A superhero in a world where every pixel is real matter. Boil the sea into clouds and rain, tear chunks out of cliffs, and fight enemies made of lava, rock, ice and sand, plus a Magma Titan and a Storm Leviathan.
Cinder Tide is a 2D superhero sandbox on a coastal island at golden hour. Everything you see is simulated, cell by cell: rock, sand, earth, water, lava, fire, smoke, steam, cloud, snow, ice, glass, metal, brick and wood. Heat spreads, water boils, lava sets into obsidian when it meets the sea, loose pieces of the world break off as rigid bodies and shatter where they land, and nothing is left hanging in the air.
The water cycle is the showpiece: boil the sea with the Magma Lance and the steam rises in plumes, condenses into clouds, and rains back down to fill the sea again. You hear it too: the surf on the beach, the boiling, and rain and thunder that come from the clouds you made.
Your powers:
- Magma Lance (hold left mouse): a heat beam that boils water, melts rock and carves. Hold right mouse to charge a Lava Blast instead.
- Grip (point at rock, hold E, flick and let go): tears out exactly what is inside the circle at the cursor; it follows the cursor and flies off with your flick. Scroll to size the circle.
- Rime Burst (hold F): freezes water, lava, steam, clouds and enemies.
- Meteor Drop (Q in the air): dive and slam a shockwave into the ground.
- Phase Dash (Shift): dash and carve a glowing tunnel through anything softer than metal or basalt.
Move with A and D, jump with Space, and press Space again in the air to fly (W A S D steers, C stops flying). H shows the controls, Esc pauses. Gamepads work too.
Every enemy is made of matter and breaks the way its material does, and each has a counter:
- Magma crawler: a lava core in a rock shell. Hits spill real lava; Rime Burst sets it to obsidian, and then any blow shatters it into chunks.
- Rock brute: basalt armour over a molten heart. Tear the plates off with Grip or crack them with Meteor Drop, then hit the heart. It guards the crawlers.
