Despite its minuscule size, it includes all the essential elements of a classic platformer.
Games keep growing larger every year, but a group of developers is pushing back against the trend.
Bouncing Beholder, however, is different.
Players control a perpetually bouncing eyeball using the arrow keys, navigating a deceptively inviting landscape filled with dangers.
The goal is to collect as many coins as possible while avoiding hazards.
And when you inevitably lose, the randomized level design ensures that every replay feels fresh.
The game was written by Marijn Haverbeke, who originally created it for theJS1Kcoding competition way back in 2010.
It was recently rediscovered thanks in part to itsstrict file size limit.
Haverbeke achieved this astonishing level of optimization through a series of clever coding tricks.
These include abbreviating long variable names and representing game states using mathematical formulas instead of storing data directly.
Collecting one slightly lowers the platform’s height, effectively removing the coin.
Instead of writing canvas.quadraticCurveTo(), he can simply use qt().
When your entire game fits within a single kilobyte, every character matters.
But it certainly is fun.
The fullgame codecan be found over on Haverbeke’s blog.
