Hi HN — I'm Bridgette, a software engineer in South Africa. Over the last year I rebuilt a classic-style MUD from the ground up on a modern stack (Postgres, server-authoritative simulation, generative-AI NPCs that keep schedules and remember conversations, dynamic weather, item decay, the works). The twist is that when you finish the single-player arc, the game compiles your run into a personalised PDF novel — your name, your race, your choices, your ending. I'd love technical feedback on any of it: the simulation, the NPC design, the localisation engine (it's bilingual English/Afrikaans), or just the idea of "the game writes you a book about you" as a finishing reward. Happy to answer questions.
Comments
vunderba•17m ago
Nice job. I think you'd get more traction if you allowed people to play as guests, with some kind of limited tier system so they don't exceed your credit budget (assuming the NPCs are driven by an LLM). A lot of people, especially on Hacker News, are very sign-up averse and will bounce as soon as they see they have to create an account.
I also like the idea of converting the story afterward. I'm not sure if you're already doing this, but it might be nice that, when the story wraps up, you let players choose to convert the final PDF into first, second, or third person.
Also tangentially related, but have a look at AI Dungeon it was a pretty early attempt to create an LLM-driven text adventure game.
vunderba•17m ago
I also like the idea of converting the story afterward. I'm not sure if you're already doing this, but it might be nice that, when the story wraps up, you let players choose to convert the final PDF into first, second, or third person.
Also tangentially related, but have a look at AI Dungeon it was a pretty early attempt to create an LLM-driven text adventure game.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_Dungeon