Cubby's Crystal Castle

A Plaformer Prototype

Cubby’s Crystal Castle is a 2D pixel art platformer made with Game Maker. This one-level prototype is the very first project that started everything!

It’s a 6-month challenge for Touriste Galactique to push his limits:

Goal: Create a 2D pixel art platformer from scratch.
Tool: GameMaker, chosen for its flexibility in learning to code.
Process: Developed live on Twitch with no prior coding experience.
Challenge: Deliver a playable build every Monday night at the end of the stream.

Key Features & Achievements

Characters Design

“ In pixel art, a single pixel can change everything !”

Stylized Characters

Designing pixel art characters is sculpting with light and shadow, starting from a simple shape and silhouette to reveal the character within.

Minimalist Animation

Animating pixel art means being minimalist, focusing on the essence of expression to maximize the character’s attitude.

Achievements

• Character Sprite Sheet
• Loop Animation
• Code Based Animation

Code & Shaders

Code

The GML was an introduction to scripting. Choosing GML code over GML visual allowed for a deeper understanding of the scripting process and its challenges.

In the end, more than just hard coding, it fostered logical thinking to effectively approach and solve problems.

Shader

Learning shader is another difficulties but it give to your project amazing results. It’s essential to achieve some visual effect like the dynamic water reflexion or the secret passage reveal.

Achievements

• Character State Machine
• Water Shader
• Enemies IA

• Parallax

Level Mood

“ Building my first entire video game level from scratch was simply a dream come true !”

Thank you
for reading!