The Pixel Maze: 1-bit Adventure Game

Preview demo:

This is a preview demo and there a few things that I would like to implement including but not limited to music and perhaps more riddles for fun-ish gameplay experience.

Before you play:

The Pixel Maze is a pay-what-you-want title, which means that if you prefer to play it for free, please do! I'd really appreciate it a lot if you choose to click the "support this game" button above, but ultimately have fun! I will also publish source code a bit later (clean up!) for PICO-8 enthusiasts.

How to play:

Arrows - walk around, C - jump, X - use items.

On mobile devices, the game will show additional controls.

Solve a few riddles, find a treasure chest in the labyrinth and bring it back. If you played Maze by Christopher Manson, it is a similar idea but much less sophisticated.

I recommend to grab a piece of paper and a pen, this is a maze after all and you need Ariadne's thread to guide you.

Credits:

• @mrmotarius: mrmotext tiles and miniadventures
• @alanxoc3: sprite outline function
• @fred72: polyfill function
• @electricgryphon: metablobs
• @profpatonildo: textbox functions
• and you, thank you for playing!

Motivation:

I have been doing software development for over 15 years, and I thought that I could apply some of my skills in another domain for fun. This time I wanted to try something different, and I started working on a tiny 1-bit retro game.

I heard many horror stories that gamedev is hard, and I wanted to get the heartfelt first-hand experience. While it is certainly true that prior experience helps, but gamedev requires a multidisciplinary approach. One has to compose music, create sound effects, draw tiles and sprites, think carefully about game mechanics and many many other things.

On top of that, I am a solo-developer, and I have to prioritize ruthlessly, i.e. whether a new idea adds something meaningful to a game, or it is nice to have but will drain my energy, and I will abandon a game quickly. I am lucky to meet great people in gamedev groups. Also, I find gamedev community very friendly and supportive. It is a rewarding experience. Thank you.

I will also publish a write up to explain how different parts of the game are implemented. Surprisingly, there are just a few tutorials explaining how to implement a lighting system on PICO-8.