Story & Game Design
Split from the original design notes on 2026-08-02.
Concept
We want to build a sidescroller game with a parallax effect. The player avatar is Pixel; levelling up happens by increasing speed. It will be published at pixelsp33d.de.
Narration
Levels are narrated by a real person, Moritz, alias pixelsp33d.
Level Design (initial thoughts)
Movement: Walk, Run, Jump, Sneak, Fly, Jet
Objects: Pizza, Kebap, vegan Schnitzel, Lidl Cola (“River Cola”), Football
Resolved in the technical plan: Pizza/Kebap/Schnitzel are food, River Cola is the sole speed-tier pickup, and Football is an obstacle everywhere except the Soccer scene, where it’s the objective.
Scenes: Minigolf, Lidl Lunch, Soccer game with friends, dancing lessons (Tanzstunde)
Winning Strategy
Avoid obstacles (they cost energy) and grab food items.
Narrative Sequences
Short prequel, sequel, and interlude (“Meanwhile …”) graphical sequences drive the narrative. One trophy will be Minecraft (opcraft) themed, based on opcraft (a Minecraft clone).
Characters
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Antagonist: kn00t
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Protagonist: left unplanned in the original notes.
Working decision in the technical plan: the protagonist is the voxel robot from the “pixel” reference art; the orange PIXEL blob avatar is used as the HUD score badge instead of the player character.
Score Display
Score display uses the provided pixel-art graphics used as the YT and Discord avatar.
References
- Pentaract: atproto video game lexicons — for scores/records interop. See the technical plan for how this project uses/extends it.
Post-Lunch Brainstorming (family session)
A moving opponent, like the snail in Commander Keen, could be an animated egg dish (Moritz dislikes Eierspeisen — egg dishes). Two opposing behaviors:
- Drop chicken — no danger, possibly even edible.
- Poisoned egg — drains energy, possibly fatal.
uervel knight is a powerup to fight the egg-dish opponent. Earned as a special achievement via either:
- A hard-to-reach item (animated, elaborate), or
- Unlocking a hidden level reachable via a portal (in Commander Keen, the player crawls into a pipe to reach one).
Resolved in the technical plan: Drop Chicken, Poison Egg, and the uervel knight are prototyped and working in the Lidl Lunch level. For the “pipe,” the Minigolf hole is the chosen portal to a hidden bonus level; the mushroom house door (already-drawn kn00t art) is leaning toward a separate treasure trove secret; a River Cola crate stack is earmarked as a secret entrance for a later level. None of the hidden levels are built yet.