Matt Makes Games founder Matt Thorson is best known for TowerFall: Ascension (opens in new tab), a delightful co-op action platformer. Thorson's next game is Celeste, a self-described "hardcore mountain-climbing platformer" that's coming to Steam (opens in new tab) this month.
Celeste stars Madeline, a young girl hellbent on reaching the summit of Celeste Mountain. To do so, she'll need to clear more than 600 screens of "hardcore platforming challenges and devious secrets," it seems. Celeste is an old-school platformer, after all, with one giant level broken into smaller stages. There are also "B-side" chapters to unlock, which offer yet more challenging stages.
Thorson worked with developer Noel Berry (opens in new tab) on Celeste. Berry has designed numerous flash games in his time, and also helped Thorson create Celeste Classic, a free flash-based prototype which you can play here (opens in new tab). (Pro tip: jump with X and dash with C, and don't forget you can dash upward.)
Although unreleased, Celeste was nominated for Excellence in Audio in this year's Independent Games Festival awards. (opens in new tab) Its Steam page boasts it will have more than two hours of original music.
