Keep your Breath

A little stick figure, a big boulder and a hill that never ends: Keep your Breath is Sisyphus as an ink-and-paper game. Hold to push, and your breath runs out. Let go, and the boulder rolls back. Turn around and brace your back against the stone, and you can catch your breath while the boulder (almost) stays put. Finding that rhythm is the whole game.

Twenty levels, each with its own idea: a pebble in a headwind, a rock staircase, a boulder that is simply too heavy, rockfall, a pasture gate that opens and closes, desert dunes, midday heat with shade to rest in, a descent into a pit, mud and black ice, a rope bridge with nothing to lean on, fog, a snowball that grows as it rolls, a storm with tailwind, a quaking volcano, a night with a lantern and fireflies, two summits, a dripping cave and, at the very end, Olympus.

Everything is drawn live as wobbling pencil lines, like a flip-book. Each level counts points for finishing and a bonus for speed; the leaderboard shows your total over all twenty hills. Plays with the keyboard on a computer and with one finger and one button on a phone. Progress is saved after every level.