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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.