Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Lestac, a non-linear 2D exploration game

lestac.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 21 posts

Re: Lestac, a non-linear 2D exploration game

#2

Post by nddrylliog »

Hey folks! Even though HN is more hacker-oriented, I still thought I'd give it a shot.

Factoids:

  - It's the first commercial game fully made in ooc
  - It's sold only on itch.io (which recently made HN frontpage)
  - It was originally a Ludum Dare submission
  - We just released a Christmas update!
  - It's lame because the game is not about killing stuff!
I have no idea how this post will do, but I'll happily take your questions here. Thanks for your attention and happy holidays :)

Re: Lestac, a non-linear 2D exploration game

#3

Post by mhlakhani »

nddrylliog wrote: post #2

Hey folks! Even though HN is more hacker-oriented, I still thought I'd give it a shot. Factoids: - It's the first commercial game fully made in ooc - It's sold only on itch.io (which recently made HN frontpage) - It was originally a Ludum Dare submission - We just released a Christmas update! - It's lame because the game is not about killing stuff! I have no idea how this post will do, but I'll happily take your ques…

By ooc, do you mean the programming language? [1]

if so, can you share any thoughts on how that affected the development process? Any quirks? Any features that made it much easier?

Thanks!

[1] http://ooc-lang.org/

Re: Lestac, a non-linear 2D exploration game

#4

Post by nddrylliog »

mhlakhani wrote: post #3
nddrylliog wrote: post #2

Hey folks! Even though HN is more hacker-oriented, I still thought I'd give it a shot. Factoids: - It's the first commercial game fully made in ooc - It's sold only on itch.io (which recently made HN frontpage) - It was originally a Ludum Dare submission - We just released a Christmas update! - It's lame because the game is not about killing stuff! I have no idea how this post will do, but I'll happily take your ques…

By ooc, do you mean the programming language? [1] if so, can you share any thoughts on how that affected the development process? Any quirks? Any features that made it much easier? Thanks! [1] http://ooc-lang.org/

Precisely!

Well, it's interesting that ooc returned to its roots, because when I first started working on it, it was for a small simulation game project at university.

I'll try to be as unbiased as can be, though.

Here are the reasons I liked writing it in ooc:

  - I find it hard to write bad ooc. The language is smart,
  but not too smart, so you can write code that's concise
  yet not too confusing.
 
  - Moving up from C, having a single tool manage the build
  of your whole project is really cool. I recently added
  cross-compilation support, so I produce the Windows, Mac,
  Linux 32-bit & 64-bit builds from the same machine.
  I have a simple Makefile for tasks like packaging so 
  releasing a new build is a 'make deploy' away!

  - Recent versions of rock have gotten relatively good at
  error checking (there's still plenty of room for 
  improvement), but it's often a lot more helpful than
  well, most compilers I've seen. (Clang isn't bad, but
  it's C, so it can only help you on a low-signal level).

  - Most of the libs I wanted to use (SDL2, SDL2_mixer,
  OpenGL 3.x) already had bindings, and for the others
  (stb_image, etc.), well, I wrote'em. It's usually a
  matter of neatly organizing C functions into an
  object-oriented-ish interface.
I'm not trying to sell the language here so I'll stop, but mostly - for this project, after 5 years spent working on and off on the language (and peripheral projects), it got out of the way. I could just write what I thought and it worked. From what I gather, it's a rare satisfaction in the software craftsmanship realm :)

As for the downsides, well, there are things I know to work around, language features I know I'd better avoid, and the occasional compiler blips. But for a project of that scope, I got away with "using my toy language" relatively scot-free!

I still remember the very harsh comments when I first presented ooc to HN a few years back. Forunately I was in a high at that point so I didn't care. Had I listened to them, I would never have gotten where I am now. So: stay positive, everyone!

Re: Lestac, a non-linear 2D exploration game

#5

Post by com2kid »

The trailer tells me nothing about the game. The description "non-linear 2D exploration game" is much more enticing than anything on the site, how is this game non-linear? I was expecting some sort of insight (or at least hint at) on the website, but I didn't see any. Then again maybe if I had gone even further into the trailer than however long I did (a couple of minutes?) I would have found something.

Either way, not a good way to sell something. :(

Re: Lestac, a non-linear 2D exploration game

#7

Post by nddrylliog »

com2kid wrote: post #5

The trailer tells me nothing about the game. The description "non-linear 2D exploration game" is much more enticing than anything on the site, how is this game non-linear? I was expecting some sort of insight (or at least hint at) on the website, but I didn't see any. Then again maybe if I had gone even further into the trailer than however long I did (a couple of minutes?) I would have found something. Either way, n…

Ah well, I'm still working out my marketing skills - a field which I hate with a passion, but there's two of us and, well, someone has to do it.

Basically — environments to explore, set to an original soundtrack. That's really the selling point. The actual gameplay, so far, is mostly finding items, bringing them to characters, in exchange for other items, so that you can find your way to the exit!

Since the Christmas update, there are two separate worlds with different 'quests' - the latter being a snow/winter/Santa-themed world.

We definitely plan to add other gameplay mechanics, but we think the "charm" of the game is already there. We're happy with how Early Access is working, and totally understand if people don't like that niche and/or want to wait until there is more content / gameplay arcs.

To shed some light on the "non-linear" qualifier I used in the submission, allow me to refer you to the Ludum Dare Postmortem for Lestac: http://amos.me/blog/2013/lestac-the-making-of/ — which explains some of it.

As a side note, to anyone on HN who is interested in following the development of Lestac right from the devs' mouths, let me know, I can totally give out a few http://devsofa.cc keys for the Lestac channel.

Re: Lestac, a non-linear 2D exploration game

#8

Post by nddrylliog »

lalc wrote: post #6

I bet it has lots to explore and "lovingly crafted" I can buy, but "gorgeous"? Not everything can be gorgeous. Maybe try "quirky" or "with character"? Anyway, buying to support, and wishing you success.

Point taken & suggestion applied. Thanks a lot for your support!

Re: Lestac, a non-linear 2D exploration game

#9

Post by RyanZAG »

nddrylliog wrote: post #7
com2kid wrote: post #5

The trailer tells me nothing about the game. The description "non-linear 2D exploration game" is much more enticing than anything on the site, how is this game non-linear? I was expecting some sort of insight (or at least hint at) on the website, but I didn't see any. Then again maybe if I had gone even further into the trailer than however long I did (a couple of minutes?) I would have found something. Either way, n…

Ah well, I'm still working out my marketing skills - a field which I hate with a passion, but there's two of us and, well, someone has to do it. Basically — environments to explore, set to an original soundtrack. That's really the selling point. The actual gameplay, so far, is mostly finding items, bringing them to characters, in exchange for other items, so that you can find your way to the exit! Since the Christmas…

You realize this game is the very definition of linear gaming...?
Post reply on HN