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Solitaire

localthunk.com

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Re: Solitaire

#41

Post by npteljes »

meheleventyone wrote: post #23
datadrivenangel wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The assertions are more around code quality. Game design is wonderful. Apparently there are places where the code is like a thousand lines of if card_name then effect.

For a project with lots of variation being maintained by a single person that’s totally fine.

Bad code can have a really high cognitive load to maintain. Just to illustrate what bad means, take a look at this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/programminghorror/comments/1cb6rca/...

I can see that having even bits of modification impacts lots of lines, where if written just a bit more saner, it could impact just a few.

Of course everyone is absolutely free to do the things however they want on their project. It's just that bad code, and bad choices bite back sometimes really badly. Project Zomboid is built in LUA for example, and it shows, it's a horrorshow not just to play, but to develop it as well. Their programmers spend a lot of time with just refactoring things. Besides functionality, maintainability should be a huge focus in my experience, so that the devs don't hate life if they have to touch the code again.

Re: Solitaire

#42

Post by lacoolj »

honestly without context for what this blog is for, or a link to the things it references (klondike/solitaire?) it's hard to want to read the full thing

Re: Solitaire

#43

Post by npteljes »

Trasmatta wrote: post #25
meheleventyone wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a project with lots of variation being maintained by a single person that’s totally fine.

Yep, there are days I yearn for just having a super long set of if statements, vs the over-engineered messes that I deal with on a daily basis. So many codebases end up impenetrable in the pursuit of fancy design patterns...

I think that too fancy code is just as bad as the original if-else spaghetti, but then even worse, because the patterns are abstract now as well.

Re: Solitaire

#44

Post by kenny11 »

exitb wrote: post #9

It really does work that way. It’s a perfect game if you have ~25 minutes to kill. It’s fairly complex, but doesn’t really require player to keep much information between runs. I hate going back to a game after a few weeks only to discover that I no longer remember how to play it.

I thought I was the only one with this problem.

I can still remember how to play the original Doom after all these years (and where all the secrets are!) but the modern editions have so many controls and weapon modes that if I don't play it for a month I don't remember how anything works.

Re: Solitaire

#45

Post by ekianjo »

ksynwa wrote: post #28
ziddoap wrote: post #22

> It’s now been over a year since launch and I am still playing Balatro almost daily. I play a couple runs before I go to bed I think this is really important, especially for games. Play the game you make! There's a fair number of games that I've played where the developer clearly has not sat down and played through the game as a player would . No skips, no custom developer-only starts or features, no rushing through…

Reminds me of Miyazaki from FromSoft who said he doesn't play his own games.

He would not be able to beat the first boss probably

Re: Solitaire

#46

Post by rezmason »

sl3dge78 wrote: post #39
bbkane wrote: post #14

I love Solitaire - it's such a nice way to kill a few minutes while waiting for something else. Unfortunately, many solitaire phone apps are filled with ads, slow, or have clunky controls. A few years ago, however, I found https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.tobiasbielefeld.solitaire... . Its free and open source, and quite fast with nice shortcuts to move the cards. I love this app and have played multiple Klondike/S…

I highly recommend the Zachtronics Solitaire Collection. Greatly designed solitaire games. I play them every day on my commute to work.

Zachtronics Solitaire Collection inspired me to begin experimenting with Solitaire variants, and hopefully Balatro's well-deserved success will stoke people's curiosity in similar titles.

For now, my web prototype lets you choose the numbers of suits, colors, ranks, columns, and multiples of cards drawn from the deck. It's a start. I invite HN to explore the Klondike Extended Universe:

https://rezmason.github.io/patience

Re: Solitaire

#47

Post by aaroninsf »

It's always interesting to drop into these posts, especially when they are at the top of the HN list,

and have zero context. Who is this person? What is localthunk? What is "Balatro"?

A reminder there are subpopulations online within which are well known and active references.

And others, like mine, where have not once come up.

I think like podcasts, mobile games are a thing that is just totally invisible to me and .

Re: Solitaire

#48

Post by motes »

sl3dge78 wrote: post #39
bbkane wrote: post #14

I love Solitaire - it's such a nice way to kill a few minutes while waiting for something else. Unfortunately, many solitaire phone apps are filled with ads, slow, or have clunky controls. A few years ago, however, I found https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.tobiasbielefeld.solitaire... . Its free and open source, and quite fast with nice shortcuts to move the cards. I love this app and have played multiple Klondike/S…

I highly recommend the Zachtronics Solitaire Collection. Greatly designed solitaire games. I play them every day on my commute to work.

I was gonna recommend the same one. I wanna add that Hempuli (Baba is You, Noita) also made a solitaire collection inspired by Zachtronics. It's just 3 bucks on his itchio and it's something I play while I have my coffee.

https://hempuli.itch.io/a-solitaire-mystery

Funny enough it has a "Royal Flush Solitaire" where you make poker hands and your goal is to reach 240 points.

Binary Solitaire and Transformation are my favorites.

Re: Solitaire

#49

Post by meheleventyone »

npteljes wrote: post #41
meheleventyone wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a project with lots of variation being maintained by a single person that’s totally fine.

Bad code can have a really high cognitive load to maintain. Just to illustrate what bad means, take a look at this: https://www.reddit.com/r/programminghorror/comments/1cb6rca/... I can see that having even bits of modification impacts lots of lines, where if written just a bit more saner, it could impact just a few. Of course everyone is absolutely free to do the things however they want on their project. It's just…

The example you post is out of context and maybe a bit overly verbose but again it’s one guy maintaining it and is perfectly readable. Does anyone really struggle to understand that?

I’m back working on a twenty plus year old codebase (and game) that’s ~3 millions loc and would kill for something simple like that rather than some of the overabstracted crimes lurking within.

Re: Solitaire

#50

Post by bongothrowaway »

datadrivenangel wrote: post #16
mattnewton wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never heard that assertion, I don’t know how anyone can play Balatro and not feel that it is a deeply intentional creation. I think localthunk would be the first to tell you they got lucky with how it found an audience outside of themselves, but everything in the game oozes polish and intention.

The assertions are more around code quality. Game design is wonderful. Apparently there are places where the code is like a thousand lines of if card_name then effect.

Undertale's code base is apparently no better. For games I don't think code quality is nearly as paramount; there's not a whole lot of maintenance going on there, though this doesn't apply to live service games.
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