LED matrices are so fun to play with. The low resolution and chunky pixels give them the aesthetics I really enjoy.

I’ve built a 64x64 pixel art frame [0]. With the diffuser in front of the matrix, it looks like animations are floating in the air. I got parts for v2, but I’m yet to find time to build it.

I really like how electronics today are very accessible to start playing with. Basic stuff is mostly plug-and-play, and essentially it becomes a software project.

https://github.com/Stanko/retro-frame

Classic project I want to do but know I’ll never make the time for lol that’s really cool man. Saving this on the off chance I one day get off my rear for it

Hehe I know what you mean. I mentioned I have parts for v2 (stronger controller, rotary encoder with a big brass knob and completely offline - hardware real time clock), but we’ll see if it will ever happen.

Projects like this are always interesting to me because it is fairly outside of my skill set, but I feel like I could get there ha. We’ll see!

I'm amazed at how cheap the LED matrix listed in the parts list is. About a third of a cent per LED, not even counting the rest of the hardware! Wow.

> About a third of a cent per LED, not even counting the rest of the hardware!

At €20 per 32x8 module (2000/256), that's €0.078 per LED which is considerably more expensive than a third of a eurocent, I think? Even if it was €20 for all 6 panels, that's still over a eurocent per LED (2000/1536).

> I'm amazed at how cheap the LED matrix listed in the parts list is.

Cheaper now - AliExpress will sell you 6 32x8 boards for £59.21 (3.85p per LED or ¢5.16 if you're a colonial) saving you ~€52 over the original €120 price.

Technically it would depend on the colony.

The US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are all ex colonies and all use the cent. I'm sure there are a few more, we did get around a bit.

> Technically it would depend on the colony.

Fair point. I keep forgetting how many people have weird currencies outside of Merkia.

I bought something like that for a birthday gift, €15 all in all, comes with USB for power and an app / bluetooth for programming it. It was really well received!

I think you are going to enjoy this talk by Jonathan Blow - Preventing the Collapse of Civilization:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSRHeXYDLko

I've had this talk in mind during the past 2/3 years of AI boom, and it feels like rewatching a video from the 80s about the dangers of global warming. Prescient, and perhaps a bit quaint in its optimism that somehow we won't make things even worse for ourselves.

Now we're way past the point of no return.

Nice! I love that it is a single .js file.

I built a similar CSS only glitch effect [1] and I really want to check your code when I get to my laptop to see how did you do it.

[1] https://muffinman.io/blog/css-image-glitch/

Lovely!

Of course, I added mine as well, which got better feedback on “What are you working on” thread than I expected.

Since then I released two updates but Show HN thread didn’t catch on. I’m still actively working on it. Atm I’m tweaking level difficulty to make it easier to start and then ramp up the difficulty.

I have a todo list defined, and I’m having so much fun going through it.

edit: typo

https://muffinman-io.itch.io/spacedeck-x

Hey! Did you add an issue? cause I dont see it here https://github.com/andrewgy8/hnarcade/issues

Happy to merge it in :)

I did, you already merged it, thank you!

There is a related project which I used several times:

https://github.com/anvaka/city-roads

Edit: it outputs SVGs and you can try it online. Anvaka (author) has other really cool dataviz projects.

Kinda sad that maptoposter uses png. SVG is so much better in this case, if you want to actually print a poster!

It does support SVG, --format=svg

I’m working on a video game, purely for fun.

Here is a work in progress build:

https://muffinman-io.itch.io/space-deck-x

It is a combination of a shoot-em-up and deck building. You fly and shoot until you get to the boss, when you get your deck out to fight them.

That genre combination is definitely too ambitious, but I think it is fun to play and I’m enjoying making it.

I have a bunch of ideas how to combine the two parts better. But over the years, I’ve learned to control scope creep and actually ship pet projects.

Right now I’m in a middle of changing how enemy waves are spawned. After that I want to make a short tutorial and add two more bosses as well as more enemies.

If you end up playing it, please share your feedback I’ll be glad to hear it.

The game is made using Kaplay, a game dec library which brings me joy to use. I can best describe it as my friend described Pico-8: “easy things are easy”. But compared to Pico-8, Kaplay doesn’t have virtual console limitations and comes with a big library of components. Try it out, the community is small, but the library itself is really fun and easy to use.

EDIT: For context, this is about two weeks of work, in the evenings when my kid is asleep.

Great art style, fun music.

I couldn't figure out the Boss fight with cards though. I run out of energy and so I assume my turn is over. But how do I end my turn?

A button guide in the main menu would be helpful.

I hear you, I have to add a tutorial.

- "z" plays a card - "x" ends your turn

If one never played deck builders, they probably have no idea what is going on. Thanks for trying it!

I am obsessed with this - appreciating every tweak you've added! Keep up the good work - signed, JRM from the leaderboard.

Amazing, thank you! Unfortunately, hi-scores are local only for now, saved in local storage. But I’m working on global, shared leaderboard and stats.

It's a fun little game. I didn't like that dying makes you start from level 1 though.

Nice game. But the stars in the background were confusing and hard to distinguish between them and projectiles. That got me killed way too many times.

Congrats on your progress! This is pretty cool.

i wish i was that good at pixel art, it would be my sole hoby if i were

I completely understand what you mean, I often feel like that as well. Like every other skill, it takes time and it feels frightening when you see other people's work. Honestly I don't think I'm that good at pixel art, this is my first pixel art project. To be fair, spaceships and technology are pretty straight forward to draw.

Edit: typo

Nice write up! I'm always happy to see interactive articles.

As someone who also do interactive articles from time to time, I'm wondering what is the tech stack you are using to make these?

It is a simple React + Motion + Tailwind + Vanilla SVG here.

But it was just a first try, lots of things are still unoptimized. I'll try to do better in a next article.

Haha I love your comment. I'll let you in on a little secret - you can add a seed parameter to the URL to get a specific invader. It has to be an integer, otherwise it will be ignored.

For example:

https://muffinman.io/blog/invaders/?seed=1234

Thanks, it means a lot!