Every year the JS1K competition asks web designers create a cool JavaScript application no larger than 1k. The contest started out as a joke, but the high quality of entries over the years has led to it becoming a brilliant showcase of just what you can do with a handful of code.
Here are 10 of our favourite submissions for this year's competition - but there's plenty more amazing work to see: check out the list in full at the JS1K site (opens in new tab). (And if you want to enter, you've still got time; last call for entries (opens in new tab) is midnight this Sunday).
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01. Matrix is a system (opens in new tab)
Who wouldn't get a thrill from this brilliant demo reproducing The Matrix's famous 'digital rain' sequence using minified JavaScript? It was created by Pedro Franceschi (opens in new tab) with just 956 bytes of code.
02. April showers bring May flowers
This simple but fun typing game based around Spring-like animations was created by Abigail Cabunoc (opens in new tab). The code was compressed with Closure Compiler, then further hand minified, then finally JS Crush.
03. 3D City Tour (opens in new tab)
3D City Tour delivers just what it promises - a first person view of a springtime island city. Use your mouse to fly over the city, jump from roof to roof or drive with the cars on the streets. You can also just let the autopilot show you around. Including buildings, streets, traffic signs, moving cars, parks, a sea, and more, you'll be astounded that Jani Ylikangas (opens in new tab) managed to create all this in under 1k.
04. Strange Crystals (opens in new tab)
This amazing 3D animation by Philippe Deschaseaux (opens in new tab) takes you on a strange journey through an underground mine. "The miners have stopped working," reads the description. "They are afraid. It all seems to come from those strange crystals that some have seen. Be patient and with a bit of luck, you'll see them."
05. 1K Meteors (opens in new tab)
We're suckers for old-school games at Creative Bloq, so we love this Asteroids tribute from Oscar Toledo G (opens in new tab). It runs at 30 frames per second on most machines, each game is unique and, as the creator explains, it offers "a lot of realism as there are no sounds in space".
06. Don't worry, bee happy! (opens in new tab)
This pseudo-3D self-running animation features a busy bee flying left and right, fresh animated swaying grass with depth cueing, pretty flowers, and a camera moving in all directions (left, right, up, down, and forward) for your entertainment. Created by Manuel Rülke (opens in new tab), the code was minimized using Closure Compiler, further optimized further by hand and then crushed with JS Crush.
07. Morphose (opens in new tab)
This interactive 3D mesh is something you have to play with. Created by Benjamin Bill Planche (opens in new tab), the demo uses the Painter's algorithm to render the 3D mesh. After projecting each face on the coordinate system defined by the camera, they're sorted by decreasing depth to get the painting order. The displayed shape is the result of a chaotic tweening between two pre-generated meshes, a cube and a sphere. To get a smooth tweening for the faces, the sphere geometry is created by mapping each vertex of the cube (cube-mapping method).
08. Comanche
This tribute to the helicopter simulation game Comanche: Maximum Overkill enables you use arrows to control pitch and roll (altitude is on autopilot). The sky switches from day to night and the game runs at 25 FPS on a medium-end computer. Designed by Siorki (opens in new tab), the Packer code was evolved from both First Crush and JS Crush.
09. Flower
The way these undulating, spinning circles form themselves into a rotating flower shape is simply beautiful and has to be seen to be believed. It was created by Cheeseum (opens in new tab) in just 960 bytes.
10. Furbee (opens in new tab)
Here Roman Cortes (opens in new tab)really pushes the limits of what is possible in under 1k with a 2D canvas and high-end hardware. This colourful animation features fur rendering, wings with artistic motion blur and a 3D cloudscape. To fully enjoy it, it requires to be watched in a very powerful computer with Chrome. (In another entry, Furbee, get out of that tunnel ASAP! (opens in new tab), Cortes has mashed up his Furbee with Deschaseaux (opens in new tab)'s entry - number 2 on our list - and that's pretty incredible too.)
Liked this? Read these!
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Have you seen an amazing JavaScript creation in 1k or less? Tell us about it in the comments!
