A side-scrolling shooter and platformer from Elden Pixels, releasing in 2026 for PC, Mac, and Nintendo Switch, The Prisoning: Fletcher's Quest takes place inside the mind of a game developer suffering physical and emotional burnout during the final stretch of a demanding project. The premise is framed as being based on true events, centering on a character named Fletcher Howie Jr. as he attempts to escape his mental prison. The game draws on the metroidvania format but uses a pool of hand-crafted rooms arranged in a random order each session, creating a different layout on every run. Players can acquire upgrades and weapons and face off against bosses and enemies throughout. The mechanics support killing most things that move across otherwise tight platforming sequences. A chiptune soundtrack is provided by Dunderpatrullen, and the game features extensive pixel art throughout, including full frontal pixel nudity.
After a psychologist visit goes terribly wrong, you find yourself trapped in the mind of a game developer on the brink of physical and emotional burnout during the final stages of an intense project. Experience a metroidvania-lite drenched in anxiety and based on a very true story.
Help Fletcher Howie Jr. escape his mental prison and save the day!
Based on a true story and definitely inspired by real events
Upgrades, weapons, bosses, enemies and all that jazz
Contains story*
Have you ever seen a honky-tonk man as naked as the day he was born? Contains full frontal pixel nudity!
Completely free of jazz fusion!
Procedurally generated metroidvania, whatever that means.
Do you like movies about gladiators?
これが読めれば日本語が読める。
(* This game is not recommended for anyone with a peanut allergy)
But hey, not down with anxiety? All of the points above can be completely skipped as you plow your way through another tight platformer with killer mechanics (meaning you can kill basically anything that moves), a banging chiptune soundtrack from the legendary Dunderpatrullen, and more pixel art than you can possibly stomach!
What is this?
This is a prototype of a game we originally created back in 2020, also known as the best year ever. We decided back then to not make this game but now we’re back more broke and desperate than ever and we’re ready to make this thing a reality. To make sure this game will be a success, we asked three friends of ours and at least one of them was very excited, one didn’t reply and one said we should get real jobs instead and stop calling him.
Is this a procedurally generated metroidvania?
Honesty is very important to us and when we're writing this we're not sure exactly what procedurally generated means. But what we've done is that we have a huge amount of different made rooms and each session they randomly appear so every turn is different!
