I Made a Game in Desmos

In the Math: Final Boss video, I showed that Desmos can be used to create art. In this video, I’ll be showing that it can make games as well.

Welcome to Don’t Touch Red, a game made in the Desmos graphing calculator. I made this in 2022, but earlier this year I decided to go back and try and optimize it as well as fix bugs that were in the old version. The game consists of 25 levels, with options for animated backgrounds, colorblind support, a speedrun timer, and a One-Life challenge mode that sends you back to the beginning if you mess up once.
All of the levels in the game are made with math expressions, and the whole game and the mechanics behind it all make use of features that are in vanilla Desmos. No outside programs are needed or used to make it work. I’ll go over how it all works when I eventually make an explanation video, but that will take a while to make.
In the meantime, enjoy!

SONGS USED:
DM Dokuro – The Filthy Mind (ft. SixteenInMono) (Terraria: Calamity OST)
Anilmky -Juno- – Virtual Reality (Celeste: Strawberry Jam OST)
usuyus – Unwinding (Celeste: Strawberry Jam OST)
Toby Fox – Another Medium (Undertale OST)
Bipmo Bopmo – Ultraviolet (Celeste: Strawberry Jam OST)
Kataiser – Warm Fish (Celeste: Strawberry Jam OST)
minecire - Bluebird (Celeste: Strawberry Jam OST)

00:00 Intro
01:26 The game itself
07:16 Speedrun Montage
07:51 Outro

[jakewalker]

Since I've been seeing people talk about lag, I decided to try creating a "Lite" version that only includes what's necessary for the game to work. It removes animated backgrounds entirely and the screen effects for things like getting hit, clicking all blue keys, and clicking green switches. It removes the colorblind symbols, but to make up for that I changed the colors of blue and green shapes so that they're different shades and can hopefully be seen better by colorblind users. It also removes the speedrun timer, but if you want to add it back there's quick instructions at the top of the expression list, so speedrunning is still an option.


Hopefully it should be at least better on low-end devices. It won't like double the FPS or anything, so I'm sorry if it's still really slow, I don't think there's much I can do about it in that case. I figured it was better than nothing though.

[maxifire]

"What programming language do you code in?"
"Math"

[modlich_]

lol, the beginning "so i made a game" is somehow triggering the YouTube vice detector, and lighting up the like button as if you said "like"

[computerchicken]

bro's working on this instead of his art competition submission 💀

[Miguel]

that is very accurate because a computer is basically a giant calculator that turns simple math into anything you can imagine

[kyyzh]

i made a few games in desmos for fun at school (it became an obsession) before kinda quitting. This motivates me

[lucasvlogs]

Completed the game without first seeing the video or ever taking the time to read the explanations on screen. That says a lot about intuitive game design. Easy to understand, hard to master. Really great!

[owenplays]

"NO GAMES IN CLASS! THATS WHY THE SCHOOL BLOCKED ALL GAME SITES!"
Desmos:

[hre]

Can't wait to see the explanation video in 6 months

Or in the 1 week before we go back to school

[DracoDominusGD]

5:29 missed opportunity to sync up the music from Clockwork (usuyus - unwinding) with the clip of the stage on-screen 😔

[themelonzone]

Crash out on New Year's Eve, wake up 20 hours later, the Desmos Speedrunning community has formed

[infinitley-starseed]

22 being clock themed is GENIUS. clock hands itercept 22 times a day, and i just think its cool

[abuffzucchini]

hearing strawberry jam music in a wacky math video was maybe the last thing i expected. cool video and super cool concept!

[MalakaiProgrammer]

Really cool. Particularly liked the level where you controlled a window with arrows.

[Speed-TV]

This is amazing! Not only is it a working game, but it goes above and beyond by having multiple features that add optional challenge, and it's actually fun with creative game mechanics. Creative use of features in Desmos.

[questionmarkquestionmarkques]

thank you so so much for the colorblind support

[zicraftian]

Wow, I really like how you add onto the clicking mechanics! This is a legitimately interesting game to play

[RapidFiredRooms]

0:02 you said "game" and the like button glowed lol

[mystinian]

Awesome job! You always make super cool stuff. I can't wait for the explainer.

[Crazyhamster]

for a desmos video i did NOT expect music picks as goated as this