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How Much Gameplay Can You Pack In Just 13K?

Given our expectations of Xbox games, you might consider writing a game within a 13K limit, which is the challenge for the annual js13K competition far too restrictive. Its results are now out and prove that it is possible to produce a game that is fun to play. 

Back in the tape loading days and on platforms the likes of Commodore64 games came in sizes of 4K or less. As proof of concept, here's a list of a few such 4K titles, copied over from Lemon64 's archive:
  • Alien Sidestep
  • Bug Crusher
  • Dot Gobbler
  • Close Encounters
  • Dot Gobbler v2
  • Gridrunner
  • Laser Cycles
  • Marios Brewery
  • Space Action
  • Space Ricoshay
  • Tank Wars
  • Hesmon64
  • Retro Ball 
Fast forward to now, at a time when Javascript's eating the world by making all sorts of applications or  games available to everyone through the medium of the browser, rendering the need of dedicated platforms and Operating systems obsolete, 13K is sufficient enough to pack both gameplay AND cool graphics due to the advanced browser engines and HTML5.
js13kGames then is a competition trying to answer two related questions :
  • Does it make sense to consider byte sized game development in a world of widely available broadband connections?
  • Do you think it's possible to go through all the entries of a given game jam and find patterns that you could use in any other competition, regardless of the restrictions or the programming language?

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