Hacker News: marcingas

New comment by marcingas in "Xs of Y – roguelike that names itself every run. Written in 4kLoC"

marcingas — Thu, 14 May 2026 12:11:51 +0000

Thank you for playing!

1/2. There are no docs, in fact, the system is not really fleshed out yet. The core idea is that these runes really stand for lispy threading macro that gets evaluated by the game engine. So for instance `(magic-> fire)` sets the default target (enemy you hit, coordinates you shoot with the bow etc.) of action on fire, `(magic-> (area 2) fire)` is the same but here, the area rune expands the target into a circular zone. `(magic-> (damage 2) self (heal 2))` would damage the target, reset the target to yourself and heal you. The entire world state is chained through these expressions so it should enable some insane spells to be made: travel back in time, swap minds with a door, modify creatures ai etc.

Try looking at the runic weapons you find, they show the spell syntax in the inventory.

3. These are damage ranges.

re gamma, key binds and q: thanks for the feedback, I'll look into improving these.

New comment by marcingas in "Xs of Y – roguelike that names itself every run. Written in 4kLoC"

marcingas — Thu, 14 May 2026 11:25:02 +0000

Good point! Thanks.

New comment by marcingas in "Xs of Y – roguelike that names itself every run. Written in 4kLoC"

marcingas — Thu, 14 May 2026 08:28:45 +0000

Interesting idea... maybe it could send terminal bell or tint the screen red at low health?

New comment by marcingas in "Xs of Y – roguelike that names itself every run. Written in 4kLoC"

marcingas — Wed, 13 May 2026 23:57:50 +0000

I don't have a numpad so it did not occur to me to add diagonals :D

Good feedback though, I'll add it. Thanks to your 15 year old!

New comment by marcingas in "Xs of Y – roguelike that names itself every run. Written in 4kLoC"

marcingas — Wed, 13 May 2026 22:25:41 +0000

This totally is a bug. Was this recently? I thought I fixed this in WASM version.

New comment by marcingas in "Xs of Y – roguelike that names itself every run. Written in 4kLoC"

marcingas — Wed, 13 May 2026 22:07:19 +0000

I'd say don't immediately go into making an ECS and don't sweat about perf too much. You can totally do this in any programming language. This is a good talk about roguelike software design in general: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxI3Eu5DPwE

Tbh the whole channel is a gold mine of inspiration. Also check: https://discord.gg/bgd2GrhR

New comment by marcingas in "Xs of Y – roguelike that names itself every run. Written in 4kLoC"

marcingas — Wed, 13 May 2026 21:25:34 +0000

I wouldn't even dare posting this to a game jam... or HN at this point but someone posted it for me, welp.

New comment by marcingas in "Xs of Y – roguelike that names itself every run. Written in 4kLoC"

marcingas — Wed, 13 May 2026 20:07:04 +0000

Love it :D

New comment by marcingas in "Xs of Y – roguelike that names itself every run. Written in 4kLoC"

marcingas — Wed, 13 May 2026 20:02:44 +0000

FWIW it's a good fuzz test for the interpreter ;)

New comment by marcingas in "Xs of Y – roguelike that names itself every run. Written in 4kLoC"

marcingas — Wed, 13 May 2026 19:37:13 +0000

Yeah that was it, the let-go stdlib changed.

New comment by marcingas in "Xs of Y – roguelike that names itself every run. Written in 4kLoC"

marcingas — Wed, 13 May 2026 19:36:17 +0000

This was caused by a stdlib bug in the language, I bypassed it :D

New comment by marcingas in "Xs of Y – roguelike that names itself every run. Written in 4kLoC"

marcingas — Wed, 13 May 2026 19:34:53 +0000

fixed

New comment by marcingas in "Xs of Y – roguelike that names itself every run. Written in 4kLoC"

marcingas — Wed, 13 May 2026 19:25:59 +0000

I think I fixed it!

New comment by marcingas in "Xs of Y – roguelike that names itself every run. Written in 4kLoC"

marcingas — Wed, 13 May 2026 18:57:45 +0000

I see your point but I like to think it's not as sloppy as you'd expect. This one is written in a programming language I've been making since 2021 and it's not a direct Brogue clone despite its looks.

New comment by marcingas in "Xs of Y – roguelike that names itself every run. Written in 4kLoC"

marcingas — Wed, 13 May 2026 18:26:22 +0000

Agree, will patch this.

New comment by marcingas in "Xs of Y – roguelike that names itself every run. Written in 4kLoC"

marcingas — Wed, 13 May 2026 18:24:01 +0000

Definitely a bug. I'll look into this at some point. Please note that this is not a finished game by any means. If anyone asked I'd call it a tech demo at this point :)

New comment by marcingas in "Xs of Y – roguelike that names itself every run. Written in 4kLoC"

marcingas — Wed, 13 May 2026 18:13:37 +0000

Thanks! Please check it out and leave me a star if you like it :)

New comment by marcingas in "Xs of Y – roguelike that names itself every run. Written in 4kLoC"

marcingas — Wed, 13 May 2026 17:57:53 +0000

Brogue is insanely well balanced and ingeniously designed. XsofY is a mere tribute ;)

New comment by marcingas in "Xs of Y – roguelike that names itself every run. Written in 4kLoC"

marcingas — Wed, 13 May 2026 17:55:33 +0000

Noita was another inspiartion when making this - the inverted power curve is real! Start squishy, become a god, die anyway.

New comment by marcingas in "Xs of Y – roguelike that names itself every run. Written in 4kLoC"

marcingas — Wed, 13 May 2026 17:47:51 +0000

I know, this is intentional :)

I took things I like from Brogue and added my own spin on it.