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Game? Art? Or both? Digital and... physical? Unravel an intriguing universe that mixes platforming, action and puzzles, and experience a unique aesthetic adventure on ZX Spectrum and MSX.

Jogo? Arte? Ou ambos? Digital e... físico? Desvende um intrigante universo que mistura plataformas, ação e quebra cabeças, e experiencie uma aventura estética única no ZX Spectrum e MSX.

You need the real hardware or an ZX Spectrum or MSX emulator to run this game.

The source code can be downloaded and edited with the marvelous MPAGD from Jonathan Cauldwell: https://jonathan-cauldwell.itch.io/multi-platform-arcade-game-designer

Buy the casssette / Compre em k7: https://teknamic.com/

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Credits:

Code and Graphics by Amaweks www.amaweks.com

Music by Sergey Nilov (Wally) https://zxart.ee/eng/authors/w/wally/qid:470518/

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English words from the author:

/\ O [ ]

The initial idea for this game came from dialogues I had with my friend Luiz Souza. We were talking about what Anachronic Art would be, he was writing and rewriting the final version of our Anachronic Art Manifesto, and Kandinsky was always coming up in the conversation. From our dialogue came the idea to make an abstract game, and more than that: to create a whole fiction that the concept of the game would have been created by the abstract painter himself. I've made some graphical mockups that could compose the game, and then Luiz Souza wrote a story where his fictional Kandinsky died as a junkie in the late 80's and influenced some underground game developers. In the end, I had to change many things about the game: the aesthetics of Mondrian's art suits better with the technical limitations of the microcomputers of the 80s, and the exercise of fiction regarding authorship had already been carried out in Luiz's short story. The game still is somewhat related to literature through the encrypted text that comes with the physical edition inserts.

A few years ago, when I found out about the ZX Spectrum (1982), I believe around 2014, my pixel artist self fell in love with that color palette and the famous (or infamous) "Colour Clash". It's just that in the ZX, economical in all technical aspects, there is no memory space for sprite color information (the objects that move freely around the screen), and these borrow the colors from the graphic blocks in the background (generally composing the scenario).

This is the third game I develop for the ZX. In the first one, Devwill Too, I tried to use 8x8 blocks completely filled with color to create colorful backdrops and avoid showing the "Color Clash". I heard praise from people who found the graphic style interesting because of this. In the second, Virgil's Purgatory, I tried again to use the blocks in this way, going a step further, with the details of scenarios drawn with these large cells, blocks of 8x8 pixels, and graphics in black, grey, white, and red.

But in /\O[] I finally achieved the main objective of using the "Colour Clash", at first a limitation, a flaw, as a graphic effect of light, shadow, layering, simulation of automatic scrolling screen, and general aesthetics about the game. Speaking of which, the aesthetics (not to be confused with the true meaning of the word cosmetic) is conceived in such a way that each canvas forms a frame, an abstract canvas in motion. As Luiz Souza accurately evaluated: "you think about colors like a painter and apply them like a game designer". As already mentioned, the canvases were strongly inspired by the paintings of Piet Mondrian, although the basic shapes were also left from Kandinsky: the circle, square, triangle, line and point.

I continue to seek to enrich the video game I produce with cultural elements from all places, from all times, in anachrony, which as Luiz Souza concluded, regarding our Anachronic Art Manifesto, first dismantles and fragments time, understanding each one of its elements in its historical moment, to reassemble these fragments in a cohesive, conscious and critical way.

Without more to say, I hope you can play /\O[] and have fun, enjoy, enjoy, take what suits you from the experience.

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Português:

/\ O [ ]

A ideia inicial para este jogo surgiu de diálogos que tive com meu amigo Luiz Souza. Conversávamos sobre o que seria uma Arte Anacrônica, ele escrevia e reescrevia a versão final de nosso manifesto, e o Kandinsky estava sempre aparecendo na conversa. Daí surgiu a idéia de fazer um jogo abstrato, e mais que isso: de criar toda uma ficção de que o conceito do jogo havia sido criado pelo próprio pintor abstrato. Fiz algumas montagens de gráficos que poderiam compor o jogo, e em seguida Luiz Souza escreveu um conto onde seu Kandinsky fictício morria como um junkie no final dos anos 80 influenciando alguns desenvolvedores de jogos underground. Ao final tive de mudar muitas coisas sobre o jogo: a estética da arte de Mondrian dialogava melhor com as limitações técnicas dos microcomputadores dos anos 80, e o exercício de ficção a respeito da autoria já havia sido realizado no conto do Luiz. Mas isto não impediu o jogo de dialogar com a literatura quando também elaborei o texto enigmático que circula com um alfabeto encriptado no encarte da fita k7.

A alguns anos atrás, quando descobri a respeito do ZX Spectrum (1982), acredito que por volta de 2014, me apaixonei por aquela paleta de cores e pelo famoso (ou infame) "Colour Clash". É que no ZX, econômico em todos os aspectos técnicos, não há espaço na memória para informação de cor dos sprites (objetos que se movem livremente pela tela), sendo que estes pegam emprestadas as cores dos blocos gráficos ao fundo (geralmente compondo o cenário).

Este é o terceiro jogo que desenvolvo para o ZX. No primeiro, Devwill Too, eu tentei utilizar blocos de 8x8 completamente preenchidos de cor para criar cenários coloridos e evitar a percepção do "Colour Clash", e ouvi elogios de pessoas que consideraram o estilo gráfico interessante por conta disto. No segundo, O Purgatório de Virgílio, tentei utilizar novamente os blocos deste modo, dando um passo além, com os detalhes de cenários desenhados com estas grandes células, blocos de 8x8 pixels, e gráficos em preto, cinza, branco, e vermelho.

Mas em /\O[] consegui finalmente o objetivo maior de utilizar o "Colour Clash", a princípio uma limitação, como um efeito gráfico de luz, sombra, sobre posições, simulação de rolagem automática de telas, e estética geral do jogo. Falando nela, a estética (a não ser confundida com a palavra cosmética) é pensada de forma que cada tela do jogo forme um quadro abstrato e em movimento. Como avaliou com precisão Luiz Souza: "tu pensa as cores como pintor e aplica como designer de jogos". Como já dito, as telas foram inspiradas fortemente pelas pinturas de Piet Mondrian, ainda que de Kandinsky ficaram também as formas básicas: o círculo, quadrado, triângulo, a linha e o ponto.

Sigo na busca de enriquecer o videogame que produzo com elementos culturais de todos os lugares, de todos os tempos, numa antropofagia anacrônica, que como concluí também Luiz Souza, a respeito do nosso manifesto da Arte Anacrônica, primeiro desmonta e fragmenta o tempo, entende cada um dos seus elementos no seu momento histórico, para reorganizar estes fragmentos de forma coesa, consciente e crítica.

Sem mais o que dizer, espero que você possa jogar /\O[] e divertir-se, apreciar, fruir, retirar o que lhe convir da experiência.

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Outros links relacionados / related links:

Manifesto da Arte Anacrônica / Anacronic Art Manifesto (Portuguese): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lzNpNIFdlx4X_4Sr3JvDIscOXupfGtmA/view

Postagem "post mortem" com reflexões minhas / "Post Mortem" post with my thoughts:

English: http://diarioartografico.blogspot.com/2022/07/0-post-mortem-references-and-thoug...

Português: http://diarioartografico.blogspot.com/2022/07/referencias-imageticas-de-0-e-refl...


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Enjoy.

StatusReleased
Rating
Rated 4.9 out of 5 stars
(8 total ratings)
AuthorAmaweks
GenrePuzzle, Platformer
TagsEmulator, MSX, ZX Spectrum

Download

Download NowName your own price

Click download now to get access to the following files:

TCQ (ZX and MSX).zip 160 kB
Source (to use on MPAGD).zip 36 kB

Comments

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Very original game

review in spanish

(1 edit)

Wow, thank you, Tomorrow I'll post on my social media, thanks for sharing.

Hi there! Great game (I sincerely mean this), and I have been enjoying it for a long while now. I just started a new game on v1.1 and got to a position where I was not able to move anymore. I have an RZX recording I could share with you if you are interested.

Hi, thanks for the kind words. Yes, I whant to see your recording, please, sent it to me on any of my social media profiles. You can find the link for it on my website www.amaweks.co

Hi Amaweks, here is a link to the rzx I made: https://e1.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZEA8bZIIP0Wz0xoNXdp5YwCWCEpLW1Veh7

(this is the first time I have shared a link using the cloud service I subscribe to so let me know if the link fails for you).

Thanks for all your efforts, 

Michael

Hi, thanks for the feedback. Yes, I've downloaded the recording. I see just what happened, It's possible to move the sprite before the screen was rendered, so it's possible to enter inside the wall if you move fast. I'll keep that in mind and figure out a way to workaround this bug if I made a new update on the game. Sorry for the incovinient, for now, just let the square fall on that part and the game should play as intended. Thanks again for the feedback.

Nice game!

WOW, thanks again Sabrman, always love to  see your videos on Indie Retro News. And by the way, happy new year.

Many thanks for this, here is my tribute to your game...

Thank you very much, always makes me glad to hear some kind words about one of my games. Ckeck it out some of my other works, contact me on twitter in case you need a copy, and stay tuned cause soon there will be news on my itchio ;)

Great game. But I have experienced a crash on the MSX version, using OpenMSX and the cbios MSX2 machine. Here, when I entered the hole on the right and my avatar touched the purple line, system hanged. Sound stopped. Could not do anything else than reset.

Crazy bug. I'll see what I can do. For now, use another emulator or bios set.

thanks

I think I've now Fixed this bug. I'll make more tests but nex week I should update the MSX Version

This is ART!

Thanks... and game too, both at the same time ;)

(1 edit)

I just ordered the cassette version of this game after having tried the free version on emulator. This is pure art! Tremendously well done!

Thanks for buying the cassette. I'm glad people liked the game, the intention was merge art with game without loosing any aspect. Thanks

Absolutely Fantastic game!...sooo good i had to review it. Hope you enjoy the video:  TCQ - a NEW zx spectrum game from Teknamic.com - YouTube

Awesomne, alredy shared your video on social media. i'm glad you liked that much not only the game itself but the cassette. Our intention (myne and tecknamic) was that the cassette was made abstract, with clean aesthetics, with minimun text, like the game. Thanks for the awesome review.

Thank you, means alot. Looking forward to your next release!

Muitos parabéns Paulo Andrés pelo jogo brilhante, e por provar que um videojogo pode por si só ser uma obra de arte. E não apenas o jogo, como também o seu 'veículo' físico que está pouco menos que exceptional. Tenho uma pergunta rápida que é se o conto escrito pelo Luiz Souza com um Kandinsky fictício está de alguma forma disponível para ser lido. Caso não esteja, penso que a sua disponibilização seria mais uma excelente forma de dar o contexto do jogo. Mais uma vez muitos parabéns.

Olá, obrigado pelas palavras calorosoas sobre o jogo.  Sim, o conto do Luiz Souza está na revista que nós, junto com outras pessoas, elaboramos. O PDF da revista Anacronia pode ser acessado no link abaixo: https://revistadaanacronia.blogspot.com/2022/08/anacronia-n-1.html

Além disso existe também um texto secreto cifrado que elaborei a partir do jogo. esá por ai, para ser decifrado hehehe

(1 edit)

Awesome game ! This is a really masterpiece  of genius who likes code and art for sure.

Thanks for the gameplay, I'm glad you liked the game.

A truly great game! One of the best 'experiences' I had on the Speccy in the last decade. Can't praise enough the work you've done. Congratulations!

Thanks, I'm really glad with the reception of the game.

(2 edits)

Looks original and fantastic. I will for sure support this. Is there any music for the ZX 128K? It is no info about it.

Thanks, and yes, the game has in game music if played on 128k.

(1 edit)

Very nice music :) I just completed the game on real ZX 128k with CRT. Bought the digital and the cassette. Love the game :) Hope you will make a sequel.

Thanks, I'm glad you liked. A Sequel? maybe, not now, it may take a while since I have plenty of projects fo finnish, but some day it may have.

Ok :) I can wait ;)

Meanwhile I'll make plenty of other games that you may like too ;)

Hi nikosidis,  thank you for purchasing the cassette! We are preparing the orders and will start shipping next week! :)

I got the cassette. Looks fantastic! Thanks :)

=) I'm glad people are liking this much the game. Thanks for buying the cassette =)

(1 edit)

Muy bonito el juego,gracias

Gracias, eu quem lhe agradeço, espero que aproveite a experiência.

Awesome game!

Thanks, nice gameplay.

This is the essence of Art. The 8bits avant-garde. Congratulations!

(+1)

Thanks, I'm glad people are noticing the artistic aspect and dimension of thegame.