The Cyclops' Island — Playable Isometric Pixel-Art Odyssey Scene

The scene

A small Greek island under an animated sea: a sandy shore with the crew's camp and the ship at anchor, a grove of cypress and olive gone dark underneath, rocky cliffs, and the cave of Polyphemus cut into the headland. Odysseus is yours to walk.

How to play

• WASD or arrow keys to move — or click the ground and he walks there
• Drag to pan the world, scroll to zoom, Q/E or right-drag to rotate it
• R resets the view onto Odysseus, Space pauses
• Rock, trees, the giant and the sea all stop him; the sand must take your weight, and the path is the way inland

The story

Five beats follow Book IX: the landing, the trodden path, the grove with no fields, the herdsman's flock, and the cave. At the door Polyphemus asks who you are — and the answer is yours to give:

• “Nobody is my name.” — the answer that saves a man later
• “I am Odysseus of Ithaca.” — a name let loose on the water, and a god's son who remembers it

Each answer changes the ending text and the errand in the panel.

In the scene

Odysseus and three of his crew, the Cyclops himself (asleep, then awake, club in hand), ten sheep on the slope, the ship with its sail and oars, a fire with smoke, gulls over the cliff, and a tide that never stops moving.