The Turing snake
You control a virtual snake in matrix of bits. Each part of the snake correspond to specific command (move, left, right,...) that will be executed only if its actual bit is 1. Set the proper bits on the matrix in order that the snake reach its targets.
This is a game made in one week-end for the GMTK jam 2019. The theme was "Only one". Here, set some bits to "one" is the only way to interact and progress. Like the classic Snake games, you spend all your time in only one simple map with only one element (the goal to reach). Finally, I tried to build some puzzle where you have to reach distant goal by only changing one bit of the matrix.
Controls :
- Left click : switch a bit between 0 and 1.
- Space : run or retry if bocked. During run mode, the snake will move according to the commands that have a bit set to 1.
- Right click : In some levels, the snake has blue parts, click on it to change the command of this part of the snake.
This game was made with Unity and the music and sound with https://beepbox.co.
Comments
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Really cool… just added to my collection! Would you like to join Creactivity #1?
Very nice game! I'd like to write something about the game in my snake article, would you mind contacting me? (clicking my name and following some links should get you there)
Sorry for my late reply, I saw your article about snake game on your blog, this is an impressive collection ! Thank you very much for adding my game to it. I hope to do more snake game on the future !
Do you mind DM/emailing me to give me some of your own words on the game for the article? Or you can post here too I suppose. I'm interested in the inspiration for the game, reflections on how it turned out, etc.
I didn't find a way to send DM on itch.io so I allow myself to answer you here.
My first inspiration for this game was the cellular automaton like the game of life of conway.
It is something that I was interested in I thought it could fit the 'only one' theme of jam I was participating just by replacing the classic black and white grid with a 0 and 1 grid.
Combining this with a snake game was a way to also have reliable game mechanics (eat to grow, don't eat yourself, ...) that the players will immediately understand.
Looking for idea for having both, I found that using the snake as a list of commands could be nice because it can quickly produce a lot of interesting complexity (where you move affect what actions you will execute that affect where you will move...).
I usually prefer making sandbox game but here it seems to me that having some puzzle levels was the best way to introduce the ideas of the game (but I still added a sandbox mode at the end).
To make the puzzles, I just tried randomly different configurations and chose the one where the snake ends up to a place that will look like unexpected for the players while gradually adding new mechanics.
The Turing machine was not my first inspiration but it ends up looking a little like a 2D Turing machine so I chose this name.
Hope it will be helpful ! Let me know how to contact you if you have more questions.
Great, thanks!
My contact info is on my website, but what you wrote is perfect.
Really clever idea! I can't seem to wrap my head around some of the puzzles though. It might help if the 1's you set persist after retrying, so I could make small changes and see the effects.
Thank you for your feedback ! You are right about the persisting state after retry. I would have liked to have time to implement it even for me when I was building some puzzles ^^
Ingenious idea, well done!
This is very good idea! It is a bit hard but very well done!