Pixic is a puzzle game about matching 4 squares together. It's inspired by Hexic HD for the Xbox 360, however some liberties were taken with the gameplay.
(most notably that its squares instead of hexagons)
You can rotate a 2x2 group of squares once, twice or as many times as you like! The rotation will stop at each change so you can move squares around the board to your liking. If you create a 3x3 group of squares with a different colored square in the center, you'll create a black gem. Matching 4 of these gives you higher score than regular squares. In Normal Mode, after 10 rounds bombs will start appearing every 5 rounds starting with 3 round timers. To defuse them, match them in a 2x2 group with 3 of the same colored squares (the bomb is a wildcard). However if you do not defuse it in time, that's GAME OVER.
In Hardcore Mode, bombs will appear after 1 round every 2 rounds and start with 5 round timers. This gives you more time to get rid of them, but they might feel like they're constantly dropping.
Featuring tracks created by Snabish
If something breaks that I didn't catch let me know :)
Updates
Version 1.4 - 8/23/2025
Added cleanup/garbage collection to title screen (oops) so now it shouldn't run out of memory
Added Settings options to toggle SFX, Music, Bomb Countdown and Colorblind Mode:
- Bomb Countdown is either Round or Rotation. Round is the default setting, a bomb will count down each round (every time you clear a chunk of blocks) Rotation is the new setting, a bomb will count down every time you rotate a group of blocks! Use this for an added challenge!
- Colorblind mode swaps the tile sprites for ones with individual markings on them, hopefully providing a solution to colorblind players!
Shrinko8'd the code to try and reduce file size (and token size lol)
Version 1.3 - 8/16/2025
Fixed issue with cursor getting suck at right and bottom edges
Groups of blocks bigger than just 2x2 can now be cleared
Bomb difficulty ramps up now
A Big Bomb type has been added that must be cleared with 8 same color blocks surrounding it
Version 1.2 - 8/12/2025
Added sprites for all the squares
Fixed issue with rotating Black Gems along the edges
Added White Gems (surround a block with 8 Black Gems!)
So good! I love the very satisfying gameplay! I think that if the squares had rounded edges, the game would be a little bit prettier.
The gameplay loop is just perfect, and for a puzzle game casual like me it's very playable on the normal difficulty setting. Pixic truly has unlimited replay value, so it gets a heart and a star (and a Pico-8 adventures video :3) with ease.
One thing I would suggest is adding some sort of unique color-specific markings on top of every square so people with colorblindness issues could play it too.
Oh, and maybe being able to toggle music and sound effects separately.
Edit: I've played some more and it seems that if you leave the game at the title screen for a while then it will run out of memory (after about 1.5 minutes in my case). Tested this both in the web player and in the app.
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