Ultra Square Catcher (USC)
Games
browser arcade game
SHOW HN2019
Legend
Ultra Square Catcher (USC)
I taught my little brother JS, and he made this videogame in a week
s-poony.github.ioHow HN took it
102 positive, 38 neutral or asking, 12 mixed, 11 critical, out of 163 comments about the project. Thread score +0.60.
Design: 33 for, 0 againstExecution: 8 for, 6 againstIdea: 10 for, 1 againstPerformance: 4 for, 0 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 2 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Fun, addictive gameplay with simple mechanics
From 3 comments
Wow... Thought I was going to play for 10 maybe 15 seconds... I've never played a game for that long... This is seriously good. If you released this game without "little brother"…
bbno4 on HNThis thing is deceptively subtle and fiendishly addictive. Well done!
rcarmo on HN... that is seriously fun. The red block turning up later was AMAZING.
sonofgod on HN
Impressive work for a young beginner
From 2 comments
Finally, one of these stories that didn't make me feel like an utterly talentless moron. This feels like what someone might be able to learn how to do in a week, but so often it…
nsxwolf on HNYou have taught him well, congratulations.
Abishek_Muthian on HN
Clean, well-commented code
From 2 comments
Look at the code guys [1]. I love it. This is simple. There is not a single line of bullshit. I hope he gonna become a great programmer and continue to make beautiful code like…
quadcore on HNGood work. It's fun and has clean code too!
nyfresh on HN
Good use of phone tilt controls
From 1 comment
Hasn’t been mentioned before: try this on a phone. It uses the gyroscope for control and it quickly becomes second nature to balance/guide the square around the screen. Also a…
juretriglav on HN
Objections
Controls not explained; unclear to use keyboard
From 2 comments
Super fun, your little brother did a great job! Only criticism I would say is to add some directions if possible, even though for most people it's common sense it took me a…
virtuexru on HNVery nice. I had fun with it. Maybe a little description of the goals on the page underneath the play area would be good? Took me a while to realize picking up the red squares…
cowpewter on HN
Does not work on some browsers such as Firefox
From 1 comment
Cool game! Congrats to your brother. Doesn't work on current Firefox.
dotdi on HN
Movement speed tied to refresh rate
From 1 comment
Nice job, just an FYI it looks like movement speed is tied to refresh rate. I was having a difficult time at 144hz but lowering to 60hz made it way more manageable.
milesdyson_phd on HN
Doubts the maker wrote the code and the title is exaggerated
From 2 comments
In "taught" did you mean "write 80% of the code"? This follows coding conventions far too much for me to believe it's written by an complete beginner. To me it smells like…
baalimago on HNCool game, but am I the only one who's a little skeptical about the title?
icholy on HN
Requests
Add on-page instructions or a score description
From 2 comments
Very nice. I had fun with it. Maybe a little description of the goals on the page underneath the play area would be good? Took me a while to realize picking up the red squares…
cowpewter on HNSuper fun, your little brother did a great job! Only criticism I would say is to add some directions if possible, even though for most people it's common sense it took me a…
virtuexru on HN
Add a high score counter
From 1 comment
Very cool. A high score counter would be useful.
Avi-D-coder on HN
Add more enemies as score increases
From 1 comment
So fun. I like the AI logic, if he wants a fun addition he should add more enemies as the score increases and implement something like the pac-man ghost logic so that they all…
maxmcd on HN
Add a link to the source code on the page
From 1 comment
so cool! maybe dumb question - where's the link to the source code? adding that to the actual page would be great.
ryantuck on HN
Questions
How was the brother taught?
From 2 comments
Great! How did you teach your little brother?
juniusfree on HNThat's impressive. Can you provide more info such as how old he is, did he have any kind of programming experience prior, and how did you go about teaching him?
Zelphyr on HN
How old is the brother?
From 1 comment
Nice game! How old is your little brother?
geetfun on HN
Alternatives named
Squares 2 Flash game
From 1 comment
Brings back memories of Squares 2, a Flash game I was addicted to in high school: http://www.officegamespot.com/freegames/squares2.htm
nfriend on HN
Pac-Man style ghost AI
From 1 comment
So fun. I like the AI logic, if he wants a fun addition he should add more enemies as the score increases and implement something like the pac-man ghost logic so that they all…
maxmcd on HN