PIXELS X PAPER
Contents
An Introduction to Bitsy 3
Bitsy Game List 5
An Introduction to Flatgames 7
Flatgames List 10
Flatgame Rules 11
On Bitsy 13
No Bad Games 15
Bitsy Prayers 16
Flat Pack 17
Let’s Make A Slot Machine In Bitsy! 18
Bitsy – My First Experiences 27
Computer 30
Cover art by Stephen Thecatamites
Zine design by Lenny Magner
An Introduction to Bitsy
Ebeth
“Bitsy is a tiny game engine for making
little games, world, and stories. When
I made it, I chose limits - the 8x8
pixel art, the interactivity limited to
walking and talking - that help keep the
focus on making a story, but I never
could have predicted all the creative
ways folks would turn those limits
inside out.”
Bitsy Creator Adam le Doux
Since its creation Bitsy has been used to make puzzle games,
worlds to explore, RPG’s, poems, little slices of people’s lives,
glimpses into alien worlds and the creatures that live there, grand
adventures and ordinary occasions, digital cards, musings about life,
relationships, gender and crying. Bitsy’s simplicity, versatility
and accessibility have allowed hundreds of developers to share their
stories. It’s the diversity of Bitsy games that gives them their
strength. That’s why I believe its best when Bitsy games travel in
packs, like a roaming digital library for people to explore.
For some the limits of the engine are a comfort, the simplicity cuts
through the overthinking and over complicating that often block us
from making and finishing games. For others it’s a challenge to push
to its limits. Bitsy has a wonderful hacking community of folks who
are constantly taking on new challenges and trying new things.
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The community itself is a strength of the engine. People in the
community are always willing to share their knowledge and lift each
other up. It makes sense that such a friendly and creative tool would
have such a friendly and creative community.
The joy of Bitsy is this- when you absolutely need to make
something it is there for you. It doesn’t matter your experience
level or the kind of game (or not game) you want to make- with
Bitsy you can do it.
Like Bitsy, Flatgames are also about the act of creation and
accessibility to people who want to make them. That’s why it made
sense for them to join together for the show PIXELS X PAPER at
Babycastles and for this companion zine. I hope the show inspires
you to make your own creations!
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Bitsy Game List
I’m Bored, Let’s Explore (Mall) by Corgi Snow Day by Cassidy
Dan Lance Aquilino-Berg
Slow Growing by Ebeth Tutorial by Claire Morely
Lil Onion Detective by Onion Cat’s Out of the Bag! by Claire Morely
A Different World by Onion The Milk and Mitten by Sarah Gould
THE CRYING GAME by Sophie Mallinson Exhume by Dan Dudley
It has been 36 seconds since the Snowcrash by Breogán Hackett
accident with the Expando-Beam by Jumbled Manifesto by Breogán Hackett
David Mowatt Vitreous by Breogán Hackett
Ballad of the Space Whale by R.E.M.-scape by Night Driver
David Mowatt Day in the Life by Night Driver
A Cozy Winter Walk by Rick Hoppmann A Quest for Candy by heyits5AM
le pi dop te ra by Becklespinax Night Drive by heyits5AM
Tutorial: Get Chunks, Talk to Your Little Duck’s Big Adventure by Em
Friend, the Bird by BedWords Becky’s Apple by Em
Raining Cats and Dogs by William Gasu the Hugging Dragon by Nenekiri
John Holly III Tome Full of Stars by Adam Dixon
Bric-a-Brac Shop by William You Have a Destiny! by Amberle
John Holly III Johnson/Awesomonster
Pink Mansion by Emma Daues My Name Is Rose by Mozz/Rose
Space Bubble Cat by Emma Daues Strawberry Cake by Lenny Magner
Flotsam by Mark Wonnacott King Butt Eater by Gaeg Melton
No Destination by Mark Wonnacott Be You Manifesto by Gaeg Melton
Amethyst Horologist, Radical End Transmission by Gaeg Melton
Archaeologist by Ben Bruce A Girl with Moonboat by Leonie Zhou
Zen Garden, Portland, The Day Before Memories in the Snow by
My Wedding by Ben Bruce Brandon Thread
Crop Circles by Adam Saltsman A Walk in a Field by Brandon Thread
Realm of the Dread Sorceress by Mount Azazel by JohnLee Cooper
Ben Bruce 12:44 AM by JohnLee Cooper
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Text Me When You Get Home by
Josie Brechner
Local Network by Michael Arcadi
Lets Get Breakfast by Sean S. LeBlanc
Rain by Sean S. LeBlanc
The Tram by Red Skald
Sophrosun by Ricasso Fiction
Snoop! by adam80027
What Was Found In The Underground by
Lucas Vially
searching for your cat on a midnight
stroll by tommakestuff
W.I.P. by Connor Halford
six day old kitten by Tati Soutar
that was a long night partying by
Graven Grotto
A Moth Batters Against Glass by
Sam Keeper
A Secret Bitsy Game by Hyper Structure
Bjarne Speak by Thayle Edward Thomas
BITSY MYSTERY DUNGEON by The
Bitsy Community
The Bitsy Jim Jam by The
Bitsy Community
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An Introduction to Flatgames
Emilie Reed
If we have an idea of how sculpting with clay or making a painting
feels, what does making a videogame feel like? Or, going even deeper
than that, if we know that sculpting with clay and sculpting with
marble are dramatically different, then doesn’t that mean there are
dramatically different processes possible in making games, too?
I love flatgames because they foreground a specific process in making
a game, rather than a goal or outcome. Flatgames are interesting to
think about precisely because they encourage us to reflect on what we
expect from games, and how and why they should be made. The original
description Llaura McGee wrote states that flatgames present “a game
as the most raw and immediate combination of movement, art and
sound.” The process starts with an experience or mood, translated to
images and sound (which can be handmade, digital, or found) and a
digital “container” organizes the images and sounds and allows the
player to move through them.
This container can take a lot of forms, of course. The flatgame jams
offer a Unity template for beginners to add their images and sounds
to, but others have used Javascript, Multimedia Fusion, Construct,
and other game making tools to assemble their flatgames. A member of
both the bitsy and flatgame communities, Mark Wonnacott, has also made
a mobile app for building basic flatgames. You can download flatpack
now if you have an Android or Windows device, and begin making a
flatgame right in the gallery! ([Link]/flatpack)
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A lot of discussions of what makes computer games unique focus on
the ability of the computer to keep track of variables and simulate
systems, whether that’s physics systems or social ones, like the
various elements of city life you have to keep track of in SimCity.
A flatgame doesn’t have any of those things, but I think flatgames tap
into something more important that computers allow us to do. Being
able to combine images of all types with sound and movement is a
uniquely accessible capability due to digital media as well. This is
something the weird multimedia CD-ROM experiments of the
90s embraced, and allows for both a different approach to making
and playing.
Making flatgames takes me back to the process of imagining videogames
that I would daydream up when I was a kid. Maybe I would doodle rows
and rows of a level unfolding across pages of lined paper, or set up
a series of obstacles I would bounce my beanie babies through, all
the while imagining their adventures in the form of a videogame I was
playing. This sort of playful imaginary gaming is captured in Marek
Kapolka’s Honor System Platformer, which was made before flatgames
emerged as a term. However, this concept is also central to flatgames
in general, where there are no hitboxes, collisions, or points, just
the idea of a narrative forming as you move through space.
The first game which used the term “flatgame” as a descriptor was
This Isle is Full of Noises by Dreamfeel studio, itself a kind of
manifesto for game making. The combination of chunky, colorful marker
art with found music and personal narrative presents an approach to
making games that doesn’t worry about in depth coding or polish. Just
releasing your game is what is important. The games made in the flat
jam that followed often reflected on the creator’s past year or had
the feeling of a diary entry, due to the immediacy of the process.
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The structure of flatgames also makes them easy to collaborate on.
Memory Museum compiles art done by guests to the games festival Now
Play This in April 2018, and MACAULAY DAD 2016 is a collaboration
between father and daughter. The visuals and sound for a flatgame
can be found anywhere. The flat pack RTP, or asset pack created for
the Bitsy X Flatgames show includes a variety of drawings, photos,
clipart and more gathered by members of the community to serve as a
jumping off point for adding visuals to further games.
Flatgames drew influences from a lot of recent developments in
accessible game making tools, game jams, and game making communities,
like Glorious Trainwrecks. Likewise, they are also going on to
influence other work, through people bending or expanding flatgame
rules, and using mice or other control methods beyond traditional
arrow keys. For an Inktober project, Becca Rose Glowacki took her
daily ink sketches and brought them to life using the limitations
of flatgames in some cases, and creating alternative gameplay and
movement in others.
My introduction only mentions a few of the games in the show, but it
serves as an overview of the possibilities that come with a “limited”
or “simple” approach to making games, like flatgames. Flatgames and
Bitsy are both alternative paradigms for thinking about the process
of making games that provide their own tools, communities and
resources, which is why I’m happy that they’re presented side by side
in this show. It shows how flatgames and bitsy provide new, accessible
ways to make games that welcome first-timers, but also are open to
collaboration and being built upon by a broader community. Bringing
them together makes perfect sense.
PIXELS X PAPER 4EVER!
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Flatgames List
Part 1: Live Flatgame Part 6: Community Flatgames
Add to the wall art with your own Morning Mushrooms by Ebeth
designs, and move the character December 25, 2016 by Remy Ripple
around, creating a flatgame over the Cavern by Tati Soutar
course of the show! Radiation Wave by Sweeneezy
je suis un ananas by Mark Wonnacott
Part 2: First Flatgame The Light Ahead by Carol Mertz
The Isle is Full of Noises Bus Song by Aria Xavier
by Dreamfeel The Craigallian Fire by Niall Moody
Unsettled by Jon Stone
Part 3: Pre-Flatgames tip-toeing around an empty house
Honor System Platformer by by Space Puppy
Marek Kapolka night thoughts by Space Puppy
Fluuu by Melissa Jr.
Part 4: Web Flatgames by Andy Nuggy
Samara by Pol Clarissou The Bones of You by Thairyn
sensitive briar by Everest Pipkin Left by Josia Roncancio
Inktober Doodles by Becca Rose and i made sure to hold your head
Glowacki sideways by Jenny Jiao Hsia
Overground by Rosa Carbo-Mascarell
Part 5: Collaborative Flatgames The Past is a Kaleidoscope by
Memory Museum by Alice Casey and Now Tara Copplestone
Play This Guests Dream Diary by Spiderlili
MACAULAY DAD 2016 by Kyle and Robot cleans the room by Heather Alexis
Macaulay Reimergartin Porthole by Mark Wonnacott and
Claire Morley
Special thanks to Richard Pieterse
for the loader script in the
arcade cabinets!
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Flatgame Rules (llaura dreamfeel & gothdome) 11
Flatgame Rules (llaura dreamfeel & gothdome) 12
On Bitsy
Claire Morley
I get pretty excited when I learn to use a new cool creative thing
and always want to share it and allow other people to experience
that excitement too. It’s amazing to see the different ways that
they might use it, and what they might gain from it. One of the first
things I wanted to do when I started using Bitsy was to tell everyone
else how amazing Bitsy is.
Bitsy taught me some really important lessons about game design,
particularly about scope and limitations – making something
manageable and complete, whatever that meant to each project (maybe
that means it’s not complete at all). These were lessons that I’d
heard before but never really put into practice. Bitsy enforces it
through its design, and at the same time allows you to make something
that feels cohesive and hand-crafted, complete but with boundaries
stretching beyond itself.
I loved that it was so easy to learn and to use, but at the time
there wasn’t much documentation or anything in the way of a tutorial
on how to use Bitsy, so I made one and put it online a few weeks
after I made my first Bitsy game. Talking to people online about it
after was so lovely, and was the first time I’d really got involved in
an online community for anything. The Bitsy community is one of the
best things about Bitsy – people are very friendly, supportive and
respectful, and I think a lot of that comes down to (obviously the
people being great, but also) the fact that it’s built around a tool
that’s so creative and accessible. I wanted to spread the culture of
Bitsy – Bitsy culture is sharing and creativity.
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I’ve helped run 5 Bitsy workshops so far, all at quite different
events to different audiences: game design students at a university;
children and their parents at a tech fair; one lunchtime in my office
of developers, HR staff and business analysts; A MAZE festival
in Berlin; a local women’s game developer meetup. At all of the
workshops people pick up Bitsy within minutes, and most have a
playable game within an hour. Bitsy gives people an opportunity
to express themselves in a medium they might not have experienced
creating in before, and I love being able to help open that up to as
many people as possible. But, the great thing about Bitsy is that
it’s not just a tool for people new to game development, it’s a tool
for everyone and has so much value and potential. For me, it allowed
me to focus on the core components of a game and its narrative and to
filter out a lot of the noise I normally feel when designing games.
The limitations allowed me to focus, create, and then move on to a
new area of the design, while keeping the central theme in sight.
My pace of making Bitsy games has slowed down in the last few months,
and sometimes I feel like I *should* be making more, but I think
that Bitsy has opened me up to thinking about game design in lots of
new ways, and has given me lots to think about when I’m developing
with other tools too. Like the games its developers make, Bitsy’s
boundaries stretch far beyond itself.
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No Bad Games (Onion) 15
Bitsy Prayers (Emma Daues) 16
Flat Pack (Emilie) 17
Let’s Make A Slot Machine In Bitsy!
Andrew Yolland
When you first start using Bitsy, the options available to you for
what your characters say may seem pretty straightforward. Using
the interface provided, you can use the built-in cycle, sequence,
and shuffle functions to move through lists of dialog. You can add
conditionals to trigger certain dialog. You can even get a little
fancy and chain those ideas together. And all that will already get
you pretty far. But you can definitely do more. In fact, a LOT more.
Even though Bitsy’s scripting
language is relatively limited,
you can combine these basic
structures into some very robust,
complex dialog trees. To give you
an idea of what’s possible, I’m
going to show you how I built a
slot machine in Bitsy!
What Does the Slot
Machine Do?
Ok, so before I show you how I
coded it, let’s just cover how my
slot machine works. I made a VERY
PROFESSIONAL FLOWCHART to show
you how it works:
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I’ll go through it in detail in just second, but here’s the TL;DR
version of that flowchart:
You need Bits to play, otherwise, get lost! If you have Bits, you
can play but it costs you a Bit. Three random dials are displayed.
Cherries are special, so if the first dial is a Cherry you win 1
Bit, and all other prizes are multiplied by 5. If the first two dials
match, you win 10 (or 50 for cherries,) and if all three dials match,
you win 100 (or 500 for cherries.) If you won anything, the machine
tells you how much. And then it always will tell you how many Bits
you have left.
Here’s a chart of what it those payouts look like from the
player’s perspective:
If you did the math, you might realize this is a VERY generous slot
machine. Oh well, good thing it’s not full of real money.
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Using the ‘Show Code’ View
Ok. So next, let’s just go ahead and show you what my slot machine
dialog looks like in Bitsy.
That’s all there is to it! It’s one conditional, have fun making
games everyone! LOL J/K that’s just what you can see of this dialog
from the visual view of the editor. If I click the ‘<> show code’
button, it actually looks like this:
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{ - else ?
- Bits >= 1 ? {multiplier = 1}
You put 1 Bit in the slot }{
machine.{Bits = Bits - 1}{br}The - dial1 == dial2 ?
dials whir.{br}{prize = 0}{shuffle
{prize = 10 * multiplier}
- {dial1 = “BAR”} {
- {dial1 = “Lemon”} - dial2 == dial3 ?
- {dial1 = “Cherry”} {prize = 100 *
- {dial1 = “Bell”} multiplier}
- {dial1 = “Grapes”} }
- {dial1 = “Orange”} }{
}{say dial1} - {shuffle - prize > 0 ?
- {dial2 = “BAR”} {Bits = Bits + prize}
- {dial2 = “Lemon”} {rbw}You won ${say prize}!!!{rbw}
{br}
- {dial2 = “Cherry”}
- {dial2 = “Bell”} }You now have {say Bits} Bits
- {dial2 = “Grapes”} left.
- {dial2 = “Orange”} - else ?
}{say dial2} - {shuffle You don’t have any Bits left!
- {dial3 = “BAR”} }
- {dial3 = “Lemon”}
- {dial3 = “Cherry”}
- {dial3 = “Bell”}
- {dial3 = “Grapes”}
- {dial3 = “Orange”}
}{say dial3}{br}{
- dial1 == “Cherry” ?
{multiplier = 5}{prize
= 1}
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Whoa! Look at all that stuff going on! Ok, I know that can look
pretty… intense. But using the ‘show code’ view in the dialog window
in Bitsy is 100% necessary when making more complicated dialog
options in Bitsy games. Some of the things you can do in Bitsy just
aren’t able to be understood by the visual editor.
Bitsy Code Blocks
In Bitsy’s scripting language, any text inside of curly brackets is
interpreted as code. Any text not inside curly brackets will simply
output as text. When you make a conditional or a list with the visual
editor, it creates code that you can view with the “<> show code”
button. I won’t be able to go into the syntax of all Bitsy scripting
right now, but know that you can always switch to code view to see
what it actually looks like. For example, a sequence list that
displays three dialog options in order looks like this.
{sequence
- dialog option 1
- dialog option 2
- dialog option 3
The curly braces indicate that a code block is starting, ‘sequence’
tells Bitsy what sort of code block it is, and then each dash
indicates a new item in the list.
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Nesting Code Blocks
Alright, with me so far? This is where it gets crazy. You can
put code blocks INSIDE of other code blocks. This is why my slot
machine code looks like only one conditional when using the visual
editor. Because all other code blocks are actually inside that first
conditional that checks if you have enough money to play. Just as
an example, here’s that same ‘sequence’ list but with a conditional
nested inside.
{sequence
- {
- a == 1 ?
sentence A
- else ?
sentence B
- dialog option 2
- dialog option 3
You might notice that conditionals in Bitsy use a slightly different
syntax than lists. But hopefully the idea is clear. The first time the
player avatar encounters this dialog, Bitsy will use variable ‘a’ to
determine if the player will see ‘sentence A’ or ‘sentence B.’ The
next time, the player will just see ‘dialog option 2.’
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Using an External Text Editor
Once you start writing dialog with nested code blocks, you’re
probably going to want to use a text editor other than just your
browser. It will just help with things like indentation and generally
make it easier to read. I use Sublime Text, Lots of people use
Notepad++ as well.
Bitsy Variables in Dialog
I mentioned ‘variable a’ when talking about that conditional a moment
ago. I won’t be able to explain what variables are in detail here,
but variables are key to writing more complex Bitsy dialog. Suffice
to say, a variable stores data, and Bitsy has them. There are three
things you can do with variables in Bitsy dialog. You can:
• Evaluate variables in conditionals.
- b == “Hello World” ?
This is some sample dialog.
• Set variables to a value, either a number or a string. Variables
do not need to be added in the ‘inventory’ window of the editor in
order to set them. Doing so simply allows you to set a value for that
variable at the start of the game.
{ a = 5 }
{ b = “Hello” }
•Display the variable in dialog text.
{ say b }
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Putting it All Together
So those are all the big pieces you’ll need to make complex dialog in
Bitsy. So here’s one more walkthrough of that slot machine code, but
this time, in English but structured just like my Bitsy code is set
up.
1. Conditional checks if you have money.
a. If you do, sets Prize to 0, reduce Bits by 1, and
b. Randomly set Dial 1
c. Randomly set Dial 2
d. Randomly set Dial 3
e. Check if Dial 1 is equal to “Cherry”
i. If it is, set prize to 1, multiplier to 5
ii. Otherwise, set multiplier to 1
f. Check if Dial 1 is equal to Dial 2
i. If it is, set prize to 10x the multiplier
and then…
1. Check if Dial 2 is equal to Dial 3
a. If it is, set prize instead to
100x the multiplier
g. Check if prize is greater than 0
i. If it is, add the prize to Bits, and tell the player how
much they won. (In rainbow text, ofc)
h. Tell the player how many Bits they have in total.
2. If you don’t have money, it tells you you can’t play.
That’s how the sausage is made. A lot of nesting code blocks, plus
setting and evaluating variables.
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See It In Action
If you’d like to see this slot machine in action for yourself, you
can find it in two places:
Find it in the room I made for the Mystery Dungeon Bitsy Collab:
[Link]
Or I view the demo of it by itself on my [Link]:
[Link]
I hope this guide helps you dream up some crazy dialog options for
your Bitsy games!
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Bitsy – My First Experiences
NewbishKewbish
As a gamer with a YouTube channel, I’m always looking for games to
record. From the start, I’ve used [Link], a site for indie games. I
looked at many games, but I soon noticed these pixelated thumbnails
and games popping up in my search results. After some research, I
found out that these word-based games were made with a tool called
Bitsy. I played a couple, expecting a small game each time, but
finishing with a respect for the creators’ ingenuity. I soon thought I
would try to create a Bitsy game of my own.
Opening up Bitsy, I was greeted by a seemingly user-friendly
interface. Clicking around, I soon realized that I was kind of wrong
(But only because I had NO clue what I was doing). I found a great
tutorial that explained the basics of Bitsy, corrected my mistakes
and moved along quite well. Until I realized that I had no idea what
my game would be about since I was just exploring how to use each
tool and putting jokes in the dialogue for everything.
I decided to stop fooling around and start brainstorming. Because I
can’t think of ideas for the life of me, I used a phrase generator.
Even though I clicked through many phrases, all the ideas I thought
of were A) already made into games or B) impossible to do with my
small grasp of Bitsy mechanics. Feeling drained after a long hour of
Googling Bitsy tutorials and trying to find ideas, I decided to join
Discord and ask some random people in the [Link] server for ideas.
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I finally found a game jam that would end a day after I started my
desperate plan to make a game. The theme was “YOU are the villain”.
Coincidentally, I was watching a video in the background and heard
“Caesar salad is great!”, which inspired me to make a game about a
waiter who was trying to poison Caesar with a “deadly” salad. (If you
follow me on [Link], you’ll know that my first game was actually Keys
To Happiness, which I began while I was trying to figure out Bitsy and
later finished after I finished A Salad for Caesar.)
Once I had a concrete idea, I stopped procrastinating and started
making rooms, which are Bitsy’s spin on levels. The tile system was
easy to use since I’m a pixel art newb. My first room was pretty
simple to make, but when I finished, I had to make a new room and
estimate where to place the entrance to the second room. Looking
back, I definitely should have created all the rooms and THEN placed
the entrances and exits. Redrawing the rooms was quite a hassle since
each room needed walls and tiles in different places.
As I went on, I realized I had a problem. The main premise of the
game involved collecting items to put in the “salad”. Knowing that
there was an inventory panel, I previously thought I could easily do
this. While investigating the panel, however, I realized that I had
no clue what to do. I frantically put out a post on the Bitsy help
forum, and luckily, a kind human assisted me with figuring out the
variables and conditionals to get the collection system working.
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After that, everything went smoothly. At this point, I didn’t have
much more time. The game jam was going on for another day, but I only
had another free hour to finish. If you played my game, you can tell
that the last few rooms slowly deteriorated in quality. The dialogue
of the sprites became briefer, and the rooms became easier for the
player to complete.
But finally, I finished and sent the game off after one last half-
brained playtest. I was actually the first to submit, but my entry
was probably the worst. Still, I loved using Bitsy after the initial
bout of confusion. The limited art offset the pressure for beautiful
assets, and the simplicity of the dialogue greatly facilitated the
creation of my game. Even though I had a couple struggles along the
way, my first Bitsy experience was an amazing one! I’ll definitely be
making more games soon!
Visit me at [Link] and at my YT channel NewbishKewbish
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Computer (Onion) 30