How to play
ROOF RUN is a one-button runner across the rooftops of a sunset city. Your runner sprints to the right on their own and keeps getting faster. You only decide when to jump and when to slide. Your score is the distance you cover, in metres.
A quick tap of Space, a click or a tap on the screen is a jump. Jumps fire when you let go, and a tap made just before you land is remembered and used the moment your feet touch the roof. Hold the same button to slide along a roof. Holding in the air makes you drop fast, and if you keep holding as you land you go straight into a slide. On a keyboard, Up or W jumps instantly and Down, S or Shift slides instantly. P or Esc pauses and M mutes.
There are four things in your way. Gaps between buildings have to be jumped. Low boxes (air-conditioning units, crates and striped vents) have to be hopped. Hanging neon signs, with red and white stripes along the bottom edge, have to be slid under. And glass towers have a lit office floor you run straight through, smashing the pane at each end. Run into a box, a sign or the wall above a glass window and it is a WIPEOUT; miss a roof and YOU FELL.
Tips and strategy
Chain your moves. Every clean action adds to your combo: GAP, HOP, SLIDE and SMASH!, plus CLOSE! for clearing a box with almost no room to spare and EDGE! for taking off right at the lip of a roof. The combo runs out if you go 3.2 seconds without a new action. At a combo of 10 your coins count double, and at 20 they count triple.
Use fast-drop. If a jump is carrying you over a sign you want to slide under, hold the button in the air to come down quickly and land already sliding.
Do not let go too early under a sign. If you release while a sign is still above you, you keep sliding until you are clear, and a tap made while sliding fires as soon as the sign has passed.
Love the glass. Running through a glass tower gives a burst of extra speed, a little freeze-frame and a shower of shards. Stay low as you go in: jumping into the wall above the window ends the run.
Trust the gaps. Every gap is built so it can be cleared with a normal jump at your current speed, so a late, panicked jump is worse than a calm one.
What's in it
An endless run that speeds up from a jog to a sprint more than twice as fast. The sky changes every 1200 metres through GOLDEN HOUR, DUSK and NEON NIGHT, then starts again, and there is a pop every 500 metres. A BEST flag stands on the roof where your record is, so you can see it coming.
Coins you collect are banked at the end of each run and spent in the RUNNERS screen on four extra runners, each with a perk: KITE (250 coins) jumps 12% higher, SPARK (600) pulls nearby coins in like a magnet, GHOST (1200) can double jump with a tap in the air, and NOVA (2000) makes every coin count double. DASH is free.
Your first two runs show prompts above each new hazard, and the first buildings always bring a box, then a sign, then a glass tower, so you meet every move in about ten seconds. Everything is drawn in code, with a layered skyline, a big synthwave sun and a synthwave soundtrack that speeds up with you.
Questions
Does it work on a phone? Yes. Tap anywhere to jump and hold to slide. It also plays in portrait, with the view zoomed in a little.
Do I need an account? No. Your best distance, your coins and the runners you own are saved in your browser.
Does it flash? No. There is screen shake on crashes and when you smash glass, and a brief slow-motion moment when you wipe out, but no flashing lights.
Is it violent? No. When you crash, your runner tumbles off the roof and you start again.