I made something. More specifically, I made a game engine for Point and Click Adventure games.
This is relevant to the Librem 5 because it was built with the L5 screen dimensions in mind, and will respond to Portrait/Landscape changes and adapt the layout of the screen to work in both ways. (Playing on a regular PC is the optimal experience, for sure.)
I didn’t think this deserved its own thread on Purism’s forums, but did want to share this since on top of the game engine, I made three goofy games which should work on your L5.
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Introducing Pacab - the Point and Click Adventure Builder!
Pacab is an idea I had one day at work that I decided to take way too far.
A lot of the apps I build at my work transform metadata about form questions from JSON/XML/database/whatever into HTML forms.
It occurred to me that simple point and click games aren’t that different. A screen in the game is like a webpage, and the areas you can click/interact on screen are like the textboxes/dropdown controls that we build web forms with.
Another way to think of Pacab is like an interactive slideshow. Each slide is a picture file, and each picture has an accompanying TOML file to describe the clickable areas.
It’s built on top of pygame-ce and a small number of other Python libraries.
Questions you may have:
- Is this a good idea?
Maybe? I did this largely for myself. I had a lot of fun making a game for the Purism Game Jam (let’s do this again) and have been working on this in my spare time since that ended.
- Do I think others might take what I’ve created and build their own games?
That would be pretty cool, but no I don’t count on that happening. Like I said above, I built this largely just for my own fun. (There is pretty extensive documentation for any who feel inclined, though.)
- Are the games any good?
Ehh. No. But I dare you to try for yourself and form your own opinions.
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The games:
1. Alt-Escape
Alt-Escape is a thrilling adventure in which you must escape from a room, or else risk still being stuck in that same room.
The title is a reference to the fact that there are alternative ways to escape (4 or 5 depending how you count).
I’ll admit that I didn’t have a huge plan going in to this and made it up as I went along. Still, I think the short and sweet appeal of this one may actually make it the best of the three. The cool kids find every possible exit.
Itch(.)io: Alt-Escape by neilsimp1
Source: example · main · Neil Simpson / pacab · GitLab
2. Jungle Gem
Jungle Gem puts you on an adventure going into a temple in the jungle to retrieve a magical stone.
This is way longer and admittedly the puzzles are much more obtuse and reminiscent of early 90’s puzzle/adventure game difficulty.
If you can get past all the Water Chamber stuff, I promise it gets easier from that point.
Itch(.)io: Jungle Gem by neilsimp1
Source: Neil Simpson / jungle-gem · GitLab
Now look, I am not a good writer (sorry for the lousy stories) and I an not a good artist, either. I intentionally kept these looking simple to keep constraints on myself. Both games are 100% drawn by me in KDE Kolour Paint. GIMP for the animations. The sound effects and music are all mostly me, with a couple one-offs found online to help me out. You can even hear my voice acting debut in Alt-Escape :).
3. Active Radio
This one is a bit different.
Active Radio is set in an abandoned theme park not far from where I live. The “graphics” are all photos that I took. (This admittedly runs poorly on the L5)
Active Radio pits you in a radioactive wasteland where you must find parts to assemble a radio and call for help before becoming food for the “Horde”.
This game has far fewer puzzles and is big on exploration.
(While playing, just imagine what someone with actual skills in photography could have done with this idea 
).
Itch(.)io: Active Radio by neilsimp1
Source: Neil Simpson / active-radio · GitLab
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None of these games are revolutionary or anything, but I hope they at least get a chuckle from some people. They are simple by design, and thus have a lot of shortcomings. I’d love constructive feedback.