Starcraft: Ashfall

(starcraft-shooter-2026.pages.dev)

220 points | by debo_ 20 hours ago

36 comments

  • ggnore7452 28 minutes ago
    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.)

    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.

    • debo_ 17 minutes ago
      Hi I posted it. I'm just a guy in the chat who saw it on YouTube.
      • ggnore7452 5 minutes ago
        Thank you so much for sharing it, really made my day!
    • gbnwl 2 hours ago
      Reddit thread from about a month ago where creator introduced this: https://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/1wqdabw/i_made_t...
      • neko_ranger 19 hours ago
        Wow someone made the youtube ad game!
        • butlike 3 hours ago
          There's also pinball and an asteroids-like game if you click the "Arcade" button next to where it says "Ashfall Crossing"
          • gs17 2 hours ago
            A shame if they don't recreate the Lost Viking game from Wings of Liberty itself.
          • dxcqcv 18 hours ago
            cool, give me more
          • bulbar 14 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.

            • hackyhacky 0 minutes ago
              It basically has the same gameplay as ProgressQuest, an adventure game that was famously created to minimize user involvement.

              https://progressquest.com/play/newguy.html

              • p2detar 1 hour 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 43 minutes ago
                  I got around 42. Protos commander felt stronger for the effort.
                • andai 3 hours ago
                  It's like cookie clicker, with less clicking and more blood!
                  • AngryData 3 hours ago
                    Once you get high enough you can switch commanders which gives additional upgrades and active powers.
                  • an0malous 2 hours ago
                    I've been seeing a lot of Pokemon games recently as well, are companies just not enforcing their copyright/trademarks anymore?
                    • nilamo 2 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 1 hour 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 1 hour ago
                          It's a legal issue, and the legal part has always been bullshit regardless of which specific label happens to apply.
                          • Blikkentrekker 1 minute 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?

                            • syspec 59 minutes 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.

                              • fl4regun 3 minutes 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.
                                • nilamo 19 minutes 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").

                                  • 59percentmore 39 minutes 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 26 minutes 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 25 minutes 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.

                                • steelframe 10 minutes 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.
                                  • deadbabe 2 hours ago
                                    Couldn’t they just use AI to sue at scale? No one should be too small to go after now.
                                    • creakingstairs 2 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
                                      • bhhaskin 1 hour ago
                                        Yeah the law firms just haven't caught up yet. But they will.
                                        • nilamo 1 hour 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 46 minutes 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.

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                                        • larodi 2 hours ago
                                          they may well be busy surviving AI induced chain reactions letting lots of people out of work.
                                          • ForHackernews 1 hour ago
                                            It's a totally original creation laundered through LLM derivative works.
                                          • temp0826 2 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)
                                            • mastax 18 hours ago
                                              Game basically plays itself but fun nonetheless
                                              • croon 11 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 10 hours ago
                                                  The satisfying pop of the zerglings alone make it fun for me.
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                                                  • sharkjacobs 24 minutes ago
                                                    It's not a fun game, but it's cool anyway
                                                    • buf 19 hours ago
                                                      Saw Starcraft, spent 30 minutes living the nostalgia playing this.
                                                      • andai 3 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!)

                                                        • j7ake 1 hour ago
                                                          Game crashes when trying to fuse units
                                                        • no-name-here 19 hours 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 1 hour 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 3 hours ago
                                                              controls aren't important, upgrade/tech choices are
                                                            • nafey 19 hours ago
                                                              Is this AI generated? Pretty impressive if that is the case
                                                              • blueblock 19 hours 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 9 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
                                                                  • datsci_est_2015 18 hours 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.
                                                                  • dmix 18 hours ago
                                                                    Great game. It took me way too long to figure out I could use keyboard to control the positioning instead of mouse.
                                                                    • lai 1 hour ago
                                                                      So what's the meta?
                                                                      • Noe2097 1 hour ago
                                                                        there is no meta but what we vibe
                                                                        • lai 1 hour 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.
                                                                      • butlike 3 hours ago
                                                                        It's nice to know Stimpack marines still roll face.
                                                                      • theogravity 2 hours ago
                                                                        That was pretty enjoyable. Definitely like the ads you see online but with IP people care about.
                                                                        • marvstazar 18 hours ago
                                                                          I was wondering why there was a dragon there, is it from Wrath of the Lich King?
                                                                          • tdhz77 19 hours ago
                                                                            Lots of fun! Wish StarCraft would come out every year
                                                                          • spicyusername 19 hours ago
                                                                            Ah, the music is so nostalgic. Really takes me back.
                                                                            • karim79 10 hours ago
                                                                              Cool game, but isn't this going to make blizzard bring out the big guns?
                                                                              • jmcdonald-ut 19 hours ago
                                                                                Great work on this, had a blast!
                                                                                • debo_ 19 hours ago
                                                                                  I did not make this, for the record. I just found it.
                                                                              • ReptileMan 1 hour ago
                                                                                Big game hunters Terran vs 7PC zergs. Same feeling.
                                                                                • kixpanganiban 18 hours ago
                                                                                  Perfect, who needed to be productive anyways
                                                                                  • lofaszvanitt 7 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
                                                                                    • gigel82 2 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...
                                                                                      • noah640090 6 hours ago
                                                                                        This was really fun!
                                                                                        • seattle_spring 2 hours ago
                                                                                          Holy moly, just hearing those sound effects gives me a giant wave of nostalgia.
                                                                                          • johng 20 hours ago
                                                                                            Really cool game. Spent about 30 minutes playing it. Very fun!
                                                                                            • jonenst 1 hour ago
                                                                                              Wake up, Hank. That game ain’t gonna play itself. Oh wait it does.
                                                                                              • lgessler 2 hours ago
                                                                                                This is, respectfully, slop piggybacking on nostalgic associations with stolen assets.
                                                                                                • jdw64 2 hours ago
                                                                                                  nice game
                                                                                                  • bigwheels 1 hour ago
                                                                                                    See also: D2 Survivors https://d2survivors.lol/

                                                                                                    The AI games mashups are starting to heat up.

                                                                                                    • cyh555 16 hours ago
                                                                                                      so nice!
                                                                                                      • slop
                                                                                                        • pavluu 1 hour ago
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