Bellwoods – a Generative Art web game in 13 kilobytes | Hacker News Reader

Bellwoods – a Generative Art web game in 13 kilobytes

bellwoods.xyz

99 pointsmattdesl17 comments

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Reminds me a lot of "flOw in games" who went on to make flower and journey.

http://interactive.usc.edu/projects/cloud/flowing/ (it's old, so flash or ps3 required)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thatgamecompany

Being from Toronto, I feel the funny need to drop this here:

http://www.trinitybellwoods.ca/

The aesthetic of this little toy seems like it would have fit a couple of album releases called "Friends in Bellwoods" that were all inspired by the park and the neighbourhood around it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friends_in_Bellwoods

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friends_in_Bellwoods_II

I'm guessing this is called Bellwoods because its a tiny wood that rings like bells?

Glad you caught the reference! I was born in Toronto and Trinity Bellwoods is one of my favourite spots in the summer. The name also has a second meaning with the sound as you noted.

I can't take credit, it was @mlissa_h who suggested the name!

Well you should post it on r/toronto. It's a lot of doom and gloom around there lately for obvious reasons...

this might cheer some people up!

This is an enchanting game. If you are interested in the code, I found the github and the author was generous to share the source code for educational purposes https://github.com/mattdesl/bellwoods

How do you choose the tonal scale for the "music"?

Mostly through experimentation. I ended up with a set of notes that I liked and give enough variety when played semi-randomly, while still keeping with the happy/uplifting mood of the game.

Love it! I keep searching for a "win condition"? Is there one? It's okay if you want to keep me guessing ;)

Feels more like a toy (no win condition) than a game. But this is not a criticism, because it's a great little toy!

I can't get past level 3.

Have you chased the birds?

Oh wow, that's beautiful. Love it. How'd you get it so small while having sound? That's awesome.

Looks like the sound is generated based on various parameters in the game, like the height of the grass and color of the field.

Thanks! All of the graphics, colour palettes and sounds are procedurally generated which makes the game small in file size and endless to explore.

Not quite endless, I found an 3 edges of the space. Couldn't move beyond.

I wondered about this, too, after running into the edges. I thought they would have made it "infinitely" generating, like with a periodic boundary or some tessellated space.

The terrain is bounded by walls (a design decision to keep users from getting too far away from portals) but you can discover new palettes and worlds forever, by continuing to step through unexplored portals.

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