[{"content":" This game was the genesis of what ultimately became the \u0026ldquo;Flynn\u0026rdquo; vector game engine that powers all of the Vector Alchemy games. My son Trayton and I created the first version for Mini Ludum Dare #56 with the design goals \u0026ldquo;Make the player dizzy\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;Use only 2 keys\u0026rdquo;.\nRoundabout turned a huge corner when Trayton came up with the idea of adding knock-back to the shots. Suddenly you could control your descent speed (by firing), which made the game instantly more fun.\nBack in 1998 I built a MAME arcade cabinet which I still have today. When we were developing Roundabout I put the project into Dropbox and synced it to the arcade machine. I\u0026rsquo;ve rarely had so much development fun as hitting save on my Mac, punching a button on the arcade machine (mapped to browser refresh), and instantly playing the change, standing up, in full retro arcade glory. It\u0026rsquo;s a great way to make games 🙂\nPlay Roundabout View on GitHub ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/gamelist/roundabout/","section":"Games","summary":"Make the player dizzy, using only 2 keys. The game that became the Flynn engine.","title":"Roundabout","type":"gamelist"},{"content":" I created Exhaust for Ludum Dare #32, which had the design theme \u0026ldquo;An Unconventional Weapon\u0026rdquo;.\nExhaust pays homage to some favorites of my youth (Defender, Choplifter, Lunar Lander) and deliberately breaks the vector rules a little with respect to quantity and shading of particles. I just love the mayhem of decaying exhaust particles bouncing everywhere.\nPlay Exhaust View on GitHub ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/gamelist/exhaust/","section":"Games","summary":"A Ludum Dare #32 homage to Defender, Choplifter, and Lunar Lander, full of bouncing exhaust particles.","title":"Exhaust","type":"gamelist"},{"content":" My son Trayton thought it would be interesting to make a Left/Right/Thrust/Fire space shooter where the ships had punching arms instead of traditional particle weapons. I was interested in making the Flynn engine interoperate with a 2D physics engine so I mocked up a prototype. Punching each other wasn\u0026rsquo;t very fun so I added a ball and it turned out that fighting the other player for control of the ball was a blast.\nVBall has 1 player (timed) and 2 player (scored) modes, but 2 player is where the real action is.\nPlay V-Ball View on GitHub ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/gamelist/vball/","section":"Games","summary":"Space ships with punching arms, a ball, and Box2D physics. Best with two players.","title":"V-Ball","type":"gamelist"},{"content":" Deep Trouble is a concept demo to test the idea of applying a combo system to a two-button control scheme. The idea works (in a retro context), but I haven\u0026rsquo;t (yet) fleshed out the gameplay to go with it. Stay tuned…\nPlay Deep Trouble ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/gamelist/deep-trouble/","section":"Games","summary":"A concept demo of a combo system on a two-button control scheme.","title":"Deep Trouble (Alpha)","type":"gamelist"},{"content":" You have fallen through the temporal rift, into an alternate timeline.\nThe year is 1986 and the gaming community, tired of chunky pixels, demands more vector arcade experiences.\nAtari delivers a sequel to their beloved Tempest, and Vortex is born\u0026hellip;.\nVortex is a twin-stick shooter designed to be played with a game controller. Keyboard play is possible, but not fun; I recommend against it.\nOn Mac use \u0026ldquo;joystick mapper\u0026rdquo; (or similar) to map your game controller to keyboard keys. On Windows, use \u0026ldquo;DS4Windows\u0026rdquo; to map a PS4 controller, or \u0026ldquo;joytokey\u0026rdquo;, or \u0026ldquo;rewasd\u0026rdquo; for other controller types.\nDisclaimer: Atari has not endorsed or sanctioned Vortex in any way. Vortex is just a love letter to the vector games of my youth. Share and enjoy!\nTo Atari: Thanks for bringing the magic.\nPlay Vortex ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/gamelist/vortex/","section":"Games","summary":"A twin-stick shooter from an alternate 1986, where Atari delivers a sequel to their beloved Tempest.","title":"Vortex","type":"gamelist"},{"content":" Where are their arms and legs? It\u0026rsquo;s not OK!\nOn touch devices, tap left/right to steer.\nPlay Snek! ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/gamelist/snek/","section":"Games","summary":"Where are their arms and legs? It’s not OK!","title":"Snek!","type":"gamelist"},{"content":" We\u0026rsquo;re staaaaaar snekking\u0026hellip; across the universe\u0026hellip;\nOn touch devices, tap left/right to steer.\nPlay Star Snek ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/gamelist/star-snek/","section":"Games","summary":"We’re staaaaaar snekking… across the universe…","title":"Star Snek","type":"gamelist"},{"content":" Where did you think the pieces went, exactly? We are all doomed\u0026hellip;\nOn touch devices, tap left/right to steer.\nPlay Kessleroids ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/gamelist/kessleroids/","section":"Games","summary":"Where did you think the pieces went, exactly? We are all doomed…","title":"Kessleroids","type":"gamelist"},{"content":" Flynn is the Javascript vector game engine which powers all the Vector Alchemy games. The code, including the functional test application, is open-sourced on GitHub.\nThe API is clean and the code is well organized, but there is (presently) no end-user documentation. I wrote it to support my own game development and I\u0026rsquo;ve worked aggressively to push as much generalizable functionality into Flynn as possible. Games implemented on top of Flynn end up having a light code base, and all browser issues (touch handling, window resizing, etc.) get handled by the engine. In practice, new game development stays very purely focused on game specifics \u0026amp; games run cross-platform \u0026ldquo;out of the box\u0026rdquo; with little effort. If you\u0026rsquo;re mildly enterprising then the test app code and the code for the VA games should be sufficient for you to develop your own games on top of Flynn. If there is developer interest then I\u0026rsquo;ll start putting some documentation together.\nFlynn polygons (vector sprites) can be created/edited using the open-sourced polygondraw utility.\nRun the Flynn Functional Test Run Polygondraw Run Polygondraw (with example polygon) Screenshots # Features # As of this writing (v2.5.1), Flynn supports the following features:\nVector rendering Draw Modes: None (Lines only, no endpoint bloom) Regular (Dimmer lines with endpoint bloom) Thick (Regular, but thicker) Flicker (Simulates vector display flicker) World / Screen coordinate systems Draw types: Lines Rects Polygons Rotation / Scaling Multicolor Collision detection Pen-up (line discontinuities) Particle effects Timers Physics Wrapper around Box2D, with vector rendering Font rendering Justify Left/Center/Right Arc text Two fonts (Standard \u0026amp; Block) Controls Laptop/Desktop Keyboard binding Virtual (touch) controls (on mobile devices) Buttons 8 position joystick Analog joystick D-Pad Configuration manager Option selection Save/Restore from cookies Key configuration Score manager Name entry Score display Save/Restore from cookies Projectiles Game State Manager Pacing management Render FPS independent of execution rate Development tools 20 FPS mode Slow-motion mode Frame rate monitor Mousetouch (emulate touch on desktop machines) Canvas management Browser resize Screen rotation (mobile devices) ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/flynn/","section":"Vector Alchemy","summary":"","title":"Flynn","type":"page"},{"content":"Every Vector Alchemy game runs on the Flynn vector graphics engine. Click a game for screenshots and the story behind it, or jump straight in.\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/gamelist/","section":"Games","summary":"","title":"Games","type":"gamelist"},{"content":" Welcome to Vector Alchemy!\nI fell in love with vector games back in 1979 when I first encountered an Asteroids machine at age 11, and I\u0026rsquo;m still a huge fan of their minimalist art style and pure game mechanics.\nI created Vector Alchemy and the Flynn Javascript vector framework to bring my love of vector magic to the browser, share it with my friends, and fill the world with more great vector games.\nBack in the day, video games contained displays which were basically televisions. They displayed their images at low resolutions using \u0026ldquo;raster\u0026rdquo; technology. An electron beam painted the screen one horizontal line at a time, progressing from top to bottom in endless repetition. Because memory was expensive and processor speeds were slow, the pixel resolution of those early displays was very limited, and their raster graphics ended up being very blocky.\nA crop of games emerged at that time using an alternative \u0026ldquo;vector\u0026rdquo; technology. Instead of making images out of square pixels, those machines commanded the electron beam directly, causing it to draw very smooth, straight, and thin lines between two end points, without the jagged edges associated with raster images. (It\u0026rsquo;s worth noting that Tennis for Two (1958) and MIT\u0026rsquo;s Spacewar! (1962) were arguably the first \u0026ldquo;arcade games\u0026rdquo; ever created, and both used vector displays.)\nOver time improvements in display resolutions, memory cost, and processor speed drove the industry to use raster displays exclusively. Only about 33 different vector arcade machines were ever commercially released.\nThe artistic style of the vector genre emerged from the constraints of the display technology it used; thin lines, dot projectiles, line-drawn fonts, transparent object interiors, an absence of curves, and a limited color palette (the earliest games were monochrome, mid-generation games used translucent color overlays, and late-generation games could render 6 colors plus white).\nVector Alchemy games bring the artistic style of those old classics to the modern web, while playfully bending some of the old rules.\nAll the games run on laptops / desktops. Most will run on mobile devices, but occasionally a game requires more buttons than a touch interface can reasonably accommodate.\nGo to the games ","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/","section":"Vector Alchemy","summary":"","title":"Vector Alchemy","type":"page"}]