Show HN: I made a tactical map-based WWII submarine simulator (public beta) (opens in new tab)

I super appreciate this feedback and don't at all take it as overly negative.

I have gone back and forth on whether to describe how to use the tools or instead to explain goals. I get what you're saying and will give this more thought.

(And the fact remains that with this many tools, it's simply really challenging to explain it in a clear and elegant way on a small device.)

Once you "get it" and know how everything works, then I think it can work well...but for something this complex, the issue is definitely going to be onboarding.

For me, part of the fun is in figuring out the "why" behind the "what". I really enjoyed getting a rundown of which tools were available to me, and then I get to figure out on my own how best to use them.

Thanks so much for the kind words!

> How long did it take you?

It's taken about 3 months of my spare time (some evenings and a few weekend afternoons) so far.

> Is any of it vibe-coded?

I actually started the project back in February as an experiment to train myself in prompting and to see how far I could get using Codex and letting it do literally all the coding for me. It turned out, I could go all the way. I have not touched a single line of code myself (I have only tweaked some CSS from time to time). This project has led me to realizing my 20+ years of professional experience in coding are clearly worth far less than they were just a couple years ago...

> As you already stated, the browser version is a Vite/TypeScript app, but what programming language is the actual game in?

The actual game is written in TypeScript. For the Windows/Mac/Linux/Steam Deck/iOS/iPadOS/Android builds I'm using Electron to package it (which has surprised me for how well it's working even though I always kind of hated Electron...)

Definitely planning on getting a demo out. Which device are you on? I could add you as a beta tester if you're interested.

Edit: Also, you can add the page to your Home Screen on most browsers as a PWA app, and it's nearly like a full screen app.

Whoops, that is a debug functionality that I accidentally left in. Thanks, fixed!

Thanks a lot! Any ideas how to make it less dry? :) That's kind of par for the course for submarine sims, I suppose...

Thanks - yeah this is a tricky problem since on the one hand I don't want to frustrate users not being able to pause/unpause but on the other hand I need to not let them unpause too soon and have the ship be in the wrong position.

Currently it should be blocking unpausing until step 7 or so... and it also should auto-pause once the ship reaches step 8(?). I did both of these things for the reason you're saying, but maybe I need to do it even more "locked down", at least for the Basic Tutorial.

Note that the periscope has an expand button to make the view bigger (though if you are on your phone there’s not much more for it grow)

Primarily because I always loved those pieces growing up, it was my first real exposure to classical music. :)

(And another reason is that it was a simple way to get some stirring music without needing to find a way to write my own.)

Found the setting and fixed that.

Thanks! I noticed that, too and will be getting it set straight. Still learning the Steamworks ropes, it's a colossal administrative tool.

I reloaded my torpedoes but it is taking so long and it just keeps on blinking.

Optimized to webp. Thanks again!

Whoops thank you! Will optimize soon.

It should be Patrick Hand, and Special Elite for typewriter stuff...but are you seeing Comic Sans, seriously?