YURIX

Sky2d - My first big programming project

January 2024

When I learned programming, one of my first project was to develop a game. The idea was to take modded skyblock minecraft and turn it into a 2D-game (This is maybe also the name, cough cough..). I envisioned it to be quite similar to factorio.

At the time, I only had a Raspberry Pi Model 3b with a tiny, terribly bad screen as a computer. This did influence the game quite drastically: The windows size of the game is fixed to 256 by 256 pixels. On my screen back then, this was perfectly fine, but on a better, larger screen it is a bit small. However, this size is hardcoded into the UI and I don't dare to try and fix it. Here is that screen:

A size comparison between the screen and a IPad: The IPad is much bigger

Today I can't believe I spent countless hours on that tiny screen, but I was a broken 12-year-old back then. In der Not frisst der Teufel Fliegen goes the German saying.

Gameplay

Walking is done using WASD. At the top, you see your inventory. You can change the active item stack with the numbers 0 to 9. Blocks are placed using a left click and mined using a right click.

In a new game, you start with a few blocks of dirt and seeds. Seeds can be used to grow more seeds and given enough seed, it is possible to craft something from them. Generally, you want to start farming seeds by planting a seed onto dirt by left-clicking a seed onto dirt. It will grow and after around 30s, drop a stack of 2-3 seeds. You can collect them by walking over them. The following images demonstrate the process:

The games as seen when launching a new game. A dirt island, a player with some seeds and a crafting table The same image, but the player has planted a few seeds The seeds have grown and can be collected

With enough seeds, a tree sapling can be crafted from seeds. For this, right click the crafting table at the bottom of the island. You can scroll through the recipes using the right and left arrow keys. Find the tree sapling recipe and craft a sapling. Plant the sapling to grow a tree and harvest wood.

An image from the crafting screen Thew first tree has been planted

The wood can be used to craft more things like composters to compost seeds into more dirt, allowing more farming. It is also possible to build chests, automatic seed collectors and a tool table to manufacture tools

Using Q, you can open a fancy achievements screen.

Development History

After 2 months of intense development in 6th grade, I mostly forgot about it. A complete playthrough lasted about 5 minutes, depending on how much I speedran it. Even after ceasing to work on theis project, I didn't stop with programming and even made another game, carace ("car race") that I might cover at some point.

Many years later in 2021, I found the game files on a random USB stick I had lying around. Out of curiosity, I decided to try and get it to run. It worked, just as I remembered it. I even decided to finish a few features I was working on when I stopped development for the first time. But then again, I put it back and let it rot on my disk.

In 2023, I again stumbled over it when sorting my files. Just like in 2021, I couldn't resist the urge to try it out again and continue development for an evening.

As you can see, this is very much a personal project that has grown to my heart. The code quality is terrible, the game is quirky, but I enjoy occasionally working on it, and I'm even somewhat proud having created this game.

Download

The game uses many textures stolen from minecraft. As much as I'd like to share it, I don't want to get into troubles for it.