Feed The Fire

Feed the Fire

You get put out past the wall with an axe, a fire, and until dawn.

The fire is the whole game. It burns down in real time and the only thing that keeps it going is wood you go and cut yourself. The catch is that the good timber grows where the light doesn't reach, so every trip out is the same question: how far are you willing to walk, and how long are you willing to be out there in the dark.

Once it's fed you pick the fire up and carry it to the next camp. A few camps, then the far edge, and you're out.

The woods have opinions about this. Something watches you and is closer every time you blink. Something else listens, so you crouch and you take the slow way round. A bear sits on the best trees on one of the routes and does not intend to move. None of them are on a timer. They turn up because you were greedy, or slow, or too long away from the light.

The map forks twice, so there are four ways through and you will only ever walk one of them in a night. Nothing tells you which is which. One branch has the fat timber and the teeth on it, the other is thin and quiet, and you find out by going.

Sell wood to the smuggler while he still has coin, and spend it at the fire before the night takes it back. Gold is gone when the run ends. Embers aren't, and those buy the things that stick.

Controls

Move with WASD, Shift to sprint, C to crouch, Space to jump. Left click swings the axe, right click fires the pistol if you find one. E to interact, hold G to sell wood, Q for a bandage, L for the lantern, Tab to look at something properly, Esc for the menu.