1D game?

haven't seen 1D tetris yet?

Sure it is possible, but not a good idea. Try to think about what 1 dimension is. 1D will be a straight line, possibly with different colors at different positions, but no width.

you'd have to define what you mean a bit more. A game with one-dimensional graphics? Or one with one-dimensional gameplay? Or a one-dimensional game world?
(For example, there are plenty of 2d games using 3d graphics. Technically there are a few 3d games that use 2d graphics too, more or less)
And you could argue that gameplay such as Space Invaders is one-dimensional. All you do is move back and forth on a line, firing a gun.

yes you could make a 1D game ... I am right now imagining something that draws from teh ideas of missle command and those old 2D games which you moved a guy around the bottom of the screen to catch falling stuff ...

only instead of using 2D, just make the game use colored dots moving on a line (via a single axis controller of course). So you could be a blue dot moving back and forth on a line intercepting increasingly bright red dots before the kill you .. etc.

Or you could make a game in which you have to keep a lever balanced, while taking on additional weights (2D in physics nature, but potentially 1D in control and graphics).

Graphically it would generally be taken as a single line. So, what ever gameplay you could come up with would need to be contained on a single line of display. If the line changes position in a direction perpendicular to itself then you have entered 2D space.

Color changing and contraction and expansion of the line are all I can think of for display elements. Sound could play a big role in feedback to the user, as could haptics.

I can think of a few implementations that would techincally be a game, but I don't see much in the way of longevity.

Sound and haptics are, however, additional dimensions.

heck, games don't even need to be "D" rated ... a game with nothing but disconnected buttons and lights is still a game ... such as a game where you have to test your reflexes to "kill" an enemy when they show up or "save" a princess. Build by having nothing except 2 buttons (kill and save), 2 lights (enemy and princess), and probably a score counter of sort or a timer. And for an advanced versions you might add stuff like extra lights to distract the player - (citizens that must be ignored).

Trufully real 3D games are not fun ... we need many more D than that ... I consider it a cheat to call a paper a 2D drawing surface ... it is in fact a 2D physical surface, but a drawing on it is multi-dimensional ... limited only by the perceptive and abstract capabilities of the observer. A simple drawing has at least 3D of expresiveness - Color @ X and Y (which is actually the trick we use to draw 3D in 2D screens) - also, if Wavelength is considered seperate from Brightness then it is 4F (For instance a 2D top-view of a minimap can show 4D of information - Color == Team, Brightness == Strength, X,Y = POS -- or Color == rate of change, Brightness == Z, X,Y == X,Y).

Also, unlike pictures, games also have a time dimension to work with ... allowing tricks like signals and patterns to be used to convey information (a single-brightness, single-color light can be used to convey the entire english langauges using nothing but 2 states, moris code, and time). The time dimension of a slide-show like presentation often conveys the Z value (for instance showing CAT/MRI scans in sequence where each slice is a certain depth of the scan).

Just thought I'd go all analytical for a minute ... now on with all the 1D goodness.

Well, you could always make it something like a "First Person 2D game." The graphical outcome would be a line, but the actual game things would be 2D. Wouldn't look very impressive, though.

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Original post by CTar Sure it is possible, but not a good idea. Try to think about what 1 dimension is. 1D will be a straight line, possibly with different colors at different positions, but no width.

I don't know if that is even accurate. If it has varying colors, then color could be considered to be the second dimension.

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Original post by smitty1276 Quote: Original post by CTar Sure it is possible, but not a good idea. Try to think about what 1 dimension is. 1D will be a straight line, possibly with different colors at different positions, but no width. I don't know if that is even accurate. If it has varying colors, then color could be considered to be the second dimension.

If you treat it that way, then a 2D game with varying colors is really 3D, and a 3D game with colors is really 4D.

Dance Dance Revolution

A lot of old "brawler" games, especially the old Tiger LCD games we had back in the day (now you damn kids get them with your happy meal) had "1D" gameplay. You could walk forwards or backwards, there was no jump or other vertical movement.

I must say, I quite liked the concept of Twinoo (on the same site), playing two 'different' games at the same time, both with their own 'lives' and time limit. Looks much more interesting than a 1-dimensional environment.

Anyway, I believe that color, sound and time can be used for various things that you'd otherwise use the second dimension for. Needless to say, using that second dimension is a lot easier on the eye, but various games, like an avoid-the-obstacles race are essentially just 1D games. Jumping over obstacles, unless it can bring you to alternate paths, is merely a state change. Color or sound can be used to display that as well.

I don't believe a 1D interface works well however (especially considering true 1D would be infinitely thin... ;) ), but 1D gameplay surely is possible. You could still argue whether or not state changes or other elements can be seen as dimensions however...

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Original post by Diton Quote: Original post by smitty1276 Quote: Original post by CTar Sure it is possible, but not a good idea. Try to think about what 1 dimension is. 1D will be a straight line, possibly with different colors at different positions, but no width. I don't know if that is even accurate. If it has varying colors, then color could be considered to be the second dimension. If you treat it that way, then a 2D game with varying colors is really 3D, and a 3D game with colors is really 4D.

Well, you make a point, but when you get down to "1D", then color becomes more important--it has the abililty to convey much more information. Normally color is simply an artistic thing, design to create mood or make objects look cool.

When you're down to "1D", then the color becomes analogous to the value of a function giving you a second dimension. In 1D, if you are bothering to use color, then it necessarily exists for reasons beyond being itself--or so it would seem to me.

So your right... color on a 2D MAP for example can effectively provide a 3rd dimension when the color exists to provide information. A heightmap is a good example of this.

I can't imagine a good 1d game. You could unroll some other simple games into 1d I guess, like tic-tac-toe (noughts and crosses) - but people from 1 dimensional realms just wouldn't understand it. The idea about using color is good, perhaps you could make a 1d snake game using color (you could teleport if you go over a certain colour in a certain direction).

But games with dimensions higher than 3 (or 4 if you think time is one) are what I think would be interesting.

Narbacular Drop/Portal is, in a way, a 4D game (in that you can completely break 3D space with the portal system).

My computer science professor did some work on projecting 4D images into a viewable 2D image ( Link ).

Question: Do you actually have a good idea for a '1d' game or are you just looking for a gimmick?

As a game designer you should be trying to create a good game rather than trying to create something to fit around a gimmicky idea; the novelty may generate some interest, but in the long run most gamers will probably go back to a more mainstream game that's less 'original' but is in some way better made.

If you've got something unusual that's also actually fun or that you think might turn out that way then go for it, but don't try to design 'outside the box' just for the sake of it.

While it's possible to make a game in 1D, it's hard to make it anything too complicated. Even most games like Space Invaders where the player is confined to a single line of movement are still 2D; the ship might only move left and right but it fires upwards to enemies above it.

The only games I know of that might strictly be called 1D are puzzle games, like the Toads and Frogs puzzle.

I was just trying to see if minimalisem can work in terms of graphics.
Trying to do something creative by restricting your technical possebilities.
The first thing I thought about is a game with only sound, but that is sort of cheating, because you don't necesseraly exploit the 1D graphics in this game at all.