Celestale
The Last Artifact
A narrative adventure on Minecraft, built end to end with the Skytale Map Editor. Not a mod. Nothing to install for the player. Everything is rendered in-game.
Everything you see is rendered in-game
Minecraft is not a game engine. Character animation, camera control, event-driven audio, combat, loot generation, none of it exists natively. Skytale built it. And the studio sets itself one rule. Everything must run server-side, with no mod for the player to install, and run on modest hardware.
No mod, no install
Every advanced feature runs through the server. The player joins and plays, with nothing to download. A hard constraint, and a philosophy of accessibility.
No post-production
Cinematics, effects and fights are rendered directly in the final environment. What you see on screen is exactly what the studio's engine produces.
Built for modest hardware
A battle scene with 40 extras takes real work on raw compute. Several teams optimize the game so it stays accessible to as many players as possible.
Luzmo, a world ruled by magic
You play as Valar, sent by Ekoh to investigate a cataclysm that has swept across the kingdom. The adventure opens aboard the Brisevent, a ship crossing a storm.
A story that serves as the canvas for a demonstration. 20 hours of play, 120 characters, zones with distinct visual identities. The editor's playground.
The Skytale Map Editor, the backbone of the game
The Last Artifact is not a mod, it is a game built on Minecraft with the studio's in-house editor. A modular architecture, matured over 5 years, that shares developments from one project to the next and lets non-developer creators handle advanced features, through in-game menus, a web panel and readable configuration files.
Architecture
A base of interdependent libraries to generalize advanced features. The invisible phase, the one that makes everything else possible and easy to update as Minecraft evolves.
about 2.5 yearsModules
Concrete features built on the base. The weapon module, for example, relies on 7 libraries. Each module can be disabled or replaced as needed.
9 modules to dateInterface integration
The full wiring of the interfaces to make the tool as simple as possible. In-game menus, web admin panel, commands, configuration files. The tool becomes accessible to non-technical profiles.
menus, web, commands9 modules, one editor
Each module solves a precise production need. Together, they give a volunteer studio the artistic means of a professional one. The videos below are in-game captures.
In-Game Cinematic
Builds camera paths from spectator mode, then syncs characters, sounds, music and animations onto them. This module produces the 40 minutes of cinematics in The Last Artifact, the Brisevent storm included.
Block Animation
Animates blocks up to 20 frames per second, without command blocks, like stop motion. Reverse playback, frame propagation, auto-build, per-frame timing. The ship's sails, an erupting volcano, the hull in the storm.
3D Model Workspace
Places and manages large quantities of 3D models directly in-game. Adjustable size and brightness, progressively loaded scenes, copy, paste, rotate, tilt. By leaning on network packets, hundreds of models hold on screen.
Blender to Minecraft
A Blender add-on that exports animations to Minecraft. Creators harness Blender's power for high-quality animation, then fine-tune it in Blockbench. The pipeline of a production studio.
Particle Animation
Complex particle animations. Geometric shapes, image rendering, OBJ model display, text animations. A trails system, collision detection, nested sub-animations, a preset library and a builder-pattern API.
Weapon Module
Fully custom weapons by editing JSON files. Rarities, levels, attributes, and a system of triggerable spell sequences. You define the input that starts the sequence, the one that ends it, and its maximum length.
"rarity": "legendary", "level": 42, "spell": { "start": "RIGHT", "end": "LEFT", "max": 4 }
Auto Dialogues
Generates automatic shot-reverse-shot framing from character positions and the timing of lines. Several camera algorithms, classic or orbital. Display durations compute themselves, from the text or the voice-over.
Loot Generation
Populates a zone's chests with several patterns. You combine random tables with guaranteed items, so a finished dungeon always grants a sword, plus rewards at defined probabilities. Loot comes out in the player's language.
# garanti "guaranteed": [ "sword.ekoh" ], # tables aleatoires "rolls": { "potion": 0.40, "rune": 0.12 }
Dialogue Web Editor
A browser interface to write and edit dialogue, hosted directly by the plugin. The game designer opens an in-game session with a simple command, then switches to their browser through a temporary token to edit the JSON files.
A large-scale production
The original score, more than 2 hours of music, was recorded with the European Recording Orchestra of Sofia. To give each of our characters a voice, we brought in well-known voice actors, including PADG, Brigitte Lecordier and Martial Le Minoux, alongside passionate volunteers.
The game, shown at trade shows
2 major events brought The Last Artifact face to face with the public: the Toulouse Game Show and the Paris Games Week. Each time, we test our design, narrative and production choices in real conditions.
Toulouse Game Show
A presence that marks a step in the studio's recognition, and a first public demonstration of the game's potential.
Paris Games Week
An exclusive 20-minute demo at the Pavillon Gaming France, across from the Clair Obscur Expedition 33 booth. The game's first major public showing in France.
Every major encounter is designed as a duel, with the weapon module. Vorocko shows what a fight looks like in the finished game.
“This version has to be as understandable as possible for players who know nothing about the world, or even about Minecraft, and who can finish it in 20 minutes. Without an experienced player spending only 5 minutes on it.”
4 firm commitments
A moral contract with the contributors, and a promise to the community. What the studio wants to prove, that a quality game can be volunteer-made, open, free and respectful of artists.
No generative AI
No generative artificial intelligence in the artistic production. The work of artists, respected.
100 percent volunteer
A production driven by collective passion, outside the industry's usual channels.
Entirely free
The game will be open to everyone, with no barrier and no commercial budget.
Open-source editor
When the game releases, the Skytale Map Editor will be published as open source, to benefit the whole community.
At release, the editor goes open source
The commitment has been public for a long time. The Skytale Map Editor, 5 years of development, will be released as open source when The Last Artifact ships. A choice for the common good.
Giving back to the community
Skytale was built on the Minecraft community, its plugins, its resource packs, its shared knowledge. Opening the editor gives that back.
An educational move
The editor lets non-technical creators build complete games. A concrete way to democratize game creation.
For consistency
A free game, volunteer work, a refusal of generative AI. The editor as open source fits the same logic.
A narrative world for your audience to play? See our custom Minecraft experiences