Top all-time · #2407
Pippin Barr
Personal blog · pippinbarr.comgamesdesignprogramming
Pippin Barr's personal blog at pippinbarr.com covers games, design and programming. Since 2011, 34 different Hacker News readers have linked it 48 times, most often “As Slow as Possible”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-07-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Most-linked posts?
- As Slow as Possible4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2026-03-25
- It is as if you were doing work4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2024-03-26
- It is as if you were making love3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-03-09
- PONGS3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2012-04-11
- Pongs2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-09-05
- Ancient Greek Punishment told through the game of Snake2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-07-01
- /academic/Pippin_Barr_PhD_Thesis.pdf2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-04-12
- It is as if you were on your phone – a game by Pippin Barr2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-03-05
What Hacker News says?
Barr has also done a bit of ancient Greece: http://www.pippinbarr.com/games/letsplayancientgreekpunishme... Updated, touch-oriented version: http://www.pippinbarr.com/games/letsplayancientgreekpunishme...
Comment linking /games/letsplayancientgreekpunishmentlimitededition/
on “Snakisms”Submitted It is as if you were on your phone as a story · 852 points
HN discussionHe's made a few other "variations on a classic" games: http://www.pippinbarr.com/games/breaksout/ http://www.pippinbarr.com/games/pongs/Pongs.html
Comment linking /games/pongs/Pongs.html
on “Snakisms”Submitted Snakisms as a story · 140 points
HN discussionGame URL from author's site: https://www.pippinbarr.com/2017/01/25/snakisms/ Life is meaningless!
Comment linking /2017/01/25/snakisms/
on “Snakisms”Submitted The Artist is Present (8-bit edition) as a story · 12 points
HN discussionThis is delightful. I only wish that someone would put it into a nondescript arcade cabinet in a hallway somewhere, so that people could stumble across it unprepared. Edit: Naturally, it turns out that Mr. Barr has a PhD in this sort of thing, and that his thesis has to do with how we demonstrate our values during the course of playing video games. http://www.pippinbarr.com/academic/Pippin_Barr_PhD_Thesis.pd...
Comment linking /academic/Pippin_Barr_PhD_Thesis.pdf
on “Snakisms”Submitted It is as if you were making love as a story · 5 points
HN discussionThe perfect Seinfeld game already exists: http://www.pippinbarr.com/games/thejuniormint/
Comment linking /games/thejuniormint/
on “Seinfeld Adventure”Submitted As Slow as Possible as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI'm pretty sure it is a sort of art game / digital experience. Compare with "it is as if you were making love"[1] by the same creator, which gives a sex-inspired series of input tasks with an extremely barebones interface yet claims to be a "usable and efficient experience of pleasuring a partner". [1] https://pippinbarr.com/itisasifyouweremakinglove/
Comment linking /itisasifyouweremakinglove/
on “It is as if you were on your phone”Submitted Pongs as a story · 3 points
HN discussionFrom the same creator (so funny): https://pippinbarr.com/itisasifyouweremakinglove/
Comment linking /itisasifyouweremakinglove/
on “It is as if you were on your phone”Submitted On SNAKISMS Being Rediscovered by the Internet as a story · 3 points
HN discussionRelated by the same creator https://pippinbarr.com/itisasifyouweredoingwork/ More accessible on desktop.
Comment linking /itisasifyouweredoingwork/
on “It is as if you were on your phone”Submitted As Slow as Possible as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIf you tried it out and were a little confused, here's a little blog post about the motivation and development of the "game": http://www.pippinbarr.com/words/2017/06/14/narrative-framing... And some more information in form of a "press" release from the github: https://github.com/pippinbarr/itisasifyouweredoingwork/tree/... I found the "game" to be somehow interesting.
Comment linking /words/2017/06/14/narrative-framing-in-it-is-as-if-you-were-doing-work.html
on “It is as if you were doing work”Submitted Ancient Greek Punishment told through the game of Snake as a story · 2 points
HN discussionfrom my blog notes on ink see also: " pubcoder[1] or apple ibook(killed) or kotobee or Twine which is from the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation. .. and used to make this cool interactive browser experience burnt matches. more here" 1 https://docs.pubcoder.com/new/pubcoder_widgets_intro.html 2 https://www.kotobee.com/blog/how-create-interactive-ebook-gu... 3 https://twinery.org/ 4 https://pippinbarr.com/game…
Comment linking /2016/11/29/burnt-matches/
on “Ink 1.0 – Open-source scripting language for interactive narrative”Submitted It is as if you were doing work as a story · 2 points
HN discussionReminds me of https://pippinbarr.com/it-is-as-if-you-were-playing-chess/in... Except it's It is as if you are reading Twitter
Comment linking /it-is-as-if-you-were-playing-chess/info/
on “The Endless Doomscroller”Submitted It is as if you were on your phone – a game by Pippin Barr as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIf you want to play with the trolley problem: http://www.pippinbarr.com/games/trolleyproblem/TrolleyProble...
Comment linking /games/trolleyproblem/TrolleyProblem.html
on “Moral Judgments Depend on What Language We’re Speaking”Submitted It is as if you were on your phone (mobile only) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionGraphical representations are there to draw you in, but once you are there, the representation isn't as meaningful. Tetris remains a wonderful game whether you play it on a Game Boy or on hardware today. The hats thing is about people meeting certain status motivational needs. Reiss' 16 Desires indicates that people seek status, and hats confer it. There's also a desire for collection, which hats also offer. You'll…
Comment linking /academic/Pippin_Barr_PhD_Thesis.pdf
on “It’s time gamers took gaming more seriously”Submitted Let's Snake: Ancient Greek Punishment (Snake Versions of Greek Myths) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionPippin Barr is a master of deconstructing and subverting everything we know about gaming. https://pippinbarr.com/lets-play-ancient-greek-punishment/in... is another favorite, and https://pippinbarr.com/sibilant-snakelikes/info/ is similar to the submission but using snake instead of pong. Tons of good stuff to explain on the site though!
Comment linking /sibilant-snakelikes/info/
on “Pongs”Submitted It is as if you were doing work as a story · 1 points
HN discussionIf this gives you an appetite for more block-breaking, check out Pippin Barr's BREAKSOUT, a collection of 36 wacky variants of Breakout: https://pippinbarr.com/breaksout/info/ See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=pippinbarr.com https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=pippinbarr.github.io
Comment linking /breaksout/info/
on “Brickception”Submitted As Slow as Possible as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
