Benten Pond

How to play:

• Click the screen to make the frog hop. 
• The longer you wait for the bar to fill up, the further the frog will hop.
• If the bar fills to max, or if the frog hops without landing on a lotus flower, it falls.
• I find I can get my score higher if I stop overthinking and play with intuition. 
• My highest score is 270; see if you can beat it. Good luck!

This game was my entry to the "Gaming Like It's 1929" Game Jam in January of 2024.

The jam asked participants to use artworks from 1929 which were now in the public domain and free to use in the United States. I chose as my inspirational artwork "Shiba Benten Ike", also known as "The Pond at Benten Shrine in Shiba" -- a small woodblock print by the artist Kawase Hasui, which I found in the National Gallery archives

I was awed by the artist's mastery of print medium to create such detail and vibrant colors--I could not really believe this piece was nearly 100 years old. In further researching him and his other works, Hasui has become a new favorite of mine.

Another thing that struck me about this print is that the composition's repeating patterns and horizontal movement made perfectly suited to turn into a video game. It already sort of looked like a level your character might run through.  Using some repeating assets and parallax scrolling, I feel I was able to replicate a creditable moving vignette.

I imagined a peaceful, somewhat meditative game of a frog who was hopping amongst the lotus flowers. It's a very simple game but I am pleased with it and I think it offers a small, satisfying bit of challenge.