In development · Browser first · Steam later
Super BoundHaven
Bounce together. Master every jump.
A sharp 16-bit, side-scrolling platforming MMO where movement is the skill, the world is shared, and the hardest challenges are meant to be beaten as a team.
Playable prototype Early and rough: a shared movement playground and a character creator. No launch date yet.
Why it’s different
Built around how it feels to move
Inspired by the bold, readable essence of classic 16-bit platformers, made original from the ground up. Here is what we are building, and honestly how far along each piece is.
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Precision movement, real skill gap
Momentum, run-jumps, slopes and bounce pads tuned for feel, with short coyote-time and jump-buffer windows. Easy to pick up, deep enough that mastery shows. How failure and checkpoints work is still being decided.
Playable prototype -
A real-time shared world
Other players are visible as you play, and you physically bump, stomp and bounce off each other. Today that is one small shared playground; larger regions and scale are still to be tested.
Playable prototype (small) -
A big layered character creator
A layered humanoid look, built from skin, hair, face, clothes, hats, back items and more. Pick a look in the prototype and everyone sees it.
Playable prototype -
Summonable mounts & Metroidvania exploration
Many original rideable animals, summoned in the open world whenever you like. Some places need a particular mount, with secrets and hidden routes to find. Art exists; the mechanics are not built yet.
Planned -
Genuinely cooperative dungeons & raids
Challenges that need coordinated bounces, switches and timing, so one player cannot simply carry everyone else. The stomp-bounce that makes it possible already works in the prototype.
Planned -
Player-made levels & weekly events
Build and share your own levels. A featured level each week, plus races and time-attack events on familiar favorites.
Later -
Original powerups
A growing toolbox of consumable powerups, all with their own designs and their own quirks.
Planned -
Gear that does something
Functional equipment and loadouts that change how you play, plus tradeable items. Your base moveset still has to be enough to clear hard content with exceptional skill.
Later -
Secrets & Easter eggs
Hidden routes, odd corners and subtle nods to the things we love, tucked away for the curious.
Planned
Gameplay
Watch the real simulation run
This is not a video. It is the actual movement simulation from the prototype, driven by scripted button presses and drawn live in your browser with the game’s real tiles, backdrop and character sprites.
Loading replay...
- Momentum movementWalk, run and skid with weighty acceleration.
- Variable jumpsHold for height. Short coyote-time and input-buffer windows.
- Slopes & bounce pads45-degree slopes, and pads that launch higher when you hold jump.
- Players are solidStomp, bounce and push each other. The foundation of co-op.
One run, frame by frame
- Ramp
- Plateau
- Pit jump
- Landing
- Pad launch
- High platform
Screenshots from the prototype
Captured from the live prototype build. Everything is early and will change.
Heroes
Make someone who is yours
A layered humanoid creator: stout, expressive characters with a big readable head and a chunky outline, assembled from independent layers so every combination animates the same way. Not blocks or cubes.
Twelve sample looks
What you can customize
Counts are the real option lists in the current build. More is expected.
Open the creator in the prototype
The prototype opens the creator first: pick a look, a name, and jump in. Press C in-game to change it.
Mounts & exploration
Summon a ride. Reach somewhere new.
The direction is set: many different original rideable animals, summoned in the open world whenever you want, with some areas that need a particular mount. The first four are below. The sprites are real; the abilities shown are proposals, not final design, and none of this is playable yet.
Roster & summon: confirmed direction Abilities: proposed Mechanics: planned
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Frog
Now showing: Idle
A bouncy, amphibious hopper. Proposed: a charged super-hop, hopping across lily pads, and a tether-grab onto anchor points to cross wide gaps.
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Dinosaur
Now showing: Idle
A sturdy ground bruiser. Proposed: a ground-pound that breaks cracked blocks and trips heavy switches.
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Flying dinosaur
Now showing: Idle
An airborne ride. Proposed: a stamina-limited flap and glide, riding updrafts toward sky islands and tall shafts.
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Cheetah
Now showing: Idle
The speed mount. Proposed: a sprint dash, steep-slope climbing and long leaps for speed gates and crumbling bridges.
Mounts are meant to be friendly to earn, never locked behind brutal content. Still open: summon limits, whether they work in raids or races, and passengers. The plan is that mounts add to your base moveset and never replace it. Mount names and designs are placeholders.
Creatures, pickups & effects
A world with things in it
Cute-but-mischievous critters, shiny collectibles and juicy effects, all original and all animated from the real sprite sheets. This is art only: how enemies behave, and what shards are for, has not been designed yet.
- Sproutling a plum leaf-sprouting walker, drawn with a squash frame.
- Zipwing a teal, striped flier.
- Shardback a slate crawler with magenta crystal spikes that curls up.
- Bound Shards the cyan crystal collectible (working name).
The world
Fourteen regions to imagine, two to see
Two regions already have real art and run in the prototype. The rest are creative direction, not a launch checklist: not every region will ship at once, and none have dates.
One world, any time of day
Backdrops are layered for gentle parallax and come in dawn, day, sunset and night variants. Move your pointer across the scene to shift the layers.
On the drawing board
Twelve more regions we are designing toward. These are rough procedural sketches, not final art, and not in the prototype. The finished regions will match the style above.
Co-op raids
Some walls need a friend
The hardest content is designed so that nobody can carry everyone else. Success takes coordinated bounces, switches and timing, with the whole team executing together.
- Stomp-bounces let one player boost another over terrain no solo jump can clear.
- Switches and timed sequences that only work when several people hit them together.
- A difficulty ladder from friendly dungeons up to punishing raids: challenging, but never unfair. The hardest raids are planned for eight players, with smaller co-op rooms for two to four. All of it is still being designed.
Planned The wall in the storyboard is real, from our test playground.
- 1. Approach
- 2. Stomp
- 3. Bounce
- 4. Clear
Community & creators
Made by players, too
Everything here is planned, not built. There is no level editor or upload yet.
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Upload your levels
Design a level, share it, and let the community play it. Validation and moderation are being thought through first.
Later -
Weekly featured level
One standout level in the spotlight each week. How it is chosen is still to be decided.
Later -
Races & time attacks
Beloved levels come back for races, time attacks and speedrun events, with fair rules for everyone.
Later
Roadmap
Where we are, and where we’re going
Order shows priority, not dates. Plans change as we learn, and we will mark things honestly as they move.
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M1 · Movement playground
Playable now, and still changing: a small shared playground with the core movement, solid players (stomp, bounce, push), a layered character creator with animated sprites, and two regions with real art and time-of-day backdrops.
Playable prototype -
M2 · A small shared region
A small shared region with the first real content. How many players it holds, and whether it persists, is to be tested: lag and collisions first.
Planned -
M3 · Co-op challenge
One properly cooperative challenge that proves the team-play idea.
Planned -
Mounts & exploration
A first mount and a first mount-gated area to prove summoning, then the rest of the roster. Order and details are not final.
Planned -
Accounts & saved progress
Saving your look, unlocks and loadouts. How you sign in is undecided.
Later -
Level editor & weekly spotlight
Player-made levels, a featured level each week, and community events.
Later -
Economy, gear & trading
Useful items, functional loadouts and a way to trade them. Design is undecided.
Later -
The cat-run construction site
A much later story update: a construction site run by cats that eventually becomes a casino. Fictional lore only; see the teaser below.
Later -
Steam & cross-play
Browser first, then Steam, with browser and Steam players able to play together.
Later
Development log
How we build it
We would rather show the work than hype it. Here is how the pieces are made, and an honest status for each.
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The movement simulation
One deterministic TypeScript simulation steps at 60 ticks per second and is shared by the browser and the server, so everyone runs the same movement code. It covers momentum, variable-height jumps, slopes, bounce pads and solid players. The gameplay reel above is this exact code, replaying scripted inputs.
Working prototype -
Netcode: prediction plus authority
Your browser predicts your own movement immediately so it feels instant, while an authoritative server runs the real simulation, sends snapshots about twenty times a second, and corrects any drift. Other players are smoothed between snapshots. It has not been tested with large crowds yet.
Working prototype, small scale -
Art pipeline
Characters, creatures, mounts and tiles are authored as layered pixel data, all original, with no third-party assets. Backdrops are rendered from procedural 3D scenes in Blender, then reduced to a locked palette so they sit with the hand-placed pixels. The aim is bold, readable, cheerful 16-bit. Much of it is still waiting for a human pixel-artist polish pass.
In progress -
Character creator
A look is a compact 20-character code describing every layer choice. The same code drives the live preview, the network and the in-game sprite, and the server validates it. New options slot in without changing the creator screen.
Playable prototype
Design docs
The plans are written down. These live in the project repository (public links coming later). Every item is tagged Confirmed (the project owner’s own words), Proposal (a suggestion awaiting approval) or Open (undecided), so you can see what is real direction and what is only an idea.
docs/design/GAME_DESIGN_DOCUMENT.mdMaster design doc: pillars, movement, mounts, co-op, regions, progression, plus an audit of open questions.docs/design/MOUNTS_AND_EXPLORATION.mdThe confirmed mount and Metroidvania direction, with clearly marked proposals.DECISIONS.mdThe accepted-decisions log: what is confirmed, what is only an idea.DESIGN_BRIEF.mdThe original creator brief.OPEN_QUESTIONS.mdWhat is still undecided.docs/ART_NORTH_STAR.mdThe art goal: the bold, cheerful essence of classic 16-bit, made original.docs/ART_DIRECTION.mdSprite rules: outlines, palettes, animation, and the original signature motifs.docs/ART_BLENDER_PIPELINE.mdHow the layered backdrops are rendered and pixelized.docs/CHARACTER_CREATOR.mdHow the creator, look codes and in-game sprites fit together.docs/NETCODE.mdThe network protocol: prediction, authority, snapshots.
Community goals
An idea we are weighing
We are considering a community goals page where group milestones could unlock free features or events for everyone, with optional supporter names. It is only an idea so far.
Nothing is live. No goals, amounts, milestones, rewards or dates have been set, and nothing is for sale.
FAQ
Questions, answered honestly
Can I play it right now?
There is an early prototype: a shared movement playground and a character creator. It is rough, it changes often and it is not the full game. The Play button opens it when a build is available.
When does it launch?
We have no launch date and will not guess at one. The roadmap above shows order and priority, not a schedule.
Which platforms?
Browser first. Steam later, with the goal of letting browser and Steam players share the same world. None of that cross-play exists yet.
How much will it cost?
Pricing and monetization have not been decided. We will say so plainly before anything is sold.
Will there be mounts?
Yes, that is the direction: many original rideable animals you can summon in the open world, and some places that need a particular one. The first four are a frog, a dinosaur, a flying dinosaur and a cheetah. What each one can do, and how you get them, is still being designed.
Do I need an account?
The prototype does not use accounts, and accounts and saved progress are not built yet. The waitlist is only for news.
Is it a copy of another game?
No. It is inspired by the bold, readable feel of classic 16-bit platformers, but the art, characters, mounts, movement tuning and world are our own originals.
Is the art final?
No. It is original and playable, and we like where it is going, but much of it is early and will get a polish pass. Regions marked Concept are rough sketches only.
What happens to my email?
It is stored only to send Super BoundHaven news, and you can ask to be removed at any time. Sign-ups may show as “not connected yet” while the waitlist backend is still being built.
Is there gambling?
No. The casino idea is a fictional story beat for a much later update. Real-money gambling is not part of the plan.
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