Sisyphean Parable

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Sisyphean Parable

by atzlochtlan

Cart #ypoztito-0 | 2023-08-03 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA

7

SISYPHEAN PARABLE

I see that man going back down with a heavy yet measured step toward the torment of which he will never know the end. This is the truly tragic moment when the hero becomes conscious of his wretched condition. He does not have hope, but there is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn. Acknowledging the truth will conquer it; Sisyphus, just like the absurd man, continues pushing. All is well, indeed, that one must imagine Sisyphus happy.

SUMMARY

A hapless vacuum cleaner is responsible for cleaning up the mess in the room. However, a crack in its body spills some of the dirt that it had previously collected in its tank back to the ground whenever it moves. This vicious cycle results in him continuing the cleaning process indefinitely, even when a limited amount of dirt is found in the room.

CONTROLS

You can move the vacuum cleaner with the arrow keys. By pressing the "X" key, you can clean a piece of dirt from the front of the vacuum cleaner. The direction of the tile to be cleaned is the same as the direction the vacuum cleaner turned in the previous movement. Every time the vacuum cleaner moves, it will spill some dirt on the tile it leaves behind.

At the beginning of the game, 12 pieces of dirt have already been collected in the tank of the vacuum cleaner. The remaining 4 pieces of dirt are randomly scattered throughout the room. The main objective of the game is to collect all 16 pieces of dirt in the vacuum cleaner's tank.

After all this effort, if you want to give up, you can reset the game by pressing the "O" button.

MUSIC AND INSPIRATION

The music playing in the main menu is "Key" composed by C148 from Minecraft's wonderful soundtrack, which I tried to implement it myself to PICO-8.

I got the inspiration for the game from a video that has become popular on the internet recently. You've probably come across a vacuum cleaner trying to sweep up dust from a bottle strapped to its back, one of those Sisyphus memes.

Unless you get a perfect seed, I can't figure out if it's possible to get under 4! Even with a perfect seed where you can get all the dust in a straight line, I still think you'd always have 2 or 3

Thanks for playing @Snas286! And yes you are right, it is impossible to leave less than 4 dirt unless you have a lucky start. The 4 pieces of dirt allow you to reach in all directions, allowing you to clear all the other tiles, but collecting themselves is impossible without messing up other tiles.

I think this demonstrates exactly the situation Sisyphus is in :)

Wow, this sure is a punishing game! wink

@NerdyTeachers sure it is :) Thanks!