PIX (SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive)

PIX is a picture reveal homebrew game for Sega Genesis / Mega Drive. It is heavily inspired by Qix arcade game from 1981.

Unlike other Qix-inspired games this one supports fully concurrent 2 player co-op mode (other ones offer turn-based approach at most).

Controls

Action	Controller	Keyboard (browser)
Move	D-pad	Arrow keys
Start drawing a line	A	S
Teleport	B	X
Pause	Start	Enter
Return to the title screen while paused	Hold C	Hold Z
Confirm / continue after a round	A or Start	S or Enter

Gameplay

• Play solo or co-op with 2nd player.
• Reveal hidden pixel-art pictures by drawing lines across the playfield and claiming areas.
• Avoid moving enemies, any collision while drawing the lines will result in life loss.
• To win the round and reveal the picture either hit required picture reveal threshold or eliminate all the enemies, by trapping them in claimed area.
• Any pictures revealed are saved to the gallery that you can access from title menu.
• There are 5 "books" of pictures to reveal:
  • Book of Scenes - different pixel-art scenes
  • Book of Creatures - real-life and mythical creatures
  • Books of History - major historic events
  • Mosaics - mathematically defined mosaic art
  • Freestyle - pictures that players will draw themselves

Homebrew Notice

PIX is an independent homebrew game. It is not licensed, endorsed, or published by Sega or Taito Corporation. Qix and all associated rights belong to Taito Corporation. We do not claim ownership of Qix or its original game concept.

Use of Generative AI

Artwork in PIX was created with the assistance of generative AI and subsequently selected, edited, and adapted for the game by developer using set of different image processing tools.

Our main concern here is, that we didn't end up with true pixel-art in this game, but rather its imitation, which is clearly visible in some of pictures. But at the end of the day, after enough rounds of selection it looks decent enough and fulfills its purpose - making player curious and interested enough to play and see the next picture.

Human-made pixel-art would have been without a doubt superior and more interesting, but for the case where that human just doesn't exist for this project, AI is a decent enough fallback for this purpose.