
Netflix Infinite Runner - amjd
https://flixarcade.netflix.io/
======
OhSoHumble
Good lord, y'all are crotchety. This just seems like a fun little time waster
that was probably developed internally by a very small group of people. I
don't see it as a large marketing push or some kind of fancy technical demo.
Just something... fun.

~~~
shorttime
For real, anyone remember flappy bird? This is pretty similar and flapper bird
made a LOT of people happy.

~~~
wolfgke
> flapp[y] bird made a LOT of people happy.

Dong Nguyen, the creater of Flappy Bird thinks different about this topic -
this is also the reason why he took the game down for the app stores:

'"Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed," the
developer said "But it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has
become a problem. To solve that problem, it’s best to take down Flappy Bird.
It’s gone forever."'

> [http://compethics.samething.net/2014/02/20/flappy-bird-
> and-u...](http://compethics.samething.net/2014/02/20/flappy-bird-and-
> unhappy-dong/)

> [http://bgr.com/2014/02/11/why-flappy-bird-was-
> removed/](http://bgr.com/2014/02/11/why-flappy-bird-was-removed/)

~~~
eriknstr
He later put it back up though, didn't he?

~~~
wolfgke
> He later put it back up though, didn't he?

At least it is not on Google Play anymore:

>
> [https://play.google.com/store/search?q=Flappy+bird&c=apps](https://play.google.com/store/search?q=Flappy+bird&c=apps)

and by

>
> [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flappy_Bird&oldid...](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flappy_Bird&oldid=758455938)

it is also not on Apple's app store anymore. What happened is "As Nguyen had
promised, August 2014 saw a revised version of Flappy Bird, called Flappy
Birds Family, released exclusively through the Amazon Appstore for the Amazon
Fire TV platform."

~~~
eriknstr
You are right, it was _not_ put back up by the original developer. I guess I
just conflated it with the subsequent clones because by the time I heard of
the game it had already been removed but then later I was able to play "the
game" still.

------
dawnerd
Not sure if it's the browser or the game but sometimes clicks and taps don't
register. Love the themes though!

One other issue is since you can't seem to jump during a power up if an
obstacle comes right as the powerup ends you'll lose with no way to avoid.

~~~
babaganoosh223
Seems like they made the jump on mouseup instead of mousedown, and mouseup
needs to be within ~1s of mousedown.

~~~
dclowd9901
Yeah seems like 'tap' rather than mouseup/mousedown.

------
Shank
Okay, perhaps I'm out of the loop. Is this created for marketing purposes,
technical purposes, or something else? What makes this different from a random
Ludum Dare-style submission, other than the Netflix logo?

~~~
rconti
I don't get it. Who are these characters? What is the background patterned
after? I feel like I'm missing an inside joke.

~~~
cpayne
They are all Netflix shows.

As others have said. Pablo & Marco Polo. Piper Chapman from Orange is the New
Black and Mike Wheeler from Stranger Things. (Won't make sense if you haven't
seen the shows)

------
bobbylox
Netflix IPs would make some great worlds for larger games, actually. I can
imagine a Telltale-style narrative adventure set in the Womens Prison of
'Orange is the New Black' or an action horror game where you play as Eleven,
trapped in the Upside Down. Even their animated properties - Knights of
Sidonia, Ajin, and Voltron - would be awesome worlds for players to
experience. Netflix, if you're reading, hit up the game studio I design for --
contact@phosphorgames.com

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Maybe they should branch out into game streaming. Movies and TV anywhere on-
demand, how about games?

------
mr_ploppy
Seriously? wtf? I thought, this is going to be something cool as it's from
them, like an experimental UI or something. Am I missing something or is this
just a bit lame and pointless? Maybe I'm dead inside.

~~~
twic
Each pixel is its own microservice. This is a huge leap forward for the
industry.

------
Isamu
Characters from Netflix-produced series:

Pablo Escobar - "Narcos"

Marco Polo - "Marco Polo"

Piper Chapman - "Orange is the New Black"

Mike Wheeler - "Stranger Things"

------
nthitz
Fun but kind of odd.. I can't really imagine these games converting people to
subscribing to Netflix or suddenly becoming interested in these shows.

~~~
Diederich
Perhaps allowing someone who works at Netflix to create and publish this kind
of thing makes existing employees happy.

------
headcanon
Fun. I wonder why they went with a modern-day chinatown backdrop for Marco
Polo. I haven't seen season 2 yet; did this somehow become a time travel show?
:P

------
krzyk
For me it shows only the Netflix logo and a spinner (on Safari). From other
comments I assume that the spinner is not the "infinite runner"

~~~
avree
Works fine for me on Version 10.0.2 (12602.3.12.0.1) of Safari. Mobile Safari
does not work.

------
fisherjeff
Incredible chiptunes

~~~
thefalcon
Might be the best part.

------
stupidcar
This is a fun idea, but feels weirdly amateur. Like, the way the sprites
disappear the moment they touch the side of the screen, or the way the
powerups keep scrolling past even when you're dead.

It's like someone at Netflix did an "intro to games programming" tutorial and
decided to put the result live.

------
knodi123
oh, apparently you can double-jump. figured that one out after too long.

------
w-ll
Dying and pausing the game doesn't stop the pickups. Is this intended?

------
bcheung
The click to jump is unresponsive, doesn't do anything half the time it feels
like.

------
ziikutv
Hit boxes are shit

~~~
themckman
rip

~~~
ziikutv
Yeah, I was on phone so I did not explain. The characters are made to be
leaning forward, so the hitboxes are very wide. When they jump, they remain as
is. Hence, when you can clearly make the jump, you still "hit".

------
viksit
Beware of the monster that shows up when you think things are going swimmingly
easy.

Super well done!

------
TazeTSchnitzel
This apparently doesn't use delta time. Is it frame-timed? When the FPS
lowers, the game slows down. That's rather sloppy, and it doesn't help the
game's playability.

------
JayHost
We go to the moon not because it is easy but because we are bored!

------
matthewaveryusa
They didn't have to bit-ify the music for Stranger Things :)

~~~
morganvachon
I thought that's what the music was from. Another of their original TV series,
_Travelers_ , has an amazing (if subtle) electronic music score.

------
ClassyJacket
Jump needs to happen on touch down, not on touch up :)

------
forgottenacc57
Strange

------
kelvin0
Now instead of doing this, if they could add more content for Netflix Canada
(and other Non-US countries) ... :-)

~~~
torsday
I wish we Netflix Canada here in the US. You have more than we do :/

~~~
errantspark
^ This, not to mention there are several good proxies to get US Netflix
working in other countries, but getting Canadian Netflix in the US is a much
more arduous process.

~~~
aryamaan
What proxies? Last I heard, they are giving a hard time to VPN players.

------
tptacek
What's super weird about this to me is how unlike the actual shows these are;
OITNB doesn't take place in a cell block prison, and Matthew Modine isn't bald
in Stranger Things.

------
scott_s
I wish I could have heard the internal discussions about whether or not to
include Queen Elizabeth II.

------
scottydelta
it would be nice UX if the game can be restarted using the spacebar.

~~~
jayajay
This is why I rage quit that game after I died. Like, I gotta use my mouse?
Pfft, I'm out.

------
milankragujevic
It takes way to long to load, I measured about 1 minute and 43 seconds before
it loaded.

~~~
stronglikedan
Purely anecdotal, but it took less than two seconds for me on both FF and
Chrome (Win 10).

~~~
milankragujevic
It would be kind of funny if it turned out my ISP is slowing down Netflix.
Thought it's Orthodox Christmas and people are all home and watching OTT or
IPTV so probably Internet congestion...

~~~
Raphmedia
You can test that hypothesis using [http://www.fast.com](http://www.fast.com)

------
jayajay
If the music was algorithmically generated, what methods were used?

------
ttrbls
wtf

------
1_2__3
It's an ad.

------
stevenh
[removed]

~~~
amiga-workbench
I thought .io TLD's were for the javascript framework/library of the week?

~~~
jtblin
Recent html5 multi-player games have used .io e.g. slither.io

~~~
echelon
Multiplayer games do not have a monopoly on the dot IO tld. I have several for
various purposes, none of which are game-related.

------
facepalm
Is my computer hacked now? Does netflix.io actually belong to Netflix?

------
enahs-sf
...and there goes my productivity for the rest of the day.

------
catacombs
Trying to read the JavaScript that powers the game made my eyes bleed. Great
concept, but the developer should really look into writing cleaner code.

~~~
jayajay
Is this a bad joke about minification? Or is this a good joke about how the
future will be run on true black boxes?

------
zerdmann
I really hate games that try for an "8-bit" aesthetic but can't be bothered to
even approximate a consistent pixel density for their art. It's not that hard.

This is like the lensless glasses of pixel art.

