

Show HN: Realtime multiuser, multitouch block toy - BigFatGangsta
http://box.jit.su

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msutherl
This is really fun and bizarre. Unable to really say anything, I find myself
trying to communicate structure by my action. I've been trying things like:
holding my block in one place, trying to stick to somebody else's block,
joining the builders.

I think there's an interesting idea here of multiplayer games with highly
limited expression, but with some need for them to communicate through
whatever limited means.

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dividuum
From what I understand from the description in this video, Journey for PS3
might be such a game. Unfortunately I don't have a PS3 to test it myself:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD7KWAQr8Q8#t=1746s>

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samwillis
This has had me in hysterics for the last 5 minutes.

We need to build, not destroy!

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StavrosK
Stop destroying everything, you bastards! Some of us are trying to build!

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jessedhillon
It's like Poltergeist in there!

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intended
Its definitely one of those interesting sites that pops up every so often,
more fun when people are just playing around with it.

During the time playing with you ended up going from newbie-ooh break
stuff/fight to - hey it looks like someone is trying to build something, hmm
hey we can help.

At which point you realize that all the blocks couldn't possibly fix
perfectly, and a new comer enters the room and his/her cycle begins anew.

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ievans
This is really cool. Perhaps you could add some indicator that a box is under
force by one or multiple users - just arrows, or even a colored pattern
representing stress by conflicting force vectors.

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scrumper
I had a nice little game of block tennis going on but of course someone had to
come along and ruin it :)

This would make a good Turing test.

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coley
You guys are the best box throwers ever. <3

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BigFatGangsta
Yeah, it's a lot of throwing going on. =) And less tower building..

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duiker101
it would be nice some way to identify which box is used by who, like every
user has a color and when i'm dragging a box the border of that box has my
color. Nice job anyway, get ready to be crashed by the traffic!

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BigFatGangsta
Thanks! And good idea. I'll work on something like that, maybe tonight.

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frozenport
I would like to see some information about server load. I want to write
something like this, but I don't know if I can host it on a EC2 micro?

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nodesocket
It is hosted on NodeJitsu (Joyent hardware) a PaaS.

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BigFatGangsta
And I only use 1 drone, which I think is somewhat equal to an amazon micro

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dwerthen
Perhaps it would be better if the blocks were heavier? So that it isn't quite
as easy to ruin everything?

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tudorw
It's like trying to build a tower with my daughter, anything over 2 must be
destroyed!

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unkoman
A goal would be nice like the tallest stack or something.

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speedynyc
I like this! Perhaps, at random/scheduled times, post a challenge and see if
the group can collaborate to achieve it. Give group points that accrue when
accomplished. When you rejoin at some later time, you get a private message
that shows who is in room that you have collaborated with in past. Keep all
usernames anonymous . .

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vitno
I'M TRYING TO BUILD SOMETHING HERE!!!! =P

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altcognito
Fun, but we lost all the boxes :(

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Azorien
They were tasty...

Muhahahahaaa

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BigFatGangsta
Seems that I have to build thicker walls so the boxes can not escape!

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BigFatGangsta
Now its fixed. With thicker walls and weaker mousecursors. I think you cant
make the boxes escape now...

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Azorien
Well.. That's a workaround, not a true solution.. that takes away our mouse
cursor strength...

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jessedhillon
Please make it possible to hide the "now there are N users" messages. Or at
least put it at the top of the page. This is really cool, but those messages
are absolutely ruining it for me on the iPhone.

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BigFatGangsta
Good idea. I'll try to make the messages less annoying on small screens...

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BigFatGangsta
Done!

