When Edwin covered One Million Checkboxes back in June, it became a popular website where players could check or uncheck one million checkboxes, with all changes visible to other visitors. Over two weeks, players became obsessed with filling all the checkboxes or undoing each other’s work.
Developer Nolen Royalty recently revealed that the game was more complex than it seemed, with players encoding hidden messages in the checkboxes.
Nolen shared on Twitter that half a million people visited the site shortly after its launch, and a total of 650,000,000 checkboxes were checked in the two weeks the site was active.
To prevent offensive messages, Nolen made the rows of checkboxes scale to the size of the browser, ensuring that messages would only align and be readable at specific widths.
Each checkbox represented a bit, the basic unit of information in computing, allowing players to create messages in binary form.
While optimizing the website to handle the influx of players, Nolen discovered messages in ASCII format stored in the database, including a URL with ‘catgirls’. This led to an exciting revelation about players using the checkboxes to communicate secretly.
The Discord group “Checking Boxes” was formed by these players, who cleverly devised strategies to create images, memes, logos, and even an animated rickroll using bots on the website.
Nolen was deeply moved by the creativity and talent displayed by the players, emphasizing the importance of providing a platform for such mischief and encouraging future game developers.
Despite some backlash about the use of bots, Nolen praised the creativity of the Discord group and expressed excitement about the future projects they might undertake.
Nolen’s work, including the One Million Checkboxes website, embodies a fun and experimental spirit of the internet, showcasing the playful side of online interactions. Well done to all the players involved!
