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Escaping the bit

This is a weird one.

I made EscapingTheBit for the "1 Bit Jam" which was hosted Daniel Linssen on itch.io.

The rules for it was pretty brutal:

• 1-bit colour: 2 colors allowed. No shades, no fades, no alphas.
• 1x1 pixel display: the actual window can be upscaled to fullscreen, but the game can only display one colour at the time.
• No audio/feedback: there are no external feedback other than the display, so full silence.

The game is about a blind guy trapped in a room. You need to find the key and the exit door checking what you have around you.

A monster is also randomly wandering in that room.

The gameplay

The game has two main state: Idle and checking.

The idle mode is the initial one, it's mainly black with white flashes which indicates the beating of your heart, faster it flashes and few hp you have. You switch to checking mode pressing space.

The checking mode is mainly white with black flashes. It is divided in four part: checking left, checking up, checking right, and checking down.

When you enter the checking mode it will cycle through left up right down automatically and for every direction the screen will flash in different modes indicating what you have on that direction:

• 1 long flash = wall;
• 1 short flash = free space;
• 2 short flashes = key;
• 3 short flashes = exit door;
• 7 short flashes = enemy;

So, for example if you have a wall on your left and your right, a free space up, and a key down the screen will do a long flash, a short one, another long one, and two short flashes and then will return in idle mode.