Wave Dash

A one-input game where you control the direction of a zigzag. Holding the button turns the wave one way and releasing turns it the other, so your path through a tunnel of geometric obstacles is a continuous line whose shape you are drawing rather than a position you are moving. That framing is the useful way to think about it. Players who treat it as dodging find it arbitrary; players who treat it as drawing a line that has to fit through a series of gaps find it tractable, because the question becomes how long to hold rather than when to react. The tunnel narrows and the speed rises, which tightens the line without changing what a good one looks like. Runs last under a minute and restarting is a press. There is nothing else in the game besides a distance number and some colour variations. The geometric presentation is high-contrast and entirely functional. It plays with one input on a phone or keyboard, runs on anything, and is a very pure example of the single-mechanic arcade game — all difficulty, no decoration.