Gallery: A Pixelated Platform Game That Never Plays the Same Way Twice
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[Moonman](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/eigenbom/moonman) is the anti-Minecraft, a game that charges its eponymous hero with exploring a fully-defined, yet completely destroyable world in search of "moon fragments."
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Moonman employ rules that ensure the hero can never be stuck in an unwinnable game. Every star, tree, and dungeon stone is randomly generated.
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Porter doesn't think of pixel art as retro, rather it's just a stylistic choice. "It's simple enough that you can get started quickly, although it still takes a lot of time and effort to create great pixel art." The entire world is nocturnal, hence the name.
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[Moonman](http://kck.st/1DElnw3) is raising funds on Kickstarter until Friday February 13th.
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hat makes the game work is its replay factor. Every time a player starts a new session, forests, villages, and crypts are generated procedurally to ensure fresh gameplay.
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Players collect a variety of weapons, tools, armor, and power-ups that help them in their journey.
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Porter has spent a great deal of time refining the combat mechanism to make the 2-D graphics feel substantive. "When you hit an enemy it flashes and bounces slightly, and you really feel like your impacting the world," he says.
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"I use low-res pixel art in Moonman because I think visually minimalist games have a lot to offer and can let your imagination run free."
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Porter drew inspiration from many games and credits Moonman's combat as being influenced by a game called [Powerhoof](http://www.powerhoof.com/).
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It's a simple conceit with approachable pixelated graphics and according to its creator, Ben Porter, can be completed in an hour.
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"One of the best things about having a world with physics and AI is that often I'll see something that I didn't directly code," says Porter. "Like a skeleton jumping backwards into a lava pit, or a rabbit spawning in a tree."
