Hollowwake

Cinevva's analyzer read this game's design doc and its source, then wrote the brief below. "Make your own" hands it to the game creator as your opening message, so you start from a real spec rather than a one-line idea.

Create a 2D pixel-art side-scrolling action-platformer titled “Hollowwake,” rendered in a crisp, low-resolution pixel style on an HTML canvas with image smoothing disabled and scaled to fill the screen. The game takes place in a dark underkingdom at night: use a nearly black navy background, sparse dim dust/stars, layered parallax silhouettes of enormous triangular cavern spires, and repeating distant ruin structures. The foreground should be a long horizontal series of broken stone-and-metal platforms with muted purple surfaces, mauve edge highlights, and small repeating inset markings. Include tall simple ladders in the ruins as prominent environmental elements. The camera follows the player horizontally through a roughly 5200-pixel-wide level while showing the player and nearby platforms in a 960x540-style view.

The player is a tiny stylized humanoid wanderer, about 24x38 pixels, wearing a dark crimson/mauve cloak, a warm gold mask/face, and very dark hair. Start them near the left side on the first ground platform with 5 VIGOR/health, 0 SHARDS, a full blue energy bar, and the abilities DASH and DOUBLE JUMP. Move with A/D or the left/right arrows. Jump with SPACE (or up arrow), allowing a ground jump and one additional air jump. SHIFT performs a fast horizontal dash with a short invulnerable window and a purple particle trail. Left mouse button attacks with the Bellworn Blade, showing a short gold blade slash and hit sparks; attacks have a brief cooldown and damage nearby enemies. Right mouse button performs a special area burst when enough energy is available, consuming 30 of 100 energy; energy regenerates over time. Falling below the level respawns the player at the start and costs one health. Contact with enemies causes damage and brief invulnerability; reaching zero health respawns the player with restored health.

Build the level as separated ground islands and elevated platforms across the horizontal world, with platforms approximately at these positions: ground stretches from 0–980, 1060–1780, 1870–2790, 2900–3800, and 3950–5000; elevated ledges should appear at varied heights around x=340, 650, 930, 1240, 1550, 1780, 2070, 2450, 2720, 3050, 3420, 3720, 4200, and 4610. The opening area contains an NPC named Mara of the Bell around x=300, a small cloaked, gold-faced figure with a floating gold exclamation point before she is met. Press E near her to open dialogue. Her first dialogue says the player woke beneath a dead kingdom, that the bell below still tolls, and directs them to take the lower road because the Warden keeps what their shadow lost. Update the quest after speaking to her to “Find the Warden below. Bring back its key.”

Populate the ruins with simple chunky pixel enemies: a mauve Mireling near the first area and another farther right, a floating pale-purple Lantern Moth on an elevated route, a teal Glass Hound, and a mauve Ash Acolyte. Give them visible hit points when damaged, basic movement toward the player within a limited range, and contact damage. Defeated enemies disappear and award 2 moon shards each with floating “+2” feedback. At around x=3700 place a large dark sealed gate with a gold outline and a clear “SEALED” label. Before the guardian is defeated, prevent the player from passing the gate and allow E to show a modal reading “SEALED — DEFEAT THE GUARDIAN” and explaining that a cold sigil rejects the player’s hand.

At the far right, around x=4550, place the Veil Warden guardian: a much larger dark-purple/magenta boss with a broad body, glowing gold eyes, and a magenta horizontal weapon or arm shape. Activate the boss when the player approaches. Display a centered boss panel titled “THE VEIL WARDEN” with a magenta health bar, starting at 42 HP. The Warden periodically attacks with three magenta projectiles or a close-range burst; its behavior should become more dangerous below half health. The player’s normal attack damages it by 1 and the special burst damages it by 3. When defeated, show gold particles and floating “WARDEN KEY,” award 10 moon shards, mark the gate open, and update the quest to “Cross the broken seal. The forest remembers your name.” The gate should then visibly change from SEALED to OPEN with a greenish interior, and E near it should show “THE SEAL HAS BEEN BROKEN” and state that the road to the Whispering Forest is open.

Use small square particle bursts for jumps, dashes, attacks, damage, boss defeat, and other feedback, plus floating pixel text such as HIT, OUCH, RESPAWN, +2, and WARDEN KEY. Draw all characters as simple rectangles with blocky masks, cloaks, hair, eyes, and limbs; keep the art deliberately limited to deep navy, charcoal, muted violet, mauve, crimson, teal, warm gold, pale lavender, and blue energy accents.

Create a fixed pixel-styled HUD over the game. In the upper-left, place a dark translucent panel with a mauve-gray double border, red health bar, blue energy bar, and text: “VIGOR 5,” “SHARDS 0,” and “DASH · DOUBLE JUMP.” In the upper-right, place a matching QUEST panel initially reading “Wake the sleeping gate. Find the Warden below.” At the bottom center show a bordered controls hint: “A/D move · W/S climb · SPACE jump / double jump · SHIFT dash · LMB attack · E interact · M map · C character.” On narrow/touch screens, show translucent directional, jump, dash, attack, and interact buttons.

On launch, show a centered dark modal title screen: “HOLLOWWAKE,” the line “A bell rings beneath a kingdom that forgot how to die,” and text instructing the player to explore the vertical ruins, meet Mara, gather moon shards, and reach the Veil Warden. Provide “New / Continue” and “Controls” buttons. Support pause with Escape and a pause modal, a map opened with M listing “THE UNDERKINGDOM,” discovered “Forgotten Caverns,” and unrevealed destinations “Whispering Forest,” “Ashen Fortress,” and “Crystal Depths,” plus the player’s approximate marker. Support an inventory/pack modal via Tab listing the Bellworn Blade, empty relic socket, moon shards, and Dash/Double Jump abilities. Support a character modal via C where cosmetic cloak and mask colors can be changed without changing stats. Save progress to local storage, including position, shards, Warden key, quest/state, and cosmetic colors, and allow New / Continue to resume saved progress.