SCREENBOUND

How a 5D platformer went viral two months into development

- Matt Poskitt

Screenbound is a new puzzle platformer that merges 2D and 3D gameplay in a dual-dimensional space to create what is being called a 5D experience. Described as The Witness meets Super Mario, the player moves in first person across a 3D space while controlling a Game Boy-like device—known as a Quantum Boy (Qboy)—with a 2D version of the same character within it.

“It started with the idea of an endless runner, where you’re holding a Game Boy looking at the screen and you’re running and jumping on both at the same time. But the 2D screen is the Game Boy and it’s side-scrolling,” explains Presseisen, noting how this particular version didn’t make the cut.

Speaking over a video call from New York, he mentions how a game design pivot that aligned closer to the Mario formula with defined levels, as well as the ability to move backwards and sideways, became the stepping stone to where Screenbound is today. “I had messed around with these ideas for 2D and 3D mixing together, and it seemed somewhat coherent as far as you could actually play it,” he says. “But then I got Kyle on board.”

It’s kind of a miracle that I’m still around,” Crescent Moon Games founder Josh Presseisen tells me. “I had done so many demos and pitched them to so many console publishers—and nothing was working. It was all kind of falling apart, and then Screenbound happened.”

Kyle McKeever is Screenbound’s sole developer, who took over after the previous main programmer dropped out. The two had previously collaborated after Presseisen discovered McKeever’s asset pack on the Unity Store, which led them to create The Dear God in 2015, Hammer Bomb in 2016 and Morphite in 2017.