Emberburden

A 2D precision platformer about descending through the nine circles of Hell — carrying the only light you'll ever get.

A soul wakes at the gates of Hell with no memory. It doesn't know its name, doesn't know what it did, doesn't know why it's here. It only knows it has to go down.

You are not Dante. Dante was a visitor — he walked in, looked around, walked out. You are one of the damned, and the descent isn't a moral tour. It's your own sentence.

The light is your life

There's no guide walking beside you. What you carry is an ember inside a glass lantern, hanging from your hand. That ember is three things at once:

• The only thing that lights the way. Outside its reach, darkness. What it doesn't touch doesn't exist.
• Your health. No meter, no HUD. You read it by looking at it — bright and white when you're fine, blue and faint when you're about to die.
• A resource you spend. Blow on it to stoke the flame and see farther ahead… but blowing on an ember burns it out faster.

Seeing farther costs you life. Every step down is that same decision: move blind and save what's left, or spend it to find out where you're stepping.

The mechanic is the sin

Each of the nine circles punishes you with a mechanic born from the sin paid for there. Nothing is explained to you — you'll understand it by suffering it under your feet.

What to expect

• Nine circles of descent, plus an epilogue
• Tight, demanding precision platforming
• No HUD, no text on screen — everything you need to know is in the light, the sound, and the little your ember chooses to tell you
• Silhouette and backlight art: black, ochre, and dry red
• An ember that talks. It doesn't explain, it hints. And it isn't always on your side.

Status

In development. No playable build yet — we're two brothers building this in the open, and we'll be posting devlogs here as it comes together: what works, what we break, and what we have to throw away.

Follow along if that sounds like your kind of descent.