What is PARALLAX — Thirty levels of jumping and hidden ledges
PARALLAX is a side-scrolling platformer that fits inside a single browser window. You run, you jump, and you kill enemies by landing on top of them; there is no weapon and no shooting. Each of the thirty levels asks the same two things: pick up the fragments scattered across the map — three in the first level, up to eight from the twentieth on — then step into the portal at the far right. You get three hearts. Every hit takes one and leaves you flickering for a second and a half; the third sends you back to the start with the clock reset.
From the second level onward some ledges are not drawn at all: they show only as a faint dashed outline until you press F and switch the lens on. That is where the name comes from — the level changes with the way you choose to look at it. Further in come moving platforms, ledges that crumble half a second after you touch them, conveyor belts, trampolines, strips of lava and rocks that drop when you walk underneath. Every fifth level ends with a boss who must be stomped before the portal opens.
How to play
- Move with A and D, and jump with W, the space bar or the up arrow. On a phone, use the four buttons along the bottom.
- Collect every fragment the level asks for — the diamonds top-left light up one by one — then reach the portal on the right-hand side.
- Press F to switch the lens on and off. Hidden ledges, visible only as a dashed outline, turn solid and glowing, and they are often the only way across.
- To kill an enemy you have to land on it while falling fast; brushing against its side costs a heart. Bosses need between three and seven stomps.
Strategies that work
- Falling into a pit costs no heart: the level is rebuilt with three hearts, zero points and the clock back at zero. So if you lose two hearts in the first twenty seconds, throw yourself into the nearest hole on purpose. It beats dragging yourself to the portal on one heart.
- The time bonus is 5000 minus 50 points per second, so it runs out at a hundred seconds and never goes below zero. Under that line, each second you save is worth half a fragment. Combing a level for gems only pays while you are comfortably under a minute and a half.
- A stomp only registers if you are falling fast and your feet are still in the upper two thirds of the enemy. Jumping while pressed against one almost always ends in a hit taken; jump from two steps away instead, to gain height. Shielded enemies, turrets and snipers absorb two stomps each.
- Leave the lens on permanently: it costs nothing, and from the second level a dashed rectangle hanging in mid-air is a real platform. As soon as a gap gets genuinely wide, there is always a ledge in the middle of it — if you cannot see one, it is hidden, not missing.
- From the sixth level the reward pickups appear: the yellow circle marked x2 doubles everything you earn for ten seconds. Take it before a cluster of enemies, not after. A boss is worth 1500 points plus 200 a stomp, so save an x2 for levels 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30.
A little history
PARALLAX was written from scratch for this site; it is a conversion of nothing. The name comes from astronomy: parallax is the apparent shift of a star against the distant background while the Earth travels along its orbit. Friedrich Bessel used it in 1838 to obtain the first reliable distance to a star, 61 Cygni. Two-dimensional games later borrowed the word for backgrounds that scroll at different speeds. Here the idea becomes a rule: a ledge exists or does not exist depending on how the player chooses to look.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to install anything?
No. PARALLAX runs in the browser tab, on this very page. Nothing is downloaded and no account is needed. Your best score for each level, the language you picked and your ten best runs are kept in the browser's local storage; clearing the site data wipes them.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. On a narrow screen the view zooms in so the character stays readable, and four buttons appear along the bottom: left, right, jump and lens. It plays best in portrait, with both thumbs. A keyboard, if you have one attached, keeps working as usual.
Is the daily challenge the same for everyone?
Yes. The date in UTC produces one number, and that number picks which of the thirty levels is the challenge of the day: the same level, with the same layout, for every player. Levels are built from a fixed seed, so the map never changes between two attempts.
