Announcing Box Stacker, a physics-based puzzle game, new on Smolpxl!

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Play now at https://box-stacker.artificialworlds.net/game and join the forum to share and discuss new levels at https://box-stacker.artificialworlds.net

See you there!

We have a new Santa-themed game for you.

It's a classic side-on bike racer, that you play with exactly one button.

We've found it surprisingly addictive, and with a high-score table for each level you can compete against everyone else!

Play the game at https://santabike.artificialworlds.net/ and find similar games at https://smolpxl.artificialworlds.net/

Another retro recreation for you - Tron, a game of tangling lines, and staying alive longer than anyone else.

This version allows many players (up to 16 if you can manage it), and is quite pure in its implementation.

There are bots to play against, and you can gather your friends around a keyboard to play together.

Part of the motivation for writing this game was to test my new smolpxl-remote remote-play system, but this is not enabled yet, so watch this space...

The new lightcycle game, Tron, is fairly close to a first release.

Previously I tried setting up a couple of chat systems to be a community for Smolpxl games, but since we are a very small site at the moment, there has been little activity.

I think Lemmy will provide a much more useful community because as soon as you arrive here you'll see interesting posts about what is going on, and you can choose where to comment.

So, from today, !smolpxl@lemmy.ml is the official community page for Smolpxl!

Today I released a new game on Smolpxl - Rightwaves.

Play it here: https://smolpxl.gitlab.io/rightwaves/

Rightwaves is a sideways-scrolling shooter with pixel-art graphics, modelled on the classic game R-Type.

It is fiendishly difficult, but a lot of fun. If you do manage to complete it, you can take on the additional challenge of firing as few shots as possible to achieve the maximum score.

Rightwaves is, of course, Free/Open Source software and you can contribute to the source code at https://gitlab.com/smolpxl/rightwaves

Enjoy!

Rightwaves is coming along nicely.

I plan to release it when one whole level is ready, which is going to be fairly soon. Given that it seems pretty hard, that should keep some people happy for a while...

Other than finishing off the boss, I also need to work on details like lives, restarts etc.

I am thinking the replay feature will be used to pretty up the title screen for now, and later I may allow uploading and sharing replays with other people.

An interesting challenge in this game will be to complete the level while firing the fewest possible shots.

Rightwaves, my tribute to R-Type, is coming on nicely.

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It's a sideways-scrolling shoot-em up with pixel graphics and pixel-perfect collision detection.

It's somewhat playable at the moment, but I tend to mess about with start positions from time to time.

Recent features include a diagonal lasers upgrade, and alien guns stuck to the top and bottom of the scenery.

In order to fix a bug recently, I introduced a secret "action replay" mode, which I hope to turn into a real feature in future releases. For now, pressing Z toggles a freeze-frame modes which you can navigate using the left and right arrow keys.

Still to do: the rest of the level (including the famous red tailed alien at the end), and game mechanics like lives and restarts.

Help out here: https://gitlab.com/smolpxl/rightwaves

Add a comment here to encourage us to work on what you would like to see in Smolpxl. Here's a selection of our TODO list, but feel free to suggest other things:

• New games (just completed Rightwaves)
• Multiplayer games
• More levels for Spring or other games
• Make most of the games work on mobile (touch buttons) (done)
• Global high score table support for Spring and Eat Apples Quick (and others?)

What would you like to see next?

The Smolpxl games count how many times each game is played. (Anonymously, of course.)

I run a Grafana instance that illustrates how popular different games are. The graph shows plays per day for various games.

My main conclusion so far is that not many people are playing games on Smolpxl!

Other than that, I think I see that Spring is the most popular game, and cross-the-road has a consistent following.

Let's work together to write more and better games, and attract more people!

I always enjoyed playing Heli, and even wrote Gnome Attacks in tribute many years ago.

I knocked up a very quick version for Smolpxl, but it doesn't seem much fun to me. What am I missing? Maybe it just needs graphics, but the gameplay seems off somehow. You can see the code and help improve it at https://gitlab.com/smolpxl/smolpxl/-/blob/master/public/heli/game.js

You can play Heli on Smolpxl Games.

A classic, implemented the way I like it. Have a go at Snake - what is your high score?

Play on Smolpxl games.

I've just extracted my work-in-progress Smolpxl game to its own repo.

Rightwaves is a sideways scrolling shooter inspired by R-Type.

The game is working - now I need to create at least one decent level.

Navigate an accelerating ship through shrinking tunnels!

Designed for a smooth framerate and high-precision collision detection, Tunnel is a satisfying Angry Birds-style survival game.

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Play Tunnel on Smolpxl Games

Inspired by old-style Frogger, Cross the Road is a one-button game that can be played casually, or speed-run, since it gives a measure of average time spent to make each run.

You can play Cross the Road on Smolpxl Games.

I’m looking for feedback on this:

• Does it work on your device?
• Are the buttons the right size?
• Do they look ok? If not, how could they look better?
• For games that require arrow keys, do you need them in the normal arrow-keys layout, or is a simple row fine?

Perhaps the most original game currently on Smolpxl, Spring is a mobile-friendly one-button game, arguably of the "rage game" style.

You control a spring: when you press the button it compresses, and moves sideways. Your job is to guide the spring through increasingly fiendish environments, persuading it to sproing its way onto platforms, across chasms and even squeeze into tight gaps !

Play Spring on Smolpxl games.

A very long time ago, I played a hand-held maze game on a school coach trip. I wrote a game inspired by it in AMOS Basic on my Amiga (I think it was called "Steel Liberty"). Much later, I wrote a new version in Python that worked on my GP2X console.

Now, finally, there is a version for the web!

You can enjoy Duckmaze 2 on Smolpxl games.

There's a new game on Smolxpl - it's a speed version of classic maze games like Pacman.

It's called Eat Apples Quick! (eek! for short) and you can play it at Smolpxl games.

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Eat Apples Quick is really near to release now.

To do:

• 4 more levels
• A more obvious end of game congratulations message

Later:

• Mobile controls
• Global high scores
• Speed run mode

Other ideas for Smolpxl:

• Remote play together should be quite do-able in Smolpxl....hmmm

A fast-paced maze game.

My todo list before I release version 1.0:

• 30 levels
• Clear "Game completed" screen

Next on the list after 1.0:

• Buttons so you can play on mobile
• Global high score table using https://gitlab.com/smolpxl/smolpxl-scores

After that:

• Completing the game unlocks Speed run mode, allowing you to jump to any level and play it repeatedly