8024

This is my solo submission for TOJam 2026. @coldacid couldn't make it this year.

The executable "8024" is tested on Linux, and is a Python zipapp. Simply download, ensure the executable bit is set, and run. (Or run with python explicitly.)

The on-site "8024.zip" is supposed to be playable, but apparently isn't. It works locally (sort of) but I think it won't work with just a collection of files and needs to be actively served. Either that or it's just NoScript messing with me for some reason.

Known bug: your terminal's mouse support may be messed up after you quit the game. I don't know why. Resetting should fix it.

For 2026 we were asked to "mash up any two themes" from previous years. This is a re-implementation of an existing, relatively abstract game, so it's hard to imagine how any theme could really apply. But several previous years' themes have special meaning to me here, and relate to the process of development, if not the final product:

• Once More, With Feeling!: The original plan was to continue working on last year's game (SpellBound), which would definitely have made the theme clearer. SpellBound doesn't try very hard to fit last year's theme and is just a game I wanted to start making (and then didn't get around to continuing with). So it would have been nice to do it that way. But with 8024, I did it twice in one jam: first the in-terminal version, and then the Brython-wrapped web version — figuring that part out in about 2 hours at the end of the jam without having used Brython before. Certainly a lot of feelings were involved!
• You have to leave it behind: I left SpellBound behind (at least for now), and I left my usual jam partner behind.
• Scale: I chose something that I knew was simple (and already game-designed for me) so that I could get it done myself. But also, the numbers in 2048 increase exponentially.
• Together but Apart: the blocks go together; the team was apart. Also, this jam was my introduction to livestreaming my development work, a throwback to the 2020 experience I missed out on.
• After You: This project would really have been impossible without Gabriele Cirulli's viral success.

So, take your pick.