Perfectly Peculiar Pixels [#24]

There is a Chinese poem, “Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den", which uses the same phonem over 90 times, and is barely if at all understandable when heard, but makes more sense when read out as the words have different characters, even though they sound very much alike. Though that one is a good bit of early 20th century linguistic trolling, it always reminds me of the way old games with indexed graphics are made. Picking from a very limited set, mixing and matching, often with very few colours between them.

Today we explore games made with just one colour - or (Besides Obra Din) none at all if you insist on being particularly nerdy about it. While a new Lander game might not get the same recognition as GTA VI (if we live to see it) will, exploring limitations - in video, in audio, in gameplay and controls, is a good way to fuel the creative process.

On one hand, this is not the original lander game, but on the other, this one requires much less hassle to get working (runs in the browser on itch.io). An interesting parallel with the movie industry here is that the gaming industry favoured space games in its infancy for a similar reason Hollywood movies favoured westerns. It was cheaper to take a short trip out into the desert to shoot a movie, than it was to build sets, travel around the world to shoot in various locations etc. Similarly, when computers could only display a colour or two at best, and barely a fistful of pixels, the natural go-to environment to depict was in fact space. Basic physics, controls, and goals. If you decide to develop games, this is one of those you have to do before you ‘do a Witcher”.

Metroidvanias are a genre without a lack of titles. Astroneer (available on Steam in full), and its demo linked here, are a 1-bit pixel art outing with some pretty decent animations. There doesn’t seem to be departure from the tried and true formula - you are set in a grid map made of static screens, and you explore the labyrinth in order to unlock abilities that make you access otherwise locked off parts of the map. It does feature the mortal game dev sin of unskippable cutscenes which made me rage quit when having to repeat a boss fight though. Some tight level design made me think my gaming skills have either significantly deteriorated, or it’s made for a more hardcore crowd thirsty fore more Metroidvanias.

1-bit effect doesn’t mean you need to necessarily create a 2D ‘pixel art’ game. You know you’ve done a good job as an art director if the average person can only describe subsequent games ripping off your style as “the one that looks like Obra Din”. For the initiated , the 1-bit pointillistic shader used on top of 3D models should be no less attractive from a crafting-a-unique-aesthetic perspective. In short, the Return of Obra Din” is a very elaborate game of cluedo, with the player exploring a murder on a ship via clues in the crews logs, while time stands eerily still. You have unlikely played anything similar, which is why you should give this one a try.

If we disregard the antialiasing smoothing out the edges, Epic’s free game of the week is another interesting interpretation of both video game mechanics, and the 1 bit aesthetic. It’s essentially a black and white “Where’s Waldo”, for anyone who remembers either the cartoon or the memes, except you’re looking for a number of different things, in crowded, comically animated settings. The game has no lose state, which always makes me feel like I might as well suggest Sudoku instead. The value of exploring a genre though, even if it is hyper casual, is still worth it! Maybe while waiting for a 100GB game to download.

1 Bit of a Kerfuffle…