unfair advantage. If programming is part of the gameplay, then being good at programming means you are good at the game. It would then be best considered an entirely fair advantage.

True, but I imagine their target market is not just programmers.

Perhaps there will become a market in the game for selling programs to run on the CPUs.

Some players specialize in programming, others in logistics , battle command etc.

Of course it will be an interesting microcosm of the software industry in such a case.

Will people care about piracy of their code? Will anybody start releasing under GPL etc?

As I have said elsewhere , most likely all the best code will end up on a wiki somewhere and everyone will use that.

Of course it depends upon the dynamic of the game. Whether it is like Eve where you just get one ship. Or whether people will build full automated fleets, space stations etc.

In the latter case they better be prepared to buy some serious hardware to run the server end of this on.

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#67

Post by rauljara » Tue, Apr 03, 2012, 11:45 PM UTC

aresant wrote: post #18

A four paragraph website outlining the vision coupled with a simple way for customers to engage directly with the CEO of the company. Notch understands "Minimum Viable Product"

I don't disagree. But it is important to note that the minimum viable product for the creator of minecraft is significantly different from the minimum viable product for random internet denizen x. You are guaranteed a certain amount of customer engagement when your pre-existing customers have already begging for years to hear about your next product.

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#68

Post by jiggy2011 » Tue, Apr 03, 2012, 11:46 PM UTC

officemonkey wrote: post #6

As a fan of old space travel role playing games like "Traveller", I'm looking forward to this. If it combines the "build-it-yourself" bits of Minecraft (build your ship, build your computer, build your programs) with MMO trading, and guild-building of EVE Online, and let players build the universe, then it might be a real winner. I'll sign-up regardless.

Agreed, I have never pre-ordered a game in my life but I would certainly consider doing so with this.

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#69

Post by Osmose » Tue, Apr 03, 2012, 11:48 PM UTC

w1ntermute wrote: post #58

I hope the graphics don't suck, like they do in Minecraft. I know it sound superficial, but graphics do matter. Minecraft succeeded despite its graphics, not because of them.

I disagree. The graphics in Minecraft match very well with the gameplay mechanic of working with a small, simple set of building blocks. It's a not-so-subtle signal to the player that the entire world is constructed with these blocks, and invites the player to see how they can be creative when given a limited, low-res set of building blocks.

Consider the common complaint about current-day Lego blocks: "Legos used to be simple." You can say that it applies only to the functional aspect, shape, but I think it also applies to their visual aspect. I mean, how many special blocks does Hogwarts or Prince of Persia really need?

And, disregarding all of that, there's a significant portion of gamers out there who will pay in both money and loyalty when you evoke nostalgia, which Minecraft does via pixellated graphics.

Re: Notch's next game is an MMO

#70

Post by Tuna-Fish » Tue, Apr 03, 2012, 11:50 PM UTC

gavanwoolery wrote: post #65

We are in the year 281 474 976 712 644, but there are only 16 bit computers on the ships? Anachronism!!!

No. The ships were launched in the 80's, and all the tech they contain is 16-bit. Presumably, there are more powerful computers out there, but they are advanced enough that you are certainly not going to do anything useful with them.

(Let's just ignore that the tech ran without issue and succesfully woke you up after 281*10^12 years.)

I find this actually really clever. I suppose the less programmatically inclined will trade new programs from the people building them.