INKBOUND

INKBOUND — a 16-bit sumi-e ink painting that comes alive.

A tiny ink-drop spirit races along a black brush stroke that a painter's hand is drawing in real time. A rival painter attacks in indigo — and you only need two keys.

One rule: marks on the road → JUMP. A dotted line at head height → SINK.

Dodge at the very last moment and the world freezes into a pencil sketch: CLOSE CALL! Sink under small indigo ink and the road drinks it: ABSORB!

Controls

• W / Space / Up: Jump. Press twice to double-jump (you need it for the giant stake)
• S / Down (hold): Sink into the ink
• Phone / tablet: SINK and JUMP buttons on the left and right — or tap to jump and swipe down to sink
• M: mute

Sound and music are synthesized live in the browser and start with your first key press or tap.

Chapter 1 shows a hint seal for every attack. Chapter 2 repeats the same order without hints, and from chapter 3 the attacks come in a random order, with one more attack every chapter. Each cleared chapter refills one ink drop. How far can you go?

Slightly early presses (up to 0.4 s) are held and fired on the perfect frame, so every good dodge feels razor-thin.
Leave it idle to watch the self-playing demo. Press H on the title screen to hide the text.

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Made with Claude (Anthropic) — a single HTML file, no external assets.
Hand sprites: "Pixel Hand Gesture Cursor Asset" by Lintnaya (CC0).