[EDIT] If anyone is wondering why it is rendering poorly in Firefox with Resist Fingerprinting enabled, that's because this page seems to serve the game from a random CDN on a different host.
https://v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net/html/8469963/index.html in my case.
Because the canvas is attempting to read pixels, which can be used for fingerprinting, Firefox is blocking this. But because it is being done in an iframe, there is no prompt until you open the iframe in a new tab at which point you can whitelist it, and it will work ok in the original iframe too. Unfortunately reloading it in the original may give you a totally different host to whitelist, repeating the problem. So, probably best to just play outside the iframe.
In order to do that I had to inspect the page and copy the url since I can't right click on the game iframe to choose open in new tab, probably because it is capturing that.
Oh, you can also allow canvas fingerprinting, but that seems like a bad idea - maybe in a separate firefox profile just for sites like this one..
> an experimental feature which is disabled by default
Good luck trying to figure out that is the issue if you don't keep it in mind at all times. (No matter how obvious it seems - hindsight will never not be 20/20.)
Random coincidence... This is the second post this has popped up in today. Another frontpage post mentioned this in regard to getting blocked by Cloudflare. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37049016
Yep! Sorry, didn't mean to imply it wouldn't work at all. I'll edit my post if HN still allows me to.
I'll note that apart from a handful of sites where it causes additional checks and occasional breakage (noted them in another comment below), I'm really happy with that setting. I leave it on by default and only have to break out a fingerprinted Firefox profile on rare occasion.
Woah, thank you. I have always set dom.event.contextmenu.enabled to False, which does the job permanently and for every website. But some websites require you to en-/disable it again and this shortcut is a nice little QoL improvement.
I wish there was a complete list of "hidden" features like that.
iPad/iPhone also don’t allow localStorage to persist in this scenario (iframe with unrelated domain). Even worse, there’s no way to detect the failure because it’s to resist fingerprinting.
I meant, use a dedicated Firefox profile that you only use for a small handful of websites where you don't want Resist Fingerprinting enabled, and your regular profile for the 99.99% of other sites. You can run both at once even.
It feels like there's one of these "doesn't work on FF" threads any time there's a post about a halfway interesting web app.
Intentional or not, they really contribute (in my mind at least) to the overall perception that Firefox is truly dead. Nobody even tests for it anymore, or worse, accepts that it's fine to be broken on FF.
Counterpoint: I use Firefox with every privacy setting maximized and several extensions installed, and I can't remember the last time I had an issue with something posted here. This game works fine for me as well.
The only apps that are noticeably worse in Firefox for me are Google Docs and Google Meet.
I think part of the reason nobody tests for it anymore is just because web standards have largely gotten so good. I don't often test in FireFox these days myself largely in part because it just hasn't been a problem in years.
I'm old enough to remember the days when every change I made I had to roll through multiple versions of IE all the way back to 6, and different things would be broken in different versions.
Transparent PNGs using CSS filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader is my shudder. Flat design would have made life so much easier back then.
I feel first we need to validate the original premise that there's something wrong with this game in Firefox.
I'm running Firefox, with containers enabled, with ublock origins (and as such "somewhat privacy conscious over and above the defaults"), and this works fine for me.
There could be any number of things that cause an individual issue, which may or may not be related to Firefox itself :-/
Resist Fingerprinting was enabled. I updated my comment to note that.
BTW, Resist Fingerprinting's main impact (for me) has been to increase triggering of "Click and Hold to prove you are not a bot" on sites relying on fingerprinting as an anti-bot measure (Drupal, Walmart, Kickstarter). On some of those, the developer doesn't even realise that measure can trigger, and it triggers in a background XHR (Kickstarter does this sometimes).
This is still better than some other sites like Lowes and Fedex where the entire site (Lowes) or backend API (Fedex package tracking) simply errors due to an Akamai block without any option to prove yourself. For those, you pretty much just have to use another Firefox profile with fingerprinting allowed (or another website).
.. oh, and none of the stuff above is due to Firefox blocking anything (like in the situation of this game where you have to click in the URL bar on the image icon) it's entirely due to the setting working too well, and making the user suspiciously generic :)
Further, Lucas Pope recently released the game for mobile OSes, and did an awesome job porting it over. There's a great blog post at his devblog where he talks about the challenges of taking a game originally developed for mouse/keyboard (mostly mouse) and making it work in the mobile form factor.
I already own it on Steam but I pulled the trigger on the iOS version, if not only to support Lucas Pope.
I still haven't played it, but I played through Revenge of the Obra Dinn a few years ago and read a lot of his blog posts from the development of the game, and I think the guy's an absolute genius.
The description of how he solved the dithering problem in Obra Dinn is mind blowing, and made me appreciate software as a craft, where you have a problem you chisel at for days on end.
Software as art and personal expression, rather than software as a deadline and meetings with your manager.
I tried to like it, but it just felt too close to an authentic paperwork simulator for me or get into. Maybe if there wasn’t a timed element to it, that just stressed me out.
Same. I couldn't get into it. I've heard a lot of good things about it but I think I was expecting more like an interactive story (which I think is an actual genre of "game" now). Instead it's actually hard and I only play games to relax.
I guess the thing is it's not fun either. I like games like Half-life 2, on easy mode. It's fun and a challenge, but doesn't become annoying such that I can't enjoy the story.
I've heard that custom LCDs are relatively cheap to order in low volumes. This one has quite a lot of segments, but feels doable.
If we can find some premade game-and-watch style cases with buttons and battery compartment.. this could be made into a product or a hobby kit, without too much expertise or upfront cash. Hmmm.
EEVblog did a whole series on designing a segment LCD, getting it manufactured, and integrating it into a product. Worth the watch if you're at all interested in low power embedded systems.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYvxgl-9tNM
> This is not a web app running on an AWS virtual machine in Ohio.
This also does not come from Magic Unicorn Land. Think of the sysadmins and developers in poor conditions who have to support the machines and networks. The electricity spent. The cycles on server gear. All for a throwaway comment on HN that you will forget within a few minutes.
Their tone is off-putting, but there are many orders of magnitude difference of impact between serving a game over AWS and serving it by mailing someone a small computer with an LCD screen.
In the same way that people should think about the impact of their purchases, I suggest you consider the impact of your communication more seriously. I don’t think it is causing people to change their behavior in positive ways.
It’s the same as things like recycling. We can wish that everything was perfect after we throw the can in the bin, but the reality is different. People should make better choices when called out with the blunt truth. But is that what’s actually happening?
If it's a 3D printable kit with parts for rich Americans to solder and assemble in their free time, does it make it better? Does it make it better that they're taking that job away from a real human in poor conditions, but still better than the alternative, conditions?
I wrote my reply based on what GP wrote, which implied usage of mass produced garbage coming from god knows which hellhole factory in Asia. Adding "ifs" (what if it was produced by a Star Trek replicator using only solar energy?) does not further any argument.
Also, nobody is taking anything away. The market is so oversaturated they would simply switch to a different product line. But still, carelessly contributing to the pile without even thinking about the consequences of your actions is not the best thing in the world
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for some reason i just couldn’t get into it. i love the aesthetic, but i hated the pacing; the game's frequent unskippable walking sequences and menu transitions between puzzle solving felt like a slog.
papers please is one of my favorite games of all time, though, and i enjoyed other first person puzzlers like the witness and portal.
I had a similar experience. It's unfortunate since I hear it get praised constantly for being a masterpiece and I am a big fan of puzzle games, but it just would not click for me. I think it's also to do with the nature of the puzzle being kind of abstract (and at times almost subjective since I think multiple answers can potentially be correct for some causes of death). The game tries to handle this with the evidence book that you can refer to, but it's a massive thing that just feels clunky to use due to the sheer size of it.
Same here, and I also felt like I was missing out, since people were raving about it so much. But to me it really did feel like I had to slowly work on making any progress, and I mean "work" in its most tedious meaning.
Though, I wonder whether, had I played past a certain point where my evidence book would have had enough "critical mass" for things to fall into place more readily, it would have been more fun. Not sure it solves the pacing issue, though.
I loved the game, but I can see where people struggle. You cannot laser-focus on the objective. Just get in character, you are on a mysterious ship, it's completely abandoned and somehow returned to harbor still. You are just trying to get a clue what the heck is even going on here, why would you care about filling in a puzzle book?
Just enjoy the first part cinematically. Explore the ship and unlock the scenes. Absorb the atmosphere from the scenes, and enjoy the music. Try to figure out the disjointed narrative, and don't focus on your puzzle book. (One of the flaws is that the forced waiting sequence should IMO lock you out of accessing the puzzle book completely. I often forgot, and got annoyed because I could not enter the cause of death before the page got unlocked after the scene...) You will not be able to solve a lot in the first pass anyways. The game throws you some freebies, yes, but that's just to let you get used to handling the book.
For context, once I had unlocked all scenes, I had not even one quarter of the book solved, and despite what I recommend in the first paragraphs, it was not for lack of trying. This is when you notice that you have everything you need, and a sort of panic sets in. You realize that it will not get easier than this. This intrigued me a lot, and this was when the real puzzle game starts. Now you revisit all the scenes analyzing every nook and cranny of the dioramas like some nautical Sherlock Holmes. But it's never stupid "hunt the pixel" like one would assume from that description, no. I have never seen the attention for detail in any game before, and the dev really thought of everything.
If you ever find yourself thinking "Oh wow, I can deduce something here from the position of that piece of scenery, but there is no way this was intended", then the answer is always "Oh yes, it totally was". Then you enter the suspicion into the book, and suddenly the game validates you by copying your notes into print with that cheerful music jingle. After a while the screen turning black and the first notes starting will give you a dopamine rush already.
The game captures perfectly what for example escape rooms or detective stories are about. The only real downside of the game is that the replay value is 0 by its very concept. I envy you for still being able to play it blind.
I played the demo at release (as I'd liked Papers, Please), and it completely failed to grab me—aside from the art style, which seemed to me to be "wasted" on such a dumb gameplay concept.
then I picked it up years later, earlier this year, and was absolutely hooked. I practically couldn't put it down until I finished. one of my top games of all time. a perfect example of how video games, as a medium, can tell stories in ways that other media never could—an excellent counterexample to cutscenes and dialogue trees being the accepted industry standard for storytelling.
I'm a little bit the same. The look and feel is wonderful, the idea is great and novel. I just couldn't get that far into it. I think I may have also gotten distracted by the release Elden Ring around the time I started playing it, too.
I had similar problem. I can't play Borderlands 2, but surprisingly turning off the comic outline effect in that game works. Obra Dinn is a great game, and I have to endure that by playing at the smallest resolution, which somewhat help. Also take frequent breaks, like 1-2 scene then hours of break. It help you think as well as I often found breakthrough by sleeping over the game.
The Case of a Golden Idol is a game in similar genre but in 2D, in case you can't get into this game. I'd say it's not better, but the last level in the main game is quite close to some of the harder puzzle in Obra Dinn.
Wait, this thing is STILL in pre-order? When is it actually supposed to ship? I first heard about it when the 1st gen Switch came out, and then silence for years. I assumed it'd come and gone, but it hasn't even actually shipped yet...? Are people still expecting it to, or is it considered vaporware by this point?
I recently got an email asking me to confirm my address before... today or so, so the next batch is on its way. I ordered one for my girlfriend, she really digs it, I hope it'll be here before christmas... but not too far before because else I'll have to give it to her sooner :p.
It’s a novelty. If it’s just sitting in a drawer, would you want to pass it along? Could get a testing chain going… kick it along to the next person after two weeks.
Hard to see the screen. Crank isn't nearly as fun as it sounds. Games are simple, which is good, but then often cost $10, which is a lot for what you get.
Because the canvas is attempting to read pixels, which can be used for fingerprinting, Firefox is blocking this. But because it is being done in an iframe, there is no prompt until you open the iframe in a new tab at which point you can whitelist it, and it will work ok in the original iframe too. Unfortunately reloading it in the original may give you a totally different host to whitelist, repeating the problem. So, probably best to just play outside the iframe.
In order to do that I had to inspect the page and copy the url since I can't right click on the game iframe to choose open in new tab, probably because it is capturing that.
Oh, you can also allow canvas fingerprinting, but that seems like a bad idea - maybe in a separate firefox profile just for sites like this one..