IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

Theme 1 – Open‑source technical praise for PasRISCV/PasVulkan
The community highlighted the emulator’s completeness and permissive licensing:

  • “PasRISCV not only emulates userspace (RV64GC usermode), but a complete, modern machine (SMP/MultiHART, RV64, full RVA23.1 including Hypervisor, Crypto, Vector stuff, etc.), which is capable of booting a normal Linux kernel …” — nor‑and‑or‑not
  • “PasRISCV is licensed under the permissive zlib license.” — nor‑and‑or‑not
  • “I had the honor of briefly being in the same demogroup as BeRo long ago, and he's absolutely one of the most incredible developers I ever met!” — karpour

Theme 2 – Excitement for the game SEEDS and its sandbox/automation vision
Many commenters expressed anticipation, compared the project to Notch’s 0x10c, and discussed upcoming features:

  • “This is absolutely wonderful and I can't wait to play it!” — azalemeth
  • “Cool, and quite reminiscent of 0x10c: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0x10c” — AntiRush
  • “Yes, we plan to release the full version on GOG.” — nor‑and‑or‑not (in response to a GOG/Itch question)
  • “Our automation is in its early stages, basically a proof‑of‑concept.” — nor‑and‑or‑not
  • “Oh, excellent. I will jam that sucker full of Hilbert curves.” — gavmor

Theme 3 – Discussion of the development language (Free Pascal/Delphi)
The choice of Object Pascal sparked curiosity about its modernity and cross‑platform viability:

  • “Free Pascal or Delphi? I tried FP a while back and felt that the language had really stagnated (e.g., variables can only be declared at the top of scope like C89).” — HexDecOctBin
  • “We mostly use Free Pascal (works fine on Linux and cross‑compiling for Windows). But during development we also sometimes use and test Delphi builds on Windows. We always make sure, it compiles with both.” — nor‑and‑or‑not

🚀 Project Ideas

PasVulkan DevLog Hub

Summary

  • A centralized platform hosting searchable technical deep‑dive articles, video tutorials, and FAQs for PasVulkan and PasRISCV, addressing the community’s request for more accessible internals documentation.
  • Core value proposition: saves developers time by providing curated, high‑quality explanations of the engine’s rendering pipeline, Vulkan wrappers, and RISC‑V emulator internals in one place.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Game engine developers, graphics programmers, and RISC‑V enthusiasts seeking detailed technical insights
Core Feature Article & video repository with full‑text search, tagging, and community commenting
Tech Stack Next.js (React) frontend, Node.js/Express backend, PostgreSQL DB, hosted on Vercel/AWS
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: SaaS subscription $5/mo (free tier with ads)

Notes

  • HN commenters explicitly asked for a blog post about the engine; a hub would aggregate such posts and encourage more contributions (sippeangelo: “Do you have a blog post about this?”).
  • Enables discussion around specific features (e.g., PasVulkan’s custom shaders, PasRISCV’s JIT) and fosters knowledge sharing that could attract contributors to the FOSS projects.

PasRISCV Debugger Studio

Summary

  • A cross‑platform GUI frontend for PasRISCV that offers visual disassembly, register/memory inspection, breakpoint management, and integrated GDB‑server connectivity, turning the emulator into a user‑friendly debugging workstation.
  • Core value proposition: lowers the barrier for developers to debug RISC‑V binaries (including game logic) without wrestling with command‑line tools, boosting productivity for both hobbyists and professionals.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Embedded developers, reverse engineers, and game developers using PasRISCV for SEEDS or similar projects
Core Feature Interactive disassembly view with live memory/watch windows, breakpoint UI, and GDB integration
Tech Stack Electron (React + TypeScript) UI, interfacing with PasRISCV via its gdb‑server protocol; optional WebAssembly build for in‑browser use
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: One‑time purchase $29 (free trial 14 days)

Notes

  • The discussion highlighted PasRISCV’s built‑in disassembler and gdb‑server capability, but users expressed desire for a more accessible interface (e.g., “I’ll release the tracker as FOSS when we have a bit more spare time…”).
  • A visual debugger would be praised by HN readers who value tooling that makes low‑level exploration enjoyable and could spark discussions on improving JIT coverage or adding new peripherals.

POCA Mod Marketplace

Summary

  • A marketplace where creators can publish, version, and sell mods/scripts for SEEDS written in the POCA scripting language, complete with dependency management, automated testing, and royalty distribution.
  • Core value proposition: unlocks the game’s extensibility, letting players automate terrain shaping, item placement, or custom mini‑games, while providing creators a revenue path.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience SEEDS players interested in modding, POCA scripters, and indie developers looking to monetize game add‑ons
Core Feature Upload portal with version control, automated compatibility testing against SEEDS builds, and a storefront with purchase/revenue split
Tech Stack Django (Python) backend, React frontend, PostgreSQL for metadata, S3 storage for mod packages, integrated with game’s POCA runtime via plugin interface
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: Marketplace takes 5% transaction fee on each sale (creators receive 95%)

Notes

  • PunchyHamster’s comment about hacking microcontroller‑sized subsystems and wanting “disassemblers” and “high level source code” signals strong interest in programmable in‑game systems; a POCA mod platform would satisfy that desire.
  • The community already values FOSS (BeRo’s releases) but also expressed curiosity about releasing on GOG/Itch; a mod marketplace could drive additional engagement and revenue, giving HN readers a concrete way to showcase their scripting skills.

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