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Comment by zeroq | Hacker News Reader

Amazing! Well executed idea and great example that less is more. :)

Consider: (a) locking mouse (b) hiding cursor (c) fullscreen mode

Here's an example if you don't want to search docs: https://mdn.github.io/dom-examples/pointer-lock/

As other mentioned UI needs a few more iterations, but it's ok. I don't think you need to track coins during the run as you don't spend them to buy upgrades - which is not obvious and may require a change in how you communicate things - but on the other hand it's yet another thing tickle your lizard brain and generate additional dopamine boost. A life counter is a must.

Take a look at Electron or Tauri.

This is enough to put it on Steam. In current state it's a very solid freebie, and with some additional work you could charge an entry tier indie fee.

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Thanks for the feedback. Fullscreen is offered in the menu when "document.fullscreenEnabled || document.webkitFullscreenEnabled" is true. I've noticed it doesn't show in safari mobile, but you can trigger it by click aA / Hide toolbars. I'll look at the pointer lock, i could easily unlock it once you pause the game with a click, so it wouldn't be too intrusive. For the score, i'm thinking to put the score multiplier there instead, i'll experiment a bit. There's a life counter, in the sense that you start with 0 extra lives, but if you pick the extra life perk, you'll see 1 heart per life next to your score. The game being 100Kb, you can probably guess I'll pass the electron option, but Tauri could be considered. First, I'll just make the web app offline capable. Also, I'm pretty sure that "save page as / Web page, complete" would work on desktop and give you a usable app (YMMV). I personally dislike Steam (mandatory updates, slow UI, DRM, monopoly, online requirement), and never buy any game there, so it's not a priority to publish there for me, but I might put it there once I have enough interest and price if 4 euros. I'd rather have a good app on the web first, and deal with the various store's rules and painful UIs later, I'm doing this for fun after all.

Silly me, I didn't noticed menu, I was trying to press F instead.

Mouse lock is a must on desktop, but you have to communicate it the user somehow so they don't get confused.

I understand your point about the game being 100kb, but once you decide to publish it on Steam the overhead doesn't matter. People are totally fine downloading 60Gb games, so couple megabytes won't hurt anyone. I gave you those two options because, at the end of the day it boils down to which platform you'll be more comfortable with and which will give you more usable options out of the box.

There is some work to be done with UI, but once you get there don't pass on Steam. If anything it will give you some bragging rights and another point in resume.

And like you said yourself, if you're willing to put some extra work, at 4-5 euro range it will be a steal on Steam. It may take some additional footwork to reach out to content creators to get some inital traction, but the concept is great and I would give it a chance.

I'm another vote for hiding the cursor. It's pretty distracting, especially early on in a level when there's still a lot of low-level bricks.

Pointer lock is now in the options, it also hides the cursor, let me know your thoughts.

That's be an option soon :)

Pointer lock is now in the options, it also hides the cursor, let me know your thoughts. Fullscreen mode should be toggled with the F key, or in the menu.

On Firefox android, I don't get fullscreen after adding to home screen. Not sure the cause. Slightly better on chrome but there's still some browser UI shown. I guess it needs to be a configured as a progressive web app. That would be amazing to maximise screen real estate

Also need (great if): spacebar launches ball, L/R arrows moves bar.

Yes, that will come. But you have no chance to reach a decent score with binary like that honestly, it's like playing with mittens on.

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