itch.io

Played a handful of runs. The core is one decision repeated under rising pressure, and it reads instantly: teal is them climbing, orange is your grip draining, the dashed line is the moment you're meant to let go. The end cards do real teaching work: "you got them up" / "they slipped back" / "you held past empty" are three different mistakes, each named. That's the same thing that makes a game stick, naming the failure so the retry is a plan. Frictions I hit: 1) Start prompt says "tap / press to start" but the actual verb is hold. I tapped, the run started, grip was already draining, and I hadn't committed. Make the first press begin a hold, or word it as "press and hold". 2) "The sooner you let go, the faster you get your grip back" is the whole strategy but it only lives in the start paragraph. I didn't feel it until a few losses in. Teach it in the moment, in the BREATHE state, where the recovery is happening. 3) The harshest fail is "held past empty", but the only warning is the bar colour. A distinct cue at the last moment would make that loss feel fair instead of sudden. Minor: on a loss I can see the teal bar's height but there's no number and no "they got to X of 100", so my retry has no target. Distance-to-go would turn each fail into a bet. Genuinely like the grip-recovery rhythm. Good one-night build.