simplyboys/tokaido-pixel

Tokaido Pixel is a browser based hidden object game built entirely inside a single HTML file, with no build tools, server, or external framework required. Players travel the historic Tokaido road from Edo to Kyoto across 55 real stations, based on two famous sets of nineteenth century Japanese woodblock prints by the artists Hiroshige and Hokusai. At each station, the original print is shown as a small, dithered pixel art scene, and the player searches for three hidden details, such as a dog by a gate or a kite caught in the wind. Finding all three details unlocks a full resolution scan of the real historical artwork for that station. The overworld map used to travel between stations is based on Hokusai's bird's eye view map of the Tokaido route, with each station marked and a pulsing indicator showing the player's current position. After finishing all 55 stations, players unlock an alternate viewing mode that joins every unlocked print into one long, continuously scrolling scroll, styled after a traditional Japanese handscroll. Completing the whole journey also generates a downloadable certificate image, drawn on a canvas with decorative borders and a personalized traveler title based on how many in game days the playthrough took. All of the artwork used in the game is in the public domain, sourced from real museum scans including the Library of Congress, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Rijksmuseum, with full source information listed in the repository. Background music comes from three tracks licensed for commercial use from a royalty free music library, bundled directly into the game rather than streamed. The game stores player progress locally in the browser, so it keeps working offline once it has loaded. Running the game locally just means starting any simple static file server and opening the page in a browser, and the project is also set up to be hosted directly through GitHub Pages. The game's code is released under the MIT license, while the artwork, music, and font each carry their own separate licensing terms.