Show HN: I made Blocknado, an orbital stacker. Think Tetris with square rings
2 by jamwise | 0 comments on Hacker News.
I've loved stacker type games for as long as I can remember. But I've always wanted a version with a bit more strategy and puzzle dynamics. Blocknado is a game I've always wanted to play, maybe others will too.
Hack Nux
Watch the number of websites being hacked today, one by one on a page, increasing in real time.
New Show Hacker News story: Show HN: Fast Cut Video tool for cutting video for Agents
Show HN: Fast Cut Video tool for cutting video for Agents
4 by Modecir | 1 comments on Hacker News.
Hi HN, Build this tool in a couple of hours with OpenAI Codex to scratch an itch. As part of my videos workflows I needed to cut the videos myself since the agent is pretty bad cutting and timing using only the transcription. But using a big app like Premiere or DaVinci Resolve was overkill so I used Astra to build an app tailored to that very task. It will be useful to others with the same problem. Tested only on Silicon Macs, so any feedback is welcome. As part of my workflow when the agent get the video it can open the app with the video or videos loaded in the timeline for me to cut and then export the cuts in a format the agent can use and continue the workflow.
4 by Modecir | 1 comments on Hacker News.
Hi HN, Build this tool in a couple of hours with OpenAI Codex to scratch an itch. As part of my videos workflows I needed to cut the videos myself since the agent is pretty bad cutting and timing using only the transcription. But using a big app like Premiere or DaVinci Resolve was overkill so I used Astra to build an app tailored to that very task. It will be useful to others with the same problem. Tested only on Silicon Macs, so any feedback is welcome. As part of my workflow when the agent get the video it can open the app with the video or videos loaded in the timeline for me to cut and then export the cuts in a format the agent can use and continue the workflow.
New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: How do you build organic traction as an indie dev?
Ask HN: How do you build organic traction as an indie dev?
3 by charm137 | 0 comments on Hacker News.
I have recently become a fulltime indie gamedev. While I'm willing to trust myself on technical and creative output, the topic of getting the word out that I might release something interesting and worth people's time seems to have become increasingly daunting. Most popular technical channels like HN / specific sub-reddits require active community participation and "karma-farming" just to be able to post something, which is hard for me to spend time on (I'd rather work on my stuff). Twitter(X) / Bluesky have low visibility for gamedev topics. All text-focused websites seem to have become really hard organic marketing channels especially after AI slop came in. IG / Tiktok / Twitch would be channels I'd rather use when I get into the actual spending-marketing-dollars mode (i.e., inorganic; which is also when I'd get into Steam / App Store level marketing as well). So far, Youtube seems to be the one place where the algorithm might not be quite as punitive as the gates that other places have put up, but it's not a place for getting high-quality feedback (surprisingly videos on LinkedIn do rather well - on engagement but not sure that's the right channel). What do folks here in a similar situation do?
3 by charm137 | 0 comments on Hacker News.
I have recently become a fulltime indie gamedev. While I'm willing to trust myself on technical and creative output, the topic of getting the word out that I might release something interesting and worth people's time seems to have become increasingly daunting. Most popular technical channels like HN / specific sub-reddits require active community participation and "karma-farming" just to be able to post something, which is hard for me to spend time on (I'd rather work on my stuff). Twitter(X) / Bluesky have low visibility for gamedev topics. All text-focused websites seem to have become really hard organic marketing channels especially after AI slop came in. IG / Tiktok / Twitch would be channels I'd rather use when I get into the actual spending-marketing-dollars mode (i.e., inorganic; which is also when I'd get into Steam / App Store level marketing as well). So far, Youtube seems to be the one place where the algorithm might not be quite as punitive as the gates that other places have put up, but it's not a place for getting high-quality feedback (surprisingly videos on LinkedIn do rather well - on engagement but not sure that's the right channel). What do folks here in a similar situation do?
New Show Hacker News story: Show HN: TimerVana a Local-first scheduler for real world routines
Show HN: TimerVana a Local-first scheduler for real world routines
3 by granto | 0 comments on Hacker News.
Hi HN, I’m the creator of TimerVana. It's not just "another timer app". The engineering analogy is a lightweight task scheduler for things people do in the real world. A normal timer models one countdown. TimerVana models a small dependency graph in JSON: some steps run sequentially, others run in parallel, and everything can converge on a target finish time. You can also combine multiple timers (e.g., combine a timer with all the steps to cook a steak + a timer for roasting vegetables). I originally built it because I often set multiple timers and alarms when cooking and got tired of repeatedly juggling separate alarms to get a main dish and several sides ready together. The same model also works for workouts, study sessions, morning routines, and other repeatable processes. The iPhone app is local-first by design [0]. You can create, save, and run timers entirely on your phone without an account or cloud sharing. If you want the networked features, the companion website lets you browse and download timers, upload your own, and share them with other people. Everything available today is free. I may eventually add optional AI-assisted timer creation as a paid feature, but I haven’t settled on the business model or pricing. I'm more doing this to solve my own problem and hope it will help others as well. I’m interested in whether the underlying abstraction makes sense: does a sequence of dependent and parallel timed steps help you? I’d also appreciate feedback on the balance I took between the completely local experience and the optional sharing layer (I was partially inspired by the old iOS Workflow App, which was acquired by Apple and is now called Shortcuts). Of course, any other feedback very much appreciated. [0]: https://ift.tt/Kt50TeQ...
3 by granto | 0 comments on Hacker News.
Hi HN, I’m the creator of TimerVana. It's not just "another timer app". The engineering analogy is a lightweight task scheduler for things people do in the real world. A normal timer models one countdown. TimerVana models a small dependency graph in JSON: some steps run sequentially, others run in parallel, and everything can converge on a target finish time. You can also combine multiple timers (e.g., combine a timer with all the steps to cook a steak + a timer for roasting vegetables). I originally built it because I often set multiple timers and alarms when cooking and got tired of repeatedly juggling separate alarms to get a main dish and several sides ready together. The same model also works for workouts, study sessions, morning routines, and other repeatable processes. The iPhone app is local-first by design [0]. You can create, save, and run timers entirely on your phone without an account or cloud sharing. If you want the networked features, the companion website lets you browse and download timers, upload your own, and share them with other people. Everything available today is free. I may eventually add optional AI-assisted timer creation as a paid feature, but I haven’t settled on the business model or pricing. I'm more doing this to solve my own problem and hope it will help others as well. I’m interested in whether the underlying abstraction makes sense: does a sequence of dependent and parallel timed steps help you? I’d also appreciate feedback on the balance I took between the completely local experience and the optional sharing layer (I was partially inspired by the old iOS Workflow App, which was acquired by Apple and is now called Shortcuts). Of course, any other feedback very much appreciated. [0]: https://ift.tt/Kt50TeQ...
New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: Why isn't there a cursor for video games development
Ask HN: Why isn't there a cursor for video games development
2 by JimsonYang | 1 comments on Hacker News.
So I was prototyping with claude code and Godot engine, and I thought it was weird that this specific category of AI isn't as big as video gen creative suites. Like theres big names like runway and higgsfield but when it comes to video games there's no major company trying to make a one stop shop using AI to make video games. I'm sure it isn't because of a lack of trying, I'm sure developers thought about it as one of the first things to automate. If I had to guess there's a couple reasons: 1)Quality-making a good game requires extreme attention to detail all of which is non coding related. The animations on idle characters, how the background characters look, the sound design and clever story. 90% of gaming is art 2) backlash from players. I think this is an important factor but not the dominant factor. For reasons like games like Slotbound have had amazing positive responses despite being ai generated as long as they are high quality. On the flip side reputation does matter for major studios so adoption can be slow. 3)No money in the industry. Most game studios aren't raining in money, therefore making video games would be an expensive and time consuming hobby that got slightly easier, but is still difficult. A normal prosumer simply doesn't have the time nor dedication to make an project that is going to take months of their time These are my guesses, but I would love to hear responses from people in the industry or people who have attempted this idea or VCs who have their own thesis on the market. p.s. this isn't a lazy attempt startup research, I'm seriously just curious
2 by JimsonYang | 1 comments on Hacker News.
So I was prototyping with claude code and Godot engine, and I thought it was weird that this specific category of AI isn't as big as video gen creative suites. Like theres big names like runway and higgsfield but when it comes to video games there's no major company trying to make a one stop shop using AI to make video games. I'm sure it isn't because of a lack of trying, I'm sure developers thought about it as one of the first things to automate. If I had to guess there's a couple reasons: 1)Quality-making a good game requires extreme attention to detail all of which is non coding related. The animations on idle characters, how the background characters look, the sound design and clever story. 90% of gaming is art 2) backlash from players. I think this is an important factor but not the dominant factor. For reasons like games like Slotbound have had amazing positive responses despite being ai generated as long as they are high quality. On the flip side reputation does matter for major studios so adoption can be slow. 3)No money in the industry. Most game studios aren't raining in money, therefore making video games would be an expensive and time consuming hobby that got slightly easier, but is still difficult. A normal prosumer simply doesn't have the time nor dedication to make an project that is going to take months of their time These are my guesses, but I would love to hear responses from people in the industry or people who have attempted this idea or VCs who have their own thesis on the market. p.s. this isn't a lazy attempt startup research, I'm seriously just curious
New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: 30, burnt out, with 6-10 months of runway. What would you do?
Ask HN: 30, burnt out, with 6-10 months of runway. What would you do?
3 by throwaway_30yo | 0 comments on Hacker News.
After being let go from a small agency due to financial reasons, I find myself having at least 6-10 months of downtime for the first time in 10 years. I am around 30 and feel burnt out from my tech career. I do not feel any interest or happiness towards building things right now. I chose this career mostly due to monetary reasons and pursued undergrad and graduate degrees in CS in Europe. After which, I worked as a product manager for a while in the networking/telco sector in internal enterprise systems. I am really at a loss for what to do now or how to spend time. I was always interested in doing my own thing, but would not call myself a good engineer or as having deep skills in a particular domain. I am more of a jack of all trades. I dread just getting the next job and continuing the corporate grind, but I really worry about what to do in the near future career-wise. If you were in my position, what would you do with the time?
3 by throwaway_30yo | 0 comments on Hacker News.
After being let go from a small agency due to financial reasons, I find myself having at least 6-10 months of downtime for the first time in 10 years. I am around 30 and feel burnt out from my tech career. I do not feel any interest or happiness towards building things right now. I chose this career mostly due to monetary reasons and pursued undergrad and graduate degrees in CS in Europe. After which, I worked as a product manager for a while in the networking/telco sector in internal enterprise systems. I am really at a loss for what to do now or how to spend time. I was always interested in doing my own thing, but would not call myself a good engineer or as having deep skills in a particular domain. I am more of a jack of all trades. I dread just getting the next job and continuing the corporate grind, but I really worry about what to do in the near future career-wise. If you were in my position, what would you do with the time?