This is a submission for the June Solstice Game Jam

What I Built

Flappy Trump: Color Drain is a Flappy Bird-inspired game where the protagonist, Trump, is on a mission to drain the world of its color and vibrancy. Standing in his way is the Pride Witch, a guardian of diversity who casts Diversity Spires—magical rainbow pillars—to block his path.

The game relates to the challenge themes in multiple ways:

• Pride Month: The antagonist is the Pride Witch, and the obstacles are "Diversity Spires" based on the colors of the pride flag.
• Solstice: The game explores the transition between light (diversity) and darkness (the gray world Trump seeks to create).
• Ode to Alan Turing: As a tribute to the father of modern computing and his LGBTQ+ legacy, the game's score is displayed exclusively in binary.

Video Demo

alfredosalzillo.me

Demo

You can play the live demo here:
🎮 Play Flappy Trump: Color Drain

Code

You can find the full source code for the game here:

alfredosalzillo / flappy-trump

Flappy Trump: Color Drain

A Flappy Bird inspired game built for the June Solstice Game Jam.

🎮 Play the Demo

Game Premise

Trump is on a mission to drain the world of its vibrancy, leaving only a trail of gray in his wake. As he flies, the very sky behind him loses its color.

Standing in his way is the Pride Witch, a guardian of diversity who casts Diversity Spires—magical rainbow pillars—to block his path. Each spire represents a different facet of diversity celebrated during Pride Month, and they possess unique magical properties based on their color.

When Trump successfully navigates past a spire, its magic is drained; it turns black and deflagrates, symbolizing his attempt to defeat diversity.

Diversity Spires & Powers

The Pride Witch's magic manifests in seven colors, each with a unique effect:

• Red (Passion): Wider pillars that require more precise timing.
• Orange…

View on GitHub

How I Built It

The game was built using a modern React stack with Vite and TypeScript.

Technical Approach:

• Game Engine: I implemented a custom game loop using requestAnimationFrame and useReducer to manage the complex game state. This ensures smooth animations and predictable state transitions.
• Dynamic Obstacles: Each "Diversity Spire" color has a unique magical power that affects gameplay:
  • Red: Wider pillars.
  • Orange: Vibrating pillars.
  • Yellow: Moving gaps.
  • Green: Expanding/contracting gaps.
  • Blue: Slow-motion field.
  • Indigo: Pulsing visibility.
  • Violet: Gravity flux.
• Styling: I used CSS Modules for component-scoped styling and clsx for managing conditional classes.
• Optimization: Biome was used for lightning-fast linting and formatting, keeping the codebase clean and consistent.

Prize Category

I am submitting this project for the Best Ode to Alan Turing category.

• The score is displayed in binary as a direct reference to Turing's foundational work in computer science.
• The game's theme of protecting diversity vs. a "gray world" echoes the historical struggle for acceptance that Turing himself faced as a gay man in a rigid society.