The Dark Closet Game The Dark Closet - where a boy discovers a portal in his closet and chooses conq uest over wonder

What if Pinocchio wasn’t about becoming a real boy, but about a boy who discover s a magical portal in his closet and decides to conquer whatever lies beyond? Tha t’s the twisted premise behind The Dark Closet, a 2D platformer that became one of my most technically challenging and personally rewarding projects.

This isn’t just a game - it’s an experiment in procedural generation, a deep div e into Python game development, and a journey through the surprisingly complex wo rld of making things that are both fun to play and maintainable to develop.

🎮 What is The Dark Closet?

The Dark Closet is a 2D platformer where you play as a boy who discovers a portal in his closet. Rather than seeking wonder, he chooses conquest - a twist on the classic Pinocchio tale. The game features procedurally generated character sprites, comprehensive testing, and modern development practices.

🎨 Key Features

Procedural Asset Generation

All character sprites, facial features, and gear are generated procedurally at build time using Python and Pygame drawing primitives. This creates unique characters every time the game is built, adding variety and replayability.

Comprehensive Testing Suite

The project includes a full test suite with:

  • Unit tests for individual components
  • Integration tests for game systems
  • Performance benchmarks to ensure smooth gameplay
  • Visual regression testing using pytest

Modern Development Practices

  • Poetry for dependency management
  • mypy for type checking
  • pylint for code quality
  • GitHub Actions for CI/CD
  • Automated documentation generation

Game Mechanics

  • 2D platformer movement with jumping
  • Brick breaking mechanics
  • Ladder climbing system
  • Camera following for smooth gameplay
  • Procedurally generated character customization

🛠️ The Procedural Generation Challenge

Procedural Generation The procedural generation system creating unique character sprites

One of the most fascinating aspects of The Dark Closet is the procedural generat ion system. Looking at the commit history, I can see exactly where this became a ma jor focus - commits like 77add47a (“Implement intelligent frame selection for tes t sequences”) show the evolution of this system.

The challenge wasn’t just generating random sprites - it was creating sprites th at looked good, were consistent with the game’s art style, and could be used in ac tual gameplay without looking jarring or out of place.

The Art Style Problem

The biggest challenge was maintaining visual consistency. How do you generate th ousands of unique characters while ensuring they all look like they belong in the same game? The solution involved:

  1. Layered generation - Building characters from consistent base components
  2. Style constraints - Ensuring all generated elements follow the same color palette and proportions
  3. Quality filtering - Automatically rejecting combinations that don’t look right

The Testing Nightmare

Testing procedural generation is… interesting. How do you write tests for some thing that’s designed to be random? Looking at commits like 6bd13e78 (“Fix headless operation and full level capture”), I can see the evolution of my testing appro ach.

The solution was to test the system, not the output. I focused on testing that the generation process was deterministic when given the same seed, that it coul d handle edge cases without crashing, and that the generated assets were valid an d usable.

📊 Project Status

The project is actively maintained with:

  • ✅ CI/CD Pipeline: Passing
  • 🧪 Tests: 20/20 passing
  • 📊 Code Quality: 10/10
  • 🎮 Game Features: Fully functional

🔗 Links and Resources

🚀 Getting Started

To run the game locally:

# Install dependencies
poetry install

# Run the game
poetry run the-dark-closet

# Run headless for testing
TDC_MAX_FRAMES=3 poetry run the-dark-closet

🎯 Future Development

The project continues to evolve with plans for:

  • Enhanced procedural generation algorithms
  • Additional game mechanics and levels
  • Performance optimizations
  • Web-based playable demo

💡 The Callback System Breakthrough

Callback System The object callback system that made interactive gameplay possible

One of the most interesting technical challenges was implementing the object cal lback system. Looking at commit 0ce8b255 (“Implement object OnAction callbacks and brick breaking mechanics”), I can see exactly when this became a reality.

The problem was simple: how do you make objects in the game world interactive? H ow do you make bricks breakable, ladders climbable, and switches functional? The s olution was a callback system that allows objects to define their own behavior when int eracted with.

The Brick Breaking Test

The most satisfying part was getting the brick breaking mechanics working. I spe nt hours debugging why the character wasn’t actually breaking bricks when jumping into them. The issue? The collision detection was working, but the callback system w asn’t properly triggering the “OnBreak” behavior.

When it finally worked, it was like magic - the character would jump up, hit a b rick, and it would disappear with a satisfying visual effect. It’s amazing how such a simple interaction can feel so rewarding when it works correctly.

What I Learned

Building The Dark Closet taught me more about game development than I expected. The biggest lesson? Games are incredibly complex systems where every small detail m atters. A tiny bug in the collision detection can break the entire gameplay experience.

But it also taught me that good software engineering practices - testing, docume ntation, modular design - aren’t just for business applications. They’re essential for c reating games that are both fun and maintainable.

If you’re interested in procedural generation, Python game development, or just want to see how a simple platformer can become a complex technical project, che ck out The Dark Closet. It might just inspire your next game development adventure!