The Count is down. He races first light to his crypt, feeding as he falls, for dawn is death to his kind.

The Order of First Light came at sunrise. Hunters on the ramparts, priests in the alcoves, and the dawn itself pouring down the great well of your castle. They believe they are casting the Count out. The Count knows better. This is his larder, and he is going home hungry.

DIVE — the light chases you down the shaft. The gap between you and the dawn is the only number that matters.
FEED — touch a hunter at speed and he dies. Touch him slow and you die. Every kill shoves the light back up the well and buys you a heartbeat of frozen time to choose your line.
ARRIVE — reach the crypt before the light reaches you.

And then, if you dare: drink what waits in the crypt and take the well back. A war in three movements, straight up, against the Order's barrage, their falling curtains of dawn, and the burning Standard at the well's mouth. Most will rest. The Count does not have to.

How the theme fits: COUNT DOWN, three ways. You are the Count, and you are descending. The well counts down with you: the meters to your crypt only ever fall, and the dawn hunts the gap behind you. The count of your kills is the only currency the light respects; every death you deal drives it back up the well. Then the countdown turns over. Drink, and climb it back.

Controls
A/D or ←/→ — steer (that is the whole verb: position is everything)
R — begin anew / retry the war's current movement
Enter — FURY, when the crypt offers it
Space or Enter — pause (1–4 pick your age, T returns to title)

First dive? Choose FLEDGLING. The night protects its young. The deeper ages dig deeper wells.

Made for GMTK Game Jam 2026 in 4 days.

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AI assisted code and page text only. No generative AI in any art or audio: every image and sound is human made, credited below.

Credits:

• Art: Gothicvania series by Luis Zuno (@ansimuz), CC0 — opengameart.org & ansimuz.itch.io (Cold Corridors, CC0 per bundled license). All recolors are our own deterministic derivations.
• Art: Kenney (kenney.nl), CC0 — Tiny Dungeon, 1-Bit Pack, Fantasy UI Borders
• Music: Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio — "Injection", "In Search of Sanity", "From Beneath" (required credit; tracks unedited, no separate soundtrack distribution)
• SFX: Kenney (CC0); rubberduck, bart, SketchMan3, AntumDeluge, William Hector via OpenGameArt (CC0); Historic SFX: Sunset Editorial library, courtesy USC — CC0
• Fonts: m5x7 by Daniel Linssen (CC0); Pirata One by Rodrigo Fuenzalida & Nicolas Massi (OFL)