I just found this thing which I made a year ago:



I put the pixels on a layer below the canvas and traced them. I thought I made another one, but I can't find it.

Did you try it?  It entirely generates new things, so I'm not sure what you mean.  Except that they are always horizontally symmetrical.

The horizontal mirroring is a nifty idea, but I didn't find anything neat in my fiddlings with it. If you did, post it!

I am saying maybe there's a more sensible way of generating koalas riding bipedal elephants!

Oh, absolutely! I thought you meant that the robots and mirrors were more sensible. But yeah, even if they don't do organisms, they're great!



Parrot.


Elfdemon is distraught.


This one reminds me of Yoshi! It's got a similar body form, but it's long and sharp instead of rounded and it wears high heels instead of shoes.

You have to be really patient to study those pixels

If you're extracting a lot of images from one grid, sure! If you're flipping through lots of images to find things that pop out at you, like bipedal elephants, it doesn't take that much patience at all.

Imagine a competition to create a game solely populated by sprites found in a single image created by that generator. Animating them would be fun!

I'm actually considering using this method for a platformer I'm making, since I can't think of a protagonist.

what about the koala on its back?

There's more sensible ways to do this than white noise!

Examples:
Pixel Robots
Pixel Spaceships
More Pixel Spaceships

Sure, if you consider spaceships and robots to be more sensible than koalas riding bipedal elephants.

Richard's Evolving Sprite Tool

This looks neat, but it's not as effective for discovering new things; it's more about refining existing things.


Here's some stuff I found on my graphing calculator a while ago! More to come.


A bunny in a UFO.


A dude meditating. His posture is about as good as mine.


A gecko! I think this one animated to be climbing walls could be awesome.

It turns out that you don't actually have to come up with sprites! You can just get a computer to come up with them for you.

Linky

This page generates a 96*64 grid of random black and white pixels. Within any such grid, there are a bunch of little creatures hiding! Here, I'll demonstrate with this:



And here's a bunchload of stuff I found in just that one grid!


The first thing that popped out at me was this bipedal elephant-thing, in the upper middle of the image. Check out that ear!


bzzzzz


This one is definitely Seussian, though I think it's more of a Who than a Grinch.


I modified this one a tiny bit, but it was pretty humanoid to begin with. It's from the upside-down version of the grid.


This one looks to me like a chibi thing with a shovel, pointy ears and a horn.


This one is a deteriorating pumpkin, which I'm including for the eyes. Such awesome eyes!


The antler man thinks highly of himself.


Concave head man thinks less highly of him!


Ha-ha! I have hidden traps along this corridor, and the only way to avoid them is to jump over them!


aaaaaaah


aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah


This ponytailed girl is really visually concise!


I can't tell whether the ghost is resting against the block or pushing it.


I'm absolutely certain that this is a canary.


I think of this as a little floating helper dude with adorable paws.


Another spitting image!


Try it! You are likely to stumble upon something awesome. Oh, and

(original from a different grid, touched-up)
Let it be known that there are monocles!

The Triangular Pixels thread was already the first Google result before I joined the experiment a few minutes ago.

Holy whoa it's so much better now! The existentialist parts are great :D

Out of curiosity, what were you trying to accomplish with the game? Make the player feel as though he's turning into a woman? Give gender changers a face that doesn't incite controversy?

You could have it so that when you run out of lives, you restart at the last checkpoint. So every three or so deaths, the enemies return. For extra coolnitude, of course, your lives get replenished at each checkpoint. Or instead of a fixed number of lives, you could adjust the number of lives allowed at each checkpoint, so that you're allotted so many deaths per challenge.

unlockables

The concentric squares on the blocks, block variation, selective grass, flat swirly clouds, and a few other things all seem to be heavily inspired by Fez.

For what it's worth, knowing exactly what you're up against can be pretty scary as well. My game Other People (http://superdotman.googlepages.com/OtherPeople.exe, arrow keys) is scary solely due to a graphics trick--you can only see what's going on maybe a sixth of the time.

You're also completely powerless, you move at half the speed of the other people, and spoiler, but I think the important part is the insufficient information. Players are used to knowing whether something is right next to them. In this game, you only become aware once it's too late--you can see the invisible black circles intersecting the white one.

I also find that giving the player insufficient feedback is a great way to instill fear. For instance, removing the typical red flash that indicates that an enemy is being damaged. I'm hitting him with all these bombs. Is he immune to bombs? Should I try something else? I've already tried everything else! Is he invincible? waaaarg *bomb bomb bomb*

Super-Dot: How so? All it taught me was that the key to infinite wealth was surfing along the shore after watching a tutorial.

I was a wee lad at the time, so I wouldn't say that my reasoning was perfect, but basically I never spent a cent now because I might need it later. Needless to say, when later came, I assumed that there would be another later. The habit stuck.

So I guess it actually gave me the opportunity to form an irrational fear. But a handy one!

Pokemon taught me the value of the dollar. I am pretty frugal now!

Maybe eventually! For now I'm just learning to do the sprites. You have to walk (cycle) before you can run (an executable).

I'm not sure that I can animate the cape without making it a perpetually blustery day.

While we're asking for opinions on low-res, 2ⁿ-frame walk cycles...

R-r-r-repost!

FPS is 30 by default, and that's going to be configurable at some point.

Every frame, Acceleration is added to the protagonist's speed if a key is held down, and Friction is subtracted from the protagonist's speed. The speed never exceeds Speed Limit.

When you press the jump button, the protagonist starts moving up Jumping Speed pixels every second. Gravity is added to the downward motion every step, so the peak of the jump is when enough Gravities have been added to make the downward motion exceed the upward motion.

I'd love to add other platformer behaviors, in particular variable jump height and air control intricacies, but I've unfortunately run out of keys on the keyboard. I'll add some to the (human-readable) copy-paste format, but to add them to the UI, I'll need to implement configurable controls, which could take some time.


Improvements:

• Drawing is really fast now, no matter how many blocks there are!
• I implemented Knytt-style screen-by-screen cameraing! Press 2 to use, and paste this for a demo:

/==HARARA MOUNTAINS==\ the level layout of Harara Mountains from Within a Deep Forest, along with a really poor approximation of Ball 1's motion Screen-by-Screen Camera: 1 Acceleration: 3.0530527435243104 Speed Limit: 12.0000000000000000 Friction: 0.5630518563091700 Jumping Speed: 10.6152653037570016 Gravity: 0.4744035387411700 Terminal Velocity (this one gets changed every time Block Height and Width gets changed, because science): 29.0000000000000000 Protagonist's X-Position: 4634.8194858729804800 Protagonist's Y-Position: -232.4523127283800000 Protagonist's Width: 16.0000000000000000 Protagonist's Height: 16.0000000000000000 Block Height and Width (they have to be square): 24.0000000000000000 Horizontal Blocks Onscreen: 25.0000000000000000 Vertical Blocks Onscreen: 20.0000000000000000 Zoom Level: 1 FPS: 30 The President has been kidnapped by ninjas. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the President? 8    88                                                                                                                                                                                                8 8    88                                                                                                                                                                                                8 88   88                                                                                                                                                                                                8 88   88                                                                                                                                                                                                8 88   88                                                                                                                                                                                                8 88   88                                                                                                                                                                                                8 88   88                                                                                                                                                                                                8 88   88                                                                                                                                                                                                8 88   88                                                                                                                                                                                                8 88   88                                                                                                                                                                                                8 88   88                                                                                                                                                                                                8 88   88                                                                                                                                                        888                                     8 88   88                                                                                                                                                        888                                     8 88   88                                                                                                                                                 8888                                           8 88  888                                                                                                                                            888888888                                          88 88  888                                                                                                                                     888    8888888                                            88 88                                                                                                                                          888                                                       88 88                                                                                                                                       888888                                                       88 88                                                                                                                                       888888                                                       88 88                                                                                                                                                                                                    88 88                                                                                                                                                                                                    88 88                                                                                                                                                                                                    88 88                                                                                                                                    88                                                              88 88                            88888  88888                                                   8888888888888888                         88                                                              88 88                            88888  88888                                           88888   8888888888888888888                                                                                      88 888         888                888                                            888888888888        888888    8888                    8888                                                              88 888         888                             8888                              888888888           888888                            8888                                                              88 888                                         8888888888      888                                88 888    88                                                                                          888 888                            88888888     8888888888      888                           888  88        8888                   88                                                                   888 888                            88888888                            8888888888888888       888  88     8888888888                88                                                                   888 888                            8888888                 888         8888888888888888       888  88888888888888888                                                                                     888 888                                                    888         888888888    88888888  888  888888888  888                                                                                        888 888                    888888                                      888888888    88888888   88                                                                                                        888 888                    888888                                      8888888      88888888   88                             88888888888                                                                888 8888          8888     888888                                                              8888                     888888888888888888888                                                            888 8888          8888     8888                                                                8888                    88888888888888888888888                                                           888 8888     888888888                                                                                                 88888888888888888888888                                                           888 8888     888888888                                                                                                 88888888888     8888888                                                           888 8888     888888888                                                                                                 88888888            88888                                                         888 8888                                                                                                               8888                 8888                                                         888 8888                                                                                                               8888                 8888                                                         888 8888                                                                                                               8888                 8888                                                         888 8888                                                                                                               8888                 8888                                                         888 88888                                                                                                              8888                 8888888                                                      888 88888                                                                                                              8888                   88888                                                      888 88888                                                                                                              8888                   88888                                                      888 88888                                                                                                              8888                   88888                                                      888 88888                                                                                                     8888888  88      88888888       88888                                                          88888                                88                                                          8888888888888888  88      88888888        888                                                          88888               88888888        8888    8888888888                                           8888888888888888  88      88888888888     888    8888888                                          88888 88888               88888888        8888    8888888888                                           8888888888888888  88   88888888888888     888    8888888                                          88888 88                  88888888        888888888888888888                                           8888888888888888  88   88888888888888     888    8888888888                               8888888888888 88                  88888888        88888888888888888888                                       888888888888888888       88888888888888     888    8888888888                               8888888888888 88 8888           8888888888        88888888888888888888   88                                  888888888888888888       8888888888888888        888888888888            88888888888888888888888888888888 88 8888           8888888888        88888888888888888888   88       88                      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88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888  8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888 88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888 Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle! \==HARARA MOUNTAINS==/

Better sound effects yeah! This thing is now a whole lot easier to use.

Also some bugs were fixed! And Shift works as a jump button!

ASCII is good because, if you'll pardon the simplified terminology, it's ugly by default and it's really hard to make it beautiful. So when you use ASCII, you're freeing yourself from the constraints of good aesthetic taste. You don't need to be an artist to use ASCII, unlike most other art styles. It's an aesthetic that allows you to concentrate on the programming or the gameplay or whatever. And it's retro!

And, of course, it imposes a bunch of constraints. Constraints are fabulous.

It takes longer to wait for text-to-speech, but it's a million times more efficient for me.