Waxby

A candlelit side-scroller for iPhone

His flame is his life, and his light.

The Waxby app icon Download on the App Store

One purchase. No ads. No in-app purchases.

Waxby, a small knight with a candle on his helmet, stands in a dark cathedral nave under stained glass. His candle lights a ring around him.

The bells of Evenbell have stopped. Deep under the hill the Hush is waking, and every night another lamp in the town above goes out.

Waxby is a small candle-keeper. Every hit burns his flame shorter, and the dark closes in. Someone has to go down and ring the bells again.

Five helmets and hats on plinths in a candlelit hall: Candleknight, Bellfounder, Taperwitch, Sootrunner and Sexton.

Five callings

Candleknight, Bellfounder, Taperwitch, Sootrunner or Sexton. Each has its own Special, its own way of moving and its own skill tree.

"Pick the calling that fits your hands. Not your pride."

A boss fight in a dark hall of candles: the Snuffer, a hooded figure with a long snuffer pole, swings at a small witch who leaps above him with her staff.

A bell at the bottom of every world

Every world ends in a boss and a silent bell. Old Tollgrave in his tower, the Snuffer in the wax, Mother Gravebough in her roots, and three more below them.

Ring all six.

Waxley's Shop: five pieces of gear for sale, each with its stats and a price in embers.

Loot, relics and Waxley

Gear with Legendaries, a codex of relics to fill your belt, and Waxley's Shop on the map and after every bell. He buys what you don't wear.

"Embers only, friend. No credit, no refunds."

A story scene in a chapel: Mother Taper, an old keeper with a lantern, says: There you are, sprout. My flame's too short to go down there.

An illustrated story

Scenes between the worlds, with portraits and a small cast of keepers, chandlers and things that should have stayed asleep. Give your hero a name at the oath and the story calls him by it.

Six worlds under the hill

24 levels, 6 secret ones, and a boss and a bell at the bottom of each world.

  1. A belfry with a hooded skeleton holding a bell.

    World 1

    The Sunken Cathedral

    Stained glass, a crypt stair and a bell tower with a warden who wants it quiet.

  2. Waxby and Waxley the chandler among hills of melted candles.

    World 2

    The Tallow Deep

    A thousand years of candles, melted and run down into hills of wax.

  3. A dark orchard of trees hung with skulls, crossed by glowing roots.

    World 3

    The Bone Orchard

    On every grave grew a tree. Climb the vines, and mind the roots.

  4. An icy ledge beside a frozen tower of bells and a great clock face.

    World 4

    The Frozen Carillon

    A bell tower built upside down, iced over and keeping its own time.

  5. Great panes of red, blue and gold stained glass hanging in the dark.

    World 5

    The Shattered Sanctum

    A chapel of glass, hanging in pieces in the wind.

  6. Near-total darkness, with one small candle far below.

    World 6

    The Hushdeep

    The bottom of the world, where the Hush is waking.

More in the dark

When the story ends

Two deeper difficulties, Nightfall and the Witching Hour. The Endless Descent. The Waxworks, every boss again. The Vigil Trials.

Your way

A gentler candle if you want one, your own brightness, button size and screen shake. Game controllers work in the levels.

Made in code

Every picture in Waxby is drawn in code, and every sound is synthesized. Nothing is borrowed. A game by Anthony Craig.