Every run ends one roof short.
Hei's Rooftops is the moonlit leaping game from this site's own arcade, spun out as an iPhone app of its own: hold to charge, release to bound across the sleeping city, catch moths mid-air. One verb, the goal visible in one frame — that part is unchanged, and it is free to play in your browser right now. Most of what the app adds sits around the run: a fall that is over in half a second, a line that tells you how close you came, a fork every eight roofs, and moths that slowly unlock the other two cats. The one thing that reaches inside it is the stages — 500 numbered courses, where the city changes one rule every hundred.
3 roofs short of your best.
+7 moths · 12 from Tong
Hei's Rooftops is being built now, from the game that already runs at /play/hei-rooftops/. It is not on the App Store yet: nothing has been submitted, there is no release date, and nothing on this page is a preorder. The browser version is the same run, free, no account, and the place to go if you would rather not wait.
The waitlist below is the fastest way to hear the moment that changes. One email when it ships, and nothing else.
Hei's Rooftops is on the App Store. The button at the top of this page goes straight to its listing.
No iPhone to hand? The browser version at /play/hei-rooftops/ is the same run, and the waitlist below still works — one email when there's news, and nothing else.
Four things that happen around the run
The run itself is the one that won its playtest: hold, release, land. None of these adds a screen between one run and the next.
The restart is a reflex
A fall is funny and over in under half a second — Hei drops into a laundry basket, an awning or a flowerbox, shakes it off, and the roofs are already scrolling again. No game-over screen. The next tap starts the next run, and a tap during the drop is queued, not lost.
Every run ends as a near miss
One line over the running world, never a bare score: "3 roofs short of your best." "12 moths from Tong." "6 roofs from the Shophouses." A translucent ghost of your best endless run leaps alongside you, so you can see exactly where it got further — or where you passed it.
A fork every eight roofs
Every eighth building has two landing shelves, a near low one and a far high one, each with a lit window showing the blessing it carries. A short hold reaches one, a long hold the other — still one verb; the choice is the charge. Land, and that blessing is yours for the rest of the run: longer legs, soft paws that bounce one fall, a lantern that draws moths in.
Something is always a run or two away
Every moth you catch is banked, fall or not, and the total never goes down. Lifetime moths unlock new blessings for the fork, then Tong, then Meow — automatically, at fixed thresholds the near-miss line counts you down to. There is no shop and nothing to spend them on.
Two more ways to play besides endless
Both are a pill on the start strip, next to endless. The controls are the same hold and release in all three.
Tonight's rooftops
One course a day, the same roofs and the same forks for everyone, new at local midnight — the daily from the browser game, unchanged. Finishing it extends a streak that says "Welcome back." after a gap and never mourns one, and the run ends on a share card for the group chat. There is an optional Game Center board for the night's course; Apple's sign-in appears only after your first finished course, or if you open it from Settings, never at launch, and saying no changes nothing.
500 stages
Numbered courses, the same roofs on every phone, each one opening the next. Every hundred the city changes and adds one rule: awnings that bounce you forward in the Shophouses, roofs that slide in the Market, boats that drift in the Harbour, eaves that catch you on the Temple Roofs. Reaching the last roof clears a stage; the moths and an unbroken chain are two more stars, and never a gate. Stages are in the app only.
All three cats, all free
Hei runs from the first tap. Tong and Meow are unlocked by moths — caught by playing, never bought — and each one runs differently.
Hei
Black, with a small white patch on his front-left paw and mint-green eyes. The calm one: he sits, he waits, he leaps.
Free from the first run.
Tong
A dilute tortoiseshell — blue-grey marbled with cream, cream bib and front paws — with amber-gold eyes. The one who tests boundaries: faster, leaps further, charges quicker.
Unlocked at 250 lifetime moths.
Meow
Black, with a small white patch high on his chest and yellow eyes. The sweet follower: a little slower, and he glides — gravity lets him down gently.
Unlocked at 600 lifetime moths.
A few things I'm promising up front
- Hei's Rooftops shows no ads. Not between runs, not for a reward, not at all. A half-second restart with an ad in it is not a half-second restart.
- Nothing in it is for sale. No coins, no boosts, no energy, no timers. Moths are caught by leaping and unlock the cats on their own.
- No notifications. It will not tell you Hei misses you. Falling is a joke, not a loss, and the app does not nag you back to it.
Tell me where to reach you
Hei's Rooftops is not on the App Store yet. One email when it is, and nothing else — the browser version is free in the meantime.
More from HeiTongByMeow