Show HN: RESTful Doom – HTTP+JSON API inside Doom

I'm reminded of "psdoom", a version of doom that let you kill processes with the shotgun: http://psdoom.sourceforge.net/

So nerdy but so awesome - my jaw dropped when i watched the video :)

i think this could open up possibilities with live stats if each player runs their own server and the results are combined on into a seperate website? otherwise it could be used to create new game modes or a scoring system?

That's pretty cool! Well done.

Now I'm wondering whether the game clock could be suspended unless ticks were sent via API, to turn it into a turn-based game to be played only via API calls...

Now to add Twitch integration.

Well now I'm screwed at work tomorrow, I want to tie in so much of our logging into this some how like psdoom. Q: Are the files done processing ? Me: I don't know check if the door is open in doom.

Since this has 'native' integration it could be a great testbed for learning/applying reinforcement learning algorithms in a fun setting without having to deal with the 'heavier' (but more comprehensive) vnc based tooklits such as openai universe.

Awesome work, btw!

Great work and fantastic project idea and method of execution.

This isn't REST, there are no hyperlinks and no hypermedia controls. It is designed pretty wrong. Just look at this brittle coupling!

    POST /api/player/actions
    Content-Type: application/json

    { "type": "shoot" }

How do I know what "type" of action is available to me? It isn't documented. Why should I need to know or try to look it up in the documentation in the first place, anyway? The server should just tell me what I can do, and then I act on it! Why should I need to know all these special URLs, except a single central entry point (a.k.a. bookmark)? The server should just tell me from each resource where I can go to! A more useful attempt:

    GET /
    Content-Type: text/html

    <p>The <a href="equipment#shotty">shotgun</a> is equipped.
    There is a <a href="items/157">green armor</a> ahead.</p>

    <p>You see a <a href="monsters/2018">baron of hell</a> attacking
    an <a href="monsters/1170">imp</a>.</p>

    <p>There is a <a href="doors/104">yellow-framed door</a>,
    attempt to <form action="doors/104" method="post">
    <input type="submit" value="open" /></form> it.</p>

    <form action="position" method="post">
        <input type="hidden" name="x" value="-225" />
        <input type="submit" value="move forward" /></form>,
    <form action="orientation" method="post">
        <input type="hidden" name="angle" value="90" />
        <input type="submit" value="turn left" /></form>
    …

(HTML used for ease of illustration on HN, alas JSON proper - being a dumb serialisation format - it deficient of hyperlinks or hypermedia controls, but there are extensions for it. This audience is less likely to be familiar with them.)

It really bothers me that programmers call things REST, and when you look at it it isn't REST at all because they don't know the first thing about it.

Amazing work!

this is SO cool, thank you!

This is a fun little project. I'm anxiously awaiting obligatory HN comments about how C is unsafe, you should never write a web application that uses strcmp, and maybe this would be ok if he rewrote Doom in Rust first :).

I saw this presentation twice, and everytime is better. I love it.