Show HN: Reel Rogue – A browser roguelike (idler) about manipulating the odds

[qq-niklas]

About a month ago, I shared the Day 1 prototype of this project (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46448670). It has since evolved into a somewhat more polished "Slot-Machine Deckbuilder."

I also recently moved the project from qq-pwn.com to alt-qq.com. I did this mid-development specifically to see if I could migrate a live player base and session states without losing people.

The Design Challenge: The core of the game is a "One-Armed Bandit" dungeon crawler. The challenge is balancing the "house always wins" nature of slots with the player agency required for a good roguelike.

What I’d love your feedback on: The First 30 Seconds: Is it immediately obvious how to play? I’ve tried to keep the onboarding "invisible," but I worry the manipulation mechanics might be buried.

Skill vs. Luck: Does the game feel like a mindless gamble, or do you feel like you have agency over the outcome?

The "Cursed Seed" UX: I’ve added a way to share specific runs via a URL. Does the transition from "clicking a friend's link" to "playing the game" feel seamless?

Mobile/PWA Performance: It’s built to be a PWA. Does it feel like a "web page" or does it feel like a native app on your device?

I'm especially interested when and where exactly did you feel like quitting?

Technology: The project is built with React and Vite, hosted on a Cloudflare edge stack. The code is 100% augmented by AI, which allowed me to focus more on the architecture of the project and the design of the mechanics rather than implementation syntax.

Reel Rogue: The Bandit's Tale is playable here: https://alt-qq.com

[Etherlord87]

There's very little decision making in the game: You don't choose battle rewards, they are forced onto you, you get only one reroll that rerolls the entire triplet. Choosing the path is choosing between fighting an elite or not, and between visiting something different than normal battle encounter or not. Only the shop allows for some strategy. On the plus side, everything worked for the most part on Firefox, except when I decided to pass an item as inheritance, it wasn't passed.

[qq-niklas]

Thank you for the feedback, very much appreciated.

I agree with most of your comments, the shop is indeed the only place that really allows for some strategy right now. Here is the plan: after rebalancing the drops, I intend to introduce draft rewards. I will also consider ways to make the reroll a mechanic with more strategic depth.

Also, thanks for letting me know about the bug.

[Pungfury]

I've spent quite a few hours playing this over the past few days. The updates are frequent, and I've found several different ways to approach the game, which lets me restart and try something new each time.

To see the game developed this way is an absolute blast to see! Good job

[qq-niklas]

Thank you for the kind words, Pungfury! Hearing that you’ve put hours into it is a real booster for me.

You mentioned updates. I actually pushed a fairly big one today! I added a thematic music album to the game, plus a bit of rebalancing and some bug fixes. Since you've played quite a bit, I’d love to know if the new music fits the vibe or if it needs tweaking!