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Stolen Sword
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About the game
Stolen Sword is an action game played with a single gesture. A swordsman chases the thief who took his blade through a pale, misty bamboo forest, and the only way to move is to fling himself through the air. Press anywhere, pull back like a slingshot and let go: he dashes in the opposite direction, with a strength that depends on how far you pulled.
While your finger or mouse button is held down, time slows to a crawl, so every dash can be aimed calmly even in the middle of a fight. You get two dashes before you need to touch the ground again, and dashing through an enemy cuts it down. Enemies come in waves, some standing still, some flying, some shooting back, and the levels add platforms, moving obstacles and hazards. Two hits and you fall.
Ian Chiao, who goes by chiaogu, made the game for js13kGames 2020, where the whole entry had to fit in a zip of 13 kilobytes. The art is drawn by code in soft, misty colours, and the sound effects come from ZzFX.
Playing it here
This is the version submitted to the competition, unchanged. Click Play, then click once inside the game to begin. The game was designed for phones held upright, so on a wide screen it fills a tall strip in the middle of the frame; on a phone it works with one finger. The stage and wave you reached are saved in this browser, so you can continue where you stopped.
Controls
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Press and hold | slow down time and start aiming |
| Drag | pull back, away from where you want to go |
| Release | dash |
A track on screen shows the direction and length of the coming dash. A short drag does nothing, so you can cancel by releasing near where you pressed.
A few things worth knowing
Aim while time is slow. There is no hurry once you hold the button down, so take the time to line up the dash exactly.
Count your dashes. Two dashes per jump means one to reach an enemy and one to get away. Running out in mid-air leaves you falling and exposed.
Pull further for distance. The strength of the dash grows with the length of the drag, up to a limit.
Watch the projectiles. Some enemies shoot back, and a dash can take you past a projectile as easily as into one.
Credits and licence
Stolen Sword was created by Ian Chiao (chiaogu), who wrote the code, designed the levels and drew the art. Its sound effects use ZzFX by Frank Force (MIT licence). The game is released under the MIT licence, published in the author's repository on GitHub; this page offers only the js13kGames version. The licence texts are linked from this page.