[HN Gopher] Show HN: Influence, a Go-inspired 1-minute board game ___________________________________________________________________ Show HN: Influence, a Go-inspired 1-minute board game Author : jawslouis Score : 91 points Date : 2021-06-15 20:12 UTC (2 hours ago) (HTM) web link (cintrest.com) (TXT) w3m dump (cintrest.com) | cdubzzz wrote: | The animations are a bit sluggish. I kept missing clicks on tiles | that were finishing animations from a previous turn. Maybe I was | playing faster than I should have been but it made things | somewhat confusing. | cowvin wrote: | Yep, same here. The animations are way too slow. For whatever | reason it seems to wait like a second after you move to pulse | influence. There's no reason it should wait. | jawslouis wrote: | Now that you mention it, there does seem to be a bit of a lag | before that animation starts. Will look into it. | jawslouis wrote: | Thanks for the feedback. What device are you on - mobile, | tablet, desktop? I am wondering if the animation is taking | longer on devices with less processing power. | | I could also add an option in the settings to disable | animations, for those who like to play fast. | cdubzzz wrote: | Desktop -- an MBP that should have enough processing power. | An option to disable animations would be ideal. But I was | also just trying by doing without reading about the game at | all so maybe not a huge priority (: | jawslouis wrote: | Thanks for letting me know! | falcor84 wrote: | Nice! Gave me that old school Hexxagon vibe | grimgrin wrote: | I did win the first game but noticed you mentioned difficulties, | clicked hoping it wasn't on Easy. It was! ha | | For people in this thread, if you're into abstract game design in | the hex/table space, Nick Bentley creates some games I find very | interesting, though haven't played. Bought some generic tiles | once, hoping to eventually try out Circle of Life: | | https://www.nickbentley.games/circle-of-life-an-ecosystem-si... | | His "best" list: | | https://www.nickbentley.games/category/my-best-games/ | qsort wrote: | Hi, a couple of comments. | | First, I understand you were trying to make an approachable | presentation, but the rules as you presented them are incomplete | (how does influence work? what is a "threshold"?), and I think | for a board game that's a big mistake. What makes games like | those cool is that rules work deterministically, even for games | that involve randomness. Having to guess the rules is something I | actively dislike. | | Second, have you considered a square board instead of an | hexagonal one? Using Go terminology, it feels like the groups | have too many liberties. | | Other than that, the game is pretty good. I feel it captures the | attack/defense territory-based gameplay of Go perfectly. | | Have you tried to measure the first move advantage? | | edit: Wow this thing is a drug. Hard AI is deceptively good, I | managed to tie a game 25-25 after several attempts, but you | definitely can't afford to be sloppy if you want to stay afloat! | scrooched_moose wrote: | It seems like there's a bug if you drag your mouse from the board | area, off the board, then back on; it will automatically select | the first unclaimed tile the cursor hits. I just progressed the | game to a 14-36 loss by just waving my mouse randomly without a | single click. | | It seems to require some fairly fast movement, but I did | accidentally trigger it a few times when I was trying to play for | real. | | I've tested on Firefox 89 and Chrome 91. | chewmieser wrote: | Fun game! It wasn't always immediately obvious where exactly I | could play, but I imagine the more you play the more it clicks | too. | | I also agree with your decision to not use numerical indicators. | It would definitely make things too complex and the graphical | representation you have is pretty elegant as-is. Optional if at | all. | zokier wrote: | Neat. While it would draw away from the visual elegance, the game | would be bit more playable if it had numeric indicators, both for | current level of influence and the change for next turn. | jawslouis wrote: | Thanks! I did think about numeric indicators but didn't want to | introduce too much complexity. Would also take away from the | fun if players had to check the numbers for many cells each | turn. | | Still trying to figure out the best way to show that | information. | chris_st wrote: | Maybe some kind of vertical line through the hex, say green | on left, blue on the right, and as the line moves away from | the middle it's obvious which side is gaining influence | there? When it hits one side or the other, it's locked. | dddw wrote: | Yeah I agree, but maybe have also non-numbers as an extra | option. | | very nice game, will pass it around to fellow-go players | shoo wrote: | i agree that there is a "legibility" issue. the game doesn't | communicate the state of unlocked hexes or the rules of how the | threshold to lock hexes. It wouldn't necessarily need to be | numeric indicator. it could be a visual indicator on a hex to | communicate that a hex will lock to a particular colour next | turn. For even more usability, the game UI could update these | indicators for all hexes when the player hovers over a hex (if | you place here, then this is the immediate result you will | get..) | lainga wrote: | Maybe press-hold TAB view them, like the production markers on | tiles in Civ 4 | jawslouis wrote: | That's a good idea! For those on mobile though, perhaps a | button to toggle the view? | jawslouis wrote: | At the end of every turn, each tile influences its neighbors and | imparts some of its color. Tiles with a dark border can no longer | be selected. | | The rules are simple but it takes awhile to master. What is your | best score against the Hard AI? I got 27 (me on green) - 23 (AI). | | Would you want to see some sort of match-making to play against | others online? | | See demo gameplay or view the source code at | https://github.com/jawslouis/Influence-Game | neogodless wrote: | I got 29 vs 21 on Easy Blue AI on my first attempt. | jawslouis wrote: | Better than my wife's first attempt :) | SimonDorfman wrote: | Interesting. Instead of just using shades or green and blue, | would you consider displaying numerical values too? I was | confused about how close the tiles were to flipping to my | color. | | Side note: I'm working on a game that has some similarities | that might interest you: https://simondorfman.com/volcanoes1 | jawslouis wrote: | Looks like one of the consistent pieces of feedback is for | numeric values :) Will think about how to implement that. | | Checked out your site too. Looks interesting! | isaacremuant wrote: | I tried it on Firefox mobile and when I lose in the second | difficulty level I can't really see anything but the "game | over restart" message. | | I'd like to be able to see the score and the layout to | analyze the game. | | Really nice job, though! Fun concept. | sundaypancakes wrote: | Wild, I made something extremely similar a couple years ago (also | inspired by Go) called Quagen (https://quagen.io). I like your | use of hex and the UX better than mine. Nice job! | jawslouis wrote: | Wow our ideas were really similar. I read your blog post - even | how we came up with the idea was similar! I too played a lot of | Hearthstone, and thought of adding a new digital element to a | board game. Seems like Go was a natural fit :) | dddw wrote: | This is fun. a bigger field maybe even more! | CGamesPlay wrote: | The small board size and easy AI combo was too easy as a starting | point. But I started to lose against the Medium AI. The | animations are a bit lengthy. I think the ideal numeric indicator | would show the number of turns (stone placements) before the | space "locks" itself to a particular color. | jawslouis wrote: | Appreciate the feedback! The number of turns before lock is an | interesting indicator. There are some corner cases that I'd | have to think more about though - e.g. when a tile is almost at | the threshold but at a deadlock (both colors are evenly | surrounding it) | alttab wrote: | Well done. | mdoms wrote: | This is very cool and fun. My only issue is it's hard to know if | a move is going to make a tile reach threshold, or even if a tile | is already at threshold. | KMuncie wrote: | This is very good. Any way I can play 2 player against my wife? | mihaifm wrote: | Set the AI to None for both players in the settings, that | should do it. | jawslouis wrote: | Thanks! Yes you can play 2-player - just disable both AIs in | the setting. | roetlich wrote: | In the settings you can disable the AI. I had a lot of fun | playing against my girlfriend! | [deleted] ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-06-15 23:00 UTC)