Beautiful Pixels Game API; Connexus ships to IGF

Before the blog "Beautiful Pixels", I used the name for a Game/Visualization API.

Beautiful Pixels the API was a concept for a game jam:

• Everyone decides to write either a game, or a visualizer.
• Games write out to a low resolution, palletized, frame buffer.
• Visualizers render the low-rez games in high-rez, in some novel way.

Games are typically Atari 2600 or Intellivision style, or lower rez. Think Tetris clones. Visualizers could render out the games in HDR with bloom, or as colored smiley faces, or a field of flowers, ... The coolness comes from the odd mash-up of games and visualizers, that were not planned to go together.

Well, the last Game Jam we had, we picked another theme, Game Mad Libs. The Beautiful Pixels API only had a few small games we made for it in pre-jam planning days.

Below are screen shots of games using the Beautiful Pixels API:
Game: Platformer, by Adrienne Walker
Visualizer: Mario World, by Mike Daly


Game: Connexus, by Mike Daly
Visualizer: Smiley, by Mike Daly


Game: Box Pusher, by Mike and Jody
Visualizer: Power Blur, by Mike Daly


But, one game did make it well beyond Beautiful Pixels! Connexus (by Mike Daly) just shipped to the Independent Game Festival. Check out the Connexus website for screen shots. To the right is a screen shot of Connexus as it shipped to IGF, re-implemented outside of Beautiful Pixels API.