Stage Maker

• 

  Stage Editor

• 

  Publishing Level

• 

  Stage Testing

• 

  Stage Creation #1

• 

• 

  Stage Gallery

• 

  Stage Creation #2

Inspiration

Stage Maker is inspired by the classic maker style of games. The idea behind it is to create a platform where users can create fun polished games with great game feel ( think Celeste or Super Meat Boy ). While having the stage creation process be similar to making a painting. These games bring joy to millions of people, and uniquely combined with Reddit as the social layer this enables strong community interaction & connectivity.

What it does

Stage Maker is a UGC game maker - initially focused on enabling the creation of 2d platformer with simple fast paced & precise gameplay. The idea is to enable others to create expressive game stages and the ability to share their stages with community via posts.

With Stage Maker you can make a variety of stages fast and in an intuitive manner. Simply drag and drop from a selection of Objects. Currently the main objects are: Blocks, Effects & Design.

Blocks Blocks have a variety of traits for example - Ice block ( very slippery ) , Sand Block ( disappears after standing on it for a couple seconds ) Conveyor ( Moves the player forward ) , Bounce Block ( launches the player skyward ) Etc. Some blocks can be skinned, for example the floor block comes in several themed options.

Effects Select from a range of powerups & effects. For example - Glider ( Float across the skies ) , Enlarge, Double Jump

Design We aim to have the game stages fully customizable from backgrounds to particle effects and decorative objects.

How we built it

Pixi.js

Challenges we ran into

Originally Stage Maker was built in Phaser. However after a day or two of experimenting it was clear Phaser was not providing the responsive & fluid gameplay desired. The vision was to create something web based that also had the game feel of a PC game. From there the code base was switched over to Pixi.js and native javascript.

Initially when deploying Pixi.js was clashing with the Reddit requirements for non-eval. I tried everything to fix ( of course installing the non-eval version of Pixi.js ) After many hours stuck eventually I was able to get a functioning version by downgrading to Pixi.js to version 4 however this would require a complete rewrite to get functionality restored. After some help from the community and tinkering a fix was found that enabled a version onto Reddit utilizing the latest version of Pixi.js.

Additionally some features that are working just fine at one point had to be disabled in order to make the time cut-off for the hackathon entry. The challenge was to be as efficient as possible, towards a short release window. While difficult this enabled a coding flow and letting go of details that will be polished and re-enabled.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Working on Stage Maker over the last week has been my obsession, and its been delightful to work on. As we approach the age of agentic programming, its important to learn how to speak the language of computers and understand the underlying systems. I am proud of learning how to work with the computer instead of against it. With agentic programming assistance as a co-pilot I am seeing potential to truly create a world class product in a fraction of the time it used to take. While AI is not a magic bullet, when applied correctly it is a creativity amplifier. I am proud to envision a complex system and see it come to life in a short period of time, while also seeing what this can become in terms of reach and delivering value to the community & others.

What we learned

I am used to programming in large complex code bases that require deep understanding and careful consideration. I learned that in terms of coding less is more. When you end up with a interface and code that appears simple overall yet you poured yourself into it, this shows progression. I learned to enjoy the process while envisioning a complete product that is joyful to work towards!

What's next for Stage Maker

There is much imagined for Stage Maker has and this is early stage. Here are some Immediate and Short term ( this will likely change based on iterative feedback )

Immediate: QoL improvements Customized stage posts for creators. Full Reddit integration ( custom splash screen, flair, daily events, tipping, featured stages, statistics, badges, challenges, titles, progression ) Fluid & Responsive ( dynamic resizing and improved controls ) Several new player animations ( wall climb, wall jump, dash, slide ) ( this functionality exists we just need to integrate the animations ) Work through an existing bug list as soon as possible. Stage Verification prior to public stage publication.

Short Term: More objects, more object variety, additional object themes. Additional game modes. ( Next is automated running option for mobile simple tap gameplay ) Additional design elements, visual particles, decorations, backgrounds. Additional block and effect customizability. Automated services & statistics. Additional Integrations. Speed run option. Continuous improvements.
Regular community events. And more!

Built With

• pixi.js