Celeste

Celeste is a two-dimensional platforming game. The player controls Madeline, who has the ability to run, jump, climb walls for a limited time, wall jump, and dash in mid-air in one of eight directions. Certain objects grant Madeline additional abilities. Green gems refill her dash ability without the need to land on the ground.

Other objects include "dream blocks" that transport her from one side to another when dashed into, moving blocks that can transfer their momentum to Madeline when jumped off, bubbles that move her when touched, and platforms that move after she dashes. The difficulty can be lowered through the use of an "Assist Mode", a setting that provides accessibility options including a lowered game speed, unlimited use of the dash ability, or the option to grant Madeline invincibility.

Celeste takes place on a fictional version of Mount Celeste containing several areas. It is seemingly haunted, housing many strange occurrences. The protagonist, a young woman named Madeline, decides to climb the mountain to challenge her anxiety, stubbornly persisting until she reaches its summit. Upon arriving at the mountain's base, she meets an elderly woman called Granny, who warns her against climbing it.

After ignoring her advice, Madeline encounters an abandoned city wherein she meets Theo, a social media-obsessed traveler from Seattle. In the next area, Madeline experiences a nightmare in which she encounters a part of herself in the mirror, a personification of her anxiety and depression called "Badeline", who chases her out of the area. Badeline doubts Madeline's ability to successfully reach the summit, and says she will stop Madeline from continuing to save her from climbing unprepared, describing herself as Madeline's "pragmatic part".

The original version of Celeste was developed by Maddy Thorson and Noel Berry in August 2015 for the PICO-8, a fantasy video game console, in three days. Due in part to time limitations, Thorson and Berry wanted core gameplay to be minimal with additional mechanics to add complexity, for which they felt the idea of a character struggling to climb a mountain was fitting. The initial prototype was titled "Everest". They decided that the project would be a single-player adventure from its initial conception, with lessons from the development of Thorson's previous game, TowerFall (2013), carried over into the game.

After the development of the PICO-8 version, retroactively titled Celeste Classic, the team wanted to expand the game with additional development time and fewer restrictions. Celeste Classic was added to Celeste as a hidden minigame. Celeste was produced by Thorson, and Berry served as the lead programmer. The development team underwent crunch during the final months of development.

According to review aggregate website Metacritic, Celeste received "universal acclaim" on consoles, and "generally favorable reviews" on PC. Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received "mighty" approval, being recommended by 99% of critics. Many reviewers described the game as "magnificent" or "special", and IGN called it a "surprise masterpiece". Several critics said Celeste was a game they would recommend to everyone.

Reviewers appreciated how the game blended narrative and gameplay; Eurogamer said "everything in Celeste speaks of care and attention". Outlets described the game as "memorable", "hard to put down", and constantly enjoyable.

Before release, Berry said that a potential sequel to Celeste was not currently planned, and that the team had "told the story [they] wanted to tell". Ahead of Farewell's release, Thorson said the team "really [does not] want to make a sequel" to Celeste, adding that the team is unaware how they would be able to "do a sequel justice", and that they are "way more interested in making something new" than revisiting an old creation. In a blog post commemorating the game's fourth anniversary in 2022, Thorson said, "I do not want to make Celeste again and I do not want to be who I was when we made Celeste, again", and that she would like to move forward with future projects.

On Celeste's third anniversary on January 26, 2021, a sequel to Celeste Classic, titled Celeste 2: Lani's Trek, was released. The sequel stars a new character, Lani, who makes use of a grappling hook to interact with objects and climb Celeste Mountain. The game was developed in three days by Thorson, Berry, and Raine, and released for PICO-8. To celebrate Celeste's sixth anniversary in January 2024, the game's developers released Celeste 64: Fragments of the Mountain, a short three-dimensional platform game inspired by games for the Nintendo 64. It was designed to continue the narrative of Celeste.