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TinyWind: A pixel pirate sailing game with real wind physics (380k+ kms sailed)

tinywind.io

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Re: TinyWind: A pixel pirate sailing game with real wind physics (380k+ kms sailed)

#81

Post by akavel »

tinywind wrote: post #31
airstrike wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tab and M for map, WASD and arrows for controls, space to fire seems like a good compromise

I’ll be making this change! Though I’m worried it’s gonna be tougher for people to find the map and ship logs since space is a natural button to try and press early on

As others mention, show the keys in the interface. It took me a while to discover accidentally, by pressing space, that I can trim the sails. You could make a graphical guide, showing a ship with arrows around, some arrows attached to the hull with keys responsible for turning the ship, some arrows attached to sails with keys responsible for trimming them. Yet another key by the cannons fire to show which key... umm... fires the cannons...

Re: TinyWind: A pixel pirate sailing game with real wind physics (380k+ kms sailed)

#82

Post by geor9e »

tinywind wrote: post #76
Dansvidania wrote: post #71

sails perpendicular to the wind for full power? my sailing experience is dated, but that does not seem to be right to me. Don't they want a lower angle of attack? is this a specific of square sails? maybe I am not getting it in the docs Still, very fun!

I’m not a sailor at all my I just demo’d this for my dad who is. He had similar feedback I need to sit down and do a sailing mechanics audit to find a good balance between arcade/realism, I think a beam reach is supposed to be faster than downwind. But my angle of attacks could be more accurate especially for upwind sailing? Here’s currently how tinywind does it if anyone’s curious: https://tinywind.io/wiki/sailing#p…

In irons should be a slightly negative number, since the wind drags the boat backwards at that point. Plus it will force the player to tack back and forth, which is a fun part of sailing. I bet A.I. can tell you the angle the sail ought to render at too (unless non-moving sail was part of the cartoon aesthetic)

Re: TinyWind: A pixel pirate sailing game with real wind physics (380k+ kms sailed)

#83

Post by tinywind »

_flux wrote: post #46

Should there be sound? I think sounds would be essential for this. Running on Linux Firefox.

There’s no sound/fx or music at the moment but we will be adding this soon!

A couple very kind redditors have reached out to develop in game tracks so stay tuned

Re: TinyWind: A pixel pirate sailing game with real wind physics (380k+ kms sailed)

#84

Post by tinywind »

amarant wrote: post #69
Dansvidania wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i'd suggest a big flag on the main mast of each ship so its super clear what direction wind you are sailing into :)

Thats a great idea actually! Will fit the style as well! Neat!

Great suggestions here! I already have a streaming type flag on the Spanish galleons I could repurpose for the main user ship for better wind clarity

Definitely want to make an effects pass soon to improve visual clarity of the wind sprites and other basic things like cannon fire, hits, etc

Re: TinyWind: A pixel pirate sailing game with real wind physics (380k+ kms sailed)

#86

Post by tinywind »

geor9e wrote: post #82
tinywind wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not a sailor at all my I just demo’d this for my dad who is. He had similar feedback I need to sit down and do a sailing mechanics audit to find a good balance between arcade/realism, I think a beam reach is supposed to be faster than downwind. But my angle of attacks could be more accurate especially for upwind sailing? Here’s currently how tinywind does it if anyone’s curious: https://tinywind.io/wiki/sailing#p…

In irons should be a slightly negative number, since the wind drags the boat backwards at that point. Plus it will force the player to tack back and forth, which is a fun part of sailing. I bet A.I. can tell you the angle the sail ought to render at too (unless non-moving sail was part of the cartoon aesthetic)

I did that simply for arcadeyness and feel but I’m not married to it at all

Giving the ship a slight constant forward moment felt nice and forgiving when testing, and user still has to tack back and forth to get meaningful enough speed to strafe a ship. But I’m definitely open to sliding the realism scale here

Re: TinyWind: A pixel pirate sailing game with real wind physics (380k+ kms sailed)

#87

Post by moffkalast »

tinywind wrote: post #83
_flux wrote: post #46

Should there be sound? I think sounds would be essential for this. Running on Linux Firefox.

There’s no sound/fx or music at the moment but we will be adding this soon! A couple very kind redditors have reached out to develop in game tracks so stay tuned

It's definitely in dire need of some sound effects at least. Otherwise it's very neat :)

Re: TinyWind: A pixel pirate sailing game with real wind physics (380k+ kms sailed)

#88

Post by tinywind »

kqr wrote: post #50
dgently7 wrote: post #23

the control layout is a bit awkward on mobile. i find myself wanting to adjust both heading and trim continuously, but both controls are on the right so i cant use both thumbs. then the buttons to fire/ board are fiddly. tbh almost gave up then tried with keyboard and saw how it was supposed to go.

In the settings menu you can move the rudder wheel to the left. I don't know why that's not the default.

Maybe I should make it the default? When I play on mobile I only use my right thumb almost never trimming sails and steering at the same time.

I totally get if people primarily play with two hands on mobile it makes sense to default wheel to the left

Re: TinyWind: A pixel pirate sailing game with real wind physics (380k+ kms sailed)

#90

Post by simoncion »

nklp wrote: post #32
tinywind wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lmk if space to fire and shift for map makes more sense I wanted it to feel natural for qwerty and arrow key controls, the space felt a little clunky with arrow keys.

Shift has the problem of bringing up windows sticky keys dialog box if you tap it too fast. Spacebar was my instinct for fire key as well. For map it would be 'M'. Whichever you choose, please consider displaying the controls inside the game, at least during the setup screen, don't make the user search for controls in the wiki. :) Also the hp bar below the minimap is a bit weird, would expect it the same as enemy shi…

> Shift has the problem of bringing up windows sticky keys dialog box if you tap it too fast.

An operator fixes this forever by turning off that "enable Sticky Keys" keyboard shortcut. I've not used Windows 11 or Windows 8, but in every other version that had the Sticky Keys feature, I remember there being a prominent "Don't enable Sticky Keys when you press X times in quick succession" checkbox in the dialog that let you configure Sticky Keys and related accessibility things.

Over the years, I've seen so many videogame streamers get screwed over by the "Activate Sticky Keys??" dialog pop up that it became pretty clear that they were all keeping it in reserve for the entertainment value. Maybe regular folks get so flustered by it that they don't bother to read the system dialog that pops up.

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