Celeste 64 brings a 3D trip back to the mountain

The team behind the original Celeste marked the game’s sixth anniversary with Celeste 64: Fragments of the Mountain, a free 3D reimagining of the acclaimed platformer. The tribute is available for Windows and Linux on itch.io, with the source hosted on GitHub (C#). Players guide Madeline through a familiar story from a new dimension, complete with strawberries to collect in three dimensions.

Quick hits from the open source world

Driftmania

Driftmania boils 2D top-down racing down to its essential loop: hit the corners, slide through them, and chase a better lap time. Built for PICO-8 in Lua, the game is playable in your browser and the source is on GitHub. The whole experience is small enough to make you feel like a skilled driver — even when you’re bouncing off the track walls.

Nesterin Trail

From a fantasy 8-bit computer to a real one: Nesterin Trail is a graphical adventure for the Commodore 64 with a text parser interface. Developer @MGProduction created it to showcase StoryTllr, an interactive fiction engine for the C64. If you don’t have vintage hardware handy, the game is downloadable for Windows and Linux via itch.io.

Endless Sky 0.10.6

The space exploration and trading sim Endless Sky has released its first stable build of 2024. Version 0.10.6 continues a development arc that began in 2015, letting players pick a ship and decide whether to trade, fight, or explore. The C++ game is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

RBG

Described by its creator as a “functional demo,” RBG pairs tile-matching mechanics with an RPG wrapper. Built with Phaser in TypeScript, it offers polished animations, an original chiptune soundtrack, and browser-based play.

Pong Wars

Pong Wars is a self-playing hybrid of Pong, Breakout, and Conway’s Game of Life, implemented in plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The project’s README traces the lineage of such autonomous “games” and links to several other implementations — possibly inspiring your own weekend project in a favorite language or engine.

Tools and libraries worth a look

DOSBox Staging 0.81.0

DOSBox Staging, a self-described continuation of the DOSBox emulator, shipped version 0.81.0. The headline feature is zero-configuration CRT monitor emulation, reproducing the scanline look of classic displays. The release also bundles audio and input fixes, 3dfx support, and an updated getting started guide, with full notes posted on the project site.

Steam Audio goes open source

Valve’s Steam Audio SDK models how sound propagates through environments, with geometry blocking and reflecting audio cues. It integrates with Unity, Unreal Engine, and FMOD Studio, or directly via a C API. Version 4.5.2 marks the project’s open source debut, with the entire codebase — including engine plugins — now available on GitHub under an Apache 2.0 license.

Jam calendar and a standout entry

Two jams are on the horizon:

  • 7DRL Challenge 2024 (March 1–11) — 20th edition, tasking developers with finishing a roguelike in seven days or less.
  • Mini Jam 153 (March 1–3) — a 72-hour event with a constraint revealed at kickoff.

For Game Jam Game of the Month, Why did the Chicken Cross the Road stood out from Global Game Jam 2024. The PICO-8 title, written in Lua, casts you as a stubborn chicken navigating roads, streams, and more in a Frogger-like adventure. It’s available to play online with its source on GitHub.

Community event: Godot at GitHub HQ

GitHub is hosting the 4th annual Godot GDC Meetup on the evening of March 20, 2024, at its headquarters. The gathering promises networking, food, and conversation with Godot core contributors and developers from around the world. Registration is required for the event.