About Hop Tower
A little knight runs back and forth on a platform by himself, turning at every edge, and all you choose is when he jumps. Land on the platform above and the climb goes on; miss it and you drop to the one below, or all the way onto the spikes. Green platforms stand still, blue ones slide from side to side and carry you with them, wooden crates give way a moment after you land, and yellow spring platforms throw you nearly twice as high. Land in the middle of a platform for a perfect bonus, string perfects together for more, and grab the stars and gems that hang on the riskier jumps. The spikes rise faster the longer you climb, so standing still loses.
How to play
- The knight runs back and forth by himself, turning at the end of each platform and at the tower walls. Tap, click or press Space to jump.
- A jump keeps his running speed, so where he lands depends only on when you tap. He jumps up through a platform and lands on it coming down.
- Miss and he drops to whatever is below. A jump that reaches a wall bounces off it.
- The spikes start rising after a second and speed up the longer the run lasts. The run ends when the knight is below their tips.
Tips
- Chase the white pip. The platform you are aiming for shows a small white bar at its centre. Landing within 0.45 m of the middle is a perfect: 10 points, then 20, 30 and up to 50 for a streak of five.
- Crates will not wait. Wooden crates give way 0.8 seconds after you first land on them, shaking harder as the moment comes. Take the first good jump rather than waiting for a perfect.
- Blue platforms lend speed. A moving platform carries the knight, and a jump off it keeps the platform's speed as well as his own, so the arc runs further one way than the other.
- Springs need a spring jump. A jump from a yellow spring platform launches at 26 m/s instead of 19, and the next platform is 6.2 to 7.8 m up, out of reach of a normal jump. The longer arc also drifts further sideways.
- A lead cannot be banked. The spikes are pulled up to stay no more than 11 m below the highest platform you have stood on, so climbing fast only keeps you level with them.
Read the full Hop Tower guide (5 min read)
From the developer
In Hop Tower a knight runs back and forth on his own, turning at platform ends and the tower walls. The one verb is jump, and the jump keeps his running speed, so the only skill is timing. Spikes rise from below, so standing still loses in about 8 seconds. I built it in plain JavaScript on a 2D canvas, on a small shared runtime I wrote for my one-verb games, which handles loading, screen fitting, input, sound and saving.
There are four platform kinds, each a different timing decision: static ones to learn the beat, moving ones that lend you their speed, crates that crumble 0.8 seconds after you land, and springs for gaps a normal jump cannot reach.
Because flight is computed exactly from the take-off, the dealer can check where a tap at any moment would land, and it re-deals any platform that cannot be reached from every way of arriving on the one below. The fallback for that was needed 0 times in 3,160 platforms. The art is new: platforms, springs, stars, gems and spikes from the KayKit Platformer Pack, its first use in any of my games, and the Knight from the KayKit Adventurers Character Pack, both by Kay Lousberg.
Son Hoang, who made Hop Tower
Update history
- Added music: Dragonfire Fandango from Phat Phrog Studio's Free RPG Music Collection.
- The score readout now sits in the centre of the top bar.
- Released on the site.
- First playable build: a knight runs on his own, you tap to jump, and spikes rise from below.
Questions
Does Hop Tower save my progress?
Only your best score, in this browser's local storage, shown on the pause sheet and the end-of-run card. Every run starts again on the ground with a new tower.
Can I play Hop Tower on a phone?
Yes. Tap anywhere to jump, upright or sideways. A tap up to 0.12 seconds before the knight touches down is kept and spent on the landing, so a slightly early tap still jumps.
Why did a landing score nothing?
Points come only from platforms higher than any you have stood on: 10 for each floor climbed, plus the perfect bonus. Dropping back onto an old platform keeps you alive but pays nothing. Stars are worth 20 and gems 50.
Is there an ending?
No. Moving platforms join from the 4th platform, crates from the 7th and springs from the 10th, gaps widen over the first 40, and the spikes reach their top speed after about 50 seconds. Then the climb goes on until they catch you.
