
Show HN: OverThrown – A multiplayer turn based strategy game - dan335
https://overthrown.io
======
proactivesvcs
I'm starting to think that web sites will eventually offer so little
information about their product/idea/service/game that there will just be a
logo at the top and after scrolling down through various fancy backgrounds,
there will be the second of two UI elements which is a link to their facebook
account.

~~~
JohnKacz
Generally speaking I'm seeing an overall improvement in this, with short
videos, demos, and better attention to on-boarding.

This particular site could use some gameplay videos/tutorials, but this looks
like the recently revealed passion project of a single developer so I think we
can cut Daniel some slack.

Edit: others below have commented about the docs[0] and a tutorial video[1]

[0] [https://overthrown.io/docs](https://overthrown.io/docs) [1]
[https://youtu.be/fItliXZ2Agg](https://youtu.be/fItliXZ2Agg)

~~~
mercutio2
I know some people like videos, but just a reminder: some of us really hate
videos, so please don't skimp on screenshots and, you know, text.

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Kiro
You should make it possible to inspect games without an account. I love that
you've made your Trello open btw! Very cool to have it next to Facebook and
Twitter.

~~~
emilsedgh
You just should find the game ID you want to spectate and browse this:

[https://overthrown.io/game/:id](https://overthrown.io/game/:id)

Like

[https://overthrown.io/game/38c752cf-40a2-4dd1-8c97-631dd56a4...](https://overthrown.io/game/38c752cf-40a2-4dd1-8c97-631dd56a41b8)

You can find game id's in the Websocket frames using inspector tools on
chrome.

Nothing interesting though. I think most games have just begun and with 12h
turns not much has happened yet.

~~~
jkmcf
I was spectating w/ Chrome and it figuratively melted my late 2015 MBP (sans
discrete graphics card). I hate to think what this would do to a mobile
device's battery.

~~~
ben_jones
The curse of HTML5 games. It's a damn shame because it would've become a great
medium. My tin foil hat theory is that it was purposely sidelined so it
wouldn't detract from the mobile gaming craze that was growing at the time.

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jtanderson
This seems really cool! How much work outside the standard meteor workflows
did you have to do for all the clients to be nicely synchronized? I guess
since the turns are "slow" you have plenty of leeway to make sure the data
gets where it needs to be, but I've had a little trouble before with many
people connected to a meteor app and having them looking at the same
interface, where some of the smaller, incremental graphic updates got skipped
over and caused some visual lag. I'd love to see some sort of technical write
up for how this game is structured!

~~~
dan335
Here's how I got RethinkDB working with Meteor.
[https://medium.com/@danphi/meteor-and-rethinkdb-
db8864762139...](https://medium.com/@danphi/meteor-and-rethinkdb-
db8864762139#.z7nosl7k2)

~~~
jtanderson
Thanks!

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brazzledazzle
Just a reminder to everyone that this is a Show HN which has different
commenting rules. So honesty is okay but maybe lay off the snark, sarcasm and
acidic cynicism.

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twiss
Here's some explanation of the game, including a short video under the second
header: [https://overthrown.io/docs](https://overthrown.io/docs).

Maybe there should be a link to that on the homepage.

~~~
dan335
Yeah good point I'll add it.

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callmejonas
This sounds very much like Diplomacy
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomacy_(game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomacy_\(game\))).
Very cool.

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gibsjose
It's nice you made your Trello todo list public, but why not make the game
open source and use the GitHub issue tracker so we can also open issues and
feature requests?

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Globz
Very nice game, I just started on game 46, I can't wait to get further into
it.

Also great job on the UI, everything is smooth and easy to understand.

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Eek
Instead of the Youtube video, I think a step-by-step guide and feature
introduction would be way better. Something like
[http://introjs.com/](http://introjs.com/) but otherwise the game seems
interesting.

:D

Also, 12h turns seem incredibly long :(

~~~
dan335
Planning on having faster ones eventually :D

~~~
purplelobster
Personally I think 12-24h is perfect for busy people. Will try to convince my
friends to try this out with me ;)

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pjlegato
Looks promising. How about a gameplay video, more screenshots, and a short
description of how the gameplay works on the homepage (without digging)? You
have to give us something more to go on...

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panic
Nice! This reminds me a lot of Iron Helmet's games
([http://www.ironhelmet.com](http://www.ironhelmet.com)).

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fiatjaf
This game is not good.

I will stop playing it in the middle of a match.

I want to apologize for the other players, but I think we shouldn't play a
game just because it is a game and it is free and the game has a nice UI.
Games are important things and no one should be incentivized to release games
to the public if they are not interesting.

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xnzakg
Is it somehow possible to leave a game that hasn't started yet? I logged in
using Google, but I have notifications disabled for the account, so I would
rather register using an alternative email address. Changing the email used
for notifications would work too.

~~~
dan335
Not possible right now after the game starts.

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sandymcmurray
If you like turn-based strategy games, check out backstabbr.com (web-based
Diplomacy).

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kawsper
Joined a game as well, the camera should pan to your city on game start.

~~~
lucb1e
Had the same issue, didn't find my city until I found the zoom option
(scrolling doesn't work). But on another game it did pan automatically. YMMV?

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nbrempel
Very cool idea! I'll definitely be trying this out.

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Grangar
Is the app a reasonable improvement over the browser version?

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Vvector
hmm, joined a game, turns are supposed to run every 12 hours. Two turns ran
almost immediately. Now I am getting server disconnect errors.

~~~
dan335
Those two turns are correct, they run when a game starts. Disconnects are
because of all the people from hackernews.

~~~
fla
Any chance you guys could make a speedy game mode where turns are like 15min ?

~~~
dan335
Yep, planning on having some quicker games.

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StefanKovachev
The best way to do it will be 5-10 min. turns with option to end your turn
before that. If everyone is ready than it's not needed to wait and just jump
to the next turn.

~~~
Globz
I recommend a game mode where you can check a box and send a notification to
the server that you completed your turn. If all 50 players checked their turn
then automatically update the server move on to next round.

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rubidium
For anyone interested, the from a laptop computer (macbook, chrome browser)
this game was buggy and nearly unplayable. It took up 900 MB of memory and 50%
CPU.

Age of Empires was more responsive in 2002.

~~~
gk1
I started hearing sounds from my MacBook that I've never heard before. There
is an option within the game to simplify the graphics, which helped enough to
silence my laptop.

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chunsli
bug found... i choose fb login, and i didn't provide my email, and i can't
login with my fb any more..

