I was listening to the What’s Good Games podcast when I first heard about the game Celeste. They loved this game, even to the point of selecting it as some of the host’s personal Game of the Year. It wasn’t hard to understand why when they were listing more of the details about how the game was doing critically in the video game industry. Having numerous nominations and winning several awards, this game has done very well for itself. But that’s not what drew me into finally purchasing and trying the game for myself long after its release. The podcast hosts could not stop talking about it. 

Aside from reviewing it as professionals, this is a game that kept popping up in their conversations when discussing what games they were playing this week. The hilarious banter between the girls discussing what challenges they were having and how to explore the accessibility settings brought me so much interest. There was also much passion around this game. This isn’t just an award winning game. This is a game that captures you by the heart and that players genuinely love. The journey is hard but so worth it. After my first session with it, I totally understood why.

The Details Behind the Journey

Celeste is a platformer game developed by Maddy Makes Games Inc. and Extremely OK Games Ltd. and published by Maddy Makes Games Inc. This queer team consists of 5 friends that have joined together to make a small indie game studio based out of Canada. Maddy Stephanie Thorson, a trans creator and owner of Maddy Makes Games Inc., is the director and the main person who has spoken about Celeste and what it has meant for her. I cannot recommend enough going to her article titled, “Is Madeline Canonically Trans?”, as it gives beautiful and powerful insight into the personal journey truly embedded in this game. The passion and love put into this article and this character are not lost on gamers and I think it’s that very passion that has captured me. 

When I downloaded Celeste onto my Steam Deck, I did not expect the immediate curiosity that took me. I’m not large into platforming games. I also had been warned of its difficulty which greatly helped. However, seeing Madeline, the star of our journey, in this snowy landscape for the first time with a stubborn drive to the top, my heart began to physically ache. This journey was about something so much deeper than I thought. While not being far enough in the game to know why Madeline needs to get up this mountain, I know from my own personal experience the desire driving her. 

At My Core

Here’s this child, at the bottom of a mountain, not having seemingly done anything wrong, and every adult in their path telling them they aren’t strong or good enough to reach their goal. Talk about a powerful opening to a game. When I realized this was happening, this activated so many feelings deep in my core. How many times have I heard that narrative in my own life from the society I am in? When I was growing up, I didn’t know I was nonbinary. I didn’t know I was gay until early highschool. I didn’t know I had ADHD until I was 27, long after I had finished school.

To everyone else, I was labelled lazy, weird, and dramatic. It didn’t seem to matter that I worked 8 times harder than other kids in my class just to get a B on my tests. It didn’t matter that I communicated directly about my feelings when they wouldn’t hear me until I was yelling or very emotional. I was always different from the people around me just by being myself. That is something a child can feel right down to their core on their own, let alone having it so pointedly thrown in their face. 

Enough is enough

I instantly connected with Madeline. Eventually, you get tired of hearing all the assumptions of your abilities when people have no idea what is going on inside. That pain turns to defiance to prove them wrong. Through my core, I knew in my gut that I wasn’t lazy, or weird, or dramatic. I knew I could be more than the words people were putting on me. I was me, and they would either accept me or get out of my way. Pain turned into two simple words, “watch me”. And so, Madeline and I climb.

Elements of the Game Itself

Damn Celeste is hard, but so is the journey. The design of this game is a platform mixed with story and item collection elements. Along the journey, gamers will meet a wide variety of characters on the way with a vast pool of representation. I love that this game really does an amazing job of bringing so much individuality to each character without making them a representation of a certain troupe. Each one of them feels like their own person and definitely someone I have met in my own life.

The item collection comes with strawberries littered throughout the areas for players to collect. These berries really challenge the player on working the platforming mechanics like using Madeline’s boosting abilities, or the grabbing walls mechanics. I tried to collect as many as I could and eventually decided I was more interested in the compelling story. I’ll have to go back and get them at another time.

Patience is a virtue

This game challenges gamers heavily on trial and error and exploring how to navigate the different puzzles laid out before them. Be ready to die A LOT! That being said, I love the challenge. The checkpointing in the game is based on the room Madeline is in. This means if the player dies in a certain puzzle deep in the level, they aren’t having to complete huge sections of the game, only what they have gone through in the present room. I honestly think that is what has made this game so much fun for me. I love a good puzzle and being able to try a bunch of different ways of getting to the desired result. Players don’t feel punished for trying it out and pushing themselves!

The colorful and playful design of Celeste is to die for! As players are navigating the level, its artistic style harken’s back to the 8-bit graphic style of platformers of old. However, in dialogue, the characters have wonderful art, giving a face and expression to the dialogue. The fluid and bright depiction of the characters in dialogue gives so much depth to the words being said. I found it helped me connect even more with this character I’m playing since I could see the nuance of the statements, bringing out the personalities behind the eyes of the character. It’s not hard to see a character struggling with anxiety or embodying a safe and deep confidence. With a message as emotionally driven as what has been presented to me so far, the core of that connection really seems to stem from these choices made by the development team. Absolutely amazing!

My Thoughts So Far

This game is going to be extremely cathartic for me to play right now in my life journey, which I didn’t expect. The life struggles I mentioned before are very real and something I am still actively working through (yay therapy!). I am confidently out as nonbinary and happy with my gender expression. 5 years ago, that wasn’t the case. Last year I finally was diagnosed with ADHD, leading me to really reframe a lot of deeply traumatizing and hard times in my life.

I really feel like Madeline does at the beginning of this game. But that’s the beauty of the message I’ve learned so far from life, resilience. No matter how hard things have been in life so far, I have found a way to pull through. To get back up again, push the dust off, and keep moving forward. My time with Celeste has been no different. Madeline is a wonderful embodiment of resilience so far for me. 

Who is Celeste For?

I encourage anyone who relates to the feelings conveyed in the post to drive head first into this game. It is currently available on all platforms. I am currently playing it on my Steam Deck which works great. I love playing this game when I’m on the go with my wife as I can easily pick it up and play it for an hour before moving to the next activity. It definitely helps me relax my jaw from being clenched trying to navigate my very high death count.

Gamers can currently (as of June 2025) purchase it on Steam for $19.99 USD. I can’t recommend this experience enough. Thank you to Maddy Makes Games Inc. and Extremely OK Games Ltd. for creating such a powerful, relatable, and deeply emotionally impactful experience. Also, thank you to Maddy Stephanie Thorson for being so vulnerable to put out your story for people to connect with. Without you and your friends’ willingness to do so, the world would be truly missing a unique way to see the power of resilience and embodying your truth. I can’t wait to dive deeper into Madeline’s journey to the top of the mountain.

Links:

• Maddy Makes Games Inc.: https://www.mattmakesgames.com/
• Extremely OK Games Ltd.: https://www.exok.com/games.html
• Celeste game wesbite: https://www.celestegame.com/
• Celeste Steam Store Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/504230/Celeste/
• “Is Madeline Canonically Trans?” Article by Maddy: https://www.mattmakesgames.com/articles/is_maddy_trans/index.html

Steam Statistics as of writing:

• 2.1 hours on record
• 2/32 achievements
• Currently playing this game via the Steam Deck

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_{This post is not sponsored. All thoughts and opinions have been made independently through experience and time spent with the game}