Apocketlypse
6 hours ago
- #hobby-programming
- #apocalyptic-game
- #uxn-bytecode
- The author describes a period of waning interest in hobby programming due to AI's influence on professional coding, alongside nostalgia for Digimon.
- The project 'APOCKETLYPSE' was inspired by digital creatures and a desire for control over low-level programming, contrasting with high-level professional work.
- It reimagines virtual pets as apocalyptic beings that destroy humanity, with players feeding destruction to evolve them into deities that end the world.
- The game features 6 forms, including three final apocalyptic forms: a cyborg (machine apocalypse), a plague-doctor (disease apocalypse), and a deer-skulled figure (pollution apocalypse).
- Development was done in uxn, a bytecode system, offering a minimalist, hands-on programming experience that felt like 'doing math on paper'.
- The author enjoyed the process but found the resulting game not very fun, with no fail state and simple mechanics.
- The project was ported to a physical device (M5stack with uxn emulator), and source code/ROM are shared for others to try.