Ragedle, explained: a beginner's guide to the platformer that cheats

A classic platformer asks you to run and jump past obstacles you can see. A troll platformer shows you something, lets you trust it, then breaks that trust. The solid-looking floor gives way, the exit is not quite where it seems, and the hazard you ignored was the real one.

The fun is less about reflexes than about the moment you laugh at how cleanly you were tricked, then come back a second later knowing exactly what to do. Ragedle turns that loop into a daily puzzle: short levels, instant restarts, and a death count for each level that tells your friends how often you fell for it.

Each day brings three levels, EASY, MEDIUM and HARD, identical for every player. They come in order: a level unlocks once you have cleared or skipped the one before.

• A new day starts at 1 a.m. Paris time, the same moment for everyone wherever they live. A run still open at the changeover gets about fifteen extra minutes.
• EASY is honest on purpose: what you see is what happens, and anything about to fall shakes first. MEDIUM starts breaking those promises. HARD mixes honest pieces with lies.
• Each day has an edition number, shown on your share.

There are no lives and no on-screen timer: you play until you reach the flag. A single attempt is capped at ten minutes, after which it counts as a death.

You can move left, move right and jump. No attack, no dash, no double jump.

• Keyboard: left and right arrows, or A and D, to move. Space, the up arrow or W to jump. M toggles the sound.
• Jump height follows how long you hold: tap for a hop, hold for a full jump.
• Phone: play in portrait. The control zone under the stage is split in two: the left half moves you (left and right under your left thumb), the right half is one big jump area. Moving and jumping at once works.
• If the window loses focus mid-level, the game pauses and waits for any game key or the resume button.

Ragedle counts deaths, level by level. Each death restarts the level instantly, with no game-over screen. Time is not part of your result.

Two optional helpers exist. After your first death on a level, a Skip button lets you close it and open the next one; you cannot return to it that day and its deaths still count. After ten deaths on a level, you can turn on checkpoints and respawn at the last one you reached. That choice cannot be undone for the day, which is then marked aided.

You keep two streaks. Days played counts every day you get past the first level, with or without help. The hardcore streak counts only days where all three levels are cleared with no skip and no checkpoints.

Once your three levels are closed, a summary card gives you a share text: the edition, each level with its deaths and a cleared or skipped mark, and a hardcore, aided or skipped tag for the day. It never names a trap, so it spoils nothing. From ten players, the card also shows what share of today's players finished HARD. You can share before the day is over, too: unplayed levels show as a lock or a question mark.

Levels change daily, so there is no route to learn in advance. What stays constant is the toolbox of tricks:

• Honest hazards: spikes, spinning saws (some on rails), platforms that shake before crumbling, heavy things dropping from above.
• Pieces that are not what they look like: ground that is not there, blocks that appear from nowhere, a goal that will not be reached the easy way.
• Surprises with no warning, only from MEDIUM onward.
• Bluffs: scary-looking hazards that cannot hurt you, and signs that lie.
• Patience tests, where rushing is exactly what the level wants.

Picture your first run. On EASY you see spikes and a platform that trembles when you land. You jump too early and touch the spikes: death one, and you are back at the start before you can sigh. Next try you clear the spikes but linger on the trembling platform and fall with it: death two. Third try, you keep moving and reach the flag. EASY: 2 deaths.

MEDIUM is one tap away, behind its « MEDIUM level → » card, and it looks familiar, which is the point. You run in with EASY's confidence and get punished for it; the death sound climbs a little with each death. You crack it after 9 deaths. HARD costs 14 more. You end the day on 25 deaths with no skip and no checkpoints: a hardcore day, and a share that shows where you suffered without saying why.

• Treat early deaths as scouting. Restarts are instant, so a death that reveals a trick is cheap. The costly ones are deaths you repeat without learning.
• Look before you move. Scan the visible stretch for odd gaps, lonely blocks and suspiciously convenient paths, and ask why each one is there.
• Learn EASY's rules, then doubt them. The later levels are built to bend exactly those habits.
• Slow down after a surprise. The instinct is to sprint back faster; the fix is usually to approach carefully, or to wait.
• Use short taps under low ceilings or near hazards overhead.
• Skipping or checkpoints are fine if you just want to see the next level. They only cost the hardcore streak.

Ragedle follows your system's reduced-motion setting: no screen shake or spinning, and a still death pose. Sound is on by default and its death noise rises a semitone with each death, up to an octave, then starts again from the bottom; mute it with the Sound button or M. On phones, a short vibration marks each death; a checkbox on the home screen turns it off, and it stays off under reduced motion. These choices are remembered on your device.