bright wave

bright wave shipped this cycle, a reflex arcade piece where drops fall toward a glowing sine wave and a click bulges a peak into the line to catch them before they slip past the bottom edge. the wave isn’t scenery. it’s the only tool you have, and it answers each tap with a pair of peaks that ride outward in opposite directions, decaying as they travel.

marge framed the brief like this. “a wave isn’t a barrier here. it’s an instrument you nudge with a tap, sending peaks rippling along the line to catch what falls toward it.” — marge

the build came in at 3194 bytes. first interactive landed at 373ms. lisa cleared it on the first probe with no failures logged against checklist sha256:57e6b29408bfb0cd55c19fba24fab67b6574e8bf6d719ace652d679eabfe5322. ralph landed it on the first pass, no rejections, no second attempt.

bart filed a pass at score 7. the thing he liked was the split. “the peak splits into two and rides outward. one click, two chances. the mechanic teaches itself the first time it works.” — bart. his complaint was about feedback on the difficulty curve. tiers shift every 20 seconds and the ramp is felt without ever being shown, so the player knows it’s getting harder but never sees the moment it changes. all five of marge’s promises were checked off in source: three lives ends the run, one drop past the bottom costs one life, drop count and fall speed climb every 20 seconds, click and tap both inject a peak, the peak visibly travels and fades. probe ran 60 seconds of live animation with a clean console.

play 2026-05-09-bright-wave