Wow, thanks to whoever posted this! I made this game.
Like many, I was frustrated there's no new StarCraft coming till 2030, so I half-jokingly made the mini-game those mobile ads always promise and never deliver. Something you can play with one hand, that your friends who've never played StarCraft can just pick up.(Turns out you can squeeze a lot of extra gameplay/design on top of it.)
Honestly didn't expect people to grind this. I designed the endgame to be layer 50 and thought ppl can get at most ~70 if they really try, and somehow there are people on the leaderboard past 100 (without cheating). That's StarCraft players for you.
sizzle 25 minutes ago [-]
Can you talk a little about the work involved in making this masterpiece. Could something like this be vibecoded today with AI in your opinion? Amazing work! I played Brood War every free second I had in my younger days.
keerthiko 3 hours ago [-]
this may be a long shot, but you aren't <EZMONE>ggEZnore on the SC2 teams ladder, are you?
ParadisoShlee 3 hours ago [-]
Hey... if you stay in the middle of the unit choice. you get both? YAY
randfur 5 hours ago [-]
I've never played those mobile ad games and this scratched my curiosity. Now you're telling me they don't deliver and I'm curious again, how do they fail their delivery?
shon 4 hours ago [-]
The games are different than the video. They just don’t deliver that experience at all. In 2026 it does seem strange as the cost of production of graphic and code is less.
But when that trend started back in 2023 or so, the game in the video was much more expensive to produce that what you actually got to play.
hadlock 4 hours ago [-]
The game they're advertising for has absolutely no relation/bearing to the ads. At all. The actual game is more like an Advanced Wars-meets-Civilization/Risk boardgame type microtransaction-bleed-you-dry type game, you have to build a base and if you don't login every ~6 hours then people can take over your base and you lose/die, unless you pay ~$45/mo (or whatever). There is no scrolling arcade element of any kind in the actual game. This guy's game is brilliant tho.
erg0s4m 4 hours ago [-]
I think there are multiple. The one I tried to play was oddly quite similar to heroes of might and magic but with infinite micro transactions
wbc 4 hours ago [-]
It ends up being a tiny portion of the game because it's hard to monetize.
The majority of the game will still be timer based buildings/armies (so you pay to speed up) and egregiously p2w pvp.
debo_ 6 hours ago [-]
Hi I posted it. I'm just a guy in the chat who saw it on YouTube.
ggnore7452 6 hours ago [-]
Thank you so much for sharing it, really made my day!
There's also pinball and an asteroids-like game if you click the "Arcade" button next to where it says "Ashfall Crossing"
gs17 8 hours ago [-]
A shame if they don't recreate the Lost Viking game from Wings of Liberty itself.
walrus01 4 hours ago [-]
RAID SHADOW LEGENDS SPONSORED BY NORDVPN?!?!?
ajkjk 4 hours ago [-]
it's funny that everyone has had the same experience with that ad
dxcqcv 1 days ago [-]
cool, give me more
an0malous 8 hours ago [-]
I've been seeing a lot of Pokemon games recently as well, are companies just not enforcing their copyright/trademarks anymore?
nilamo 8 hours ago [-]
They can't sue everyone, comrade. AI tools will hopefully trigger a rewrite of what copyright means, it's always been silly that it prevents derivitive works.
lelanthran 7 hours ago [-]
> AI tools will hopefully trigger a rewrite of what copyright means,
Maybe it will, but this ain't a copyright issues, it's a trademark issue.
nilamo 7 hours ago [-]
It's a legal issue, and the legal part has always been bullshit regardless of which specific label happens to apply.
Blikkentrekker 6 hours ago [-]
If you don't make copyright contagious under derivative works then people can just change a few things to get around copyright.
Also, do you really want a world where big film studios can just adapt books of writers without compensating them?
Taek 5 hours ago [-]
Is 20-30 authors per year making it big really worth the massive suffocation that prevents tens of thousands of authors from writing the stories that are in their hearts?
2 hours ago [-]
denkmoon 5 hours ago [-]
They do that anyway today. You really think authors, book writing being the lucrative industry for writers that it is, are suing Universal/Sony/whoever to prevent their IP being infringed?
I do really want a world however where fans/communities can riff on and make derivative works of culturally relevant material without being legally nuked from orbit. The last few weeks have been amazing in the gaming world, creativity abounds and there seem to be no limits as to what we can redesign to our own whims.
syspec 6 hours ago [-]
Surprised to see this level of discourse here on HN, reads like a reddit comment.
Copyright sucks, and Disney is bad etc, but how is using StarCraft and its assets in your random AI game okay?
I mean, creators should be allowed to exert control over how their assets and brand are used.
nilamo 6 hours ago [-]
I've always found that defending laws that don't benefit people to be a stange attitude on a place called "hacker news".
Creative people should be able to create. Trademark/copyright laws, protecting assets for the great-grandchildren of who actually created the art, has never been a positive. The only people who benefit, are themselves not creative (or else they would create, instead of defending "rights" and "image").
egypturnash 5 hours ago [-]
How about protecting assets for the people who made the art in the first place, geeze.
And seriously wtf why shouldn't, like, Jack Kirby's grandkids get a share of the huge bounty of stuff he created for Marvel, but Elon Musk gets to inherit emerald mines from his dad?
_carbyau_ 2 hours ago [-]
You two are arguing over a timeframe.
Limit IP laws to 20 years.
Humans go from birth to being released into the public domain as an adult in roughly that time. Why are ideas somehow not in the Public Domain after a generation has grown up?
That way Jack Kirby gets to make his money. Jack's kids can live off his money. But Jack's ideas are free to use after doing their time.
mr_toad 4 hours ago [-]
IP has very low marginal cost, emeralds don’t.
fl4regun 6 hours ago [-]
>but how is using StarCraft and its assets in your random AI game okay?
How is it not ok? What is the issue exactly? From what I can tell it's totally free, and has an indication it is a fan game on the bottom of the screen.
59percentmore 6 hours ago [-]
>Copyright sucks, and Disney is bad etc, but how is using StarCraft and its assets in your random AI game okay?
Because it's cool.
Supermancho 6 hours ago [-]
The number of conglomerates has, unsurprisingly, continued to shrink. It's long overdue for a rethink. Maybe if the US political system ever stabilizes, we might get to it in a hundred years. Until then Copyright sucks and Disney is bad.
sharkjacobs 6 hours ago [-]
> creators should be allowed to exert control over how their assets and brand are used
I hate to be glib, but no they shouldn't.
Creators should be allowed to create things and sell them. No one, whether the creator, or the company the creator worked for when they first created the thing, should be able to stop someone else from creating something.
_carbyau_ 1 hours ago [-]
> Creators should be allowed to create things and sell them.
I'm in two minds over this.
In a free for all, money wins. No small-money creator would get to profit from a truly great idea. Someone with more money simply copies it, builds it bigger/faster/better-logistics with more market budget.
At least let the creator sign over rights to their idea - even if the terms are unfair.
But once an object is in your hands. It should be free for you to do what you want with it for yourself. Deadmau5 legalities over his purrari should not be a thing.
deadbabe 8 hours ago [-]
Couldn’t they just use AI to sue at scale? No one should be too small to go after now.
creakingstairs 8 hours ago [-]
The court system is too bogged up as it is with the current load. So I guess we’d have to create some AI judges and lawyers :p
ribosometronome 3 hours ago [-]
And robotic cops to enforce the law!
bhhaskin 7 hours ago [-]
Yeah the law firms just haven't caught up yet. But they will.
nilamo 7 hours ago [-]
And when the judges get around to the case in 300 years after all the other ai court cases, we'll be beyond caring about the consequences.
Legend2440 6 hours ago [-]
Law firms are cautious about AI tools, they got burned a couple years ago by hallucinated citations.
Citing made-up cases sure looks like lying to the court, which is a punishable offense. Lawyers have been sanctioned, fined, and in one case received a 30-day license suspension.
steelframe 6 hours ago [-]
When it comes to copyright, I am not so optimistic. When the AI bubble bursts, the usual corporate interests will resurface with a vengeance.
throwaway613746 7 hours ago [-]
[dead]
larodi 8 hours ago [-]
they may well be busy surviving AI induced chain reactions letting lots of people out of work.
ForHackernews 7 hours ago [-]
It's a totally original creation laundered through LLM derivative works.
handoflixue 2 hours ago [-]
Sometimes, yes, but this one is just straight-up calling itself "Starcraft" and using the original art and voice-lines.
bulbar 20 hours ago [-]
Cool visuals, but doesn't count as a game for me. Can you do anything that make sense, except selecting the upgrade?
Could be a nice little game, though. Strip the IP and let the AI implement a bit more for the user to do.
p2detar 7 hours ago [-]
It’s actually very addicting
once you play a couple of sessions. The scoreboard is crazy. Still don’t know how anyone makes it past wave (layer) 35-37.
nicce 6 hours ago [-]
I got around 42. Protos commander felt stronger for the effort.
andai 9 hours ago [-]
It's like cookie clicker, with less clicking and more blood!
hackyhacky 5 hours ago [-]
It basically has the same gameplay as ProgressQuest, an adventure game that was famously created to minimize user involvement.
Once you get high enough you can switch commanders which gives additional upgrades and active powers.
iLemming 4 hours ago [-]
Better than the original game - works on ultra-wide.
Night_Thastus 2 hours ago [-]
I've never played Starcraft before (brain too smooth) but always loved the aesthetic. Gotta say, this was pretty fun. First run I got to Endless/#22.
Looks to me like Immortal and Firebats both sucked for me, which I guess makes sense. Colossus, Siege Breaker and Marauder were my top 3.
mastax 1 days ago [-]
Game basically plays itself but fun nonetheless
croon 17 hours ago [-]
For 10-15 levels or so, then your upgrade choices start to matter.
I only played through it once, but I'm convinced I'd do better on a second run, and a third, etc.
karim79 16 hours ago [-]
The satisfying pop of the zerglings alone make it fun for me.
throwaway613746 7 hours ago [-]
[dead]
mikenew 4 hours ago [-]
I have around 15k games in SC2 and I can honestly say; this is awful. I love it.
temp0826 8 hours ago [-]
This is the second (probably vibecoded?) game in the last few days that I've seen using blizzard ip (the other being d2survivors.lol)
pmarreck 5 hours ago [-]
We need a tracker!
buf 1 days ago [-]
Saw Starcraft, spent 30 minutes living the nostalgia playing this.
butlike 9 hours ago [-]
It's nice to know Stimpack marines still roll face.
OoooooooO 3 hours ago [-]
Always have, always will.
debo_ 8 hours ago [-]
Ahhhh yeahhhh
aprdm 2 hours ago [-]
Pretty addictive , spend a few hours with it today on the tab in and out
satellites 4 hours ago [-]
Fun! Just sunk a couple hours into it. Super addicting and deeper than it looks. But the difficulty spike at around layer 30 is insane.
marvstazar 1 days ago [-]
I was wondering why there was a dragon there, is it from Wrath of the Lich King?
no-name-here 1 days ago [-]
I did not touch the controls at all, and I still won with zero losses on the first level - that does not inspire confidence.
itishappy 7 hours ago [-]
In snowball games like this, losing a unit marks the beginning of the end. As such, you really have to go out of your way to lose units in the tutorial.
coralreef 9 hours ago [-]
controls aren't important, upgrade/tech choices are
dovys 4 hours ago [-]
This has made my day. Thank you! I always wanted to try one of those ad shooters, but I refuse to engage with ads
andai 9 hours ago [-]
Fun game.
I have to pick a new upgrade every 3 seconds. I thought they did that to stave off boredom, but actually it increases decision fatigue. (I just wanna shoot!)
dmix 24 hours ago [-]
Great game. It took me way too long to figure out I could use keyboard to control the positioning instead of mouse.
sharkjacobs 6 hours ago [-]
It's not a fun game, but it's cool anyway
j7ake 7 hours ago [-]
Game crashes when trying to fuse units
malfist 7 hours ago [-]
You must build additional pylons
pmarreck 4 hours ago [-]
*construct !!
smallmancontrov 7 hours ago [-]
THE MERGING IS NOT COMPLETE
nafey 1 days ago [-]
Is this AI generated? Pretty impressive if that is the case
blueblock 1 days ago [-]
Definitely smells like ai. I don't think a human would spend so much time on the graphics and effects and not have streamlined the gameplay a bit.
NorthernGulch 14 hours ago [-]
The opposite would be correct. AI generated is the norm, and it would be impressive to spend xxx hours creating this when AI can do it in 4 hours
Carrok 5 hours ago [-]
What does AI generated even mean, really? Because there is a pretty big difference between “make a star craft game” and a sequence of very specific small prompts to build it up. They are both AI generated, but will vary wildly in quality and implementation.
datsci_est_2015 1 days ago [-]
Assets are very easily duplicated because of the editor that ships with the game. Not as impressive as it would be if it were other games with more tightly-locked assets.
tdhz77 1 days ago [-]
Lots of fun! Wish StarCraft would come out every year
hirako2000 8 hours ago [-]
Too busy making the new StarCraft.
theogravity 8 hours ago [-]
That was pretty enjoyable. Definitely like the ads you see online but with IP people care about.
spicyusername 1 days ago [-]
Ah, the music is so nostalgic.
Really takes me back.
glitchc 3 hours ago [-]
This is amazing!
lai 7 hours ago [-]
So what's the meta?
gbnwl 4 hours ago [-]
I like seige tanks
Noe2097 7 hours ago [-]
there is no meta but what we vibe
lai 7 hours ago [-]
I'm noticing that armor pen is super important later on. However, eventually get rekt.. I'm curious how the top person got to the layer he is in now. I'm stuck at layer 26.
jmcdonald-ut 1 days ago [-]
Great work on this, had a blast!
debo_ 1 days ago [-]
I did not make this, for the record. I just found it.
1 days ago [-]
karim79 16 hours ago [-]
Cool game, but isn't this going to make blizzard bring out the big guns?
dclaw 5 hours ago [-]
Spectacular. Mad props.
hutusi 2 hours ago [-]
realy cool!
kixpanganiban 1 days ago [-]
Perfect, who needed to be productive anyways
seattle_spring 8 hours ago [-]
Holy moly, just hearing those sound effects gives me a giant wave of nostalgia.
lofaszvanitt 13 hours ago [-]
A mix of everything. Stolen from everywhere. We have AI, but people are still the bottleneck. They lack creativity and ideas :D. lol
johng 1 days ago [-]
Really cool game. Spent about 30 minutes playing it. Very fun!
noah640090 12 hours ago [-]
This was really fun!
ReptileMan 7 hours ago [-]
Big game hunters Terran vs 7PC zergs. Same feeling.
gigel82 8 hours ago [-]
Fun, but... how is this not already taken down by copyright strikes? I mean straight rips of audio assets, music, 3d assets, graphics, even the damn name...
This is, respectfully, slop piggybacking on nostalgic associations with stolen assets.
lapetitejort 5 hours ago [-]
Tale as old as time. The second half of what we now call the singular novel Don Quixote is actually the sequel to the original Don Quixote, published ten years later. In it the characters lament that someone published bootleg Don Quixote stories, which really happened!
pmarreck 4 hours ago [-]
You must be the fun one at parties
jonenst 7 hours ago [-]
Wake up, Hank. That game ain’t gonna play itself.
Oh wait it does.
jdw64 8 hours ago [-]
nice game
cyh555 22 hours ago [-]
so nice!
theylieeasieral 7 hours ago [-]
slop
pavluu 7 hours ago [-]
[dead]
trismus 4 hours ago [-]
This is the equivalent of asking an LLM for a new harry potter novel and then showing it off as if you wrote it, and it's disappointing that HN approves.
Rendered at 03:44:59 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
Like many, I was frustrated there's no new StarCraft coming till 2030, so I half-jokingly made the mini-game those mobile ads always promise and never deliver. Something you can play with one hand, that your friends who've never played StarCraft can just pick up.(Turns out you can squeeze a lot of extra gameplay/design on top of it.)
Also, if you're going to copy Blizzard you might as well copy the whole package right, so there's a CG trailer too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVDao71LC7A
Honestly didn't expect people to grind this. I designed the endgame to be layer 50 and thought ppl can get at most ~70 if they really try, and somehow there are people on the leaderboard past 100 (without cheating). That's StarCraft players for you.
But when that trend started back in 2023 or so, the game in the video was much more expensive to produce that what you actually got to play.
The majority of the game will still be timer based buildings/armies (so you pay to speed up) and egregiously p2w pvp.
Maybe it will, but this ain't a copyright issues, it's a trademark issue.
Also, do you really want a world where big film studios can just adapt books of writers without compensating them?
I do really want a world however where fans/communities can riff on and make derivative works of culturally relevant material without being legally nuked from orbit. The last few weeks have been amazing in the gaming world, creativity abounds and there seem to be no limits as to what we can redesign to our own whims.
Copyright sucks, and Disney is bad etc, but how is using StarCraft and its assets in your random AI game okay?
I mean, creators should be allowed to exert control over how their assets and brand are used.
Creative people should be able to create. Trademark/copyright laws, protecting assets for the great-grandchildren of who actually created the art, has never been a positive. The only people who benefit, are themselves not creative (or else they would create, instead of defending "rights" and "image").
And seriously wtf why shouldn't, like, Jack Kirby's grandkids get a share of the huge bounty of stuff he created for Marvel, but Elon Musk gets to inherit emerald mines from his dad?
Limit IP laws to 20 years.
Humans go from birth to being released into the public domain as an adult in roughly that time. Why are ideas somehow not in the Public Domain after a generation has grown up?
That way Jack Kirby gets to make his money. Jack's kids can live off his money. But Jack's ideas are free to use after doing their time.
Because it's cool.
I hate to be glib, but no they shouldn't.
Creators should be allowed to create things and sell them. No one, whether the creator, or the company the creator worked for when they first created the thing, should be able to stop someone else from creating something.
I'm in two minds over this.
In a free for all, money wins. No small-money creator would get to profit from a truly great idea. Someone with more money simply copies it, builds it bigger/faster/better-logistics with more market budget.
At least let the creator sign over rights to their idea - even if the terms are unfair.
But once an object is in your hands. It should be free for you to do what you want with it for yourself. Deadmau5 legalities over his purrari should not be a thing.
Citing made-up cases sure looks like lying to the court, which is a punishable offense. Lawyers have been sanctioned, fined, and in one case received a 30-day license suspension.
Could be a nice little game, though. Strip the IP and let the AI implement a bit more for the user to do.
https://progressquest.com/play/newguy.html
Looks to me like Immortal and Firebats both sucked for me, which I guess makes sense. Colossus, Siege Breaker and Marauder were my top 3.
I only played through it once, but I'm convinced I'd do better on a second run, and a third, etc.
I have to pick a new upgrade every 3 seconds. I thought they did that to stave off boredom, but actually it increases decision fatigue. (I just wanna shoot!)
The AI games mashups are starting to heat up.