Pixeldarts: The Retro-Inspired Electronic Throwing Game

Transform your gatherings into epic game nights with Pixeldarts! Whether you’re watching from the sidelines or aiming for the bullseye, our engaging party games support multiple players simultaneously for endless fun.

Pixeldarts is a throwing game that taps into a fundamental human impulse—throwing. This instinctive action is inherently fun and accessible, making it suitable for players of all ages and backgrounds. We aimed to create an experience that invites everyone to join in on the excitement, encouraging laughter and friendly competition.

What sets Pixeldarts apart is our innovative identity and position recognition technology, which adds depth, flexibility, and variety to the gameplay. This allows for unique interactions and creative strategies, ensuring that every game feels fresh and engaging. Players can aim for the bullseye or experiment with different throwing styles, all while enjoying a visually captivating environment.

By blending retro pixel art with modern innovation, Pixeldarts transforms any gathering into a vibrant game night, fostering connections and shared joy among players of all ages. It’s more than just a game; it’s an experience that brings people together in a celebration of fun and creativity.

Pixeldarts features cutting-edge recognition technology that utilizes sensor chips embedded in the darts and compatible Nerf N-Strike Guns bullets (please note that Nerf N-Strike Guns is a trademark owned by Hasbro; Dartsnut produces compatible projectiles with built-in sensor chips but does not replicate or infringe upon Hasbro’s products). This innovative system, along with internal sensing circuits, allows Pixeldarts to swiftly and accurately identify the position and identity of each thrown object.

The implementation of recognition technology introduces exciting variations to traditional throwing games. Players are no longer confined to taking turns sequentially; instead, they can throw simultaneously while Pixeldarts accurately tracks each player’s score. This transformation, combined with an open game ecosystem, unlocks a wealth of diverse game designs and imaginative gameplay, revealing Pixeldarts’ limitless potential.

Advantages of the Recognition Technology:

1. Precise Position Recognition: Every pixel point is recognized with accuracy, ensuring fair play.
2. Identity Recognition: Each projectile has a unique identity based on its color, allowing for seamless scoring even if the throwing order changes.
3. Rapid Recognition: The system identifies projectiles instantly upon contact with the Pixeldarts surface, ensuring smooth gameplay without delays.

With these features, Pixeldarts elevates the throwing game experience, making it dynamic and engaging for everyone involved.

We are excited to share that we have designed and developed six engaging game demos for Pixeldarts, with details that will continue to be refined and improved:

1. Splash: In this vibrant game, players throw different colored darts to cover areas on the board. Supporting up to four players simultaneously, participants can utilize strategic throwing to dominate the most territory and claim victory.

1. Hostage Rescue: Armed with a Nerf Gun, players aim to take down the villains holding hostages captive! This game offers a fresh way to use your Nerf Gun, encouraging players to defeat as many enemies as possible to secure a win.

1. Bomb Defusal: In this fast-paced challenge, randomly generated bomb fuses continue to burn. Players must quickly extinguish the fuses with their thrown projectiles to earn points, adding an element of urgency to the gameplay.

1. Classic Darts Games: Experience the timeless fun of traditional dart games like 01 games and Cricket. These classics are always popular at parties and bars, providing a familiar yet entertaining challenge for all players.

1. Spin the Wheel: Players can fill the wheel with rewards, penalties, or raffle prizes, letting the outcome of their throws determine their fate!

1. Mini Golf Challenge: Throw your dart to control the golf ball direction. Try completing every course within 3 darts.

Each game showcases the unique capabilities of Pixeldarts while promoting social interaction and competitive spirit. We’re committed to enhancing these experiences further as we continue to develop the Pixeldarts ecosystem.

We promise that by the time the product is delivered, we will ensure that 10 fun throwing games are officially available. Additionally, we will continue to release 5-10 new official games each year. Moreover, with our open API and incentive policies, we aim to attract more developers to create games for Pixeldarts. We firmly believe that the game lineup for Pixeldarts will be anything but small.

Experience a whole new level of retro gaming with PICO-8 on Pixeldarts! PICO-8 is a unique “fantasy console” designed for creating, sharing, and playing tiny games and computer programs. With countless fun and quirky games available for download, PICO-8 offers a nostalgic gaming experience like no other.

By connecting an external controller, the Pixeldarts’ 128×128 pixel display perfectly adapts to the PICO-8’s graphics, allowing you to enjoy these retro games in a fresh and exciting way. This seamless integration lets Pixeldarts become more than just a throwing game; it’s a window into a vibrant world of classic-inspired gameplay!

Please note: 

1.  Using PICO-8 requires a separate license, as PICO-8 is a product of Lexaloffle Games. While Dartsnut currently has no official partnership with PICO-8, we are in discussions to potentially offer a group discount on PICO-8 licenses for Pixeldarts backers.

2. Pixeldarts supports connecting 2 controllers simultaneously. You can check the list of compatible third-party controllers via this link. Additionally, Dartsnut plans to design a custom controller specifically tailored for Pixeldarts in the future.

Pixeldarts is not only an exciting gaming platform; it also serves as a multifunctional device for your home. With a variety of widgets, it can display a clock, real-time weather updates, traffic conditions, finance updates, sports scores, and even play entertaining animations.

Equipped with two large screens—one measuring 384×384 mm with a resolution of 128×128 pixels and the other at 256×128 mm with a resolution of 64×32 pixels—Pixeldarts can showcase a wealth of information tailored to your needs. This versatility means it goes beyond just gaming; it can seamlessly fit into your daily life as an all-in-one home device.

Whether you’re hosting friends for a game night or simply looking to stay updated on important information, Pixeldarts enriches your living space, combining entertainment and functionality in one stylish package.

Dartsnut champions an open software ecosystem that encourages creativity and customization. For users new to programming, the community offers an easy way to download games and widgets developed by Dartsnut or shared by fellow players. Additionally, users can utilize the Dartsnut-customized Scratch platform to create their own games from scratch or build upon existing projects. (Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children, featuring a simple visual interface that allows users to create digital stories, games, and animations. Learn more at Scratch.

For more advanced users, Dartsnut provides a comprehensive API that integrates with the Raspberry Pi ecosystem. This allows users to design exciting games and widgets using Python, enabling them to create unique experiences for personal use or to share with the community. With these powerful tools, Pixeldarts becomes a platform for endless innovation and fun.

With Pixeldarts, you can directly tell the system what kind of animated GIF you want, and it will generate it for you! Utilizing the latest ChatGPT technology, Pixeldarts can create a variety of entertaining pixel art animations based on your instructions, making the experience even more engaging and personalized.

In addition, you can browse and select from a library of pre-made animations within the app, allowing you to easily find and play your favorites.

To ensure user privacy and security, the voice interaction feature can be turned on or off at any time within the app settings, giving you complete control over your experience.

From the very beginning, we had planned to use the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W for Pixeldarts, as it provided sufficient performance for our needs. However, about two weeks before the project launch, a chance test revealed that the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B could deliver significantly better display quality and more robust performance, enabling Pixeldarts to handle more complex games.

As a result, we’ve made the bold decision to upgrade the main control board from the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W to the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, aiming to provide a superior experience. This change has increased costs by $20, but we are committed to honoring our announced price. Therefore, this will be a free upgrade for all our backers!

In the meanwhile, Pixeldarts is designed with a detachable and upgradable Raspberry Pi module, allowing users to easily remove the Raspberry Pi board for more convenient development or future upgrades. This developer-friendly design enhances Pixeldarts’ playability and expandability, ensuring that the device evolves along with your creativity.

We believe that making Pixeldarts open and accessible not only invites developers to push the boundaries but also enables casual users to enjoy the limitless extensions offered by a vibrant open community!

To enable Pixeldarts to recognize the thrown objects, we need to embed a chip inside each object. This allows Pixeldarts to identify the object and determine its impact location when it makes contact with the glass surface. As a result, both darts and Nerf-compatible bullets require a special structural design to house the sensor chip.

However, we also understand the preferences of dart enthusiasts—many of them have their favorite shafts and flights. To accommodate this, we’ve specifically designed the darts to allow users to replace the standard shaft and flight with their preferred options.

The design of Pixeldarts’ Nerf-compatible bullets has also been carefully considered. We understand that when players use Nerf to play Pixeldarts-designed games, some games require the bullets to stay on the glass surface, while others—like shooting at moving targets—need the bullets to leave the glass surface immediately after being recognized.

To cater to these different gameplay needs, we’ve specially designed two types of suction heads. Whatever you need, we’ve got you covered!

In the future, our team will continue to brainstorm and listen to user feedback to design more throwable objects compatible with Pixeldarts, enriching its gameplay possibilities. What you see now is not the final, perfect version of Pixeldarts—Dartsnut needs your participation to make Pixeldarts even more exciting and fun!

Pixelboard is a pure display version of Pixeldarts, also equipped with the Raspberry Pi Zero 4 Model B. It is fully compatible with all Pixeldarts animated GIFs and widgets, featuring a 128×128 pixel screen in a slightly smaller size, making it perfect for desktop display. Housed in a beautifully crafted wooden frame, Pixelboard adds an elegant touch to any space while showcasing vibrant pixel art and dynamic content.

Pixelboard offers you a choice! If you’re not particularly passionate about throwing games or if you’d like to have a beautiful Pixel Display in your living room along with Pixeldarts, now you can get a Pixelboard at a more affordable price! Plus, enjoy an additional discount when you purchase it together with Pixeldarts!

Pixeldarts is powered by the Raspberry Pi Zero 4 Model B, featuring a quad-core Cortex-A72 processor running at 1.8GHz and equipped with 1GB of RAM. This robust processing capability ensures smooth gameplay and quick response times.

The system is also outfitted with two large screens: one measuring 384×384 mm with a resolution of 128×128 pixels, which includes projectile sensing technology, and a second screen at 256×128 mm with a resolution of 64×32 pixels. This dual-screen setup enhances visual feedback and gameplay immersion, making every throwing session more engaging.