Falling Blocks
Turn the falling pieces and fill whole rows to clear them, a little faster every time.
- Solo
Palace Run
You wake in a cell under the palace. Climb out to the roof: run and leap, hang from ledges, mind the spikes and the falling floors, and cross swords with the guards.
Keys
- ← →
- Run
- ↑
- Jump, climb, parry
- ↓
- Crouch, climb down
- Shift
- Step, grab, take, strike
- P
- Pause
- R
- Level over
Levels
How to play
Climb out of the palace through four levels, from a cell in the dungeon up to the roof. A level ends when you go out through its door, and the game when you step out onto the roof at dawn.
Moving
Hold an arrow to run, and let go to stop; the arrow behind you turns you round. Hold the hand and press an arrow to take one careful step, which never takes you over an edge. Down crouches while you hold it. Stone walls and shut gates stop you.
Jumping
Up jumps. Standing still, you jump straight up: to a ledge above you in reach, and hang from it, or else a little hop. With the arrow ahead it is a standing jump, and while running a longer running jump. Hold up or the hand as you come down past a ledge to catch it.
Ledges and falls
Hanging from a ledge, up climbs onto it and down lets go. At the edge of a floor, down climbs down to hang from it. A fall of one floor does nothing, two cost a flask and three kill; climb down and hang first and the fall is a floor less.
Traps
Spikes spring from the floor as you come near: a careful step crosses them, but running onto them or landing on them kills. Blades in a doorway snap shut in turn while you are in their room; go through as they open. A cracked floor shakes when you stand on it or bump it from below, then falls, hurting whoever is under it.
Gates and plates
A plate in the floor opens its gate while someone stands on it, and the gate stays up a while after before it slowly comes down. Some plates slam a gate shut instead, and the rubble of a fallen floor holds a plate down. The level’s door opens on its own plate and stays open: stand in it and press up to go through.
Health
Your health is the flasks in the bar over the palace; you start with three. A guard’s blow, a fall of two floors or a falling floor costs one, and losing the last is death. Stand where a red flask lies and use the hand to drink it and mend one; the big green one adds a flask (up to ten) and fills them all. A new level starts with at least three full.
The sword
The sword lies in the dungeon; take it with the hand, since without it you can’t fight back. Near a guard on your floor you go on guard: the arrows step in and back, the hand strikes, up parries and down puts the sword away. A parried blow throws the striker back, so strike at once after a parry. Each blow that lands costs a flask, and later guards are tougher and parry more.
Levels
Four levels: The dungeon, The cisterns, The tiled halls and The roof. A death starts the level over with the health and sword you began it with, and Retry or R does the same. The clock counts your time over the whole climb, with no limit; any level reached can be played again from the list under the palace.
Controls
The arrows or W, A, S and D move, and Shift or Space is your hand. P or Escape pauses, P or Enter plays on, and R starts the level over. On a touch screen, the buttons under the palace (Left, Right, Down, Up and Hand) work while you hold them; two fingers make a running jump.
The levels you reach, the level you are on (with the health and sword you began it with) and your time are kept in this browser, so a refresh brings you back to the start of that level. Reset forgets them and starts over.
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