Darkwaar is an experiment in creating and publishing small playable ideas regularly. The 37th game, Riftwake, is a living hex sandbox: clans move on their own, and you only change the ground beneath them.
Intervene in a living disk
A compact hex world holds three clans. The pale Seed tries to root and hold its home. The cyan Caravan hunts veins and trades when safe. The crimson Raiders press toward crowded ground and scorch fertile land.
You never command a stack. Each phase you choose one intervention:
- Open a glass barrier into barren ground
- Seal an empty hex into a barrier
- Shift a glowing vein one step
- Watch a free tick to test a hypothesis
After you commit, the clans answer. Passages that help the Seed can also open a Raider corridor. A moved vein redirects both Caravan and Raider at once.
Infer the cascade
The map shows ownership and stacks clearly. What it does not show is the full multi-tick future. Before Confirm, a ghost preview sketches the next clan moves. After Confirm, two simulation ticks rewrite the disk.
Hold the Seed home and grow a foothold across twelve phases. Lose if the Seed is wiped out, the home falls, or Raiders monopolize the disk. Sessions last about 3–8 minutes. Touch and mouse share the same on-screen controls: pick an action, tap a hex, Confirm.
Play Riftwake
Riftwake asks for careful timing more than micromanagement. Seal the gap that matters. Open only when the cascade favors the Seed. Watch when you are unsure.
