Glimmerwick Isle at dusk, seen from above: a stone beacon on a terraced mound, a lantern pond, bell ruins, a bramble hollow, a windmill and a beach with a little hut.

Glimmerwick

A wax candle, a cold beacon, an isle of little things and four worlds past its gates.

Play now

Free in your browser. Needs WebGPU and a keyboard.

The beacon is cold

You are Wick, a stubby wax candle in a red scarf who wakes on a beach with a snuffed-out wick. The isle's great beacon has gone dark, and five Sun Embers are hidden around it: behind bells, under brambles, in a thirsty garden and in the paws of a thief.

Light your wick at the campfire, then let the island do the rest. Fire spreads, water douses, wind carries seeds and lifts gliders, and every little critter has opinions. Each ember you bring home turns dusk a step closer to a golden morning.

Relight the beacon and the isle becomes a hub, with gates to four more worlds. Each holds five embers of its own, a dusk to turn into morning, and a cold sconce that teaches Wick a new power.

Wick, lit, stands by a pond ringed with four burning lanterns; a Sun Ember glows on the water.
Four lanterns lit, and the pond gives up its ember.

Four gates, four worlds

Once the beacon burns, four gates wait on the island: on the ruins plaza, on top of the mesa, by the windmill and at the end of the jetty. They open as your Sun Embers add up, at 5, 9, 13 and 17 of the 25. At 22, the beacon's crown wakes.

Mab, a moth who flutters by the lamp on the beach hut, has a hint for each world's sconce. Glints count too: at 100, 200 and 300 Wick gets a wider glint magnet, a second air dash and a longer flame reach.

The island from above with its beacon lit and Wick below it: golden gates glow on the stone ruins plaza, on the mesa and by the windmill, and a fourth stands on a short jetty past the beach hut.
The beacon lit and every gate open: on the plaza, the mesa, by the windmill and at the end of the jetty.

Everything talks to everything

How to play

W A S D
Move (arrow keys work too)
Space
Jump; hold for height, press again in the air to glide
Shift
Dash, on the ground or in the air (J works too)
C
Ground pound while airborne (K works too)
C held
Melt into a puddle while on the ground, once you learn it
F
Puff a smoke ring, once you learn it (L works too)
R held
Glow while your wick is lit, once you learn it (U works too)
V held
Bob in a cup over water, once you learn it (M works too)
Q E
Turn the camera, or drag with the mouse
+ -
Zoom, or use the mouse wheel
Esc
Pause, settings and Save and quit (P works too)

The pause menu holds graphics, audio and comfort settings: how the camera turns (cut, dissolve, checker, wipe or a smooth sweep) in 8 or 16 angles, a 60 fps frame cap, reduced motion, camera shake and screen flashes.

Five Sun Embers

  1. Ring the three bells of the old ruins.
  2. Light all four lanterns around the pond.
  3. Burn a way through the bramble hollow.
  4. Water the garden sprout until it blooms.
  5. Catch the Snatchkin that ran off with one.

That is the island. Each world past the gates hides five more, twenty-five in all.

Your progress is saved

Every ember, power and gate is saved as it happens, and glints a few seconds after you pick them up.

Pausing, leaving the tab or choosing Save and quit also keeps the exact moment, so Continue on the title screen puts Wick back where he stood.

The bramble hollow on fire, glowing orange behind the beacon tower and a windmill.
One touch of a lit wick and the hollow burns open.
The island in bright morning light with a white-hot flame blazing on top of the beacon.
Five embers home: the beacon blazes and morning comes.
Wick stands on the stone ruins plaza beside a glowing golden gate, with the beacon's flame just below and bells hanging on the old walls.
Five embers open the plaza gate to Tallow Terraces.
Tallow Terraces from above at amber dusk: brick terraces, tall pillars of wax, a vault behind drip curtains, a small dock on dark water and Wick, lit, by a red-roofed shed.
Tallow Terraces: wax pillars, a sealed vault and braziers that never go out.
Vanewhistle Stack from above at teal dusk: a grassy path climbs a basalt stack hung with kites, a fire burns on its crown and stone columns stand in the sea.
Vanewhistle Stack: kites and vanes on the way up, and a fire on the crown.
Lampblack Copse in morning light: Wick, lit, stands on a stone ledge below the beacon's candle-ringed plaza, with blue-green trees and a pond of stepping pads.
Five embers home, and morning reaches the copse.
Ebbwick Lagoon in morning light: Wick, lit, stands by the burning beacon on a rock in the middle of the water, with three stilt huts behind him and four paper lanterns burning on the water to the right.
Five embers relight the Moorlamp, and the lagoon's plum dusk turns to morning.

How it is made