Emberward

You are the last Warden of the Ember Heart, a sacred flame three chambers deep under a dead city. Skeletons pour in through breaches in the walls and walk straight for the fire. You fight them with a sword. Between waves you spend the Bone Ash they drop on walls, traps, turrets and wards — or you walk to the Heart and spend it on yourself instead.

One currency, two uses, and never enough for both. That choice is the whole game.

Fifteen waves. Three chambers. One Bone Tyrant at the end.

There is exactly one way to lose: the Heart going out. Dying yourself costs it 150 integrity to reform you, which hurts — but the run continues. A bad moment is survivable. A neglected Heart is not.

Four trials

Apprentice, Warden, Ashen and Emberfall. The first three turn the usual knobs. Emberfall changes what arrives: nearly half the rank and file is traded two-for-one into Grave Wardens, so you face fewer bodies carrying far more weight each. That inverts your build economy, because a spike plate hits everything standing on it while a brazier only ever shoots one thing.

What you build

Bulwark — blocks the path. Skeletons take the long way, or smash through.

Spike Plate — damages everything standing on it.

Ember Brazier — fires at what it can actually see. Walls block its line.

Bone Ward — slows the dead near it.

Wall off a breach and the horde reroutes; wall off every breach and the game refuses, because a maze with no exit is not a defence. Structures don't carry between chambers — each room is a fresh problem.

Unlocks

Eight wardens and four Heart-flame colours, earned by difficulty, by finishing without ever falling, by speed, and by how much of the Heart is left. All purely cosmetic. Nothing you unlock changes a number, because "beat Ashen to get the good sword" is a worse game.

Details

A full run is 20–30 minutes. Progress is checkpointed between chambers, so it can be played in pieces.

Full controller support. Every menu is navigable on a pad; you never need the mouse.

Single player. No account, no launcher, nothing online.

Installation

Unzip anywhere and run Emberward.exe — no installer. Keep Emberward.exe and Emberward.pck in the same folder.

Windows shows a blue "Windows protected your PC" box on first launch. Click More info → Run anyway. This is because the game isn't code-signed, which needs a paid certificate. Saves live in %APPDATA%\Emberward\; delete that folder to reset.

Requirements: Windows 10/11 64-bit · Vulkan-capable GPU (roughly 2016 or newer) · ~130 MB disk