About iptsi Runner
iptsi Runner is a one-tap endless runner built by iptsi and owned outright. You sprint along a neon grid collecting orbs and clearing blocks, and the pace increases the longer you stay alive. There is no level to finish and no ending — the score is simply how far you got before the grid caught you.
The design goal was a game that explains itself. The first obstacle arrives a few seconds in and there is only one thing to do about it, so the player learns the entire control scheme without reading anything. That matters more than it sounds: a game that needs no tutorial needs no translation either, which is why it can be played identically in every market we ship to.
How to play
- Jump — tap the screen, click, or press Space, W or the up arrow.
- Double jump — tap again while you are in the air. The second jump is shorter than the first, so it is for corrections rather than distance.
- Timing matters more than speed. Blocks and spikes have different hitboxes; a single well-timed jump clears a block, while the spikes reward patience.
- Restart — tap once more, or press Enter, when the run is over.
Your best score is kept in the browser, so it survives a refresh but is not tied to any account. Nothing about your run is sent anywhere.
How it was built
iptsi Runner is a single HTML file: no engine, no framework, no build step and no external files to load. All of the artwork — the grid, the runner, the orbs, the blocks — is drawn at runtime on a canvas, and all of the sound is synthesised in the browser with the Web Audio API rather than downloaded as audio files. That is why the whole game is smaller than a single photograph on this site, and why it starts instantly on a slow connection.
The obstacle spacing is generated on a time basis rather than a distance basis. An earlier version spaced obstacles by pixels, which became impossible to clear once the game sped up; spacing them by time keeps the difficulty curve fair however fast the run gets.
Why it is free
It is a demonstration as much as a game. iptsi publishes browser games, and the most honest way to explain what we mean by a light, immediate, low-bandwidth title is to build one and let you play it. There is no sign-up, no download, no account, and no advertising on this page.
Back to all the playable games.