Steel Raven

How to play

Steel Raven is an original mobile-first action platformer. Vane is the last of the Ravens, the guardian automatons of the Emberkeep — a forge-temple burned by the Cinder Court. Wren, the order's final artificer, reassembles Vane for one night's walk back through five chapters of industrial ruin: Ashfall, The Slagworks, Ironsky, Thornwake, and The Kiln. Nineteen numbered sections and six boss rooms stand between the workshop and the storm column at the end of it.

The Flywheel is the whole game. Hold the charge control and Vane tumbles forward through three escalating spin phases — Kindle, then Cyan, then Gold, which is fully invulnerable — cycling forever until you let go. The moment you release, the phase you were in and the button you pressed decide the move: Ember Lunge, Spark Vault, Updraft, Flarespin, Split Crest, or the rising Skybreaker finisher. Charging means giving up your weapon while you spin, and that trade is the central risk decision in every fight. The charge ring reports its phase by fill, color, and a roman numeral at once, so the ladder is readable without memorising a palette.

Four weapons are yours from the first room and switching between them costs nothing at all — no animation, no cooldown, and it works in mid-air and mid-attack. Talon is a short blade, Quill a straight thrown spike, Cinder an arcing firebomb, and Tether a chain hook that doubles as half the traversal system: aim up and it hauls you to the ceiling, where Vane can hang and crawl. Two thrown objects can be in the air at once. Pyre, the special, spends a stock to burn the screen clear of projectiles outright.

There are no upgrades, unlocks, or ability gates anywhere in the game — the full kit is available from the opening room, and the difficulty is the content. You start with three health pips, extendable to five by a rare pickup that is lost when you fall, three lives, and unlimited continues. Every section runs on its own countdown; running it out costs a life exactly like a hit would. Death restarts the section with a fresh timer but keeps your ammunition and your score. Scoring is a six-digit total that clamps at 999,999: each construct pays out by type, and a pickup grabbed at full capacity converts to points instead of being wasted.

Touch is the primary input. A left thumb pad handles movement and crouching, a right cluster carries attack, jump, a dedicated charge button with its phase ring, and a contextual grip button for ceilings and grapples, with the weapon chip and Pyre stock on the HUD. Desktop players get a full keyboard map and standard gamepad support with complete parity — every action reachable on one is reachable on all three. Genre: action platformer. Category: Platformer. Free to play in the browser, no download and no plugin.

The Flywheel — the six special moves

Hold charge and Vane tumbles forward through three spin phases that cycle without end. Release attack or jump and the phase you were in decides which move comes out. Nothing is unlocked and nothing is bought — all six are available in the first room, and knowing which one you are about to produce is the skill the whole game is built on.

Kindle (phase I)

Release with attack: EMBER LUNGE — a lunging strike that ends in an automatic backflip

Release with jump: SPARK VAULT — a forward leaping kick

Cyan (phase II)

Release with attack: UPDRAFT — a rising spin kick, invulnerable through the landing

Release with jump: FLARESPIN — a multi-hit spin whose hitbox stays live the whole way

Gold (phase III)

Release with attack: SPLIT CREST — a ground slam that throws four rising lobes to both sides

Release with jump: SKYBREAKER — the vertical finisher, and the hardest hit in the game

Phase three makes Vane fully invulnerable for as long as it lasts, so the deepest charge is also the safest place to stand — if you can survive reaching it. A backflip cancels a queued release, the charge cannot begin in mid-air, and every weapon charges identically.

Weapons and the Pyre

TALON

A short blade. Unlimited, fastest, and the safest damage you have.

QUILL

A straight thrown spike. Twenty to start, and enemies drop more of these than anything else.

CINDER

An arcing firebomb that scatters burning lobes where it lands.

TETHER

A chain hook. Weak as a weapon, but aim up and it becomes half the traversal system.

Cycling weapons costs nothing: the swap lands on the very next frame, works in mid-air and mid-attack, and a shot already in flight keeps the kind it was fired with. Pyre, the special, spends one stock to delete every projectile on screen at once — that, more than its damage, is what it is for. Stocks cap at nine and you are never left with none after a death.

Five chapters, one night

Ashfall — Four sections, then THE VOTIVE

The opening chapter has no damaging terrain at all — every threat is a creature, not a floor. It closes on a forced-scroll escape that drives the camera backwards on a sixty-second clock.

The Slagworks — Three sections, then THE RELIQUARY

A canyon descent into the foundry, and the first armored enemies — anything that shrugs off your blade ignores your special too.

Ironsky — Four sections, then KILNMANE

A cold sky over a moving platform that carries you whether you walk or not, and the tightest time budget in the game: fifty seconds.

Thornwake — Four sections, then THE ORRERY

The overhead chapter. Ceilings become a road here: grip one and crawl, or fire the chain up and haul yourself to it.

The Kiln — Five sections, then THE EFFIGY, then THE THUNDERHEAD

One vast map entered through nine different doors, ending in a timed vertical climb up a storm column studded with masked faces.

Controls

Touch is the primary input. Keyboard and gamepad have full parity — every action reachable on one is reachable on all three — and nothing needs more than one direction plus one button at a time.

Player options

Pause, mute, and reduced motion are reachable from the bar above the game on every input method. Reduced motion matters more here than in most games: the charge tell is a rapid full-body flash, so switching it off replaces the flash with a steady rim light and leans on the HUD ring instead. No state in Steel Raven is signalled by color alone — the charge phase carries a fill level and a numeral as well as a color, and the last health pip changes shape, not just hue.

Fullscreen is on the same bar: the corner-bracket button toggles it at any time, F does the same from a keyboard, and tapping start on a phone goes fullscreen where the browser allows it. The brackets point outward to go in and inward to come back out, so the button reads without color. On an iPhone, where Safari keeps fullscreen for video, use Share then Add to Home Screen and the game runs without browser chrome instead.

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