One of the most inspiring events in the modern gamedev landscape is the annual JS13KGames competition. Developers are challenged to build complete, playable web games within a zip file no larger than 13,312 bytes. With no external assets or remote libraries allowed, developers must squeeze textures, audio synths, maps, and logic into a space smaller than a standard email attachment.
This extreme limitation yields incredible creativity. Without the room for pre-built engines, developers write highly optimized 2D and WebGL renderers and build procedural generators that build landscapes and sounds on the fly. Games like q1k3 (a fully featured 3D shooter reminiscent of Quake) or underrun (a sci-fi tactical twin-stick shooter) prove that limits are not barriers to quality; rather, they are a catalyst for building some of the most elegant, compact code on the web today.