Show HN: Fly By – retro biplane flying game

(michaelteter.com)

25 points | by michaelteter 4 days ago

10 comments

  • tom_ 6 minutes ago
    If you pick up an additional machine gun powerup, the plane should fire more bullets simultaneously.
  • Suhinnall27 47 minutes ago
    This was a nice game. It would be cool if you added some more purpose to landing the plane, like if the fuel and throttle were limited, making it actually useful to land it. Overall great game and enjoyable. Also would be nice to get some extra points for doing loop-de-loops or tricks with the plane. A shield power-up is also a great idea.
  • Kuyawa 48 minutes ago
    Loved it. That's exactly what AI should be used for. Something that would take us one month at least, full of bugs, AI now delivers in less than a day, ready to ship

    This is the essence, AI is a super power, the world is ours

    • tom_ 20 minutes ago
      Well I dunno, man, this looks like the sort of amusing prototype I'd expect to take a couple of days - though not to understate the value of getting it in 4 hours (and probably with less than 4 hours' continuous effort from the human). Iteration time is an important factor!

      (Regarding the parting shot, I find myself once again, for the numerousth time, reminded of this curious lobsters comment that I'm having difficulty forgetting: https://lobste.rs/s/omq8rt/vibecoding_gets_emacs_patch_rejec... - perhaps not quite entirely directly germane here, I don't think, but, still, somehow, not quite entirely directly not.)

    • ricardobeat 35 minutes ago
      Something that would take us one month at least, full of bugs, AI now delivers in less than a day, full of bugs
    • krapp 32 minutes ago
      >This is the essence, AI is a super power, the world is ours

      Don't me overdramatic. The guy who made Flappy Bird did it in a weekend without AI. A simple game like this wouldn't be difficult in any modern framework. That it can be vibe-coded in less than a day isn't really much value.

  • scandox 55 minutes ago
    It's no Sopwith
  • krapp 34 minutes ago
    The fake scanlines and position of the UI elements make them difficult to read. The plane is too slow and its turn radius is too tight, the physics (if there are any) need to be improved to give a sense of weight and velocity to the plane IMO, and that probably necessitates a bigger playfield. Also it feels like it really needs a gun.

    Overall it feels like an OK prototype but I agree it needs more polish.

    That said, HN is traditionally for sharing code with the community. Maybe for AI submissions people should share their prompts? I don't know. I'd ask to see the code but since you didn't write it you can't really discuss it.

    • MRPockets 2 minutes ago
      > Also it feels like it really needs a gun.

      It took me less than 10 seconds into gameplay to pick up bullets for the (already existing) gun. Your comment reads as if you didn't try to play the game for more than a few seconds.

      It's a fun little game; no need to be so smugly dismissive.

    • noir_lord 20 minutes ago
      > I don't know. I'd ask to see the code but since you didn't write it you can't really discuss it.

      Brusque but not inaccurate, Welcome to our future I guess.

    • amazingamazing 10 minutes ago
      > I don't know. I'd ask to see the code but since you didn't write it you can't really discuss it.

      Huh? Why do you believe this? ever take a literature class?

      Regarding scanlines, there is a setting to turn them off.

      • krapp 5 minutes ago
        Literature is written by human beings, and if the author was in the class I expect they would be able to discuss their process and methodologies.

        But the entire point of using an AI to generate code is not to pay attention to any of that. The author of AI generated code did not write said code and cannot therefore provide any insight into the process or methodology beyond "here is the prompt and model I used." Nothing that would be of value to the few of us left on this site who actually care about such things. Nothing, in other words, to gratify intellectual curiosity.

        • amazingamazing 3 minutes ago
          Most literature classes discuss works where the author is unavailable.

          The point of AI is not to generate code and not pay attention…

  • vunderba 4 days ago
    Nice job - it kind of reminds me of the rocket barrel levels in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.

    Feedback: Consider playing with the physics of the plane depending on your pitch, so that some parts of some levels might require you to deliberately pitch down for a few seconds to build up some "stored speed".

    • michaelteter 3 days ago
      It basically does this. If you are in level flight or a dive, you increase speed up to a certain max (level flight max is less than dive max). If you climb, you bleed off speed. To reach high balloons, you often need to build up more speed before you can climb high enough.

      There's probably room for improvement, but it's already enough fun that I can play it for several minutes at a time.

      Now I'm trying to decide if there's anything else of value to add - without making it too much of anything. I think I'm about finished now.

  • nometalalchemis 2 days ago
    What a cool game!
  • hydropax 4 days ago
    The scan lines are a great touch. It makes it feel truly retro
  • carlbvt 4 days ago
    nice!
  • superkuh 52 minutes ago
    It is fun. Now make it multiplayer over websockets/etc with some dev controlled signalling server (who peers register with/etc) and STUN check to get peer IPs locally.