About Sword Sprint
Authored, not generated
Every obstacle in every section sits at a fixed position, hand-placed. Nothing is random, which means the course is identical on your first attempt and your fortieth.
That is the entire reason the game exists. A generated runner is a reaction test forever; an authored course becomes a memory test that rewards each attempt with knowledge you keep. The section that stopped you will be in exactly the same place next time.
The sections are shaped rather than uniform. Section one introduces the three answers with room to breathe. Section three has a beam followed immediately by a block, which is the first genuinely awkward transition. Section four is barricade chains that punish a missed cut, and section five is everything, close together.
Three lives across the whole course
You have three lives for all five sections, not three per section. A collision costs one and restarts the current section from its start.
That makes early sections genuinely worth playing carefully even though they are easy: arriving at section four with three lives is a completely different proposition from arriving with one.
Speed climbs with the section number rather than with elapsed time, so section five runs at the same pace whether you reached it in ninety seconds or nine minutes. Taking your time costs nothing except the clock on the results screen.
Clean sections are worth double
Finishing a section is worth 400 points. Finishing it without taking a hit is worth an additional 800.
That two-to-one ratio is the scoring statement of the game: getting through is worth something, getting through cleanly is worth considerably more, and a completed run with five clean sections is worth roughly three times one that scraped through every one.
How to play
- Press Start. Up jumps, Down slides, Space cuts.
- Each section is a fixed layout. Reaching its gate is a checkpoint.
- A collision costs one of your three lives and restarts the current section.
- Finishing a section without a hit is worth twice as much as finishing it.
- Clear all five sections to reach the finish line.
Controls
| Where | What to do |
|---|---|
| Jump | Up arrow or W |
| Slide | Down arrow or S |
| Cut | Space, J or K |
| Mouse / touch | Tap the top third to jump, bottom third to slide, middle to cut |
| Touch buttons | Jump, Slide and Slash under the canvas |
| Pause | Escape or P |
Scoring
These are the point values this game awards, before the combo multiplier is applied where it uses one. Hit quality changes the figure: a strike at the centre of the correct moment is worth substantially more than one at the edge of it.
Tips
- The course never changes. Every death teaches you something you can use immediately.
- Section three's beam-into-block is the first transition worth practising deliberately.
- Section four is barricade chains. Missing one cut is survivable; missing three is not.
- Lives are shared across the whole course. Play section one carefully even though it is easy.
- Speed is tied to the section number, so taking your time costs nothing but the clock.
- Clean sections are worth twice a completed one. Slow and clean beats fast and scraped.
Common mistakes
- Treating early sections as free. Lives spent there are lives you will want at section five.
- Rushing after a checkpoint. Take one deliberately cautious obstacle before pushing again.
- Trying to memorise section five before you can clear section three reliably.
- Assuming the layout is random and therefore not worth learning. It is not, and it is.
Features
- Five hand-authored sections with fixed obstacle placement
- Four checkpoints and a genuine finish line
- Three lives shared across the entire course
- Clean-section bonus worth twice a completed section
- Speed tied to section number, not elapsed time
- A visible checkpoint gate that grows nearer as you run
