QUOD: 64KB Windows shooter
© QUOD/ Daivuk Developer Daivuk has released QUOD, a Quake-like retro shooter that fits into a single 64KB Windows executable. The project includes three levels plus a boss arena, four weapons, four enemies, and a set of power-ups, with all content stored inside the same file. The developer also published a breakdown video explaining how the size limit was met.
Instead of shipping conventional texture files, QUOD relies heavily on “action-based” or recipe-style texture building. The developer uses a custom texturing tool that assembles surfaces from compact layer instructions, such as masks, fills, noise, bevel, tiling, blending, and emissive flags. This replaces large image assets with small parameter blocks that are reconstructed at load time.
© QUOD/ Daivuk 
© QUOD/ Daivuk QUOD focuses on storing faces efficiently, with special handling for axis-aligned UVs and common rectangular surfaces to reduce per-face data. Lighting is generated at load time using a probe-based approach rather than shipping baked lightmaps.
Models and animations were aggressively optimized, with the developer describing vertex, UV, and bone data packed into tight bit allocations, plus mirroring to reduce stored geometry. Audio is produced through a layered synthesis system that combines simple sources and effects into sound effects, while music is built using a small tracker-like setup with limited channels.
© QUOD/ Daivuk 
© QUOD/ Daivuk The game may be small, but it still requires a modern-era system. Daivuk lists minimum requirements around an Intel Core i5-class CPU, a GeForce GTX 770-class GPU, and 8GB of RAM for smooth play.
It’s worth adding that Quake will celebrate the 30th anniversary of its launch this year. ID Software released the QTest multiplayer tech demo on February 24, 1996.
Source: QUOD (itch.io)
