Trap the Critters with Paint

Posted3 months agoActive2 months ago

deepanwadhwa

60 points

23 comments

deepanwadhwa.github.ioOtherstory

supportivepositive

Debate

20/100

Game DevelopmentBrowser GamesInteractive Art

Key topics

Game Development

Browser Games

Interactive Art

A fun browser game where players trap critters with paint, with discussion around gameplay mechanics, bugs, and comparisons to other games.

Snapshot generated from the HN discussion

Discussion Activity

Very active discussion

First comment

Peak period

Days 7-8

Avg / period

11.5

Comment distribution23 data points

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Based on 23 loaded comments

Key moments

01Story posted
Oct 10, 2025 at 2:35 PM EDT
3 months ago
Step 01
02First comment
Oct 17, 2025 at 11:36 AM EDT
7d after posting
Step 02
03Peak activity
22 comments in Days 7-8
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03
04Latest activity
Oct 28, 2025 at 12:42 PM EDT
2 months ago
Step 04

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Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns

Discussion (23 comments)

Showing 23 comments

ninju

3 months ago

1 reply

How do you win a level?

I trapped the critter with painted lines but when the time expired it said I lost :-(

ninju

3 months ago

1 reply

Ah..you have to trap them REAL tightly and then they explode :-)

stevekemp

3 months ago

1 reply

Helps to hold the button down and shake over the circle - if you don't mouseup it doesn't count as a new stroke.

deepanwadhwaAuthor

3 months ago

Nice find, there is a limited length for each stroke though :)

nikolay

3 months ago

2 replies

Reminds me of Xonix [0]...

[0]: https://dos.zone/xonix-1984/

evan_

3 months ago

3 replies

JezzBall was also pretty similar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JezzBall

Jezzball was a TI calculator classic.

EForEndeavour

3 months ago

This is so nostalgic. I remember feeling like I was so good at Jezzball. In later levels I'd start a wall near one corner of the screen, closer to one edge than the opposite edge, to ensure the shorter wall would connect, and sacrificing the longer wall. The surviving wall would create a "corridor" in which to trap balls with tiny horizontal walls, often such that they ended up completely stationary.

4cidBurn

2 months ago

Yes, this game is quite similar to JezzBall, or to a more modern example, Just Fillin’, which used to be available on the iPhone. I remember playing JezzBall back in the day on a floppy disk, and Just Fillin’ during the early days of the iPod Touch. It’s no longer available, but when I mentioned it, my 11-year-old son tried to recreate it, and honestly, I think he did a pretty great job.

Just Fillin’ iPhone gameplay can be seen on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqvnk05iTbs

My son’s game, Bleachclaw Bubble Bash, is available at: https://lotsofnoise.github.io/

xp84

3 months ago

This is what I did instead of learning AP Calculus :D

hinkley

3 months ago

Xonix is listed as a remake of Qix. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qix

I encountered a version of this game sometime around 1990 and played the hell out of it. Since I don’t see any remakes from around that time, and I never had a Game Boy, I might have found it on a BBS, or a discount rack. There were a huge number of people briefly playing another game in this genre sometime around 2004, with lots of pretty colors. Everyone was playing it, and then they weren’t. I didn’t because I’d already played the original enough for one life. But I can’t find it in the list either.

aiiane

3 months ago

1 reply

Resizing the window smaller makes the game a lot simpler.

devjab

3 months ago

It does. There are 100 levels.

ge96

3 months ago

1 reply

I drew a circle around the critter and it was trapped inside it, I didn't win? Did it in 4 strokes

Terr_

3 months ago

Apparently you have to subdivide the areas so finely that they don't have enough room to exist.

dddddaviddddd

3 months ago

Reminds me of the Brandon Sanderson novel, The Rithmatist, where creatures are also trapped in drawn shapes.

hooverd

3 months ago

It's easier to keep bisecting the area vs trying to draw a circle.

4b11b4

3 months ago

I like it. I wish they'd bounce off each other too! - to incentivize getting em into the same zone.

theturtlemoves

3 months ago

Fun game.

The collision detection seems to have the same problem as the yin yang game that was posted a while ago: The critters sometimes cross the lines. I wonder if the root cause is similar, having to do with this being a browser game?

Nevertheless, fun little game

LoganDark

3 months ago

I just predict their path and draw a very tight circle and they explode in just one or two draws :)

dddddaviddddd

3 months ago

Overlapping zigzags quickly trap them. Since ‘trapped’ appears to be determined by the rate of bounces, you just need to divide the area as much as possible.

blahedo

3 months ago

It's giving Qix, a little bit, although the critter's different and the lines are way more freeform.

Bug, I think: the critter definitely can cross some of the paint lines, which was a little unexpected. It slows down but then it's on the other side of it.

datadrivenangel

3 months ago

You can resize the levels to basically zero and instantly win each level

jmclnx

3 months ago

Very Cool and quite fun to play with

View full discussion on Hacker News

ID: 45542245Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 12:47:39 PM

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