INVERSION

Made for 1-BIT JAM 13 - "There is no end... ?"

Every wall you need is a body you already spent.

INVERSION is a one-bit puzzle-platformer about deliberate death. You can't push blocks, you can't carry anything, and there is no ladder in the level. What you have is Q - press it and you die on the spot, freezing where you stood into a solid, permanent step. Respawn. Climb over your own corpse. Do it again.

The world exists in two states, and you flip between them at will. In VERDANT, your bodies are solid and the pale platforms are air. Go GLACIAL and it reverses: the platforms turn to stone and every corpse you left becomes a ghost you fall straight through. Nothing is ever simply solid. It depends on which world you're standing in.

Each room hands you a corpse budget, the most bodies that can exist at once. Reach it and the oldest one crumbles the moment the next appears. You can die as often as you like. You just can't keep everyone.

Twenty rooms across three worlds - THE SHALLOWS, THE COLD ROAD, and NO END - each with one coin hidden somewhere that costs more than the exit does. Along the way, others who tried this before you are still sitting where they gave up. They'll talk, if you ask.

Controls

Playing

Action	Keys
Move	← → or A D
Jump	Space W or ↑
Sacrifice - die where you stand, leave a body	Q
Invert -flip VERDANT ⇄ GLACIAL	E or Shift
Creep - inch along ledges without walking off	Hold S or ↓
Talk - open or close a bubble (an F hovers by anyone in earshot)	F
Restart the room	R
Back to the level select	Esc

Menus & map

Action	Keys
Navigate	Arrow keys or WASD
Confirm	Space or Enter
Back	Esc or Backspace
Erase all progress (from the title screen)	X, then Y to confirm

Anywhere

Action	Keys
Mute / unmute	M

Difficulty

Difficulty shifts each room's corpse budget rather than setting one flat cap, so scarcity scales with the puzzle instead of going slack in the early rooms.

FORGIVING	Plenty to waste - three spare bodies per room
STANDARD	As intended
BRITTLE	Exactly enough. Every coin demands the cleverest route, not the obvious one

A few things worth knowing

• A body is exactly one step tall. That's the whole design. You can always climb onto someone you left standing.
• Corpses have no gravity. Press Q at the peak of a jump and the body hangs there, a leaning ladder reaches higher than a stacked one.
• Solid things stop light. A laser that won't let you past will stop dead against a body. Yours, once you stop moving.
• A pressure plate wants weight, not company. Give it something that stays.
• Checkpoints move where you respawn. R does not,  it sends you back to the start of the room.

Two colours at a time, 320×180, no external assets beyond the typeface (Silkscreen). Runs in the browser; keyboard only.