Zâmbești is 2D puzzle/stealth game where you must hug as many people as possible. It was created in 48 hours during the Molydeux Game Jam in 2012.

“Imagine living in a world where all anyone can do is hurt each other. You on the other hand, your only ability is to hug those around you.” – @petermolydeux

I participated in the Molydeux Game Jam 2012, a game jam that occurred world wide. The aim of the jam was to make a game in 48 hours based on one of the tweets by @petermolydeux, a parody Twitter account based on the famous game designer Peter Molyneux.

The game, called Zâmbesti (the Romanian word for smile) was based around the tweet at the top of this post. I was also inspired by Nina, a Romanian friend and fellow student at the IT University of Copenhagen. The game is a 2D puzzle/stealth game built using ActionScript 3 and Flixel where you control Nina and try to hug as many people as possible.

I did all the programming, composed the music, and did the pixel art. Since I was working alone, I tried to simplify things where I could. For example, to fit in with the natural 8-bit feel that Flixel provides, I decided to have pixel art for the art in the game. I also tried to keep the music as simple and minimalistic as possible by using square waves, sine waves and other simple waves. Since I wanted the game to be extendible infinitely and didn’t want to go through the trouble of designing levels, I deciding on implementing an algorithm that could generate the levels for me. I decided on implementing a maze generation algorithm, but when I researched the problem further, I realized that most of the algorithms were for thin walled mazes, where the walls were the cell borders in the grid. I wanted to implement thick walled mazes, where any cell in the grid could be either a path or a wall. I looked through different algorithms and maze classifications on Think Labyrinth!, as well as downloading a program called Daedalus which implemented all of the algorithms, making it easy to see what my mazes could look like.

View the game’s profile on the Molydeux Game Jam 2012 website.

EDIT: ValiantGamers on YouTube made a Let’s Play video!