pixel run

PIXEL RUN – Last Devlog

alright. this is the last one.
the game’s done. or done enough.
you can start it, play through the levels, lose your garlic, try again, finish it. it has a beginning and an end. that was the whole point.
looking back it’s still just a small thing. nothing crazy. but it’s finished, and most of my projects aren’t, so I’m taking the win.
a lot of the time went into dumb stuff. backgrounds not filling the screen. menus looking wrong. little bugs that only showed up after connecting everything. the actual gameplay ideas were the easy part.
no big plans after this. maybe I’ll tweak difficulty later if people play it. maybe I won’t touch it again. both are fine.
thanks if you followed along for some reason.
that’s it. game’s out. I’m going to go touch grass or open a new empty project. haven’t decided yet.

PIXEL RUN – Devlog #4

not much of a plan this time.
mostly just cleaned things up and made the levels actually connect to each other.
before this, finishing one level didn’t really go anywhere useful. now it does. you clear it, you get that little intermission screen with the garlic lives and the timer, then the next one starts. feels more like a real game and less like separate tests stuck in a folder.
also fixed a bunch of small dumb stuff. backgrounds were cutting off. camera was doing something weird. scores weren’t saving right. the usual.
still no music. still not sure if i’ll add any.
the game is playable start to finish now though. that feels good.
probably gonna mess with the difficulty a bit next. some parts are too easy, some are annoying for the wrong reasons.
anyway. that’s four. still going.

Okay so… third one.
This time I actually put the first real level in.
It’s the dodge one. You’re the little ship at the bottom, rocks fall, you move left and right, try not to die for 25 seconds. That’s it.
Sounds simple when I say it like that. It was simple. That’s why I started with it.
I spent most of the time just making the rocks feel less boring. At first they all fell at the same speed and it was just… waiting. So I made some small and fast, some big and slow, and later in the timer they start coming in groups. Suddenly you actually have to look instead of just sliding left and right on autopilot.
Also added a tiny score that goes up every time you dodge one. Not the main goal or anything, just so the screen isn’t completely empty.
The background is space with a planet at the bottom. Nothing fancy. Just enough so it doesn’t look like a blank void.
Still no music. Just the hit sound and the little score beep. I’m okay with that for now.
Next I’ll keep building from here and try not to break everything while I do it.
That’s it. First level is in. It works. I’m calling that progress.

Devlog #2

What’s New
Start Menu Overhaul
The main menu got a complete visual and functional refresh:

Cleaner UI Layout, Streamlined button placement and spacing for better readability
Improved Visual Hierarchy, Title and CTA buttons stand out more
Better Mobile Responsiveness, Menu scales properly across device sizes
Polish Pass , Tweaked colors, fonts, and animations for a more polished feel
Smooth Transitions, Button states and state changes feel responsive

Okay so… this is the first devlog. And I’m only gonna talk about the start menu.
Yeah. Just the menu.
I know that sounds dumb. It’s one screen. But I kept changing it and deleting stuff and second-guessing it, so I figured I might as well talk about it.

When you open the game right now, it’s basically nothing.
Dark green background.
Some tiny stars floating down.
One yellow button that says START.
And if you’ve played before, it shows your best score at the bottom in small text.
That’s the whole thing.
No title. No “Pixel Run” written big. No character waving at you. No “press any key to continue.” Just the button.

First version was the normal one. You know the kind.
Big title in the middle.
Some little subtitle under it.
Start button.
Maybe a quit button.
Controls listed at the bottom so people don’t get confused.
It looked fine. It looked like a game. But it also looked like every other small project I’ve opened. Felt generic. Like I was following a template without thinking.
So I started cutting things.
Subtitle went first.
Then the controls text.
Then I sat there looking at the big title and thought… do I actually need this?
And I deleted it.
The screen felt weirdly better. Quieter. Like it wasn’t trying to impress me.

I went back and forth on the no-title thing a lot.
Part of me was like “you need the name on the screen, that’s just how games work.”
But another part was like… it’s a tiny game. You’re in it for two minutes. The name doesn’t need to sell anything. The button is the only thing that matters.
So I left it off. The name’s still in the window title if anyone cares.

Colors took a bit too.
Originally the background was more blue-dark. Felt cold. Kind of default.
Switched it to this deep green-black and suddenly it felt warmer. More intentional.
Button is yellow. Pretty loud yellow.
I tried softer yellows and they disappeared into the background.
Tried white text on the button — too bright.
Black text felt harsh.
Ended up with dark green text on the yellow button so it feels like it belongs to the same palette.
Not sure if it’s “correct” design. But I like how it looks.

The stars are just there so the screen doesn’t feel dead.
They’re tiny. Different speeds. They wrap around when they go off the bottom.
No fancy twinkling or anything. I tried making them pulse and it looked try-hard, so I stopped.
They make the menu feel a little alive while you’re sitting there. That’s all I wanted.

The button does this small scale thing when you press it. Gets a bit bigger, then goes back.
Takes like a tenth of a second.
Doesn’t matter. But without it the press felt flat. With it, it feels like the game actually heard you.
Same reason the best score is down there. It’s small. Easy to miss. But if you’ve played before, it’s nice that the game remembers.

I think that’s it.
I kept wanting to add more. A little character. A logo. Some flavor text.
Every time I did, the screen got noisier and I liked it less.
So I left it almost empty on purpose.
Maybe it’s too empty. Maybe people will open it and think the game is broken.
I don’t know. But for now I’m sticking with it.
Anyway. That’s the menu.
Next time I’ll actually talk about the levels or something.