> There is an urban myth that the release of Dragon Quest III caused a law to be passed in Japan banning the sale of Dragon Quest games or video games in general except on certain days such as weekends or national holidays. When III was released in Japan, over 300 schoolchildren were arrested for truancy while waiting in stores for the game to be released. The rumor claims there was a measurable dip in productivity when a Dragon Quest game was released and although muggings of Dragon Quest titles became so widespread that there were hearings in the Japanese Diet, no law was ever passed.
I like that this is on the front page and there are no comments. I imagine because everyone is busy exploring and didn't yet go back to the comments to see what people think. Good sign!
This is so good! Using mouse motion as a control scheme is particularly genius - how did no one think of this before? I particularly like the points where the mouse control is taken away from you, i.e. when you float downstream, or when you go down a slide. It's also particularly genius how the mouse can 'teleport' around the screen (i.e. when you go into a door and come out somewhere else).
This idea could even be taken further - it would be really cool to have terrain that is more difficult to traverse. I'm also intrigued by the lack of walls. I think something like a hedge maze would be really fun!
It was fun rick rolling you all on the piano. Vibe coded a little script that would play all kinds of melodies including rick roll. I eventually attracted a whole audience of cursors emoji reacting to it.
Brilliant. If you needed proof the internet is still alive, here you go. I feel like Neal's creations are the result of creatively iterating on "what if" and "why not".
I got taken back to Club Penguin as well. Especially clicking into the cave or treehouse and getting transported into a little side pocket of the map. Amazing work!
Does anyone know how he is implementing country detection? I'm certain it's not GeoIP since my current IP address (and physical location) is different than the country it's showing me from.
GeoIP services can sometimes be wrong, they are essentially just lookup tables for IP subnets. I have a VPS in the Netherlands which most GeoIP providers detect as being in Czechia, for example. I assume whichever one the site is using just has the wrong country listed for your IP.
I think it's incredible that you can feel a human connection with someone on the other side of the world purely by moving your cursors together. Just had a "game" of soccer with random people.
Well this is one of the most adorable things I've seen in a while. Thank you for sharing a little joy. So many little details I love, falling off the waterfall, the cursor size fading into the background, the flashlight in the cave. Haven't explored it all but going to share this right away.
When I see the domain of a post is neal.fun, I instantly get a huge grin because I know I am about to be delighted. Thank you Neal! The beach yurt with the mushroom soup was a hilarious touch.
I really had fun with this one. You know what would make it even cosier? Being able to choose a small avatar for ourselves. The mouse pointer as your icon feels a very impersonal at the moment. Having avatars would make it feel more like we're all hanging out together in this wonderland.
One is kinda half hidden behind a tree on the far right and another one is next to the starting sign. The rest are on the beach area and very slightly off the beach area
When I was a teenager we had the Living Books edition of Arthur's Teacher Trouble on CD-ROM as part of a "multimedia kit". Every page had short animations that would play by clicking on random things with your cursor, in addition to following along with the story, clicking on single words to hear them pronounced and spelled, etc. It was incredible and paved the way for similar phenomena like clickable Easter eggs in Homestar Runner cartoons.
please don't re-implement mouse movement, this would work perfectly fine without and now it just feels really bad to use because my sensitivity is fucked
The soul of this game requires that your cursor can go "behind" things (like trees, or partially submerged in water), can have subtle nudges to keep you on paths and add friction when in water, and also to be able to take full control of your cursor for the lazy river etc!
My mouse is set to 400 DPI, acceleration off (libinput flat profile), and default (0) sensitivity (range -1.0 - 1.0, no change at 1.0). Had similar settings on Windows, games have crazy high default sensitivity but websites like this have extremely low sensitivity. I had to crank my DPI up to 2000 to make it usable and 4000 to be comfortable and roughly match desktop settings, but this also made the cursor extremely unwieldy when pausing the game.
This and volume control are my biggest gripes.
I think there's a case for a corporate class action lawsuit against Neal for employee productivity loss every time every time a new game is published.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Quest
> There is an urban myth that the release of Dragon Quest III caused a law to be passed in Japan banning the sale of Dragon Quest games or video games in general except on certain days such as weekends or national holidays. When III was released in Japan, over 300 schoolchildren were arrested for truancy while waiting in stores for the game to be released. The rumor claims there was a measurable dip in productivity when a Dragon Quest game was released and although muggings of Dragon Quest titles became so widespread that there were hearings in the Japanese Diet, no law was ever passed.
Arrested for truancy?
Truancy is a crime in many countries, including the USA.
An offense, sure. But it’s not a “crime” in the US.
Not for the student. But at least in some states, parents can potentially face jail time if their children miss enough school.
Lmao it's blocked on my corporate wifi
That's a crime. Your HR/IT are certifiably not fun.
dont make them the scapegoats. who was it that said "behind every rule on that wall is an idiot who made it necessary"
Found the manager
Never Let common sense and trust do the job when another policy in the employee handbook can do the job!
I did something similar https://github.com/skorotkiewicz/proximity-explorer
I like that this is on the front page and there are no comments. I imagine because everyone is busy exploring and didn't yet go back to the comments to see what people think. Good sign!
Well, clearly you and I have made it out alive :)
I only managed to get out once I had earned all 9 badges...
ah so you havent discovered the secret 10th badge yet, have you
clearly xD
This is so good! Using mouse motion as a control scheme is particularly genius - how did no one think of this before? I particularly like the points where the mouse control is taken away from you, i.e. when you float downstream, or when you go down a slide. It's also particularly genius how the mouse can 'teleport' around the screen (i.e. when you go into a door and come out somewhere else).
This idea could even be taken further - it would be really cool to have terrain that is more difficult to traverse. I'm also intrigued by the lack of walls. I think something like a hedge maze would be really fun!
It was fun rick rolling you all on the piano. Vibe coded a little script that would play all kinds of melodies including rick roll. I eventually attracted a whole audience of cursors emoji reacting to it.
Badge Guide (to avoid spoilers, encoded with rot13¹):
* Cannonball!: Tb ba gur qvivat obneq va gur cbby. Fbhgurnfg sebz gur fgnegvat cbfvgvba.
* Treasure Hunter: Teno n zrgny qrgrpgbe gura frnepu arne gur yrsg fvqr bs gur ibyyrlonyy svryq. Abegujrfg sebz gur fgnegvat cbfvgvba.
* Goal!: Fpber n tbny jvgu gur fbppre onyy. Fbhgurnfg sebz gur fgnegvat cbvag.
* S'more Please: Teno n znefuznyybj sebz gur ohpxrg naq chg gurz va gur ovt sver. Gnxrf nobhg gra frpbaqf. Abegurnfg sebz gur fgnegvat cbvag.
* Cat Person: Crg gur png va gur ubhfr. Abegujrfg arne gur fgnegvat cbvag.
* Take a Seat: Fvg ba gjb punvef.
* Slide!: Tb ba gur ovt fyvqr. Rnfg sebz gur fgnegvat cbvag.
* Beachcomber: Svaq nyy gur frnfuryyf.
* Green Thumb: Jngre gur irtrgnoyrf. Fbhgujrfg arne gur fgnegvat cbvag.
¹ https://rot13.com
Is there anything to the weird book in the treehouse or is it just for flavor? It seems to be alluding to something but I can't figure it out.
Why not encode the badge names as well in rot13?
I love this! It reminds me of https://cursordanceparty.com/ which was built by a friend about 15 years ago and is still online :)
I had fun on the internet again. Thank you internet people <3
This is such a breath of fresh air. I feel like I'm back on Club Penguin!
SO much better than the metaverse, at 1/1000000th the cost!
Brilliant. If you needed proof the internet is still alive, here you go. I feel like Neal's creations are the result of creatively iterating on "what if" and "why not".
I'm really watching 12 Angry Men through a small window in a wonderfully cute browser game, I love it!
So much fun! I ended up playing beach volleyball with a bunch of people from around the world! :D excellent!
He's done it again folks
I absolutely love this. Kind of gives me Club Penguin vibes.
I got taken back to Club Penguin as well. Especially clicking into the cave or treehouse and getting transported into a little side pocket of the map. Amazing work!
Does anyone know how he is implementing country detection? I'm certain it's not GeoIP since my current IP address (and physical location) is different than the country it's showing me from.
GeoIP services can sometimes be wrong, they are essentially just lookup tables for IP subnets. I have a VPS in the Netherlands which most GeoIP providers detect as being in Czechia, for example. I assume whichever one the site is using just has the wrong country listed for your IP.
IP location, browser's locale, or combination of both: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe...
I think it's incredible that you can feel a human connection with someone on the other side of the world purely by moving your cursors together. Just had a "game" of soccer with random people.
Well done, Neal!
Reminded me of Club Penguin days.
Well this is one of the most adorable things I've seen in a while. Thank you for sharing a little joy. So many little details I love, falling off the waterfall, the cursor size fading into the background, the flashlight in the cave. Haven't explored it all but going to share this right away.
Incredibly well done by Neal as usual!! Always has new fun experiments that are always completely new concepts
When I see the domain of a post is neal.fun, I instantly get a huge grin because I know I am about to be delighted. Thank you Neal! The beach yurt with the mushroom soup was a hilarious touch.
I'm happily disappointed this has nothing to do with a certain electron based code editor fork.
I really had fun with this one. You know what would make it even cosier? Being able to choose a small avatar for ourselves. The mouse pointer as your icon feels a very impersonal at the moment. Having avatars would make it feel more like we're all hanging out together in this wonderland.
It's not what you asked for, but right click to choose an enhanced icon. (EDIT: Oops that appears to just be a temporary emoticon)
You can put the hat on. It's in the main camp building in a bedroom. Your cursor will be wearing a hat from then on.
You can also put other clothes on, like sunglasses and shorts.
Can you don multiple items? Didn't try.
Well, lads, 10 laps, been a day, going to sleep.
I loved the impromptu dance party I had in this with a bunch of people just bouncing on the stage.
For the beach volleyball, aim to click only when the ball is in its downward trajectory.
Legit first post I've wanted to upvote in a long time.
The art style here is really charming. Thanks for the whimsy today!
This reminds me of the old internet for some reason I can't really nail down, but maybe the club penguin-ess of it.
Came to say the say thing. Strong Club Penguin feeling as soon as I saw that “off duty” sign on the lifeguard tower
I love Neal's creations so much !
Well this is incredibly joyful, well done.
I wonder whats the multiplayer stack here. I haven't looked yet.
I don't usually like my cursor to be hijacked but man, I like this one.
Cool, but wow - my iPhone heats up super fast while on that site.
That was delightful, what more can I say?
That was a lot of fun. Brought back some nostalgia :)
This is awesome! Where can I find the music from the DJ booth? I can listen to that all day
Any tips for getting the right-click menu to work with a touchpad?
I two-finger tap, but the menu immediately disappears.
Click + hold. Then move onto an option
Argh. No luck.
We have achieved world peace, fanks Neal :)
It even works on mobile, brilliant.
I thought its the 60 billion dollars one.
Touch virtual grass
The last seashell is eluding me. Otherwise I got all the badges.
Near the title sign, on the center of the camp, is where I found the last one I missed
Really love all his work!
Check out the Space Elevator or Size of Life too.
I can't get the 17th shell :(
SPOILER
the two that are hard to find are 1. by the river on the far left and 2. at the main spawn point
One is kinda half hidden behind a tree on the far right and another one is next to the starting sign. The rest are on the beach area and very slightly off the beach area
Nice use of Rive!
Sorry, what's Rive?
Interactive engine for building apps, games, products with lots of motion https://rive.app
Thanks! Didn’t know about it, looks fun
So engaging! Made me smile the entire time
Absolutely incredible. Well done Neal
This is great
When I was a teenager we had the Living Books edition of Arthur's Teacher Trouble on CD-ROM as part of a "multimedia kit". Every page had short animations that would play by clicking on random things with your cursor, in addition to following along with the story, clicking on single words to hear them pronounced and spelled, etc. It was incredible and paved the way for similar phenomena like clickable Easter eggs in Homestar Runner cartoons.
This reminded me of that.
Cursor brethren, why y u no join me on my pink flamingo expedition
Remember to have fun, people!
Really putting the "fun" in "Neal.fun." Yet another amazing work by Neal Agarwal.
This was fun!
Weirdly i got slight motion sickness from this
Yeah same here - unexpected!
awww man that was fun!
firefly! iykyk
This is the reason I love Hckrnews.
please don't re-implement mouse movement, this would work perfectly fine without and now it just feels really bad to use because my sensitivity is fucked
The soul of this game requires that your cursor can go "behind" things (like trees, or partially submerged in water), can have subtle nudges to keep you on paths and add friction when in water, and also to be able to take full control of your cursor for the lazy river etc!
My mouse is set to 400 DPI, acceleration off (libinput flat profile), and default (0) sensitivity (range -1.0 - 1.0, no change at 1.0). Had similar settings on Windows, games have crazy high default sensitivity but websites like this have extremely low sensitivity. I had to crank my DPI up to 2000 to make it usable and 4000 to be comfortable and roughly match desktop settings, but this also made the cursor extremely unwieldy when pausing the game. This and volume control are my biggest gripes.
Yeah, whatever bug they have with this affected me two, was swinging my mouse across most of my desk to move any distance whatsoever.
I noticed this on Safari, but when I switched to Chrome it seemed fine.
except thats the whole point of this game. mouse movement needs to be controlled by the game here!