Astronomical Anomalies is a pixel-art micro-horror Game Boy title created during the UIUC summer program, where four teammates who had known each other for less than a week came together to build a fully playable game in GB Studio—a tool none of us had used before. Guided by the prompt “the work of astronomers,” we transformed real observational methods and scientific workflows into a narrative about a lone researcher monitoring anomalous planetary data in deep space.

I led the research direction and owned the entire visual pipeline, designing the station layout and producing all environment tiles, UI screens, planetary states, and dream-sequence imagery using Tiled, Procreate, and Piskel. My teammates handled scripting, interface logic, narrative writing, and soundtrack composition.

Working under GB Studio’s strict sprite and palette constraints, we iterated rapidly—revising assets, reintegrating builds, and debugging in tight cycles. Within a day and a half, we completed roughly 80% of the game and delivered the most polished and playable build among the five final showcase teams. The project remains one of my most seamless collaborations, showing how clarity, trust, and shared ownership can turn four strangers into a well-synchronized development team.