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.