Making a Small Rpg
Key topics
Developers are diving into the world of game development with a tutorial on crafting a small RPG, sparking a flurry of interest in the intricacies of game design. As readers explore the author's journey, they're riffing on the challenges of balancing complexity and simplicity in game development. The discussion is abuzz with enthusiasts sharing their own experiences and insights on game creation, from character development to game mechanics. With the rise of indie game development, this thread feels particularly relevant as creators continue to push the boundaries of what's possible in the world of gaming.
Snapshot generated from the HN discussion
Discussion Activity
Very active discussionFirst comment
2h
Peak period
21
Day 1
Avg / period
11
Based on 22 loaded comments
Key moments
- 01Story posted
Nov 21, 2025 at 8:23 AM EST
about 2 months ago
Step 01 - 02First comment
Nov 21, 2025 at 10:19 AM EST
2h after posting
Step 02 - 03Peak activity
21 comments in Day 1
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03 - 04Latest activity
Dec 2, 2025 at 3:54 PM EST
about 1 month ago
Step 04
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https://www.military.com/defensetech/2015/10/12/raytheon-dis...
A couple of years ago, I tried something in that direction[1] using Phaser[2], and it was quite fun. I used Tiled Editor[3] to create the map and some pixel art that I purchased from itch.io.
[1] - https://story.tuzemec.com (not very mobile friendly)
[2] - https://phaser.io
[3] - https://www.mapeditor.org/
The functionality to export directly to lua source files was a particular treat, though there are probably situations where you'd want to still just use json or one of the other formats supported by Tiled even when working in a lua project.
It's a bit vague in some places (I'm still not exactly sure how parallax is supposed to be implemented) but absolutely worthwhile.
https://doc.mapeditor.org/en/latest/manual/layers/#parallax-...
These docs do seem to go more in depth about the canonical values related to parallax that Tiled offers though.
https://lpc.opengameart.org/
There's also a character generator with plenty of options to choose from:
https://liberatedpixelcup.github.io/Universal-LPC-Spriteshee...
https://kenney.itch.io/kenney-game-assets
If you prefer 16-bit, SNEs has Crono Trigger, still a cult classic (innovator for multiple endings), or the whole Final Fantasy series. Sega Genesis has Phantasy Star IV, also an evolutionary improvement of the series.
i scanned the site and pdf. looks cool
Also, thank you for you tutorials. I have stumbled on some of them too.
> This was another time intensive task but I’m happy with how they turned out.
I kind of read past these comments (and a couple other similar ones) at first but looking back I realized how nice it is to read something like this. It's like, yep, I did something that was kind of hard and took a while, but it was worth it because I feel like I did a good job. I feel like this is something that's sadly getting replaced by "Well, this isn't the greatest because AI did it for me, but who cares, at least it was quick."
Fun article!
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