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This is so cool. Awesome job! I grew up playing submarine games: Gato, Silent Service, The Hunt for Red October, Up Periscope!, and Aces of the Deep. I wishlisted it on Steam and will be purchasing it when it is released.

Can you talk about the development process? How long did it take you? Is any of it vibe-coded? As you already stated, the browser version is a Vite/TypeScript app, but what programming language is the actual game in?

Edit: Also, nice website!


Thanks so much for the kind words!

> How long did it take you?

It's taken about 3 months of my spare time (some evenings and a few weekend afternoons) so far.

> Is any of it vibe-coded?

I actually started the project back in February as an experiment to train myself in prompting and to see how far I could get using Codex and letting it do literally all the coding for me. It turned out, I could go all the way. I have not touched a single line of code myself (I have only tweaked some CSS from time to time). This project has led me to realizing my 20+ years of professional experience in coding are clearly worth far less than they were just a couple years ago...

> As you already stated, the browser version is a Vite/TypeScript app, but what programming language is the actual game in?

The actual game is written in TypeScript. For the Windows/Mac/Linux/Steam Deck/iOS/iPadOS/Android builds I'm using Electron to package it (which has surprised me for how well it's working even though I always kind of hated Electron...)


I would recommend WindowBlinds to achieve the "grey, boxy UI" look. As for a Windows 2000 theme out of the box, I am not sure, but I know it can make your Windows 10/11 UI look and behave like Windows XP.

There is a custom skin editor as well, so you can tailor the look of Windows to anything you choose, so you can probably get very close to the Windows 2000 look you are seeking.

https://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/


Cheers. Some of the themes look pretty good! I used to use StarDock Start and StartIsBack back when I was using Windows 8 to, well, get the Windows 7 Aero theme and the start menu back.

That being said I do notice that many of the rounded corners aren't fully transparent...


The Sphere version of WoZ is intentionally shorter. It is 75 minutes, compared to the original's 101 minutes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz_at_Sphere


That game sounds interesting. What is it called? I only saw Beavers Be Damned when I searched Steam.


Not OP, but I think they meant Timberborn. It just hit 1.0 release . I tried it a while back, definitely a fun premise for a game.


Not the original commenter but they could be talking about Timberborn. Don't have it but have friends who play.


Timberborn. It's fantastic!


+1 for TickTick. It gets the job done and I love that I can set reminders for my tasks that I can snooze from my Apple Watch or computer desktops instead of having to rely on Apple Reminders.


Nice job! Will you be releasing an Android version?


For Android users: Download the excellent, and well maintained Harmonic app and enable "Auto-collapse top level comments" to achieve the same BFS effect.

No need to download a new shareware app.


Thanks! As of now I don't have any plans for Android. It's a native iOS app written in Swift, so that would require building a new app from the ground up.


Don't know if you saw, but Swift is coming to Android. Might not require a rebuild after all.



If you like Arc, I suggest trying Zen Browser. It looks and behaves just like Arc, but it has the benefit of upgrades and support. Arc Browser has almost been abandoned because they are working on a new product.

https://zen-browser.app


I'll keep it in mind thanks.


Nice job! I love the clean interface. Is this written in C#?


Thanks, yeah it is C#/.net9 and WinUI3. I started with C#/WPF, but wanted to get it on the Windows Store and couldn't figure out that would work with WPF.


AFAIK you can publish even Win32 apps on Windows Store.


I don't mean to imply it's not possible, but I ran into issues packaging with Desktop Bridge and the web started pushing me toward extreme solutions, so I changed course. If there's a lesson here, it's to package early (and know what you are up against).


Do you plan on releasing this to the public?


Great job!!


Thanks!


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