P—02 / PIXEL-ART ENDLESS RUNNER

Pixel art game footage prompt for MiniMax H3 Max

A prompt written like a game design document, and it comes back looking playable.

The longest prompt in the library and the strangest thing in it. It asks for something that does not exist — footage of a game nobody built — and it gets there by specifying the game rather than the video: the two verbs the player has, the obstacles that force each one, the parallax layers, the sprite cycle, the HUD. The clip reads as gameplay because the brief is a design document, not a description.

Steps
One shot
Engine
MiniMax H3 Max
Mode
Text to Video
Duration
15s
Ratio
16:9
Resolution
768P
Audio
Chiptune score + effects
Cost
$1.20

Reference render — not generated on this site. Source: fal.ai

Output reference

A pixel-art hero runs right past Victorian houses and a delivery drone, score counter in the cornerVideo
The clip
4981 / 7000
  • Free clipThis run spends credits — the free clip is 5s · 480P · 16:9.

1 FREE CLIP · NO AUDIO

01 — Inside

One prompt, one workflow

The clip beside the verbatim source. Copy it into the console above, change what you need, generate.

Reference output

A pixel-art hero runs right past Victorian houses and a delivery drone, score counter in the cornerVideo
The clip
The promptthe clipMiniMax H3 Max · Text to video
4,981 chars

The gameplay

Gameplay rules, themed obstacles, four parallax layers, the run cycle, the HUD, then the music and the pixel-art constraints.

Create a pixel-art side-scrolling platformer gameplay animation, presented as authentic 16-bit / 32-bit retro game footage. The game is a fast, continuous San Francisco-themed endless runner. A heroic pixel-art adventurer automatically runs from left to right while the camera smoothly tracks the character, keeping the hero roughly centered on screen. The player cannot stop or move around obstacles. Every obstacle that enters the hero's running path must require either jumping over it or ducking underneath it. GAMEPLAY Obstacles approach clearly from the right side of the screen with enough visual anticipation to understand what is happening. There are only two ways to avoid hazards. JUMP: used for anything occupying the ground-level running path. DUCK: used for anything crossing directly above the running path at head or upper-body height. Every gameplay obstacle must physically intersect the hero's path if no action is taken. San Francisco-themed obstacles: a cheerful corgi runs directly across the hero's path and the hero jumps completely over it; a startup founder charges toward the hero holding out a giant term sheet, jump over the person; an autonomous delivery robot rolls into the running path, jump over it; an abandoned electric scooter lies horizontally across the sidewalk, jump over it; a shopping cart rolls into the running path, jump over it; a low-flying delivery drone crosses at the hero's head level, duck underneath it; a flock of pigeons flies across the path at head height, duck underneath them; low construction scaffolding extends across the sidewalk, duck underneath it. Keep obstacles visually distinct and spaced far enough apart that every jump or duck reads clearly as a deliberate gameplay action. SAN FRANCISCO ENVIRONMENT Multi-layer parallax scrolling. Foreground: lush grass, sidewalk edges, rocks, flowers, fire hydrants, cable-car rails, fallen leaves, utility covers and small particles moving quickly. Midground: colorful Victorian houses, steep streets, cafes, trees, cable cars, fences, stone walls, staircases, scaffolding and occasional fantasy waterfalls at medium speed. Background: enormous green hills, dense neighborhoods, downtown skyscrapers, the Transamerica Pyramid, distant castle-like silhouettes, the Bay, the Golden Gate Bridge and mountains beyond the city, moving slowly. Very distant atmospheric layer: colorful California sky, enormous clouds, drifting coastal fog, distant birds. Blend recognizable San Francisco architecture with a lush fantasy-adventure world: Victorian houses beside ancient stone ruins, cable-car tracks winding through grassy hills, waterfalls descending beside city staircases, the Golden Gate Bridge appearing dramatically between mountains and fog. Background pedestrians, cars and scenery are decorative only. HERO ANIMATION A highly polished 8 to 12 frame running cycle with expressive movement, bouncing hair and clothing, an animated cape or jacket, natural arm and leg motion, and tiny dust particles beneath the boots. Transition cleanly between RUN, JUMP, LAND, RUN, DUCK, RUN. Jump animations must visibly carry the hero completely over each ground obstacle; duck animations must visibly lower the hero enough for airborne obstacles to pass over. Keep the hero's design, face, clothing, colors, proportions and sprite dimensions consistent throughout every frame. SCORE AND GAME UI A small, authentic retro-game score counter in the upper-right corner, simple pixel font, continuously increasing as the hero survives, such as SCORE 004820. Keep the interface minimal. No menus, tutorial text or dialogue boxes. MUSIC AND SOUND Energetic retro video-game music throughout, like a polished SNES or early PlayStation-era adventure game: upbeat and catchy, chiptune-inspired synths, punchy retro drums, melodic bass and a bright adventurous lead melody. Synchronized retro sound effects: soft rhythmic footsteps while running, a short arcade-style jump sound on each jump, a quick swoosh while ducking, a landing sound on touchdown, drone buzzing as drones approach, pigeon wing flaps, small environmental sounds for passing cable cars, and a subtle point sound after clearing an obstacle. Music stays the dominant layer with effects mixed cleanly underneath. PIXEL-ART REQUIREMENTS Crisp hand-crafted pixel art with clearly visible individual pixels, a limited retro palette and extremely detailed sprite work, resembling a premium modern indie pixel-art platformer. No 3D rendering, no vector graphics, no smooth painted edges, no realistic textures, no motion blur, no anti-aliased artwork. CAMERA Classic side-view 2D platformer perspective, fixed camera height, smooth horizontal tracking, no zooming, no cuts, no camera rotation. The hero stays approximately centered while the environment moves continuously from right to left. Format: 16:9 widescreen, side-scrolling 2D gameplay, continuous gameplay, retro soundtrack and sound effects, minimal score HUD, no logos.

4 levers

Make it yours

What is safe to change. Most libraries publish only this list, which is why so many copied prompts come back worse than the original.

  1. 01

    The city

    San Francisco is a skin over the structure. Swap the landmarks, the architecture and the obstacle list together — Lisbon trams and tiled facades, Kyoto lanterns and torii — and everything else in the brief still applies unchanged.

  2. 02

    The obstacle list

    Eight obstacles, each tagged with the verb it forces. Add or replace freely as long as every entry says which of the two actions it demands and sits at the height that makes that action necessary.

  3. 03

    The parallax layers

    Four speeds are named: foreground, midground, background, atmosphere. Adding a fifth or reassigning what sits in each is safe. Collapsing them into one is what makes generated game footage look like a painting sliding sideways.

  4. 04

    The era of the music

    "Polished SNES or early PlayStation-era adventure game" sets both the instrument palette and the mix. Move it to arcade-era chip or to orchestral and the picture does not change, but the clip reads as a different decade.

Three ways to break it

  • Removing the two-verb rule

    JUMP and DUCK, each bound to an obstacle height, is the constraint that makes the hero look controlled rather than animated. Without it there is nothing forcing the character to react to what enters the frame, and the run becomes a walk cycle past scenery.

  • Asking for camera moves

    The brief pins the camera: fixed height, smooth horizontal tracking, no zoom, no rotation, no cuts. Those four negatives are the whole reason it reads as a 2D platformer. One zoom and it becomes an animated short about a runner.

  • Softening the pixel-art constraints

    The list of prohibitions — no 3D, no vector, no smooth painted edges, no anti-aliasing, no motion blur — is doing more than the phrase "pixel art" ever could. Drop it and the render drifts toward a smooth illustration with a pixel filter over it.

What it does

What the pixel-art endless runner template does

This prompt is the best argument on the page for writing rules instead of pictures. Almost nothing in it describes a frame. It describes a system, and the frames follow.

The clearest example is the obstacle section. It does not say "obstacles appear". It says there are exactly two ways to avoid a hazard, names which one each obstacle demands, and adds that every obstacle must physically intersect the hero’s path if no action is taken. That last clause is the one that does the work: it makes the jump legible as a jump, because the thing being jumped over would otherwise have hit.

The parallax section is the same idea applied to depth. Four layers, each with a named speed and a named inventory. A video model asked for "a scrolling background" produces one plane; asked for foreground grass and utility covers moving quickly, midground Victorians and cable cars at medium speed, background hills and the Golden Gate moving slowly, and a very distant sky layer, it produces depth, because the brief gave it four different rates to hold apart.

Notice how much of the prompt is negative. No menus, no tutorial text, no dialogue boxes, no logos, no 3D rendering, no vector graphics, no smooth painted edges, no realistic textures, no motion blur, no anti-aliasing, no zooming, no cuts, no camera rotation. Roughly a fifth of the brief is prohibition. For a look this specific that is the right ratio — pixel art is defined mostly by what it refuses to do, and a model trained on everything will default to the smooth version unless told otherwise.

The HUD detail is a small thing worth copying. "A small, authentic retro-game score counter in the upper-right corner, simple pixel font, continuously increasing, such as SCORE 004820." Giving a format example rather than an instruction is the difference between legible on-screen text and an approximation of text, and prompt adherence on rendered lettering is one of the things fal singled out in its post-training notes.

The sound half deserves the same reading. It names the music genre, the instrument families, and then seven individual effects tied to events in the gameplay — footsteps, jump, duck swoosh, landing, drone buzz, wing flaps, a point sound after clearing an obstacle. Because H3 Max writes audio alongside the picture, effects tied to events are effects that land on those events. It also specifies the mix: music dominant, effects underneath.

Everything here runs in text to video, on MiniMax H3 Max.

3 questions

Pixel-art endless runner — common questions

  • 01

    Is this really one generation?

    fal publishes it in the showcase section it introduces with "one prompt each, one pass, no editing and no post-production". The prompt is what this page republishes; the clip is fal’s.

  • 02

    Can I get a different genre out of the same structure?

    Yes, and that is the point of reading it. Keep the shape — rules, obstacles, layers, sprite cycle, HUD, sound, prohibitions — and replace the contents. A vertical shooter or a beat-em-up needs the same six sections with different answers.

  • 03

    Why does it specify a frame count for the run cycle?

    "A highly polished 8 to 12 frame running cycle" gives the animation a period. Without a number the model chooses a smoothness, and smooth is the wrong answer for a look built on visible steps.

Copy it, change three things, run it.

Every character is on this page. 15s at 768P costs $1.20.

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Written and maintained by the MiniMax H3 Max AI Video Generator editorial teamPublished Last updated