Show HN: 0xDEAD//TYPE – A fast-paced typing shooter with retro vibes

Passing each column should count for 10 points, and your score should be dinged -1 point for each keypress. Pressing a key that's not on the screen should be a -5 point penalty. Game over if you drop below 0 points. That would solve the button mashing easy win problem.

Also, perhaps my skills are lacking, but the game essentially becomes impossible after the columns become 6 blocks wide — the fraction of open (i.e. fully breakable) rows becomes small enough that open rows between adjacent columns are often further apart vertically than the ship can travel, given its speed and the game's horizontal scroll rate. I like the sibling commenter's suggestion of pseudorandomly carving navigable paths between columns, as opposed to the current method of having a uniform 80% probability that an individual tile is breakable.

A lot going on for honest players. (And then you use your typing fingers to move, that stops everything.) Perhaps some fauxlgorithmically-generated 'word paths' with noise around them (or without) would be nice. (e.g. what's that thing, the Markov-chain kind)

I tried playing it but vi keybindings have poisoned my brain. Kept trying to press j/k instead w/s

Typing to destroy blocks is pretty satisfying, but I really disliked the W/S to move.

switching between moving up and down and typing is a weird modality. I almost would have liked to hit `esc` and `i` (a la vim) to change modalities.

I found myself picking a row and focusing on the letters, though one stand out. Would have preferred it to be vertical scrolling down over left to right. Maybe add options to pick the scrolling, or is that an aspect of later levels?

Realizing here that my typing skills are extremely limited by muscle-memory to things that I actually am likely to type.

It certainly makes a game like this more difficult, but I wonder if it's really a bad thing?

Reminds me of some of the old typing games on the C64, like Kids on Keys [0]. A lot of other people have made the same suggestions I would have made (penalize players smashing keys, etc). Good start!

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_on_Keys

That's a fun game! I found out I have muscle memory for j/k meaning up/down, instead of w/s.

Wow this is very awesome. Love it. My only wish is that I could do arrow keys or anything other than normal character keys for the up/down, it's a weird barrier to put in my brain.

OTOH maybe that's the point... still amazing!

I like it but smashing the keyboard to win is a massive issue.

Ok apart from everyone saying "I can just smash letters" bro this game is FUN