Had fun with Tiny Mario? How about talking like an Italian or a New Yorker straight from your keyboard? Try Smart Keys.
How to Play
- Use your keyboard arrows or WASD to move the player.
- You have 99 seconds to collect coins and defeat enemies.
- The remaining seconds will give you extra coins.
- Somewhere, there is an underground world.
Behind the scenes
This is my second small experiment inspired from URL Snake by Demian Ferreiro. The first one was Tiny Horse, which used only one type of movement (jump).
Besides the challenge of creating a game in a 4 x 100 pixel scene with no color and limited characters, this time I wanted something more difficult. So, Tiny Mario reimagines the classic Super Mario Bros as a side-scroller with a low-fi, text-rendered style.
Your goal is to collect the most coins and reach the flag while avoiding pits and enemies before time runs out.
Again, the rendering mainly uses Unicode Braille cells (e.g., ⠤ ⠥). But now, the player can move in all directions, even going down to an underworld through one of the “pipes.”
There’s just one level, though. If you want more, feel free to add them. This is an open-source project.
Enjoy.
References
- Url Snake by Demian Ferreiro.
- Tiny Horse by Diego Dotta
- Super Mario Bros World 1-1
- Unicode Braille patterns
- Beepbox Midi Creator
- Game Poems book
Nov 18th Update
I wasn’t expecting people to get this excited about a tiny game. I posted it on Product Hunt and Reddit just for fun and suddenly folks were actually into it. It’s not the kind of thing people usually share there, but I guess we’re all craving fewer AI products and more silly things like this.
Give it a vote if you feel like it. We already beat a Google product (which feels surreal and funny at the same time).
Build Log
A living trail of things I’m building, breaking, or pretending to finish.

Fix grammar and translate in one tap. For iOS Keyboard and MacOS Shortcuts.

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A multiplayer game where you discover hidden gems around the real world.

Your Emotional Health Assistant designed to help you feel your best.

This is where I track the chaos, one sprint, stumble, and saddle-up at a time.
