In January of 2016 I challenged myself to make 1 new game every month, for a year; 12 months- 12 games. This is one of those games.
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Development Stats
- Language: C#
- Engine: MonoGame 3.4
- Platforms: Windows (DirectX)
- Resolution: 64×64
- Sprites: 4×4
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This month was a lot like Game #2, in that I tried to pick a simpler project and somehow ended up getting less done.
Itch.io was organizing a 2 week game jam called the LowRezJam. The theme of the Jam was to simply make a game that runs at 64×64 resolution. The 2 week time frame didn’t really fit into my One-Game-A-Month challenge, but I figured even if I don’t finish it in time for the Low Rez Jam, it will at least give me some inspiration on what to create.
With the ultra low resolution, I knew I would have to keep things simple for this game. I decided to work with 4×4 sprites, giving me a giving me a grid of 16 tiles vertically and horizontally. I didn’t have any art to work with this time (I usually find some free sprite sets online for my 1GAM games), so the sprites are mostly just solid blocks with different colors.
Gameplay is really simply. It works very similar to Pac-Man with the player moving through a series of trenches. Once they have passed over every tile on the level, they move on to the next level.
Of course there are some enemies as well tell make this challenging.
The other twist is that the player can jump from one trench to another using the Right Analog Stick on a gamepad (or WASD on keyboard). The idea was that this would be a super fast paced game, with the user bouncing all over the map trying to avoid enemies and capture all the tiles on the map.
Unfortunately, I never really found the fun on this one, and my enthusiasm kind of fizzled out. In the end there are just 10 levels and 3 enemy types. I keep thinking that picking simpler game ideas will result in more polished and fun games, but I’m starting to think the opposite is true. Dash Maximus, and even Endless Q, were both significantly more complex that this game, and they ended up being way better games. It seems like working on something a little more substantial, with real art, really helps motivate me, and I end up working on the project much more. With that in mind, I may end up try something a little deeper next month. However, day-job work is really busy still, so I’m hesitant to take on too much. We’ll see what happens!
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System Requirements
- Windows 7 or newer
- Shader model 4 or better
- Keyboard or Gamepad (recommended)
- Download: Line Jumper
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Bonus Round!
Although I didn’t finish Line Jumper in time for the LowRezJam, I did actually have an entry! I rework my first 1GAM game, Dash Maximus to run at 64×64. Not a huge stretch since it originally ran at 128×120. If you get the update download from itch.io you can play the new version now!
