Tuning Canabalt (explaining all the basic systems) | Hacker News Reader

Tuning Canabalt (explaining all the basic systems)

blog.semisecretsoftware.com

102 pointsabstractwater12 comments

Interesting how the game "cheats" in the players favor in order to give a better/more forgiving experience.

This reminds me of the mobile UI recommendations of making the hit boxes for buttons be larger than the button graphic, to forgive sloppy gestures.

It's not a rare thing for games to cheat in your favour, what was the last shooter where you had the same health as the hundreds of grunts and monsters you slew?

That's not the same; not enforcing "realism" (for want of a better word) isn't the same as cheating. A more appropriate example would be something like "when was the last time you played a shooter where your crosshair didn't stick to or gravitate towards enemy targets?".

That's rather common, too, among less-than-absolutely-hardcore-fps games which are still shooters and played in first person or over-the-shoulder. There's quite a few games in the genre that give enemies more health and weaponry than you have, but grant you superior tactical options.

Especially in console shooters. It's frowned upon in PC games somewhat.

Amen. I've learned the hard way that a few pixels difference in a hitbox makes the difference between them sticking till the end or quitting in frustration from dying unfairly and leaving you a 1/5.

Articles like this only make me grumpy. I tried this game last year, but I gave up on it in disgust for being too hard. And now the developer is telling me that he made it easier than it could have been? Bah humbug!

Still, these details may explain why games like this are dime-a-dozen now. This one gave people the confidence to make their own, not realizing the details sweated by the original developer. Hence, all the knockoffs (especially on iOS) play worse; which initially surprised me, but now makes sense in retrospect.

how well has canabalt sold?

totally different genre but i'm curious after reading about minecrafts success.

115,000 copies as of March 2010 according to http://www.next-gen.biz/features/gdc-semi-secret-talk-canaba...

$2.99 * 115,000 copies = $343,850

That was over the course of 5 months = $68,770 per month

Impressive for a game that took 5 days to develop.

is app store their only sales vector? seems like it.

You could also play it online via flash. But that's free.

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