Level 5: The Flooded Well
Level 5: The Flooded Well
Wickrunner has five levels now. A tester asked for a fifth one, so thank you for that: it pushed me to try something I had been putting off.
If you haven't seen the game yet: you play a small candle, and your wick is both your health and your timer. The candle gets shorter on screen as it burns. Wax drops buy you time, braziers save your spot and refill you, and water puts you out.
A well that floods
The first four levels go mostly sideways. Level 5 goes up. It's a 60-tile climb up a narrow well, and a few seconds after you start, the water begins to rise from the bottom. It doesn't speed up, it doesn't stop, and it puts you out the moment it touches you.
That changes how the other pieces feel. In the Chimney, the warm-air vents were a nice lift. In the well they're your way out, because the water keeps coming while you line up the next jump. The Flare, the mid-air jump that costs wick, gets used a lot here: there are three gaps you can't make without it, and every Flare you waste on a missed jump is wick you don't have later.
Not drowning twice
Rising water has a mean failure mode: die near a brazier, come back with the water already at your feet, and drown again straight away. So when you come back at a brazier, the water drops to a few tiles below it and waits two seconds before it rises again. You always get a fair start on the next stretch.
Under the hood the flood is one line in the level file, with a speed and a delay, so I can try it in other levels too.
What's next
I don't know yet if the water is too slow or too fast. Once I know the route it stays well behind me, which might mean it's too slow, or might just be me knowing the route. If you play it, press F9 in the game and tell me where it felt unfair or where you were bored waiting for the water. That sends me your note with a screenshot of the spot.