Gravensmoor

The Great Lantern kept the valley's night creatures asleep. Then Hundred-Eye came down in the night, stole it, broke it into shards and gave each one to a beast to guard. It also took Maren, the lantern's keeper, and Wren's bride-to-be. Wren, a young ranger, digs himself out of the ruins of his village, picks up his bow and sets out across Gravensmoor to bring the light home. A CLASSIC VERTICAL SHOOTER, MADE FOR TODAY Roads scroll up the screen and the creatures come in waves: boars and beetles, harpies and wraiths, knights and gargoyles. Dodge, shoot, and keep moving. Smooth scrolling and no flicker. Play on iPhone, iPad or Mac: drag with one finger, use a stick and a FIRE button, a keyboard, or a game controller. AN OPEN VALLEY Gravensmoor is a web of roads between villages. Pick your way: walk a road forwards or backwards, turn back when it's too hard, come back stronger. Find the roads hidden behind willows and cracked rock, and the villages at their ends. FIFTEEN GUARDIANS Every road ends in a guardian with its own pattern: a stone warden, a harpy and her birds, an ogre with a slingshot in each fist, a serpent breathing fire, and Hundred-Eye itself at the top of the Last Tower. Win back the lantern's shards one by one. VILLAGES TO COME HOME TO Rest in a dozen villages, each with its own people and its own look, from snowy log cabins to a canyon of adobe. Buy amulets at the shops, have your weapon sharpened and your armour made at the forges, and eat before the road: 27 dishes, some from faraway lands, and a meal can be packed for later. The villagers know where the next guardian waits. SIX WEAPONS Arrows, daggers, an ember sling, a boomerang, a scepter that sends out rings of light, and a flail that swings round you and bats bullets back. Every one can be forged up to a golden masterwork. A SONG, TOLD BY A BARD The whole tale is sung by Pip of Bramblewick, in rhyme, with a chiptune score of its own: themes for the roads, the fights and the villages. AND