How to play
BLOCK WORLD is first-person parkour on block courses floating in a painted sky above a sea of clouds. Every block looks brushed with paint. Your goal on each course is to reach the golden beacon on the island at the end.
Move with W A S D, jump with Space and look around with the mouse (click the game once to lock the pointer). Hold Shift to walk slowly. The right mouse button or F builds a clay block, and the left mouse button or Q takes a block you placed back. R respawns you at the last checkpoint, Esc or P pauses and M mutes.
On a phone, the left thumb stick moves, the right side of the screen looks around, and there are JUMP, BUILD and TAKE buttons.
Fall into the clouds or step on lava and you go back to the last gold checkpoint you touched. The clock only starts when you first move or jump, so you can look around the start island for free.
Tips and strategy
- Know your jump. A running jump clears a gap of three blocks on the flat, or two blocks if the far side is one block higher.
- Walk on the hard bits. Holding Shift cuts your speed to under half, which makes thin beams much easier.
- Ice keeps you sliding. On ice you speed up and slow down about twelve times more slowly than on solid ground. Line up before you step on, and stop pressing forward early.
- Bounce pads launch you. A bounce pad throws you up almost twice as hard as a jump, high enough to reach the ledge four blocks above. You do not need to press jump on it.
- Recycle your blocks. On a build-a-bridge gap you get just enough clay blocks for the gap plus two spare. Place a block ahead, step onto it, then take back the one behind you and place it ahead again if you run short.
- Time the lifts. Moving lifts slide back and forth on a set loop of a few seconds. Wait on the edge until one comes to you rather than jumping at it.
- Grab the gems on a second run. First learn the course; then go back for the gems and a faster time.
What's in it
Twelve courses that unlock in order: First Steps, Meadow Hop, Plank Run, Spring Garden, Frost Ledge, Ember Steps, Sky Lifts, Builder Gap, Cloud Spiral, Molten Path, Glass Peaks and Summit Crown. Each one is longer than the last and adds new pieces as you go:
- The first two courses are hops between platforms and narrow plank beams.
- Spring Garden brings in bounce pads, Frost Ledge ice, Ember Steps lava with stepping stones, Sky Lifts moving lifts and Builder Gap the first build-a-bridge gap, too far to jump.
- From Builder Gap on the hops get narrower, and from Cloud Spiral on, lifts, lava and bounce pads turn up more often.
A gold checkpoint pad comes every few sections. Gems float over many of the jumps. Each course has a par time, and the result screen shows your time, the par, your gems and how many times you fell. Your best time, stars and most gems are saved for every course.
After you clear two courses the Sandbox opens: a round grass island with a few trees. Pick from nine blocks (grass, stone, plank, brick, leaves, sand, ice, bounce and clay) with 1-9, the mouse wheel or the hotbar, place as many as you like, and break anything with the left mouse button.
Behind the game
The courses are built from a fixed seed, so a course is the same every time you play it and your times are fair to compare. Each one is made as a chain of sections, and every gap is checked against the jump: you move at 6 blocks a second, jump at 9 and fall under a gravity of 28. That is what makes the three-block jump the rule you can count on, and why a build gap of four or five blocks is the clear signal to start building.
Movement is snappy on solid ground, where you reach full speed almost at once, and floatier in the air, where you can still steer a little. Ice is the same movement with far less grip, which is why it feels like skating. A bounce pad simply sets your upward speed to 17, nearly twice a normal jump.
Stars come from your time against the par: three stars at or under par, two within half as much again, and one for any finish. The par adds up time for every section on the course, so a long course with lifts gets a longer par than a short one with hops.
Questions
Do I need an account?
No. Your stars, best times, gems and unlocks are saved in your browser. Clearing your browser's site data clears them.
How do I unlock the Sandbox?
Clear the first two courses. The Sandbox button on the course menu then opens.
I ran out of blocks.
Take some back with the left mouse button or Q; blocks you placed are returned to you. Blocks that were part of the course cannot be taken.
Can I play on a phone?
Yes. The game switches to touch controls on a phone: a thumb stick on the left, look with the right thumb, and buttons for JUMP, BUILD and TAKE.
Is it violent?
No. Falling just sends you back to a checkpoint.
Does it flash?
There is a soft, warm flash over the screen when you fall and respawn.