Stonebound

Rain falls on the old quarter. On a cathedral ledge, something made of stone opens its eyes.

Stonebound is a pixel-art gothic noir platformer in three levels. Every gang member you drive off turns a little more stone back into skin: first the hands, then the face, until the horns crumble and something human looks out.

Level 1: The Old Quarter. Glide across rain-slick rooftops, scramble up brick walls and drop out of the dark onto the gangs that own these alleys.

Level 2: The Cathedral. Climb a candlelit nave past hooded cultists, over the pews and chandeliers, to kneel at the altar. The aether answers, and it gives you a weapon.

Level 3: The Docks. Face Mr Big, the demon every gang in the city feeds: a bloated horror in a torn pinstripe suit, with a tommy gun fused into his arm and skin that boils and bursts. Weave through his bullet-hell barrages and burn him down with beams of aether light.

Features

• Double jump, glide, wall-kick climbing and a dive slam

• A three-phase boss fight with rings, spirals, acid and a charged light beam that cuts through his fire

• Hand-built lighting: fire drums, candlelight, stained glass, neon and rain-slicked reflections

• Saves your progress on this device, plus level codes you can use anywhere

• Plays on phone or desktop with touch or keyboard controls

• One small file, with every pixel drawn in code

Controls

• Move: ◀ ▶ buttons, or arrow keys / A and D

• Jump: Jump button, or Space. Tap again in the air to double jump, hold to glide. Push into a wall and tap to climb.

• Strike: Strike button, or X. In the air it's a dive. At the docks, tap to fire the aether beam, or hold to charge.

• Pause: ❚❚ button, or Esc

Also on this page: Stonebound 1.0 Classic, the original one-level version, as a download. And now - V2 update  

Credits

Design and direction by Julian Grant. Built with Claude (Opus 5.5).

Inspired by Odiriuss's PixelArtGameOpus, whose single-file noir games showed how much a browser and some code can do.