Playing a game embedded inside another game isn’t a new idea. But few games have done it as simply or as well as BRICK[bricksmash]SMASH. Alan Hazelden’s Breakout homage multiplies the action so that you’re playing 17 bouncing-ball-and-paddle games at once. The end result is hypnotic and brilliant.
When I reached him by e-mail, Hazelden said that he started it for a game jam with the theme "game within a game."
"This was the first idea that came to mind that didn't involve me having to actually implement more than one different game," he told me. You're timed on how quickly you can clear the whole board and the game keeps track of how many balls come into play. Hazelden told me that he's seen clear times of 0:46 and counts as high as 317 balls. That's an insane amount of reflexes.