zhbrzgx [Lexaloffle Blog Feed]

Plane Ride

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 23:02:08 UTC

gturtle_plane_ride_twt

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

Edit the tweetcart in PICO-8 Education Edition here!

Plane Ride

About

This is a tweetcart demo- a demo where all of the source code is 280 characters or less.

I made this on a plane ride over the Great Lakes. I wanted to make something that captured the geometric patterns of the farms on the ground, with the clouds casting shadows:

Something as complicated as this photo would be a little hard to recreate in PICO-8 in just a couple hours, so I settled for a tweetcart demonstrating some cool effects.

How it works:

This tweetcart is a scrolling Voronoi pattern, with some modifications.

A Voronoi pattern is a pattern where seed points are randomly placed on a plane. Each seed has a corresponding cell, where every point in the cell is closer to it seed than any other seed. Most Voronoi patterns use euclidean distance sqrt((x1-x2)^2+(y1-y2)^2), but my tweetcart uses Chebyshev distance min(x1-x2,y1-y2), which gives the cells more straight edges:

This is a Voronoi pattern using Chebyshev distance, each seed point is marked with a black dot.

Rendering a full-screen Voronoi pattern is too slow to do at 30fps, so I had my tweetcart render one column of pixels on the right side of the screen, and then copy the entire screen left one pixel each frame. This creates the scrolling effect seen in the final product. The x-axis is stretched when calculating distance, to give the demo an isometric perspective appearance.

The clouds are rendered last. At the end of each draw step, my tweetcart takes the entire screen and redraws any dark blue pixels as white, slightly above the original image. In other words, my tweetcart renders clouds above where it finds shadows, instead of rendering shadows where there are clouds.

The color palette here is another part of the demo I find interesting. Calling rnd(5) will make a pixel black, dark purple, dark blue, green, or brown. Blue, brown, and green seem like the most realistic colors for this- brown and green could be farmland, while blue would be shadows- but I decided the purple made an interesting addition. Black pixels don't show up in the final result- this is because they are drawn as transparent when the screen is copied to the left.

Generating seed points:

A typical implementation for keeping track of seeds for a Voronoi diagram would be to create a table of seed objects, but the code to do that would take up too many characters to use in a tweetcart. The solution is to manipulate PICO-8's random number generation. The srand(x) function can be used to set the seed for PICO-8’s random number generator (different from seed points in the Voronoi pattern): calling srand(1) repeatedly will make the results of the following rnd() calls always return the same result. As a result, I was able to treat PICO-8's rnd() function as an infinite array of seed positions, where the index was the value I passed to srand(). This probably wouldn't be a practical solution in most situations, because it relies on redundant calculation of where the seeds are.

Each pixel iterates through 16 seed points to determine its color. As the image scrolls, the range of seed 'indices' is changed: at the start, the range of indices is 0-15, after a few frames it becomes 1-16. The x position of a seed is just a multiple of its index, while the y position is randomized.

An interesting byproduct of my approach is that as the range of seed indices shifts, the boundaries of some cells may not be calculated correctly. When the range shifts, the leftmost cell will be removed from calculating a pixel's corresponding cell, so a 'seam' may appear between cells. I decided to keep this visual error in, because it made the 'farmland' in my tweetcart more rectangular, like in real life.

Gravity Fractal

Fri, 30 Aug 2024 17:11:06 UTC

gturtle_gravity_fractal_twt

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

Tweetcart- all source code is 280 characters or less.

Edit in Education edition here!

The blue lines indicate the trajectory of simulated particles as they are pulled by the planets' gravity. If a particle hits a planet (one of the colored outlines) it colors its originating pixel the color of that planet. If a particle doesn't hit a planet within a certain number of steps in the simulation, it colors the originating pixel black.

This tweetcart is inspired by a video about fractal patterns that emerge from gravity simulations:

For the sake of performance, I had very few steps in the simulation per pixel, leading to a stripey/paint splatter effect seen in the final result. You can try to change some of the variables to improve the resolution of the simulation!

Cafe

Wed, 31 May 2023 04:36:10 UTC

gunturtle_cafe

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

arrow keys to move, z to jump, x to dash.
you can change direction mid-dash!

a mod of Celeste by Maddy Thorson and Noel Berry:
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=2145

Ticks

Mon, 30 Jan 2023 04:26:25 UTC

gturtle_ticks

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

Silly demo, someone should call pest control.

Run in PICO-8 EDU!

Realtime metaballs

Wed, 25 Jan 2023 16:16:29 UTC

gturtle_metaballs

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

Realtime metaballs demo. Uses the map as a 16x16 8-bit texture, upscaled using a bilinear filter function.

Run in PICO-8 EDU

gunturtle_voronoi_blobs

Fri, 20 Jan 2023 18:03:08 UTC

gunturtle_voronoi_blobs

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

Voronoi-adjacent thing. Can't quite fill a screen with these, but it's still a neat effect.

Run in PICO-8 EDU

Strange Garden

Sun, 08 Jan 2023 19:43:50 UTC

Strange Garden 1.0

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

Puzzle game- cultivate a garden and feed the demon!

Controls:
Arrow keys to navigate
Z - select menu/uproot plant
X - exit menu

Feed the demon the right kinds of plants to increase the time limit!
You lose when time runs out!

Fullscreen 30fps Noise

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 01:28:09 UTC

gturtle_sspr_noise

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

Fullscreen perlin-esque noise, runs at 30fps. Uses sspr, so there's some distortion at higher resolutions. Also not technically real perlin noise, so it looks a little less organic. Works by interpolating between values on a grid with sspr.

CALIGO

Sat, 11 Jan 2020 03:25:59 UTC

caligo1

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

CALIGO

mod of Celeste
by Matt Thorson
and Noel Berry

(Tweetcart) Piano Phase

Sat, 09 Nov 2019 23:31:00 UTC

pianophasetweet

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

"Tweetcart" which plays Piano Phase by the composer Steve Reich. The music is generated and played in the space of 280 characters (one tweet)!

Here's the code:

n="46bde64db6ed"d=#n
j=12800
o={0,0}for i=0,31 do for e=0,1 do
poke2(j+i*2+544+68*e,21120+i+e*64) end end
g=0
function _update60()for i=1,d do
g+=1
for e=1,2 do
if g%(90-e)<1then
w=o[e]
o[e]=w%d+1
sfx(7+e,e,tonum("0x0"..sub(n,w,w)))end
end
end
print("steve reich-piano phase")
end

The Last Taxi

Wed, 03 Jul 2019 17:57:01 UTC

thelasttaxiv1_0

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

-
The Last Taxi is a crazy-taxi inspired game where players control the last human-driven car in an effort to save people from the apocalypse. Fit as many people in your car within 3 minutes while avoiding getting shot by creepy aliens.

This game was developed for cowboy8625's 100 Dollar Game Jam on itch.io

Helium

Sun, 06 Jan 2019 17:37:33 UTC

Helium

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

This was a project I developed for Kronbits' Demake Jam in August 2018. Multiple updates to gameplay and visuals have been made from the original submission to make the game more enjoyable. The game itself is a demake of Nitrome's flash game Hot Air.

Gameplay:
Control the propeller with the mouse, and click to blow the balloon around.
The goal of each stage is collect all the flowers. The number remaining is indicated by a counter on the top right.

DIG↑ WAR

Fri, 01 Dec 2017 22:15:20 UTC

DIG↑ WAR 1.0

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

DIG↑ WAR, the intense two-player action game oriented around defeating your opponent!

How to play:

Each player plays as a farmer, which either has a red (P1) or blue (P2) hat.

Players control their farmers by using the arrow keys/ESDF for movement, Z/tab to jump, and Q/X to throw or "dig up" plants.

The goal of the game is to kill your opponent. Each player starts with 3 health, and all plants deal 1 damage. Plants are gathered by digging up sprouts with X/Q, and are thrown with the same input. Health can be increased by gathering extra fruits; every three that players gather beyond the first three will increase their health by one (health boost progress is shown by the hearts displayed below the player). The lava at the bottom will rise every 20 seconds as well, increasing intensity the longer matches last.

Although most plants do the same thing, there are two with alternate behaviors:

Melons- bounce across the ground

Banannas- function as boomerangs which go across the screen

Made in PICO-8 by @GunTurtle:

https://twitter.com/GunTurtle

DIG↑ WAR

Fri, 01 Dec 2017 22:15:19 UTC

DIG↑ WAR 1.0

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

DIG↑ WAR, the intense two-player action game oriented around defeating your opponent!

How to play:

Each player plays as a farmer, which either has a red (P1) or blue (P2) hat.

Players control their farmers by using the arrow keys/ESDF for movement, Z/tab to jump, and Q/X to throw or "dig up" plants.

Although most plants do the same thing, there are two with alternate behaviors:

Melons- bounce across the ground

Banannas- function as boomerangs which go across the screen

Made in PICO-8 by @GunTurtle:

https://twitter.com/GunTurtle

DIG↑ WAR

Fri, 01 Dec 2017 22:15:18 UTC

DIG↑ WAR 1.0

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

DIG↑ WAR, the intense two-player action game oriented around defeating your opponent!

How to play:

Each player plays as a farmer, which either has a red (P1) or blue (P2) hat.

Players control their farmers by using the arrow keys/ESDF for movement, Z/tab to jump, and Q/X to throw or "dig up" plants.

Although most plants do the same thing, there are two with alternate behaviors:

Melons- bounce across the ground

Banannas- function as boomerangs which go across the screen

Made in PICO-8 by @GunTurtle:

https://twitter.com/GunTurtle

Hardcore platformer concept

Tue, 12 Sep 2017 18:13:18 UTC

Hardcore platformer concept 0.2

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

Big update!

Basic concepts are still the same, but there's a few changes:
-Level order is different; some levels have been redone
-New night theme and music
-Particles & death animations
-Platforms that move down
-Moving spike obstacle

Hardcore platformer concept 0.1

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

New game!

Here's the controls: left and right to move, Z to jump, X to launch when within range.

....That's about it! I'll add more content soon.

Bubbill

Sat, 29 Jul 2017 10:25:05 UTC

Bubbill 0.0.1

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

Here's my next project, Bubbill!
It's about a duck that shoots bubbles. That's about it.
My last project, Grapple Land, was horribly written, so I decided to start something new.

Controls:
Arrows to move,
Z to jump
X (while on ground) to shoot

Bubbles and enemies can be jumped off of, but you'll need to be holding Z for full height.

Grapple Game

Sun, 29 Jan 2017 20:47:24 UTC

Grapple Land 0.2.1

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

Almost done with this!
Major changes (that I can remember):
-Fixed grapple physics
-Added new turret
-Added boss enemy (Normally inaccessible... unless I left it on the map)
-Added thwomps
-Added a single collectible item that does nothing (It's in the top left of the stage)
-Added more music, areas, etc.
-Added cloud platforms
-Added cloud enemies
-Added particles
-Made death look cooler

Grapple Game 0.1.5

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

Another update, although this one is slightly smaller!

The game is no longer a Metroidlike, and is just a platformer again. This is almost entirely because of checkpoints and saving. Overtime you die the program is rerun, and therefore respawns all powerups, making farming very easy (also the grapple physics are super wonky and powerups are near worthless). Added music and checkpoints, and weapon knockback.

Grapple Game 0.1.0

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

Huge update for my grappling platformer!

It's turned into more of a Metroidlike now, with two upgrades on the map- one increases chain length, the other increases attack damage, they are obtained by hitting them with the hook. There are also enemies (cannons) which shoot at you, you can block their blasts with the hook, and the cannons are not invincible.

Grapple Game 0.0.1

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

Here's a grapple-platformer concept I made. This is just a POF, mainly made so I could get used to PICO-8 (along with Lua). If I actually finish this, the code will probably be completely rewritten by then. This game is mostly inspired by Nitrome's flash game Frost Bite, and Matt Thorson's Celeste.

Feel free to make it more playable.

In regards to controls, move with arrow keys, Z to jump. X+dir to shoot a hook, hold to reel in.
The hook itself is also (obviously) a weapon- you can try killing the one enemy the stage offers.

Breakout arcade

Sun, 15 Jan 2017 14:12:48 UTC

Finished! Currently my only released game for Pico-8 hoper you enjoy!
Scrolling text was done by creating a timer variable, and placing the text at x-timer

Breakout arcade 0.9

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

Minor update for breakout, here's what's new:
-Level completion fanfare
-Slightly less buggy collision detection

Breakout arcade 0.8

by zhbrzgx

[Click to Play]

Here's my entry for tinytvjam! Very primitive version of breakout, using sprites for level data. The collision's not perfect, and the levels are all identical to play, but whatevs.