Boo's Candy Dash

What is Boo's Candy Dash?

Boo is a small ghost with a serious sweet tooth, and every Halloween night she leaves her pumpkin to scoop up the candy that trick-or-treaters drop. Boo's Candy Dash turns that routine into a timed platformer built for the Game Boy Color and made with younger players in mind. The goal on every stage is simple to state and harder to finish: clear the level of candy, then get back home.

The pumpkin doubles as a progress marker. Once the last sweet is gone, it lights up like a jack-o'-lantern and arrows appear to point the way back. Boo still has to float into it herself, and the clock runs for the entire trip.

This is beta 1, released on 23 October 2026, so the build is a work in progress rather than a finished game. It runs in the browser through an HTML5 frame, and a .gbc ROM is available for anyone who wants to play it on a flash cart. The ROM targets Game Boy Color hardware and will not run on an original Game Boy.

How to play

Each level begins with candy scattered across platforms and a counter at the bottom of the screen tracking how much of it is left. The job is to float around and collect all of it. Nothing else opens the route home: the pumpkin only becomes a lit jack-o'-lantern, with arrows pointing back to it, once that counter reaches zero.

Then comes the part that ruins otherwise tidy runs. Boo has to float back into the pumpkin herself, and the stopwatch has been running since the level started. Speed is scored, not just survival.

Every level hands out up to three stars: one for finishing it at all, one for beating the target time, and one for finishing without taking any bumps. That last star is the awkward one, because Boo cannot fight anything. Pirates, mummies and Frankenstein patrol the platforms. The witch and the zombie behave differently, waiting, wiggling, and then charging. Pits are a hazard in their own right, and a med pac is worth grabbing after a few bumps.

Controls

Boo moves with a small set of inputs that map cleanly onto both a keyboard and a Game Boy. Left and right on the arrow keys, or the D-pad on original hardware, drift her sideways, while pressing down makes her dive.

Upward movement sits on the X key, with the Game Boy's A button or Up on the D-pad as the hardware equivalents. A tap gives a short rise and holding keeps her climbing, which is the difference between clearing a platform and coming up short.

The Z key, or B on a Game Boy, is the brake, slowing Boo to something close to a hover. That is the move for lining up a landing near a pit or waiting out a patrolling enemy. Enter, or START on the handheld, pauses the action and confirms choices in menus.

Players on a phone or tablet are not left out: on-screen buttons appear in the browser build and cover the same float, brake and pause actions as the keyboard.

Tips for your first run

Three stars per level means a clean first clear is not the same as a good one. The habits below follow from how the scoring and the enemies work, and they matter more than raw speed on an unfamiliar stage.

Because the stopwatch keeps running through the whole attempt, the route back counts as much as the collecting. Learning where the pumpkin sits before the counter empties saves the seconds that separate a two-star clear from a three-star one.

• Clear the candy before hunting for the exit: the pumpkin only lights up once the counter at the bottom of the screen hits zero.
• Tap the float-up input for small corrections when lining up a landing, and hold it for full climbs.
• Use the brake to reach a near-hover when a pirate or mummy is patrolling the platform ahead.
• Watch the witch and the zombie for the wiggle that comes before a charge, then cross once the charge is already underway.
• Grab a med pac after taking a few bumps rather than saving it for later; the trip back to the pumpkin is the worst place to be caught short.

Content and replayability

Beta 1 contains three levels, each with music and sound, and progress saves after every level, so a session does not have to be finished in one sitting. Three levels is a short tour on paper, but every one of them carries three separate targets: completion, a time to beat, and a bump-free clear.

That structure is what gives the beta its legs. A player who only wants to see the end will be done quickly. A player chasing a flawless run has to learn enemy timing, pit placement and the fastest line back to the pumpkin, and each of those takes repetition.

The game is still in development, with the full version planned to add more levels beyond the three available now. Details of those later stages are not part of this build, so the current targets are the whole of the challenge on offer.

Presentation and performance

The look is deliberately retro: pixel art drawn by Justin Blair, whose credit also covers game design and the levels themselves. Boo, her pumpkin and the Halloween cast are built in the style of Game Boy Color software using GBDK-2020.

Code and music were written with AI assistance, with Claude credited. Music and sound effects are both part of the beta rather than something still to come, which matters for a game built around short repeat attempts.

In the browser, play runs through binjgb, Ben Smith's Game Boy emulator, inside an HTML5 frame. The .gbc file is also available for anyone who wants the handheld version, with the caveat that it targets Game Boy Color and will not run on the original Game Boy.

The tone stays family friendly throughout. Boo is a friendly ghost rather than a frightening one, which suits the Halloween setting without pushing the game toward horror.

Who should play it

Families after a Halloween platformer with a gentle lead are the obvious audience. Boo is friendly, the goal is collecting candy, and the pressure comes from a clock rather than from anything scary. The three-star structure gives younger players a reason to replay a stage instead of moving straight on.

Retro players are the second group. Anyone with a Game Boy Color and a flash cart can run the .gbc file on the hardware it was built for, and everyone else can open the browser build and see the same pixel art.

Time-trial players should take note of the target times and the no-bump star, which turn each short level into a routing problem rather than a scavenger hunt.

Players who want a long campaign, combat, or a finished content set should probably wait. This is beta 1 with three levels, and more are planned for the full release. The current build is best treated as a tight, repeatable challenge rather than a complete game.