StarMess
ENPLRU
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A little game in the making

StarMess

Maybe leave the mirror alone.

A palace floating in space. A scarf that doubles as a weapon. And eight bosses who would really rather you left.

Wishlist on SteamHave a look ↓

Still in development. No release date yet.

YES, THE SCARF IS A WEAPON.↓
08peculiar bosses✦01–02players in the arena✦EN / PL / RUgame languages

About the game

So, what is this?

StarMess is a pixel art game about poking around a strange old palace, then getting into trouble with whatever lives there.

You wander through galleries, a library and a chapel, looking for a way forward. A mirror, a vase or a broken clock might lead to a boss fight. Beating the first boss brings the lights back on. It helps.

Some screenshots ↗

Have a nose around

The rooms connect, paths loop back, and some parts of the palace are too dark to enter at first.

Get to know the bosses

The gardener has plants. The conductor has notes. You have to work out when to duck, when to move, and when to hit back.

Bring someone for the fights

Local co-op can be unlocked for boss arenas. Exploration is solo for now. Both difficulty levels work with a controller.

From the workbench

Things worth recording.

Boss attempts and bits of development, when there’s something to show.

TikTok players only load when you click. TikTok will then receive connection data and may use cookies.

Patch notes

What changed?

The actual game updates. Newest first.

Version 0.24.0

v0.24.0LATEST

  • The Great Rattlesnake’s distant body disappears behind the ruins instead of ending in mid-air.
  • The Great Rattlesnake battle has original music, hisses, venom spits, rock impacts and distinct shots.

v0.23.4

  • Promotional videos center the picture and captions, preserve proportions and use smoother tracking with gentler zooms.

v0.23.3

  • Palace edges have a dedicated corner-stone variant with projecting blocks and recessed joints.

v0.23.2

  • Palace walls, railings and foundations have beveled stone corners and shaded side edges.
Older updates ↓

v0.23.1

  • Removed scattered arches and columns from palace walkways.
  • Softer palace shadows and stone texture edges.

v0.23.0

  • Promo videos use bold sans captions, a larger frame and dynamic zooms with room for TikTok's interface.
  • Five distinct original instrumental cues accompany the PL/EN videos; campaign guidelines are saved for future use.

v0.22.1

  • Promotional clips have shorter meme captions and all five videos in Polish and English, with separate language packs and a combined archive.

v0.22.0

  • Separate promotional generator: five TikTok edits, a Steam trailer and screenshots from the opening, palace, Reflection and Great Rattlesnake.

v0.21.0

  • Inventory shows weapon damage, attack interval and projectile speed.
  • New characters receive 3 apples. Eat them in the palace for +1 life on upcoming attempts.

v0.20.0

  • Palace inventory: persistent preview and a controller-navigable window, including player 2.
  • Scarf equipped as the main weapon; faster throws with an animated bitmap in the character’s color.

v0.19.4

  • The complete scarf in opening memories uses the character's color, including both ends on the floor and shaded folds.
  • Removed travelling horizontal and vertical bands during opening picture motion.

v0.19.3

  • All eight arena entrances share palace-style bitmap stone, brass and muted glass/textiles, including the Reflection mirror.
  • Entrance props keep their proportions and positions, with grounded bases and shadows matching the new silhouettes.

v0.19.2

  • Palace floors have soft contact shading at edges and columns, subtly lit stone-slab bevels and deeper stair risers.
  • Galleries cast separate pier shadows; arch shadows match bitmap feet, and shading no longer brightens dark sections.

v0.19.1

  • Piers, galleries and balustrades have solid isometric thickness and shaded side faces.
  • Architectural runs meet inside stone supports; transparent end margins and arbitrary open cuts are closed.
  • Each complete structure fades evenly beside the hero, including sloping stair walls.

v0.19.0

  • Large connected facades and galleries meet floors and stairs; stone has sparse cracks and ivy, with deep piers built into the full structure.
  • Warmer lamp light replaces floating window beams; glow is softer, without the heavy blue filter.
  • Downward balcony camera travel is reduced from 340 to 64 units.

v0.18.0

  • Three palace storeys connect through two stair flights; the camera follows height and reveals foundations at balconies.
  • The palace floats in space on deep foundations, buttresses and piers with visible lower ends; window and railing openings reveal the sky.
  • Shared floor corners remove gaps, foreground architecture fades more clearly and locked sections are substantially darker.

v0.17.0

  • The palace matches the opening: tall bitmap windows, columns and arches, blue stone floors and distant towers.
  • Exploration uses the arena hero's bitmap animations and scarf colors, with clearer cool lighting and no film grain.

v0.16.0

  • New journeys begin with memories of receiving a scarf and awakening in the palace, using the chosen scarf color.
  • Pause and skip the opening with a controller; completion is saved per slot. Existing journeys continue without the opening.

v0.15.3

  • Palace movement has consistent screen speed and accurate diagonal directions, with analog stick speed control.

v0.15.2

  • Velvet Weaver attacks more often: shorter warnings and breaks, faster pendulums and returned needles.
  • Phase II telegraphs a stitch while pendulums swing; returned needles keep flying during the next attack.

v0.15.1

  • Porcelain Conductor: faster notes, paper and dance, shorter breaks and an additional projectile speed increase in phase II.
  • Wind carries notes from phase I. Destroying the last hazard ends the act without waiting for its original flight time.

v0.15.0

  • The Star Astrolabist commands binary stars, gravity wells and living constellations; only the Meridian repeats the familiar beam family.
  • Added a bitmap observatory, 64 character cels, 48 effect cels, two-phase and finale animation, and four dedicated attack sounds.
  • The south gallery planetarium opens after the Stained-Glass Stag. Easy, Normal and co-op save rewards and statistics; progression now has 24 goals.

v0.14.0

  • The Stained-Glass Stag brings physical window openings, a rotating rose with a real safe sector, shot-catching echoes and one familiar charge.
  • Added a bitmap chapel, 64 character cels, 48 effect cels, phase/finale animation and four original glass-and-hoof sounds.
  • The cracked chapel rose opens after defeating the Clockwork Chamberlain. Easy, Normal and co-op save rewards and statistics; progression now has 21 goals.

v0.13.0

  • The Clockwork Chamberlain brings a stillness test, an eclipse with shelters, an hourglass sand trap and delayed bells; phase II pairs the attacks.
  • Added a bitmap clock gallery, separate anticipation, attack, phase transition and finale frames, and quiet clock, sand and bell sounds.
  • The north gallery's stopped clock opens after defeating the Velvet Weaver. Easy, Normal and co-op save rewards and statistics; progression now has 18 goals.

v0.12.0

  • The Velvet Weaver brings swinging needles, low and high stitches, closing shuttles and a thimble that catches shots; phase II unfolds her wings and changes the fight's rhythm.
  • Added a bitmap tapestry hall, separate character and tool animations, and a finale that unravels the threads.
  • The library's torn tapestry opens after defeating the Porcelain Conductor. Easy, Normal and co-op save rewards and statistics; progression now has 15 goals.

v0.11.1

  • The Great Rattlesnake's shattered spikes travel twice as fast; eggs have 1 HP and hatchlings have 12 HP.
  • Each egg hatches after its own random delay of 3–5 seconds on the floor.
  • Venom puddles always drift gently left.

v0.11.0

  • The Porcelain Conductor brings returning notes, a moving score, a paper dancer replaying your path and organ wind; phase II combines wind with notes or paper.
  • Added an animated pixel-art theatre, expressive boss and attack frames, a child-figurine finale and new combat sounds.
  • The organ chamber's music box opens after defeating the Great Rattlesnake. Easy, Normal and co-op save rewards and statistics; progression now has 12 goals.

v0.10.0

  • Great Rattlesnake launches 1–2 eggs on Easy and 2–4 on Normal. They have 30 HP and shake for 3 seconds before hatching; destroying an egg prevents the hatch.
  • Hatchlings have 50 HP, crawl quickly toward a player and keep bouncing off walls until destroyed or the fight ends.

v0.9.0

  • Great Rattlesnake gains a second tail attack: two large spikes each shatter on the floor into two small spikes travelling left and right; Easy slows the fragments.

v0.8.0

  • Iron Gardener's final phase grows animated flowers from both arena edges: they bloom, fire golden pollen at players and fold away; Easy has gentler volleys.

v0.7.4

  • Great Rattlesnake's venom has a flowing liquid tail; puddles use broad travelling waves and reflections with rounded banks.

v0.7.3

  • Great Rattlesnake's laser windup gathers sparks into a growing eye core, then compresses the energy with a final pulse before firing.
  • Fixed gaps between Iron Gardener's animated thorn and root segments; active plant lanes stay continuous and respect their safe-lane edges.

v0.7.2

  • Replaced Great Rattlesnake's thin laser with an animated plasma stream, a bright core, flame-like edges and dedicated eye-charge and ground-impact bursts.

v0.7.1

  • Great Rattlesnake throws staggered volleys of 2–4 boulders from its background coils into the foreground, landing at random positions with room to dodge.
  • Its eye laser ripples with sparks and a ground flare; beam and boulder impacts add brief screen shake.

v0.7.0

  • Reworked Iron Gardener and its greenhouse in matching pixel art, with 64 boss frames for movement, attacks, flowering, hits and wilting.
  • Added animated seeds, thorn balls, shears, pods, growing plants and leaf/petal particles.

v0.6.0

  • Great Rattlesnake has separate background coils, a tail at the screen edge and a foreground head/neck, with 32 frames and poses aligned with attacks.
  • Fixed floating ground effects: aligned the stone ledge with the collision floor, grounded puddle bubbles and made foot dust settle quickly.

v0.5.2

  • Reworked Great Rattlesnake's boulders, venom spit, rock impacts and bubbling puddles with six frames per effect.
  • Spit follows its flight direction; rubble settles on the floor and puddles keep rounded ends while growing.

v0.5.1

  • Great Rattlesnake has one continuous animated silhouette, clearer fangs and tongue; the jungle gains mossy ruins and a waterfall.
  • Venom preparation stays visible in phase II, and attack origins follow the revised artwork.

v0.5.0

  • Great Rattlesnake: two phases, spikes, venom, rocks from the background and an eye beam.
  • The vase in the east cloister opens the arena; Easy, Normal and co-op save rewards and statistics.

v0.4.2

  • Jumping works during and immediately after a dash; the cooldown only delays the next dash.

v0.4.1

  • Fixed on-screen keyboard navigation: up/down changes rows; left/right selects keys, editing actions and Done.

v0.4.0

  • ADMIN DEV: view map, character, projectile, platform and attack hitboxes; also available from combat pause on a controller.

v0.3.4

  • Fixed gamepad button assignment; added LT/L2, RT/R2 and assignment by pressing a button.

v0.3.3

  • Reflection walks 15% faster on Normal, when approaching and moving to a wall.

v0.3.2

  • Reflection's Normal final phase adds random running whips and fast damaging spins, without wall stuns.
  • Normal wall impacts drop a random 3–6 boulders in solo and co-op.
  • Added HP for a 30% longer final phase. The opening phase and Easy balance are unchanged.

v0.3.1

  • The Windows installer is under 10 MB. It includes the game and downloads verified Java and libraries during installation.
  • Save migration retries temporary Windows file locks without replacing existing data.

v0.3.0

  • Added a single Windows installer with the game icon, Java and a Start menu shortcut.
  • Saves and settings now use AppData and survive updates and uninstall. Older files are preserved during migration.

v0.2.1

  • Whip attacks are twice as fast, with correctly anchored scarf animation.
  • Scarf spin attacks last 30% less time.
  • Both bosses have 35% more HP, with phase thresholds scaled accordingly.
  • Falling ceiling rocks are 50% larger.

v0.2.0

  • Both bosses' result screens show attempt time, total fighting time and deaths.
  • Boss statistics persist per save slot; migration preserves existing character progress.

v0.1.2

  • Simplified the Iron Gardener and plants to match the hero's style.
  • Fixed walking, firing and landing animations on platforms.
  • Fixed attack proportions and shelf surface alignment.

v0.1.1

  • Local Git history now tracks the project, excluding saves and build output.
  • Added a compact changelog in the main menu, with gamepad navigation.
  • The current version appears in the bottom-left corner of the main menu.

Discord

Come say hi.

Found a bug? Stuck on a boss? Or just want to follow along? There’ll be a Discord for that.

Join the Discord

On Steam, eventually

Want to keep an eye on it?

The Steam page isn’t up yet. The link will be here when it is.

Wishlist on Steam