Digital Backwater by Max Cahill
Play Digital Backwater in your browser on Itch!

Didn't have much time for LD this time around but managed to get something fairly ambitious knocked out today!
Hope you enjoy it!!
Implemented:
- Persistent multiplayer world
- Reorganising blocks and leaving messages
- Abstract colourful pixel graphics
Not Implemented: - Sound - Any sort of resource management or higher simulation
Ratings
| Overall | 561th | 3.083⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 704th | 2.391⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 46th | 3.957⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 221th | 3.739⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 537th | 3.045⭐ | 24🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 352th | 3.286⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 11🗳️ | 10🗨️ |
I always like this kind of small virtual world, tough it's a bit sad to know that these games are so short lived. Huge props for doing all this solo!
I also wish I'd thought to capture the entire history of the game to make a timelapse :(
@philomory thanks for playing!
The fact that this was a persistent world is really awesome. I'm always super impressed by networking in a jam... I just wish I could have played when more players were on so I could see how others were using it. Really interested in seeing what you do with this one in the future.
Best point next is the graphics: very simple but nice choice of colors, I like the ambiance.
I spent several minutes trying to understand what to do. When I was almost giving up, I read the instructions on the site =P
Maybe in-game instructions would be useful.
Also, I don't know what are the first 3 numbers on the left (they are always zero)
Given that the world is persistent, I'm also making a mental note to come back in a week or so and see how the world has changed after more people have had a chance to play; I'm curious to know how it'll evolve!
Fantastic idea, loved the feel of your world.
I hope you're keeping all the updates somewhere, would make a cool zine.
@occultone thanks for giving it a look on-stream!
@endlesspeak @sean-s-leblanc thanks - yeah if I think of anything fun and gamey to do with it that's not just "boring deathmatch" I'll definitely give it a go.
@tymus I wish I was keeping the updates, unfortunately firebase doesn't have that kind of thing built-in and I've been busy with "real work" since LD :( Would indeed make a cool zine, I'll have to find a way to keep changes and then show it to new people!
Kudos on getting all of this implemented in a day. Shame there wasn't more of a community goal other than 'do whatever'.