Pipe Runner

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 playable 2D side-scrolling pixel-art platformer titled “Pipe Runner.” Use a full-screen HTML canvas with crisp pixelated rendering and a camera that follows the player through one long horizontal course. The setting is a bright blue sky with repeating horizontal light-blue stripe bands, white blocky pixel clouds, and parallax green rolling hills. The course has separated stretches of grassy dirt ground with gaps/pits, brick platforms suspended above the ground, green pipes of different heights, stone staircases, prize blocks marked with a large “?”, and a red flag at the far right finish. Keep the visual style simple, colorful, and retro, with chunky rectangles and dark outlines; do not use recognizable copyrighted characters or names.

The player is a small original retro adventurer viewed from the side: red cap, peach face and hands, red shirt, blue overalls/pants, and brown shoes. Draw the character with blocky rectangles, make it face the movement direction, and make the body taller when powered up. Start the player near the far left on the first ground section. Horizontal movement uses left/right arrows (and on mobile, large on-screen ← and → buttons); accelerate to a normal walking speed, frictionally slow when released, and face the direction pressed. Holding Down (or the mobile ↓ RUN button) raises the maximum horizontal speed. Up (or the mobile ↑ JUMP button) jumps only while grounded; use gravity, a strong upward impulse, and variable jump height when the button is released early. Prevent movement through solid ground, platforms, pipes, bricks, question blocks, and stair geometry.

Build a course approximately 190 tiles wide with 40-pixel tiles and ground level around tile row 14. Include ground runs beginning at tile columns 0–26, 30–48, 52–75, 79–96, 100–130, and 134–187, leaving pits between them. Add elevated brick platforms around (14,10) length 5, (25,8) length 4, (40,9) length 7, (65,7) length 5, (87,10) length 4, (116,8) length 5, (142,9) length 6, and (158,6) length 5. Add individual breakable bricks near question blocks: columns 17 and 19 at row 7, 30 and 32 at row 6, 44 at row 6, 69 at row 5, 117 and 119 at row 6, and 149 and 151 at row 7. Add question blocks containing prizes at (18,7), (31,6), (43,6), (68,5), (118,6), and (150,7). A question block is usable once: striking it from below makes it bump and either awards a coin or releases a power-up; afterward render it as a dull used block.

Place green pipes at columns 35, 73, 96, and 128, with heights of 2, 3, 2, and 4 tiles respectively. Add staircases around columns 54, 104, and 165, with 4, 5, and 7 steps and alternating direction as shown by the layout. Scatter collectible gold coins in elevated arcs/lines at columns [8,10,21,22,23,38,39,59,60,61,88,89,90,110,111,132,133,154,155,170], with their vertical positions varying by column; make them bob slightly. Each collected coin increases the coin count and score by 100 and briefly shows a floating “+100.”

Add roughly ten brown blocky walking enemies at columns [12,28,48,62,82,91,108,124,145,162]. They patrol horizontally, reverse when meeting solid geometry or an edge, and fall under gravity. If the player lands on one from above, squash it, bounce the player upward, play a defeat effect, and award 200 points. Touching one from the side hurts the player.

Include a red rectangular power-up that emerges from power question blocks, moves horizontally, falls under gravity, bounces/reverses against solid surfaces, and can be collected. Collecting it makes the player big/taller, awards 500 points, and enables the player to destroy breakable brick blocks by hitting them from below; breaking a brick awards 50 points and emits small colored square particles. If hit by an enemy while small, lose one of three lives and respawn at the start with a short invulnerability period. If hit while big, shrink back to small and become temporarily invulnerable instead. Falling into a pit or running out of time costs a life; after all three lives are gone, show a centered “GAME OVER” overlay with “Press ↑ or tap Restart.”

Start with 3 lives and a 300-second countdown timer. Display a fixed dark translucent, white-outlined HUD panel at the upper left containing SCORE, COINS, LIVES, and TIME in bold uppercase pixel-like text. Update score for coins, enemies, power-up, bricks, and the finish bonus. Smoothly follow the player horizontally while keeping the course and parallax scenery scrolling. At the far right around column 181, place a flagpole with a red flag and dark base; reaching it wins, changes the flag to yellow, adds 10 points per remaining second, and shows a centered “COURSE CLEAR” overlay with “Press ↑ or tap Restart.” Include a Restart button in the overlay and allow Up to restart after win/loss. Add simple jump, coin, and power-up sound effects if available, but gameplay must work without audio. On coarse/mobile screens show large translucent controls: left/right buttons at bottom left and circular RUN and JUMP buttons at bottom right. On desktop, show a small instructional panel explaining Arrow-only controls: left/right move, Up jump, Down run, plus the objectives to stomp enemies, hit prize blocks, collect coins, and reach the flag.