Squirrel Forest

A small 2D adventure-platformer prototype about a squirrel exploring a living woodland full of unusual flora, fauna and mushrooms.

Prototype loop

• Explore a continuous side-scrolling forest.
• Run and jump across roots and branches.
• Collect acorns while searching for five unusual mushrooms.
• Pass through named woodland areas with ferns, flowers, frogs and butterflies.
• Find all five forest caps to awaken the Moonlit Grove.
• Follow the fireflies to complete the prototype trail.

Everything in the first prototype uses Phaser-generated textures, so there are no external art dependencies yet.

Controls

• Move: A/D or Left/Right
• Jump: W, Up or Space
• Touch: on-screen left/right/jump controls

Run

npm install
npm run dev

Production build:

npm run build

Direction

The intended feel is a cosy exploratory woodland adventure: dense layers of forest, lots of discoverable species, small traversal secrets and environmental storytelling rather than combat-first progression.

Good next slices:

1. replace generated graphics with a hand-painted squirrel animation set;
2. add climbable trunks and branch-to-branch movement;
3. introduce a field-guide journal for discovered plants, fungi and animals;
4. split the forest into richer biome pockets such as birch grove, damp hollow, old oak canopy and moonlit marsh;
5. add tiny NPC animals and lightweight quests;
6. add ambient audio, leaf particles, weather and a day/night cycle.