Dayshot: The comic-slash-game, called Hoverboard, was created to celebrate the release of XKCD creator Randall Munroe’s latest book, Thing Explainer. It’s a lot deeper than it looks at first glance.
On the surface, Hoverboard is a small platformer where you can race against the clock to collect a few coins as fast as you can. But there’s a twist: with your hoverboard, you can jump an infinite number of times. This means that you can leave the designated play area, and go explore and collect a lot more coins than you can initially find — well over a hundred.
So, what are you waiting for? Head to the comic on XKCD’s site and start exploring. If you want, you can also share your findings on the relevant (and spoileriffic) Explain XKCD wiki page, and/or down in the comments. Have fun!
Dayshot showcases some of the prettiest, funniest game-related screenshots and art that we can find.
Comments
4 responses to “The Latest XKCD Is A Cool Little Exploration Game”
Was playing this yesterday. Found out I was a couple of coins short because I missed the island in the sky above the Washington monument.
protip: press F12 and go to the javascript console and type “window.i.am.gandalf=1” (no quotes) to get faster speed and a hat.
Google Maps style – http://1101b.com/xkcd1608/
Got 166/169. Must have missed 1 in the labyrinthine star destroyer plus the two in the super secret sky island.
Modes are activated by opening the Javascript Console (F12 [Or Command-Alt-I in most browsers under Mac OS X] to open Developer Tools, then Console tab) and writing corresponding commands:
Gandalf Mode: window.i.am.gandalf = true – jumps and runs further
Speedhack: explorer.opts.speed= *Value* – Speed hacking, with 1 = normal speed
Jump Hack: explorer.opts.jumpForce= -*Value* – Jump hacking, with -1 = normal jump (positive values cause the hoverboard guy to move down when jumping)
Mewtwo mode: window.mewtwo = true – disables gravity
Noclip mode: window.noclip = true – player is able to move around the map without collision. Combine with Gandalf and Mewtwo modes for free easy map traversal.
Goggles mode: window.ze.goggles() – displays a small window showing area around the player in a pixelated manner. The goggles indicate collision boundaries (where the player touches the world) in cyan lines. Black pixels that are passable (such as other characters or text) will be highlighted red (allowing secret passages to be discovered).
Position Tracking: window.explorer.pos – Returns the player location to the console. Can be used to track position and test to ensure you are still moving. Must be re-entered to compare positioning.
Position Setting: window.explorer.pos.x = *Value* or window.explorer.pos.y = *Value* – Can be used to manually set a position within the world. The start is at x: 512106, y: -549612. The left terrain bound is at x: 475210, y: -553711. The right terrain bound is at x: 567281, y: -549712. Mewtwo and Noclip modes are a must for exploring in this way.
All the above: window.explorer.opts – Contains all the game’s parameters. You can directly mess with gravity, collision (disableCollision), jump force (jumpForce) and speed (maxSpeed), among others. Run Object.keys(window.explorer.opts) to list all available parameters you can tweak.
List all coins: window.explorer.objects – Array containing the position of the 169 coins of the game.
Disable tilt input: getEventListeners(window)[‘deviceorientation’][0].remove() – on Macs with motion sensor, disables tilt input which causes problems controlling the avatar