What can we learn from 800 games made for a jam, 13 kb each

Andrzej Mazur • @end3r • Enclave Games
Warszawskie Dni Informatyki, Warsaw, Poland, March 27th 2018

onGameStart 2012

dev.end3r.com/2012/09/ongamestart-2012-the-aftermath/

Enclave Games

enclavegames.com

js13kGames

js13kgames.com

Prizes

• ~20.000 USD total in software
• free t-shirt + gadget + shipping
• fame and fortune

13 kilobytes

"Limitations spawns creativity"

Improve skills and learn new tricks

github.com/js13kgames

48 hours

30 days

Eat, sleep, code, repeat.

"Size was never an actual problem."

"I ran out of time
before I ran out of space."

13 kb is A LOT

HTML

<style> body { margin: 0; background: black; ... } </style>
<canvas></canvas>
<script>
  document.title = "Blade Gunner";
  ...
</script>

Loading images

var i = new Image();
i.addEventListener('load', function() { // image can be drawn });
i.src = 'data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANS...RU5ErkJggg==');

Level data

Snake.UI = {
    food: [
       [       ],
       [ , ,1  ],
       [ ,1, ,1],
       [ , ,1  ]
    ]
};

Sounds

Snake.Sound.sounds = {
// Example sound - entering the TRON mode
enterTronMode: [
jsfxr([0,,0.0864,,0.4458,0.2053,,0.3603,,,,,,0.2349,,0.4484,,,1,,,,,0.5]),
jsfxr([0,,0.2012,,0.4803,0.2939,,0.326,,,,,,0.525,,0.6112,,,1,,,,,0.5]),
jsfxr([0,,0.2424,,0.2184,0.2631,,0.2023,,,,,,0.2315,,,,,1,,,,,0.5]),
jsfxr([0,,0.0429,,0.4426,0.5,,0.2284,,,,,,0.1798,,,,,1,,,,,0.5]),
jsfxr([1,,0.2311,,0.2188,0.2821,,0.0801,,,,,,,,,,,1,,,,,0.5])
]
};

Procedural content generation

Lost in the Woods, Phosphorus Dating

js13kgames.github.io/resources

Setup

• Microlibary - kontra
• Artwork - pico8
• Sound - jsfxr
• Music - sonant-x
• Minification - advzip

 
Galactic Backfire

Don't try this at home

• Replacing Math.PI with a global variable named pi
• Removing the end tags for HTML, BODY, HEAD, CANVAS
• Removing/shortening string constants
• No images, everything is rendered using primitives
• Shortening class names in CSS
• ...
• Removed space in "GAME OVER" so it read "GAMEOVER"

Post mortems

js13kgames.github.io/resources/#posts2017

js13kGames

===

Enclave Games

===

Front-end

Scope

Working prototype

Perfection or vanity

If at first you don't succeed,

try again start something else