0x10c

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28 comments, last by AoS 12 years ago
So I'm a little sad about Notch's new 0x10c project.

Mostly, I'm sad that I'm not the one developing it. There's been a half-finished design document for a very similar concept lying on my hard drive for the past couple of years. *sighs*

I'm curious however, whether you think that there is a market for a game that seems to consist heavily of assembly programming an emulated CPU? I know that many players of MineCraft/Dwarf Fortress/LittleBigPlanet build the most crazily elaborate mechanisms (pretty sure I've seen a CPU emulator in at least one of the above). But technical skills on that level can't actually be a majority of the player base. Can they?

Tristam MacDonald. Ex-BigTech Software Engineer. Future farmer. [https://trist.am]

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Personally, I think the programming aspects of it will inspire a small but particularly fervent branch of the hardcore, and the rest of the playerbase will either ignore it or simply download programs others have written, and not try programming themselves. The same contingent of players that used redstone to build elaborate machinery, computing machines, and even crude CPUs. That particular segment of the Minecraft community was tiny but very visible due to the sheer "coolness" of what they did. For every one guy with the tech skills to build a CPU out of torches and redstone, there are about 5,000 players that spend their time building penises out of obsidian or saddling and riding pigs. I think we'll see the same in 0x10c.

I'm interested to see how well this game does. To me, it's immensely appealing, but to my Minecraft-playing nephews, it's "meh". But then, they fall firmly in the "riding pigs" camp.
Most of the player base cant probably use it, but reading the site, i think you are able to go without. Instead, the computer is something that will keep long time players who have learned to use it playing, and it will also attract people who have knowledge of programming/scripting.

Normal people like building mechanics out of components and stuff (i think), but if you know how something like that works, you can get as much fun out of it and it will probably be a lot simpler and cheaper to run.

Also it will get more people interested in programming, which probably is good (dem doing awesome stuff i wanted to do after 10 years >:c).




inb4MinecraftEmulatorInDCPU-16orWhateverItWasWith8BitRedstoneComputerRunningPong



I wonder if there will be player communication, allowing us to design fancy encrypted communication protocols, create an internet and hack into our enemies systems.

o3o

I've been contemplating a ship-building game for a while now. I considered allowing players to write scripts to drive behaviors, but I was more interested in developing components and letting players put them into their ship.

It's kind of annoying that if I develop it now I'm going to look unoriginal.
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I also have some old code/design ideas that sound somewhat similar to this idea - although I'm not really clear on what exactly the gameplay would be from the description. Is this the type of game that all programmers have thought about creating, but never got around to it?

I don't know about general appeal, but personally I'm interested in where this is going.

I've been contemplating a ship-building game for a while now. I considered allowing players to write scripts to drive behaviors, but I was more interested in developing components and letting players put them into their ship.

It's kind of annoying that if I develop it now I'm going to look unoriginal.

Im making a game where you can build machines out of components. Though its complex so im not sure if itll ever get done (i couldnt figure out a simpler game idea that would give me motivation :c)
It also should have editable terrain... The components are going to be ones that input and output stuff (which might be transferred into lets say thrust if the output isnt connected to an input) Like a processor would take in a large amount of signals and output something, and a motor would take in energy of some sort and output torque into a joint component.

The aim is to make a playground where you can do anything, with some form of multiplayer (probably just for friends as i think i need to trust the clients for computing the components and stuff :P).

o3o


I also have some old code/design ideas that sound somewhat similar to this idea - although I'm not really clear on what exactly the gameplay would be from the description. Is this the type of game that all programmers have thought about creating, but never got around to it?

Mine was a tad more specific than that.

Early designs called for a scriptable 'data core' at the heart of each ship, which could be controlled via a (visual drag-n-drop) scripting language to modify AI behaviour and communication protocols, simple firewalls, etc.

Plus I have already implemented landing on planetary surfaces, basic space combat, etc. - not that I'm ever likely to finish said game, but c'est le vie.

Tristam MacDonald. Ex-BigTech Software Engineer. Future farmer. [https://trist.am]


Mine was a tad more specific than that.


Yeah, I had never gotten over the preliminary hump of actually designing the language, but I did have a fairly fleshed out idea of ship design and combat mechanics (which were inspired by the old Traveler and Star Frontiers rpgs). This was many years ago, though, and I'd never revisited the project since. Also, being just an armchair programmer myself, it would surely be much too big of a bite for me to take on.
but c'est l[color=#ff0000]a vie.[/quote]
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I agree, only a few select people will be either able or willing to take advantage of the CPU emulator (few people have the knowledge, few people have the experience, and even fewer people have both - and then how many of this crowd will actually be playing the game?). But I suppose you'll see websites such as "planet0x10c.net" (or maybe universe instead of planet) pop up which will offer downloads for stuff other people have done, so it will probably work out well in the end.

Of course, it depends how ubiquitous the CPU emulator is in the game. I mean in Minecraft redstone wasn't everywhere and you could get by without using it or just using it to power a dumb iron door in the simplest way possible, so it made it possible for a large audience to play the game without being reminded every second how much of the game they are missing (which would probably be a turn-off for many people)

“If I understand the standard right it is legal and safe to do this but the resulting value could be anything.”


I've been contemplating a ship-building game for a while now. I considered allowing players to write scripts to drive behaviors, but I was more interested in developing components and letting players put them into their ship.

It's kind of annoying that if I develop it now I'm going to look unoriginal.


Hehe, i've had the same idea aswell, its not an easy one to implement though (Takes alot of work) and might possibly only have a niche appeal so the financial success of it is questionable (as with all "new" ideas). Most aspects of 0x10c have been done before though, (It sounds a bit like a cross between Space Rangers and ATRobots) so its not really groundbreaking in any way. (It might become the first game with a programming element to really hit the mainstream market though)
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