{"author_link":"\/users\/ancient-pixel","author_name":"ancient-pixel","author_uid":1002913,"comments":[{"id":711952,"author_name":"Aquachain","author_uid":"aquachain","epoch":1633328457,"text":"Interesting idea. :thinking: ","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":712693,"author_name":"aplegatt","author_uid":"aplegatt","epoch":1633340744,"text":"Original idea and gameplay. Good job :)","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":712908,"author_name":"ancient-pixel","author_uid":"ancient-pixel","epoch":1633343890,"text":"@aplegatt @aquachain Thank you :) ","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":713391,"author_name":"Jupiter_Hadley","author_uid":"jupiter-hadley","epoch":1633351169,"text":"Nice graphics, interesting concept. I included it in my Ludum Dare 49 compilation video series, if you\u2019d like to take a look. :) https:\/\/youtu.be\/d0CZearFG8U","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":714115,"author_name":"ancient-pixel","author_uid":"ancient-pixel","epoch":1633358942,"text":"@jupiter-hadley whoop whoop! Thank you :) much appreciated","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":719230,"author_name":"Zachary Shah","author_uid":"zachary-shah","epoch":1633390915,"text":"Simple, but super polished and pretty fun gameplay. The visuals are great, maybe simple sound effects for different problems would work well but I understand the difficulty in adding audio. Dialogue was charming as well. My one suggestions would be to add some way to play for longer. I feel like no matter what, I will always die at the same time. Regardless, really solid entry and happy birthday!","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":719276,"author_name":"alec","author_uid":"alec","epoch":1633391082,"text":"I\u2019m glad you didn\u2019t quit on this game even though your hard drive died. It would have been easy just to give up\/scrap it, but props to you for finishing! The graphics ended up looking really nice and the idea was super unique. Trying to balance everything in you life is definitely something everyone can relate to. Nice work! ","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":719292,"author_name":"Pavocado","author_uid":"pavocado","epoch":1633391161,"text":"THAT WAS SO STRESSFUL! Nice interpretation of the theme!","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":720195,"author_name":"TheseusInABottle","author_uid":"theseusinabottle","epoch":1633395200,"text":"Very clever interpretation of the theme. I also like your graphical stylings.","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":725728,"author_name":"Saltysa","author_uid":"saltysa","epoch":1633432698,"text":"It took me a couple of run to understand that I didn't really have to keep everything in the brain. I liked that the end screen tells you what you focused on the most\n\nThe game is nice but really stressful when anxiety rises; I love the art, something about the crude styling is really charming and match the mood of the game. It seems that you had a hard time making the game, with your hardware and everything, but it's a really nice entry! \n\nAlso, happy birthday !","format":"md","likes":2,"spam":"N"},{"id":726834,"author_name":"ancient-pixel","author_uid":"ancient-pixel","epoch":1633438384,"text":"@saltysa Thank you, glad you liked it. Not being able to\/needing to focus on everything at once was a hard decision bc you need fail\/win states that kind of make sense but don't feel totally unfair. And letting go to prevent chaos is very much a IRL task that is hard to do\/manage^^","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":742795,"author_name":"LDJam user 49798","author_uid":"49798","epoch":1633553827,"text":"Fun little one-button game. I was a bit confused at first, especially with the numbers spinning around, but when the yellow stress-objects started appearing, it became fun trying to push them out while keeping the rest in.  \nAlso thank you for the mini post-mortem.","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":749100,"author_name":"SlickRamen","author_uid":"slickramen","epoch":1633644695,"text":"sweet!","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":749120,"author_name":"Nico Villanueva","author_uid":"nico-villanueva","epoch":1633644966,"text":"A very, very cool. Haven't come across many \"meaningful\" games, or at least games that make you reflect on why I cared most about work in life. I'll give it a few more rounds and see if it's a pattern :thinking: ","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":750005,"author_name":"Fedora","author_uid":"fedora","epoch":1633663815,"text":"Really cool game, fun and simple idea, short and well executed!","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":750364,"author_name":"ancient-pixel","author_uid":"ancient-pixel","epoch":1633672595,"text":"@maus-games Thanks, yes, I am still thinking around, if I could have done anything to get to that point quicker, but I didnt want to start with a full brain^^\n\n@nico-villanueva Thank you :)","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":750584,"author_name":"cyangmou","author_uid":"cyangmou","epoch":1633679033,"text":"As I mentioned earlier to you, cool idea. The theme was hard thistime, I totally agree with you and we also had issues to come up with something fun. I Rated it and hope you'll receive a lot more ratings.","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":751397,"author_name":"ancient-pixel","author_uid":"ancient-pixel","epoch":1633699024,"text":"@cyangmou thank you :)","format":"md","likes":0,"spam":"N"},{"id":768075,"author_name":"LDJam user 262525","author_uid":"262525","epoch":1634663430,"text":"It's really impressive how well you managed to convey something in such a simple game. I really like these kinds of games. I think adding some sound (maybe even voice acting to replace the text) would go a long way to make the game more impactful.","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":768248,"author_name":"zimny11","author_uid":"zimny11","epoch":1634678579,"text":"Good job with not giving up with making this game! I like this unique idea, and the graphic are really nicely done! It all have its own unique style. What a shame you did not had time for music, but it is understandable. I \"added\" some music for myself after I realized what this game is about - Jim Croce - Time in a bottle :) Great job!","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"},{"id":771012,"author_name":"ancient-pixel","author_uid":"ancient-pixel","epoch":1634990492,"text":"@dennis-magnusson Thank you, I agree :)\n\n@zimny11 Thanks very much! And thanks for the music suggestion it was a nice listen :D","format":"md","likes":1,"spam":"N"}],"format":"md","images":["ldjam-media\/sha256\/38\/38e51739041cc6dd688cd409b69710953b9b34281b868c8b39a8e632287ae9c2.png"],"links":[{"url":"https:\/\/ancientpixel.itch.io\/brainxious","text":"Link"},{"url":"https:\/\/ancientpixel.itch.io\/brainxious","text":"Link"}],"metadata":{"g_key":"78702","g_author":"1002913","g_event":"LD49","g_eventkey":"119","g_subevent":"COMPO","g_urlkey":"379017","g_title":"Brainxious","g_status":"WAYBACK","g_place":"240","g_commentcount":"21","g_site2_node_id":"259905","g_hide":"N","g_has_icon":"Y","g_rqueue":"0","g_random":"0"},"nds":{"n_key":"259905","n_urlkey":"379017","n_parent":"258323","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/49\/brainxious","n_slug":"brainxious","n_type":"item","n_subtype":"game","n_subsubtype":"compo","n_author":"2913","n_created":"1631896374","n_modified":"1778779714","n_version":"817554","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD49","removed_author":false},"_superparent":9,"_trust":4,"author":2913,"body":"![promo04.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/16b\/z\/43f56.png)\n\n## Push anxiety out of the way and all tasks and duties deeper into your brain!\nas if it only could be done so easily...\n\n![demo01.gif](\/\/\/raw\/16b\/z\/43f69.gif)\n\n## If you let anything fall out of your mind, it will spawn anxiety and challenge your emotional balance.\n\n![promo01.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/16b\/z\/43f4e.png)\n\nThis time, the theme was a hard one for me, I kept a long time brainstorming and nothing really came to my mind except an idea for a previous ludum dare, where you would play as a hostage negotiatior in hilarious situations. But as life is not super easy these days, this idea of stuffing tasks in your brain came up. I don\u00b4t know if it is really fun or a game, but it is something that didnt let me go. Even as my hard drive died on the second day (in typical gamejam fashion) I salvages what I could, rewrote the lost code and kept at it, because I didnt want to forfeit.\n\n## The good\nI am very happy with the graphics. Although crude and simple I made sure almost everything moves and changes. The hand wanders around the brain like a clock and looks older the longer you play. The brain jiggles more frenetically with the stress and when the game is over there is some time to relax. Originally I planned to do something with photos as graphics and focus on sound and music before the theme was announced, but maybe next time there is time for that.\n\n![promo00.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/16b\/z\/43f50.png)\n\n## This was a struggle\n\nPutting gameplay and depth into this thing was super hard. My message I wanted to convey and typical gamey stats stuff didn\u00b4t play along niceley together. So either it was boring if you play it right, or too chaotic to be a game. I stepped away from a *semi linear story* as you play to *getting random tasks and worries* that you just have to contain inside your brain. During prototyping I tried to go for a *point scoring system* to balance your work\/life or keep a certain amount of items (eg 2 hearts, 1 clock and a tweet) in mind. Almost like quests.\nSadly also sound had to be scrapped due to the day 2 debacle of my dying hard drive.\nUltimately though I am contempt with what it became and even more, its kind of a callback to last years entry, where I let you experience the stressful life of a bagel factory worker.\n\n![promo02.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/16b\/z\/43f51.png)","comments":21,"comments-timestamp":"2021-10-23T12:35:34Z","created":"2021-09-17T16:32:54Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"grade":{"grade-01":20,"grade-02":20,"grade-03":20,"grade-04":20,"grade-05":20,"grade-07":20,"grade-08":20},"id":259905,"love":0,"magic":{"cool":66.286796527962,"feedback":11,"given":7.25,"grade":20,"grade-01-average":3.528,"grade-01-result":240,"grade-02-average":3.028,"grade-02-result":395,"grade-03-average":3.917,"grade-03-result":83,"grade-04-average":3.944,"grade-04-result":138,"grade-05-average":3.778,"grade-05-result":152,"grade-07-average":3,"grade-07-result":188,"grade-08-average":3.389,"grade-08-result":205,"smart":-21.136116028172},"meta":{"author":[2913],"cover":"\/\/\/content\/16b\/z\/43f41.png","grade-06-out":"1","link-01":"https:\/\/ancientpixel.itch.io\/brainxious","link-01-tag":[42332],"link-02":"https:\/\/ancientpixel.itch.io\/brainxious","link-02-tag":[42336]},"meta-timestamp":"2026-05-14T17:28:34Z","modified":"2026-05-14T17:28:34Z","name":"Brainxious","node-timestamp":"2021-10-03T22:29:56Z","parent":258323,"parents":[1,5,9,258323],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/49\/brainxious","published":"2021-10-03T22:17:18Z","scope":"public","slug":"brainxious","subsubtype":"compo","subtype":"game","type":"item","version":817554},"text":"![promo04.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/16b\/z\/43f56.png)\n\n## Push anxiety out of the way and all tasks and duties deeper into your brain!\nas if it only could be done so easily...\n\n![demo01.gif](\/\/\/raw\/16b\/z\/43f69.gif)\n\n## If you let anything fall out of your mind, it will spawn anxiety and challenge your emotional balance.\n\n![promo01.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/16b\/z\/43f4e.png)\n\nThis time, the theme was a hard one for me, I kept a long time brainstorming and nothing really came to my mind except an idea for a previous ludum dare, where you would play as a hostage negotiatior in hilarious situations. But as life is not super easy these days, this idea of stuffing tasks in your brain came up. I don\u00b4t know if it is really fun or a game, but it is something that didnt let me go. Even as my hard drive died on the second day (in typical gamejam fashion) I salvages what I could, rewrote the lost code and kept at it, because I didnt want to forfeit.\n\n## The good\nI am very happy with the graphics. Although crude and simple I made sure almost everything moves and changes. The hand wanders around the brain like a clock and looks older the longer you play. The brain jiggles more frenetically with the stress and when the game is over there is some time to relax. Originally I planned to do something with photos as graphics and focus on sound and music before the theme was announced, but maybe next time there is time for that.\n\n![promo00.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/16b\/z\/43f50.png)\n\n## This was a struggle\n\nPutting gameplay and depth into this thing was super hard. My message I wanted to convey and typical gamey stats stuff didn\u00b4t play along niceley together. So either it was boring if you play it right, or too chaotic to be a game. I stepped away from a *semi linear story* as you play to *getting random tasks and worries* that you just have to contain inside your brain. During prototyping I tried to go for a *point scoring system* to balance your work\/life or keep a certain amount of items (eg 2 hearts, 1 clock and a tweet) in mind. Almost like quests.\nSadly also sound had to be scrapped due to the day 2 debacle of my dying hard drive.\nUltimately though I am contempt with what it became and even more, its kind of a callback to last years entry, where I let you experience the stressful life of a bagel factory worker.\n\n![promo02.PNG](\/\/\/raw\/16b\/z\/43f51.png)","title":"Brainxious","wayback_recovered":true,"wayback_source":{"capture":{"original":"https:\/\/api-jam.ludumdare.com\/vx\/node2\/get\/268001+268002+268003+268004+268005+268006+268007+268008+268009+268010+268011+268012+268013+268014+268015+268016+268017+268018+268019+268020+268021+268022+268023+268024+268025+268026+268027+268028+268029+268030+268031+268032+268033+268034+268035+268036+268037+268038+268039+268040+268041+268042+268043+268044+268045+268046+268047+268048+268049+268050+268051+268052+268053+268054+268055+268056+268057+268058+268059+268060+268061+268062+268063+268064+268065+268066+268067+268068+268069+268070+268071+268072+268073+268074+268075+268076+268077+268078+268079+268080+268081+268082+268083+268084+268085+268086+268087+268088+268089+268090+268091+268092+268093+268094+268095+268096+268097+268098+268099+268100+268101+268102+268103+268104+268105+268106+268107+268108+268109+268110+268111+268112+268113+268114+268115+268116+268117+268118+268119+268120+268121+268122+268123+268124+268125+268126+268127+268128+268129+268130+268131+268132+268133+268134+268135+268136+268137+268138+268139+268140+268141+268142+268143+268144+268145+268146+268147+268148+268149+268150+268151+268152+268153+268154+268155+268156+268157+268158+268159+268160+268161+268162+268163+268164+268165+268166+268167+268168+268169+268170+268171+268172+268173+268174+268175+268176+268177+268178+268179+268180+268181+268182+268183+268184+268185+268186+268187+268188+268189+268190+268191+268192+268193+268194+268195+268196+268197+268198+268199+268200+268201+268202+268203+268204+268205+268206+268207+268208+268209+268210+268211+268212+268213+268214+268215+268216+268217+268218+268219+268220+268221+268222+268223+268224+268225+268226+268227+268228+268229+268230+268231+268232+268233+268234+268235+268236+268237+268238+268239+268240+268241+268242+268243+268244+268245+268246+268247+268248+268249+268250+268251+268252+268253+268254+268255+268256+268257+268258+268259+268260+268261+268262+268263+268264+268265+268266+268267+268268+268269+268270+268271+268272+268273+268274+268275+268276+268277+268278+268279+268280+268281+268282+268283+268284+268285+268286+268287+268288+268289+268290+268291+268292+268293+268294+268295+268296+268297+268298+268299+268300+268301+268302+268303+268304+268305+268306+268307+268308+268309+268310+268311+268312+268313+268314+268315+268316+268317+268318+268319+268320+268321+268322+268323+268324+268325+268326+268327+268328+268329+268330+268331+268332+268333+268334+268335+268336+268337+268338+268339+268340+268341+268342+268343+268344+268345+268346+268347+268348+268349+268350+268351+268352+268353+268354+268355+268356+268357+268358+268359+268360+268361+268362+268363+268364+268365+268366+268367+268368+268369+268370+268371+268372+268373+268374+268375+268376+268377+268378+268379+268380+268381+268382+268383+268384+268385+268386+268387+268388+268389+268390+268391+268392+268393+268394+268395+268396+268397+268398+268399+268400+268401+268402+268403+268404+268405+268406+268407+268408+268409+268410+268411+268412+268413+268414+268415+268416+268417+268418+268419+268420+268421+268422+268423+268424+268425+268426+268427+268428+268429+268430+268431+268432+268433+268434+268435+268436+268437+268438+268439+268440+268441+268442+268443+268444+268445+268446+268447+268448+268449+268450+268451+268452+268453+268454+268455+268456+268457+268458+268459+268460+268461+268462+268463+268464+268465+268466+268467+268468+268469+268470+268471+268472+268473+268474+268475+268476+268477+268478+268479+268480+268481+268482+268483+268484+268485+268486+268487+268488+268489+268490+268491+268492+268493+268494+268495+268496+268497+268498+268499+268500?authors&parents&superparent"},"object":"objects\/sha256\/df\/df30ca3569d80925cae0b90af3399ac8a27778cfb7b514f9fd26992483005a88","record":"shard-0\/json-live-urgent-v3\/records\/5d8a22385e64bfa88d2f4c0896245b44b04515eea0e2994dbd085c44b7d42142.json","sha256":"df30ca3569d80925cae0b90af3399ac8a27778cfb7b514f9fd26992483005a88","source":"https","stored_at":1784022382}}