Grid Quest

Description

Step into the sparse, wonderful world of Grid Quest, an 8×8 disappearing-platform puzzle where every leap matters. As the lone explorer, you jump orthogonally across floating tiles in a three-dimensional void, each tile collapsing beneath your feet the moment you leave it. Your mission: visit every tile exactly once, then reach the final goal. With procedurally generated fields and ever-increasing complexity, Grid Quest challenges both your logic and your nerve.

Note for Windows players

The executable is currently not signed, as it's very expensive for an indie hobby developer.

Note for Linux players

You have to install the dependencies SDL2 and Vulkan.

Key Features

• Unique Disappearing-Platform Mechanics Jump on a platform, and it vanishes, forcing you to plan each move perfectly.
• Procedural Puzzle Generation 60 levels of procedurally crafted difficulty, each solvable yet deviously tricky. No two levels are alike, every run presents a fresh challenge. And the journey doesn’t end there: after completing the initial 60 levels, the game continues with endless randomly generated puzzles at the same difficulty level, keeping your skills sharp and your mind engaged.
• Smooth Animations Enjoy fluid, satisfying transitions.
• On-the-Fly SDF Vector Font Rendering Crisp in-shader vector font draws menus and HUD without external textures.
• Score and Highscore System Each level run is timed and rated. Earn a score based on your number of moves and completion speed. Try to beat your personal bests with the local highscore system in endless mode.
• Relaxing Ambient Music Endless relaxing piano music, with smooth background pads and drums. Composed and produced by the developer with its own Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) ".klangknecht" and a collection of virtual instruments. The music is designed to be soothing and unobtrusive, enhancing the atmosphere without distracting from the gameplay. With no lyrics or sudden changes in tempo or volume. It just sets a tranquil tone for your puzzle-solving journey.
• Minimalist Aesthetic A clean, simple design that keeps the focus on gameplay. The game’s visuals are crafted entirely in a single shader, with no external assets required.
• Cross-Platform Compatibility Runs on Windows and Linux with no external dependencies beyond SDL2 and Vulkan.
• Keyboard and Gamepad Support Play with your preferred input method, whether it’s a keyboard or a gamepad.

Technical Highlights

• Single-Shader Rendering All visuals, from the starfield backdrop to platform shading and UI, are generated in just one fragment shader and a minimal passthrough vertex shader.
• Zero GPU Memory Allocations No textures, no uniform buffers (UBOs), no shader-storage buffers (SSBOs), no descriptor-set layouts, no Vulkan memory allocation calls, just one shader, one framebuffer. All data is fed through Vulkan push constants in under 128 bytes. The entire game state is managed in a single 8×8 64-bit bitfield, representing the grid, and a few additional variables for other game-related data.
• Blazing Performance With only a swapchain image and push-constant updates, Grid Quest runs smoothly on integrated GPUs and shines in full-screen at high frame rates.
• Ultra-Portable and Vulkan Core A self-contained program uses SDL2 for windowing and Vulkan for rendering, with no external assets needed beyond the compiled SPIR-V shaders.

Why You’ll Love It

• Pure Gameplay Focus: No distractions, just you, your wits, and the disappearing grid.
• Shader-Toy Meets Puzzle: Experience the thrill of a live GLSL demo with interactive gameplay.
• Endless Replayability: Randomized puzzles ensure each playthrough feels fresh.

Challenge yourself to master every 8×8 field and discover the elegance of extreme minimalism in game and graphics code.