Celeste’s Instagram prelude is a stylish, smart tie-in

Punishing platformer Celeste has witty writing and an adorable art style that belies its difficulty. For those who want to pore over both of those parts of the game without suffering through death after death after death, developer Matt Makes Games launched a companion social media feed that celebrates Celeste’s storytelling and artwork combined.

The studio quietly launched an in-character Instagram feed starring Theo, one of the characters players journey with during the game, in April 2017 — or, at least, that’s when Theo’s first post is dated. The collection of photos establishes this selfie-loving hiker and his impending journey to Celeste Mountain, where he eventually meets the protagonist, Madeline.

Celeste does a good job of establishing its cast through dialogue scenes in between its jump-and-dash platforming levels, but Theo’s feed adds color where the game itself can’t. We know from within the story that Theo is all about taking photos and uploading them for his friends to see; this actual Instagram proves it. And just as cool is that it hints at his backstory and the reason for his own trip to the treacherous Celeste Mountain.

Not all of it is given away from the feed, but we learn this: Theo’s grandfather, his “vovo,” means a lot to him; his fear of disappointing him with his inability to hold down a job and figure out what he wants to do drives him to visit the mountain, which seems to have meant a lot to his grandfather back in the day. Each part of this story is shown through lovely, exclusive, very Instagram-like artwork.

How that plays into Theo and Madeline’s relationship and story is something we’ll have to delve into Celeste to figure out. We liked it a lot, based on our review; the game is out now on consoles and PC.