Cinderwake

GAME BRIEF

What's the game?

You play the Emberwright, a fire-mage with a lantern hanging from the staff, and the job is to hold the ash-plains until dawn. You only move. On Medium, Cinder Bolt started firing the second the run began, and 33 seconds in we had 29 kills without touching a key. Level-ups offer a new spell or a rank on one you have, from Ash Nova shockwaves and orbiting Wardstones to Arc Lash chain lightning and Flame Wake's burning ground. The enemies are the best part. Kindlers swell and burst when they reach you, or take their neighbours with them if you kill them first; Shard Thralls split into three crawlers; the Lantern Thief steals your XP into its birdcage head and gets stronger the more it holds. The Hollow Warden, a giant in scorched plate, shows up at three minutes, and the Twin Kilns, one fire golem and one frost, have to die together or the survivor relights its twin. Bosses and rare enemies drop lanterns, foci and charms, and the Cinders from each run buy upgrades at the Hearth.

BEFORE YOU PLAY

What to expect

Free with no ads. You play as a guest and progress stays in the browser; signing in with Google, X or Steam only carries it to other devices. Pick Easy, Medium or Hard before your first run; each has its own leaderboard, ranked by time survived, then kills. Every file the game uses adds up to about 36 MB, a quarter of it music. It ran on WebGPU in our Chrome, and the about page says it falls back to WebGL. The site calls it an original game in early development, with more enemies, bosses and gear on the way, and names no maker. It isn't the Cinderwake on Steam, a paid isometric action RPG. The site says phones and tablets play by dragging anywhere; we played on a computer.

Controls: WASD or the arrow keys to move; spells cast on their own. Esc pauses, C opens your kit (lantern, focus and charms), K opens the codex. On phones and tablets the site says you drag anywhere to move.