bit jam - 25 Apr - 2 May

francoisvn

So for those looking for a fun little jam, maybe waiting for the next compo, here's one that should stretch your design muscles to their extreme.

From the jam page at https://itch.io/jam/bit-jam:

make a game in 1-bit colour, on a 1px × 1px display with no audio; the minimum (non-zero) feedback that a game could possibly have.


RULES

1-bit colour.
the game cannot use more than two colours. typically these two colours are black and white, but you can use any two colours you want. you cannot combine the two colours (such as shades of grey if the two colours are black and white) but you can rapidly flash between the two colours. you can include a button which swaps between various palettes of two colours, as long as this does not impact gameplay.

1px × 1px display.
the game can be upscaled to any resolution (including fullscreen), but cannot display more than one colour at a time. In other words, the entire game window must always be a single colour.

no audio.
the game cannot use any audio which provides additional feedback to the player. however, you are encouraged to consider making your game accessible to visually impaired players. this can be done by playing a note while the screen is the first colour, and a different note (or no note) when the screen is the second colour, but you must ensure that these notes match the screen state and provide no additional feedback.

no other feedback.
the goal of the game jam is to make a game with no additional feedback. circumventing this (no matter how cleverly) is against the spirit of the game jam. this includes text popups, changing the window size or position, emailing the player, or ejecting the computer's CD drive. you may include other forms of feedback (such as gamepad vibration), but you must ensure that they completely match the screen state and provide no additional feedback.

bend these rules.
abide by the rules where possible, but bend the rules where necessary. some games may not work as well without a menu, or setup page, or settings page, or credits page. some games may be greatly enhanced by displaying an image or random noise in place of one of the two colours, or by drawing a border around the screen. some games may benefit from displaying the player's scores at the end of the game, or putting the score online. all of these things (and anything else you can think of) are fine provided that they do not give additional feedback during the main game, and provided that you believe they are important to the game. making a game that bends the rules is better than not making a game at all.

seizure warning.
if you believe your game might cause problems for people with photosensitive epilepsy, consider adding a warning to the game page. this is more likely to be the case if the game runs in full screen and has rapid flashing.

Check out the jam page for more info, and let us know if you take part!

Fengol

I don't understand 1px x 1px? That seems like 1 pixel by 1 pixel. Even upscaled that means you only have a single block of colour to work with?

francoisvn

@Fengol: that's correct, you only have 1-bit of output to work with, that's the challenge. That's 2 colours, 2 audio tones, or 2 states of anything. In other words, not only do you only have a single colour to work with, it can only be in one of 2 states. Maybe those states signify good and bad, or maybe something else entirely. Note also, the internal game state can be a lot more complex, the restriction is only on the output.